Title: A bridge between the algebra and geometry of hyperplane arrangements

Abstract: A hyperplane arrangement is a union of codimension one linear spaces.  These simple objects provide fertile ground for interactions between combinatorics, algebra, algebraic geometry, topology, and group actions.  The combinatorics of an arrangement is encoded by the pattern of intersections among the hyperplanes, called its intersection lattice.  On the other hand, a key algebraic object is the module of vector fields tangent to the arrangement, called the module of logarithmic derivations, which was introduced by Saito in 1980 to study the singularities of hypersurfaces.  An enduring mystery in the theory of hyperplane arrangements is which algebraic properties of the module of logarithmic derivations can be determined from the intersection lattice, and which properties depend fundamentally on the geometry (i.e. the exact hyperplanes).  At the center of this mystery is Terao's conjecture, which proposes that the algebraic property of freeness can be determined only from the intersection lattice.  In this talk we explain how rigidity of planar frameworks (dating back to Maxwell) plays a key role in connecting the geometry and algebra of line arrangements in the projective plane.  This is joint work with Jessica Sidman and Will Traves.