Speaker: Jan-Willem van Ittersum
Date: 10:30 13/05/2022
Title: Shifted symmetric functions, quasimodular forms and Hamiltonian operators.

Abstract: Starting with a counting problem for elements of the symmetric group, we 
introduce the so-called shifted symmetric functions. These functions, which also occur 
naturally in enumerative geometry and mathematical physics, have the remarkable property 
that the corresponding generating series are quasimodular forms. We discuss another family 
of functions on partitions with the same property. In particular, using certain Hamiltonian 
operators associated to cohomological field theories, we explain how this seemingly different 
family of functions turns out to be closely related to the shifted symmetric functions.