Seminars and Colloquia by Series

Tensor decompositions with applications to LU and SLOCC equivalence of multipartite pure states

Series
Algebra Seminar
Time
Monday, January 27, 2025 - 13:00 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 005
Speaker
Ian TanAuburn University

Please Note: There will be a pre-seminar at 10:55 am in Skiles 005.

We introduce a broad lemma, one consequence of which is the higher order singular value decomposition (HOSVD) of tensors defined by DeLathauwer, DeMoor and Vandewalle (2000). By an analogous application of the lemma, we find a complex orthogonal version of the HOSVD. Kraus's (2010) algorithm used the HOSVD to compute normal forms of almost all n-qubit pure states under the action of the local unitary group. Taking advantage of the double cover SL2(C)×SL2(C)→SO4(C) , we produce similar algorithms (distinguished by the parity of n) that compute normal forms for almost all n-qubit pure states under the action of the SLOCC group.

Convexity in Whitney Problems

Series
Colloquia
Time
Monday, January 27, 2025 - 11:00 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 006
Speaker
Marjorie DrakeMIT

Please Note: This is a job talk, it will be also broadcast by Zoom, in addition to in-person: https://gatech.zoom.us/j/91499035568

Let $E \subset \mathbb{R}^n$ be a compact set, and $f: E \to \mathbb{R}$. How can we tell if there exists a smooth convex extension $F \in C^{1,1}(\mathbb{R}^n)$ of $f$, i.e. satisfying $F|_E = f|_E$? Assuming such an extension exists, how small can one take the Lipschitz constant $\text{Lip}(\nabla F): = \sup_{x,y \in \mathbb{R}^n, x \neq y} \frac{|\nabla F(x) - \nabla F(y)|}{|x-y|}$? I will provide an answer to these questions for the non-linear space of strongly convex functions by presenting recent work of mine proving there is a Finiteness Principle for strongly convex functions in $C^{1,1}(\mathbb{R}^n)$. This work is the first attempt to understand the constrained interpolation problem for *convex* functions in $C^{1,1}(\mathbb{R}^n)$, building on techniques developed by P. Shvartsman, C. Fefferman, A. Israel, and K. Luli to understand whether a function has a smooth extension despite obstacles to their direct application. We will finish with a discussion of challenges in adapting my proof of a Finiteness Principle for the space of convex functions in $C^{1,1}(\mathbb{R})$ ($n=1$) to higher dimensions.

On the Three-Dimensional, Quadratic Diffeomorphism: Anti-integrability, Attractors, and Chaos

Series
CDSNS Colloquium
Time
Friday, January 24, 2025 - 15:30 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 314
Speaker
Amanda HamptonGeorgia Tech

Please Note: Zoom link (if needed): https://gatech.zoom.us/j/91390791493?pwd=QnpaWHNEOHZTVXlZSXFkYTJ0b0Q0UT09

 

We give a comprehensive parameter study of the three-dimensional quadratic diffeomorphism to understand its attracting and chaotic dynamics. For large parameter values, we use a concept introduced 30 years ago for the Frenkel--Kontorova model of condensed matter physics: the anti-integrable (AI) limit. At the traditional AI limit, orbits of a map degenerate to sequences of symbols and the dynamics is reduced to the shift operator, a pure form of chaos. For the 3D quadratic map, the AI limit that we study becomes a pair of one-dimensional maps, introducing symbolic dynamics on two symbols. Using contraction arguments, we find parameter domains such that each symbol sequence corresponds to a unique AI state. In some of these domains, sufficient conditions are then found for each such AI state to continue away from the limit becoming an orbit of the original 3D map. Numerical continuation methods extend these results, allowing computation of bifurcations, and allowing us to obtain orbits with horseshoe-like structures and intriguing self-similarity.

