Speaker: Sue Sierra (Edinburgh)

Title: Contracting noncommutative (-1) curves
Abstract: We give a noncommutative analogue of Castelnuovo's classic theorem that (-1) lines on a smooth surface can be contracted. This has applications to the classification of noncommutative projective surfaces, one of the major open problems in noncommutative algebraic geometry. This is joint work with Rogalski and Stafford.
The talk will have many examples and will not assume a background in noncommutative ring theory.