Professor John Lesieutre of Penn State University is visiting the Department of Mathematics, IISc, as a Fulbright-Nehru Fellow from the period of January 27, 2026 to June 09, 2026.
As a part of his stay he will be delivering a mini-course on Algebraic Dynamics, consisting of 4–6 lectures. Algebraic dynamics lies at the interface of algebraic geometry, complex dynamics, and arithmetic geometry, and the course is intended to give an accessible introduction to the subject through concrete examples and open problems. Students are especially encouraged to attend. The important details are as follows: ****** When: Wednesdays and Fridays, 10:30 a.m.–12:00 p.m. Starting date: Wednesday, 20 May 2026 Final date: Friday, 29 May, 2026 or Friday, 05 June, 2026 depending on the interest. Where: LH-3, Department of Mathematics, IISc, and online on Microsoft Teams. The link will be shared later. Title: Algebraic Dynamics Abstract from Prof. Lesiuetre: This series of lectures will provide a brief introduction to algebraic dynamics, with an emphasis on concrete examples and some open problems. I will attempt to give a fairly broad survey, including basic facts about automorphisms and automorphism groups; dynamical degrees; arithmetic degrees; and the dynamical Mordell-Lang conjecture. I will try to assume as little background knowledge as possible.
After the initial sequence of lectures, I will report on some of my own recent research in this area (joint with Filip and Tosatti), explaining an application of these ideas to an algebraic geometry problem not obviously connected to dynamics.
The recorded lectures will be posted on the Department’s YouTube page. This is the link to the playlist - https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQXtaLhI1-1ohf_3GPRLS7SNdR2LVl7WM&si=dpBef-KMvhVmwZkK