Events

Colloquium: Greg Blekherman

Time: Sep 23, 2016 (04:00 PM)
Location: Parker Hall 250

Details:

blekherman

Speaker: Greg Blekherman (Georgia Institute of Technology)

Title: Do Sums of Squares Dream of Free Resolutions?

Abstract: A real polynomial is called nonnegative if it takes only nonnegative values. Sums of squares of polynomials (and rational functions) are obviously nonnegative. I will review the rich history of this area of real algebraic geometry, and the recent connections with optimization. I will explain how this topic is inextricably linked to classical topics in algebraic geometry and commutative algebra, and discuss a specific example of square-free monomial ideals, which connects this area to positive semidefinite matrix completion problems.