Algebraic Geometry Seminar

Strange duality is a duality between the spaces of conformal blocks for two different groups. Strange duality for vector bundles with fixed determinant was proved by P. Belkale and by A. Marian- D. Oprea. For symplectic bundles, it was proved by T. Abe. Strange duality for some maximal subgroups of E_8 are also known. In this talk, we discuss a conjectural strange duality for odd Spin and orthogonal bundles. This is a joint work with R. Wentworth. If time permits, we will also discuss a strange duality between G_2 and F_4-theta functions at level one and applications of Strange duality to birational geometry of bar-M_{0,n}.