Colloquium in Algebraic Geometry

K3 surfaces and their group of symmetries
Alessandra Sarti
(Univ. Poitiers - France)

Abstract: Particularly interesting objects in algebraic geometry are K3 surfaces, which are special complex algebraic surfaces. The most easy example of such a surface is the zero set of a homogeneous polynomial of degree four in the three dimensional complex projective space. The name was given by André Weil in 1958 in honour of three famous mathematicians: Kummer, Kähler and Kodaira and in honour of the K2 mountain at Cachemire. Their symmetry group is an important tool to understand their geometry. I will first show some remarkable properties of K3 surfaces and in particular the important role of lattice theory, then I will show some classic and recent results on their symmetry groups.

Department Colloquium (general audience talk) - in the framework of MIUR Excellence Project 2018-2022 Mat@Tov, CUPE83C18000100006