Brian Rothbach
Email address: rothbach@math.berkeley.edu
Office Number: 716 Evans
My current research interests involves studying the conjugation action of the Borel group on Gl_n, and specifically on the nilpotent cone.
This action is a nice stratification of the nilpotent cone, which is not well-understood. In general, one should not look at individual orbits, but rather certain nice clusterings of orbits. One motivating question is to find the equations for orbital varieties.
My current focus is on orbits with X^2=0, where the individual orbits are the right thing to study. I'm currently trying to prove that these varieties are Cohen-Macaulay and normal.
Work in progress:
Borel orbits and X^2=0 Tex PDF PS
Equations for orbital varieties Tex PDF PS
Teaching: This semester (Fall 2007) I am a GSI for Math 54: (Linear Algebra and Differential Equations) with Professor Gu. From that page, you will also find links to my previous math 54 pages.
In the past (Fall 2005) I was a GSI for Math 1B: (second semester calculus) with Professor Reshetikhin.
I have also taught Math 74:Transition to Upper Division Mathematics during the summer.