There is a well-known relationship between finite W-algebras and Yangians. The work of Rogoucy and Sorba on the "rectangular case" in type A eventually led Brundan and Kleshchev to introduce shifted Yangians, which surject onto the finite W-algebras for general linear Lie algebras. Thus, these W-algebras can be realised as truncated shifted Yangians. In parallel, the work of Ragoucy and then Brown showed that truncated twisted Yangians are isomorphic to the finite W-algebra associated to a rectangular nilpotent element in a Lie algebra of type B, C or D. For many years there has been a hope that this relationship can be extended to other nilpotent elements.

I will report on a joint work with Lewis Topley in which we introduced the shifted twisted Yangians, following the work of Lu-Wang-Zhang, and described Poisson isomorphisms between their truncated semiclassical degenerations and the functions Slodowy slices associated with even nilpotent elements in classical simple Lie algebras( which can be viewed as semiclassical W-algebras). I will also mention a work in progress with Lu-Peng-Topley-Wang which deals with the quantum analogue of our theorem.

I will also recall what Poisson algebras and (filtered) quantizations are and give a brief intro to Slodowy slices, finite W-algebras and Yangians so that the talk should be quite accessible.

Hilbert’s fourteenth problem is concerned with whether invariant rings under algebraic group actions are finitely generated. A number of examples have been constructed since the mid-20th century which demonstrate that this is not always the case. However such examples by their nature are difficult to construct, and we know little about their underlying structure. This talk aims to provide an introduction to the topic of Hilbert’s fourteenth problem, as well as the finite generation ideal - a key tool used to further understand these counterexamples. We focus particularly on the example constructed by Daigle and Freudenberg at the turn of the 21st century, and describe the work undertaken to compute the finite generation ideal of this example. 

In this talk, we will make an explicit link between self-dual Yang-Mills instantons on the Taub-NUT space, and G2-instantons on the BGGG space, by displaying the latter space as a fibration by the former. In doing so, we will discuss analysis on non-compact manifolds, circle symmetries, and a new method of constructing solutions to quadratically singular ODE systems. This talk is based on joint work with Matt Turner: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2409.03886.