The grant will support a conference on "Curves and Abelian Varieties" at the University of Georgia at the end of March 2007. The aim of the conference is to discuss recent developments in the field, including those relating to the Schottky problem of characterizing jacobians among all principally polarized abelian varieties; as well as on characterizing other classical classes of abelian varieties such as Prym varieties and intermediate jacobians. The connections with functorial compactifications of moduli spaces of abelian varieties and K3 surfaces will be adressed as well. The speakers will include many internationally renowned experts, such as Arnaud Beauville (Nice,France), Herbert Clemens (Ohio State), Robert Friedman (Columbia, NYC), Phillip A. Griffiths (IAS, Princeton), Herbert Lange (Erlangen, Germany), Alessandro Verra (Rome 3), Igor Krichever (Columbia, NYC) and Claire Voisin (Paris 7).
Algebraic geometry studies solutions of systems of polynomial equations, which are basic to many fields of mathematics and its applications to natural sciences and engeneering. Curves and abelian varieties are two fundamental classes of solutions whose rich interactions has fascinated mathematicians since the time of Riemann. The conference will bring together leading international researchers, junior mathematicians and graduate students to review the recent progress in the field and to encourage new developments.
