Student Combinatorics and Algebra Seminar
Thursday, October 10, 2019
4:40pm in Vincent 570



An Extra Cyclic Action on Parking Spaces

Eric Stucky

University of Minnesota


Abstract

The objects we now call parking functions were originally studied by computer scientists to understand the behavior of random hash functions. Since then, they have found a permanent home in algebraic combinatorics because of their connections to hyperplane arrangements, Lagrange inversion, and invariant theory. This talk will take a very biased perspective on parking functions, beginning with their classical definition, and culminating in a hot-off-the-presses result that a certain RCA-motivated cyclic action can in some cases be realized combinatorially.