Graduate Algebra Seminar: David Wen

Event Date: 

Thursday, February 9, 2017 - 2:00pm to 3:00pm

Event Location: 

  • 4607B South Hall
 
Speaker: David Wen
Title: Introduction to the Minimal Model Program: Surfaces
 
Around the turn of the 19th century, the Italian school of algebraic geometry with the likes of Cremona, Segre, Castelnuovo and Enriques began a study of the birational geometry of algebraic surfaces, eventually leading to a classification of algebraic surfaces via minimal models by Enriques and formalized and expanded upon by Kodaira. The surface case then became a guide towards a birational classification of all varieties called the minimal model program; first realized by Mori when he generalized the techniques of the surface case and applied them to threefolds. Much has been done since then but there is still very much to do and currently the minimal model program is an active area of research. This talk will begin a discussion of the birational geometry and the minimal model program of the classical surface case before the works of Mori.