Workshop

The purpose of this workshop is to assess and build upon progress in the theory of hyperplane arrangements and configuration spaces since the 2004 MSRI program Hyperplane Arrangements and Applications. The theory of arrangements is typified by its interdisciplinarity, an aspect that has become even more pronounced since the 2004 program. Topics covered in the workshop will range accordingly through combinatorics, commutative algebra, algebraic geometry, algebraic topology, singularity theory, representation theory, and geometric group theory. Specific topics to be covered may include: arrangements of hyperplanes, subspaces, tori, and rational varieties; freeness of arrangements, reflection groups, Artin groups, discriminants; configuration spaces, wonderful compactifications, moduli spaces and the related tropical theory, local systems, characteristic and resonance varieties, and invariants of fundamental groups and higher homotopy groups, applications, including generalized hypergeometric functions and the Bethe Ansatz, and topological robotics. The workshop is dedicated to Sergey Yuzvinsky, on the occasion of his 70th birthday. Schedule Monday, August 7 9:00 – 9:30 Registration 9:30 – 9:45 Welcome and Introduction 9:45 – 10:45 Alexander Varchenko, The B. and M. Shapiro conjecture in real algebraic geometry and the Bethe Ansatz 10:45 – 11:15 Morning Tea 11:15 – 12:15 Daniel Cohen, Resonance and critical points of arrangements 12:15 – 2:00 Lunch Break 2:00 – 3:00 Eric Rains, The homology of real De Concini-Procesi models 3:00 – 3:30 Afternoon Tea 3:30 – 4:00 Janis Stipins, k-nets and Line Arrangements in P^2 4:15 – 5:15 Bernd Sturmfels: Tropical Implicitization Tuesday, August 8 9:00 – 10:00 Hal Schenck: Fitting ideals and cohomology jump loci 10:00 – 10:30 Morning Tea 10:30 – 11:00 Anca Macinic, On the monodromy action on Milnor fibers of graphic arrangements 11:15 – 12:15 Graham Denham, Massey products and monomial ideals 12:15 – 2:00 Lunch break 2:00 – 3:00 Alex Suciu, Cohomology jumping loci, formality, and quasi-projectivity 3:00 – 3:30 Afternoon Tea 3:30 – 4:30 Michael Farber, Navigational complexity of collision free motion planning 5:00 – 7:00 Social Event Wednesday, August 9 9:00 – 10:00 Eric Babson: TBA 10:00 – 10:30 Morning Tea 10:30 – 11:00 Max Wakefield: Degeneration varieties 11:15 – 12:15 Dick Randell: Families of arrangements 12:15 – 5:00 No scheduled talks Thursday, August 10 9:00 – 10:00 Anne Shepler: Hochschild cohomology and graded Hecke Algebras 10:00 – 10:30 Morning Tea 10:30 – 11:00 Takuro Abe, The stability of $A_2$ and $B_2$-type arrangements 11:15 – 12:15 Masahiko Yoshinaga: Minimal CW-decomposition and applications 12:15 – 2:00 Lunch break 2:00 – 3:00 Laurentiu Maxim: Genera of complex varieties and singularities of proper maps 3:00 – 3:30 Afternoon Tea 3:30 – 4:00 Stefan Tohaneanu: Line-conic arrangements in P2 4:15 – 4:45 Emanuele Delucchi: A remark on Deligne's proof and the Weak Lattice Property Friday, August 11 9:00 – 10:00 Daniel Matei: Homology of fiber-type arrangement complements and configuration spaces 10:00 – 10:30 Morning Tea 10:30 – 11:00 Anne Shiu: Geometry of rank tests 11:15 – 12:15 Mario Salvetti: Some results on local system cohomologies of Artin groups 12:15 – 2:00 Lunch break 2:00 – 3:00 David Eisenbud (tentative): Asymptotic Regularity of Ideals 3:00 – 3:30 Afternoon Tea A block of rooms has been reserved at the Hotel Durant. Please mention the workshop name and reference the following code when making reservations via phone, fax or e-mail: JU0000. The cut-off date for reservations is July 7, 2006. A block of rooms has been reserved at the Rose Garden Inn. Please reference the following Group Code when making reservations via phone, e-mail or web (if booking via web, put the code in the Guest Comment field): CGMS27. The cut-off date for reservations is July 7, 2006.