Algebraic Geometry Seminar

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Putting the p back in Prym

Speaker: Sebastian Casalaina-Martin, University of Colorado

Location: Warren Weaver Hall 512

Date: Tuesday, April 8, 2025, 5 p.m.

Synopsis:

After Jacobians of curves, Prym varieties are perhaps the next most studied abelian varieties. They turn out to be quite useful in a number of contexts. For technical reasons, there does not appear to be any systematic treatment of Prym varieties in characteristic 2, or mixed characteristic.  With a view towards some future applications, in this talk I will describe some joint work with Jeff Achter where we attempt to fill in that gap regarding Prym varieties.  The focus will be on describing the theory in the relative setting, including an extension of Welters’ Criterion, and giving a classification of branched covers of curves that give rise to Prym varieties.