Algebra Group

The algebra group in the Department of Mathematical Sciences conducts research in several areas of algebra, including invariant theory, commutative algebra, valuation theory, central simple algebras, module theory, representation theory, and Leibniz homology.

There has been a weekly algebra seminar in the department for many years. Faculty participants of the algebra seminar include Guram Bezhanishvili, Dave Finston, Bruce Olberding, Pat Morandi, Susana Salamanca-Riba and retired professors Ray Mines, Carol Walker and Elbert Walker. The department has hosted several distinguished visiting professors and Holiday Symposia speakers in algebra since 1990. They include Georgia Benkart, David Eisenbud, Ed Green, Derek Holt, and Bernd Sturmfels.

Faculty Interests

David Finston

Areas of interest: My current research centers on affine algebraic varieties and their automorphisms. Most attention has been given to the study of actions of the additive group of complex numbers. This case lies at the heart of several open problems (the jacobian problem and the cancellation problem are the most famous), and played a crucial role in the solutions to Hilbert's14th problem and the tame generator problem. Determining the nature (algebraic, geometric, topological) of the quotient of complex affine space and related varieties by actions of the additive group forms a major component of his research program. His recent collaborators include James K. Deveney, Parag Mehta, Peter van Rossum, Stefan Maubach, and Adrien Dubouloz.

Patrick Morandi

Areas of Interest: Finite dimensional division algebras, algebras with involution, noncommutative valuation theory, universal algebra. Research Topics: My early research was concerned with developing and using valuation theory in the study of finite dimensional division algebras. Since then I have also worked on questions about algebras with involution, including taking results about quadratic forms and finding analogous results for involutions. My main collaborators in these areas are Al Sethuraman and Darrell Haile. Over the past few years I have begun to work on questions about topological lattices. My most recent publications have been in this area, and are joint work with Guram Bezhanishvili.

Bruce Olberding

Areas of Interest: Commutative Algebra and Module Theory. Recent research topics: valuation theory, integrally closed overrings of two-dimensional Noetherian domains, generic formal fibers of Noetherian rings, constructing rings from derivations, stable rings, ideal decompositions, and colon and injective properties of ideals integral domains. Other research interests include Prufer domains, holomorphy rings in function fields, ultraproducts of commutative rings, and decompositions of torsion-free modules. Some of my recent collaborators include Pat Goeters, Bill Heinzer, Laszlo Fuchs, Moshe Roitman, Serpil Saydam and Jay Shapiro.

Susana Salamanca-Riba

Areas of Interest: Representation Theory of Real Lie groups and Lie algebras: My research focuses on the study of the unitary representations of real reductive Lie groups, and Leibniz Homology of affine Lie algebras. I study the unitary representations via the analogous problem of classifying the unitarizable Harish Chandra modules of G. My current research includes a program to reduce the classification of the unitary dual to a smaller set of representations. In particular, my most recent work concerns such program for a special class of representations of the Metaplectic group and the double cover of the unitary groups.. I am also interested on the Leibniz Homology of the affine simplel Lie algebras. My most recent collaborators are Alessandra Pantano, Annegret Paul, and David Vogan. I am also a team member in the Atlas of Lie groups and Representations project (http://www.liegroups.org), whose goal is to make available information about representations of reductive algebraic groups like SL(n) or Sp(2n), in order to support research in the field and to aid graduate students and young researchers in the learning of the subject. The people involved in this project now are Jeffrey Adams, Dan Barbasch, Birne Binegar, Bill Casselman, Dan Ciubotaru, Scott Crofts, Tatiana Howard, Monty McGovern, Alfred Noel, Alessandra Pantano, Annegret Paul, Patrick Polo, Siddharta Sahi, John Stembridge, Peter Trapa, Marc van Leeuwen, David Vogan, Wei-ling Yee and myself.