For small parameter values, we focus on the dissipative, orientation preserving case to study the codimension-one and two bifurcations. Periodic orbits, born at resonant, Neimark-Sacker bifurcations, give rise to Arnold tongues in parameter space. Aperiodic attractors include invariant circles and chaotic orbits; these are distinguished by rotation number and Lyapunov exponents. Chaotic orbits include Hénon-like and Lorenz-like attractors, which can arise from period-doubling cascades, and those born from the destruction of invariant circles. The latter lie on paraboloids near the local unstable manifold of a fixed point.

Lastly, we present a generalized proof for the existence of AI states using similar contraction arguments to find larger parameter domains for the one-to-one correspondence of symbol sequences and AI states. We apply numerical continuation to these results to determine the persistence of low-period and heteroclinic AI states to the full, deterministic 3D map for a volume-contracting case. We find the corresponding AI state of a chaotic attractor and continue this state towards the full map. The numerical results show that the AI states continue to resonant and chaotic attractors along a 3D folded horseshoe that is similar to the classical 2D Hénon attractor.

On the Meissner state for type-II inhomogeneous superconductors

Series
Math Physics Seminar
Time
Friday, January 24, 2025 - 11:00 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 005
Speaker
Carlos RománPontificia Universidad Católica de Chile

The Ginzburg-Landau model is a phenomenological description of superconductivity. A key feature of type-II superconductors is the emergence of singularities, known as vortices, which occur when the external magnetic field exceeds the first critical field. Determining the location and number of these vortices is crucial. Furthermore, the presence of impurities in the material can influence the configuration of these singularities.

In this talk, I will present an estimation of the first critical field for inhomogeneous type-II superconductors and show that the model admits stable local minimizers without vortices, corresponding to Meissner type solutions, even when the external magnetic field intensity significantly exceeds the first critical field, approaching the so-called superheating field. This work is in collaboration with Matías Díaz-Vera.

Expansion and torsion homology of 3-manifolds

Series
Job Candidate Talk
Time
Thursday, January 23, 2025 - 11:00 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 006
Speaker
Jonathan ZungMIT

We say that a Riemannian manifold has good higher expansion if every rationally null-homologous i-cycle bounds an i+1 chain of comparatively small volume. The interactions between expansion, spectral geometry, and topology have long been studied in the settings of graphs and surfaces. In this talk, I will explain how to construct rational homology 3-spheres which are good higher expanders. On the other hand, I will show that such higher expanders must be rather topologically complicated; in particular, we will demonstrate a super-polynomial-in-volume lower bound on their torsion homology.

Rigidity of Anosov flows in dimension 3

Series
CDSNS Colloquium
Time
Friday, January 17, 2025 - 15:30 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 314
Speaker
Andrey GogolevOhio State University

We will discuss some surprising rigidity phenomena for Anosov flows in dimension 3. For example, in the context of generic transitive 3-dimensional Anosov flows, any continuous conjugacy is either smooth or reverses the positive and negative SRB measures.

This is joint work with Martin Leguil and Federico Rodriguez Hertz

Near-Optimal and Tractable Estimation under Shift-Invariance

Series
Stochastics Seminar
Time
Thursday, January 16, 2025 - 15:30 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 006
Speaker
Dmitrii OstrovskiiGeorgia Tech

Please Note: This talk is hosted jointly with the Analysis Seminar.

In the 1990s, Arkadi Nemirovski asked the question: 

How hard is it to estimate a solution to an unknown homogeneous linear difference equation with constant coefficients of order S, observed in the Gaussian noise on [0,N]?

The class of all such solutions, or "signals," is parametric -- described by 2S complex parameters -- but extremely rich: it contains all exponential polynomials over C with total degree S, including harmonic oscillations with S arbitrary frequencies. Geometrically, this class corresponds to the projection onto C^n of the union of all shift-invariant subspaces of C^Z of dimension S. We show that the statistical complexity of this class, quantified by the squared minimax radius of the (1-P)-confidence Euclidean norm ball, is nearly the same as for the class of S-sparse signals, namely (S log(N) + log(1/P)) log^2(S) log(N/S) up to a constant factor. Moreover, the corresponding near-minimax estimator is tractable, and it can be used to build a test statistic with a near-minimax detection threshold in the associated detection problem. These statistical results rest upon an approximation-theoretic one: we show that finite-dimensional shift-invariant subspaces admit compactly supported reproducing kernels whose Fourier spectra have nearly the smallest possible p-norms, for all p ≥ 1 at once. 

