May 26–29, 2026

Mathematics Department
The Ohio State University
Columbus, OH, USA

Organizers

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 CH 240 of Cockins Hall. 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 CH 240 Organizers Welcome remarks
9:30am–10:30am CH 240 Michael Zeng Background 1
10:30am–11:00am Math Building, 1st floor Coffee break
11:00am–12:00pm CH 240 Leonardo Mihalcea Intro to QK theory for flag manifolds
12:00pm–1:30pm Lunch break
1:30pm–2:30pm CH 240 Anakin Dey Background 2
2:30pm–3:00pm Math Building, 1st floor Coffee break
3:00pm–4:00pm CH 240 Jonah Blasiak k-Schur functions, Catalan functions, and the k-Schur branching rule
May 27 9:30am–10:30am CH 240 Hugh Dennin Background 3
10:30am–11:00am Math Building, 1st floor Coffee break
11:00am–12:00pm CH 240 Jonah Blasiak K-theoretic variations
12:00pm–1:30pm Lunch break
1:30pm–2:30pm CH 240 Will Newman Background 4
2:30pm–3:00pm Math Building, 1st floor Coffee break
3:00pm–4:00pm CH 240 Leonardo Mihalcea Computational foundations
5:00pm–6:00pm MW 724 Poster Session
6:00pm–8:00pm MW 724 Conference dinner
May 28 9:30am–10:30am CH 240 Petch Chueluecha Background 5
10:30am–11:00am Math Building, 1st floor Coffee break
11:00am–12:00pm CH 240 Jonah Blasiak Schur positivity
12:00pm–1:30pm Lunch break
1:30pm–2:30pm CH 240 Adrian Neff Background 6
2:30pm–3:00pm Math Building, 1st floor Coffee break
3:00pm–4:00pm CH 240 Leonardo Mihalcea Quantum = Affine
4:00pm–4:15pm Break
May 29 9:20am–10:20am CH 240 Jeremy Peters Background 7
10:20am–10:40am Math Building, 1st floor Coffee break
10:40am–11:40am CH 240 Leonardo Mihalcea Connections to physics

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Titles and Abstracts

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

  • Lecture 1: Introduction
    Pretalk: Michael Zeng
  • Lecture 2: Computational Foundations
    Pretalk: William Newman
  • Lecture 3: Quantum=Affine
    Pretalk: Adrian Neff
  • Lecture 4: Connections to Physics
    Pretalk: Jeremy Peters

Jonah Blasiak: “k-Schur and Catalan functions”

  • Lecture 1: k-Schur functions, Catalan functions, and the k-Schur branching rule
    Pretalk: Anakin Dey
  • Lecture 2: K-k-Schur functions and K-theoretic Catalan functions
    Pretalk: Hugh Dennin
  • Lecture 3: Schur positivity of Catalan functions via affine Demazure crystals
    Pretalk: Petch Chueluecha

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, 5:00–6:00pm, 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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Registration

Registration is now closed.

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