Title: Universal Series and Strange Duality
Abstract: The Hilbert scheme of points parametrizes unordered tuples of points on a complex surface. Generating series associated to Hilbert schemes are often decompose nicely into products of certain “universal” series. In this talk, I will introduce Hilbert schemes and explain the relevant generating series. Finally, I will say how a “strange duality” conjecture (coming from moduli spaces of vector bundles) suggests a surprising relationship between some of these series and discuss some recent progress in proving this relationship.