Algebraic Geometry Seminar

I will state the question of uniqueness for centers of blow ups and blow downs of birational maps, explain what is currently known and give two applications. The first is to the structure of Cremona groups, namely their nongeneration by involutions in dimension >= 3. The second application is for the Grothendieck ring of varieties, of dimension Speaker(s): Evgeny Shinder (University of Sheffield)