Abstract:I shall discuss my recent work showing that the Bogomolov-Tschinkel universality conjecture holds if and only if the mapping class groups of a punctured surface is large (which is essentially the negation of the Ivanov conjecture about the mapping class groups). I will also discuss my recent work with O. Tosic regarding the closely related Putman-Wieland conjecture.Prizes and Distinct...
Abstract:In the first part of the talk, I will give a survey of the proof of the Dowling-Wilson conjecture using the Schubert variety of a hyperplane arrangement. The Schubert variety of a hyperplane arrangement is an equivariant compactification of the vector group with finitely many orbits. In the second part of the talk, we will discuss a recent work of Colin Crowley characterizing Schubert...