Carl Mautner, UC Riverside

Abstract: In joint work with Tom Braden we introduce a new algebra, a close cousin to the Schur algebra.  Like the Schur algebra, it can be defined in terms of the symmetric group and has a nice diagrammatic description.  Geometrically, this algebra appears in our study of perverse sheaves on S^n(C^2), the n-fold symmetric product of the plane.  In this talk I will aim to describe our motivation for this work and some interesting properties of the algebra.