David Finston - Brooklyn College -
The cancellation problem for affine spaces - November 8, 2012

<p> The (original) affine cancellation problem asks
whether the existence of an isomorphism of complex affine varieties X &times; 
<b>C</b> &asymp; <b>C</b><sup>n+1</sup> implies the existence of an isomorphism
X &asymp; <b>C</b><sup>n</sup>. A positive solution is known  for n=1,2 and the
problem is open otherwise. Some counterexamples to a generalized
cancellation problem will be discussed as well as a context in which a
counterexample to the original problem for n=5 might be found.
</p>