Algebra and Geometry Seminar

Many interesting special functions are closely related to nice moduli spaces of linear differential (or difference) equations: hypergeometric functions satisfy rigid equations (in one-point moduli spaces), while Painlev\'e transcendents (and generalizations) correspond to flows between higher-dimensional moduli spaces of equations. I'll describe how to translate such moduli problems into natural moduli problems arising in noncommutative geometry, and discuss a number of results in noncommutative geometry that this led to (including the obligatory geometric Langlands cameo).