The talk is based on the recent preprint https://arxiv.org/pdf/2411.03383.

Leveraging algebraic structures for innovations in data science and complex systems

Series
Job Candidate Talk
Time
Thursday, January 16, 2025 - 13:00 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 006
Speaker
Julia LindbergUniversity of Texas, Austin

Applied algebraic geometry is a subfield of applied mathematics that utilizes concepts, tools, and techniques from algebraic geometry to solve problems in various applied sciences. It blends tools from algebraic geometry, optimization, and statistics to develop certifiable computational algebraic methods to address modern engineeering challenges.

In this talk, I will showcase the power of these methods in solving problems related to Gaussian mixture models (GMMs). In the first part of the talk I will discuss a statistical technique for parameter recovery called the method of moments. I will discuss how to leverage algebraic techniques to design scalable and certifiable moment-based methods for parameter recovery of GMMs. In the second part of this talk, I will discuss recent work relating to Gaussian Voronoi cells. This work introduces new geometric perspectives with implications for high-dimensional data analysis. I will also touch on how these methods complement my broader research in polynomial optimization and power systems engineering.

https://gatech.zoom.us/j/97398944571?pwd=s8S02kNZd5dyVvSY8mZzNOfbNZrqfg.1

Stationary measures for random walks on surfaces

Series
School of Mathematics Colloquium
Time
Thursday, January 16, 2025 - 11:00 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 005 and https://gatech.zoom.us/j/94869649462?pwd=pPFAzFU4VaW99KqRG2BXGUlMBcnlbD.1
Speaker
Aaron BrownNorthwestern University

Please Note: Meeting ID: 948 6964 9462 Passcode: 647751

Dynamical systems exhibiting some degree of hyperbolicity often admit “fractal" invariant objects.  However, extra symmetries or “randomness” in the system often preclude the existence of such fractal objects.

I will give some concrete examples of the above and then discuss problems and results related to random dynamics and group actions on surfaces.  I will especially focus on questions related to absolute continuity of stationary measures.

Bounds on Hecke Eigenvalues over Quadratic Progressions and Mass Equidistribution on Cocompact Surfaces

Series
Number Theory
Time
Wednesday, January 15, 2025 - 15:30 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 005
Speaker
Steven CreechBrown University

Given a modular form $f$, one can construct a measure $\mu_f$ on the modular surface $SL(2,\mathbb{Z})\backslash\mathbb{H}$. The celebrated mass equidistribution theorem of Holowinsky and Soundararajan states that as $k\rightarrow\infty$, the measure $\mu_f$ approaches the uniform measure on the surface. Given a maximal order in a quaternion algebra which is non-split over $\mathbb{Q}$, a maximal order leads to a cocompact subgroup of $R^1\subseteq SL(2,\mathbb{Z})$ where the quotient $R^1\backslash\mathbb{H}$ is a Shimura curve. Given a Hecke form $f$ on this Shimura curve, one can construct the analogous measure $\mu_f$, and ask about the limit as $k\rightarrow\infty$. Recent work of Nelson relates this equidistribution problem for the cocompact case to obtaining bounds on sums of Hecke eigenvalues summed over quadratic progressions. In this talk, I will describe this problem in both the cocompact and non-cocompact case while highlighting how differences in algebras lead to differences in geometry. I will then state progress that I have made on bounds that correspond to square root cancellation on average for sums of Hecke eigenvalues summed over quadratic progressions when averaged over a basis of Hecke forms. 

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