May 26–29, 2026

Mathematics Department
The Ohio State University
Columbus, OH, USA

Organizers

This event is funded by the Mathematics Research Institute at The Ohio State University and the National Science Foundation under RTG grant DMS 2231565.

Registration

For planning purposes, all participants (including invited speakers) are asked to register online. Applications received by April 25 will receive full consideration. Please fill out the registration form.

The RTG Conferences and Retreats

The graduate and postdoctoral training supported by the RTG award is anchored on five thematic years emphasizing different aspects of our combinatorial, arithmetic, and topological approaches to study algebraic varieties. Focused topics courses and research training seminars running each year will be complemented by an RTG Workshop, followed by a Group Retreat featuring a period of intensive mathematical collaboration, and promoting community-building through a goal-oriented activity.

The YouTube channel of the RTG group has playlists containing a record of the talks delivered at each of the conferences.

Speakers

The RTG 2026 Workshop at The Ohio State University will feature two 4-lecture mini-courses by distinguished plenary speakers, supported by background talks from graduate student participants.

Portrait of Jonah Blasiak
Jonah Blasiak Drexel University
Portrait of Leonardo Mihalcea
Leonardo Mihalcea Virginia Tech University

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Schedule

We expect participants to arrive on Monday, May 25 and depart on Friday, May 29 in the afternoon.

All talks will take place in room SO E0125 of Scott Laboratory (201 W 19th Ave). The conference dinner will be held in room MW 724 of the Mathematics Tower.

Conference schedule, May 26–29, 2026
Day Time Location Speaker / Event Title
May 26 9:20am–9:30am SO E0125 Organizers Welcome remarks
9:30am–10:30am SO E0125 TBD Background 1
10:30am–11:00am Coffee break
11:00am–12:00pm SO E0125 Leonardo Mihalcea Intro to QK theory for flag manifolds
12:00pm–1:30pm Lunch break
1:30pm–2:30pm SO E0125 TBD Background 2
2:30pm–3:00pm Coffee break
3:00pm–4:00pm SO E0125 Jonah Blasiak k-Schur functions, Catalan functions, and the k-Schur branching rule
May 27 9:30am–10:30am SO E0125 TBD Background 3
10:30am–11:00am Coffee break
11:00am–12:00pm SO E0125 Jonah Blasiak K-theoretic variations
12:00pm–1:30pm Lunch break
1:30pm–2:30pm SO E0125 TBD Background 4
2:30pm–3:00pm Coffee break
3:00pm–4:00pm SO E0125 Leonardo Mihalcea Computational foundations
4:15pm–5:15pm MW 724 Poster Session More information
5:30pm–7:30pm MW 724 Conference dinner
May 28 9:30am–10:30am SO E0125 TBD Background 5
10:30am–11:00am Coffee break
11:00am–12:00pm SO E0125 Jonah Blasiak Schur positivity
12:00pm–1:30pm Lunch break
1:30pm–2:30pm SO E0125 TBD Background 6
2:30pm–3:00pm Coffee break
3:00pm–4:00pm SO E0125 Leonardo Mihalcea Quantum = Affine
4:00pm–4:15pm Break
May 29 9:20am–10:20am SO E0125 TBD Background 7
10:20am–10:40am Coffee break
10:40am–11:40am SO E0125 Leonardo Mihalcea Connections to physics

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Titles and Abstracts

Leonardo Mihalcea: “Quantum K-theory of Flag Manifolds”

  • Lecture 1: Introduction
    TBD Pretalk: TBD
  • Lecture 2: Computational Foundations
    TBD Pretalk: TBD
  • Lecture 3: Quantum=Affine
    TBD Pretalk: TBD Alternative pretalk: TBD
  • Lecture 4: Connections to Physics
    TBD Pretalk: TBD

Jonah Blasiak: “k-Schur and Catalan functions”

  • Lecture 1: k-Schur functions, Catalan functions, and the k-Schur branching rule
    TBD Pretalk: TBD
  • Lecture 2: K-k-Schur functions and K-theoretic Catalan functions
    TBD Pretalk: TBD
  • Lecture 3: Schur positivity of Catalan functions via affine Demazure crystals
    TBD Pretalk: TBD

Each of the lectures given by our lecturers will be preceded by pretalks given by some of the conference participants to cover background material.

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Poster Session

On Wednesday, May 27, 4:15–5:15pm, we will have a poster session in MW 724.

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RTG Retreat

The retreat will take place at Burr Oak Lodge and Conference Center, located in Burr Oak State Park, during June 2–5, 2026.

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