SPEAKER: Nicholas Proudfoot

TITLE: Combinatorics and topology of hyperplane arrangements

ABSTRACT: Given a finite collection of hyperplanes in a complex vector space, we can extract combinatorial data (which sets of hyperplanes intersect and how) and topological data (such as the fundamental group or homology groups of the complement of the hyperplanes). One of the main themes in the study of hyperplane arrangements is to understand the extent to which the combinatorial data determines the topological data. I will describe some major results in this area, with special attention to the case where the hyperplanes are all defined over the real numbers.