Braids in Representation Theory and Algebraic Combinatorics

Braid groups and their generalizations play a central role in a number of places in 21st-century mathematics. In modern representation theory, braid groups have come to play an important organizing role, somewhat analogous to the role played by Weyl groups in classical representation theory. Recent advances have established strong connections between homological algebra (t-structures and stability conditions), geometric representation theory (Hilbert schemes, the Hecke category, and link homologies), and algebraic combinatorics (shuffle algebras, symmetric functions, and also Garside theory). Braid groups appear prominently in many of these connections. The goal of this workshop will be to bring experts in these different areas together to both communicate recent advances and also to formulate important questions for future work.