Seminars and Colloquia by Series

Heegaard Floer homology and Seifert manifolds

Series
Geometry Topology Seminar Pre-talk
Time
Monday, October 28, 2019 - 12:45 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skile 006
Speaker
Sungkyung KangChinese University of Hong Kong

Heegaard Floer homology gives a powerful invariant of closed 3-manifolds. It is always computable in the purely combinatorial sense, but usually computing it needs a very hard work. However, for certain graph 3-manifolds, its minus-flavored Heegaard Floer homology can be easily computed in terms of lattice homology, due to Nemethi. I plan to give the basic definitions and constructions of Heegaard Floer theory and lattice homology, as well as the isomorphism between those two objects.

Effective bounds for the measure of rotations

Series
CDSNS Colloquium
Time
Monday, October 28, 2019 - 11:15 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 05
Speaker
Alex HaroUniv. de Barcelona

A fundamental question in Dynamical Systems is to identify regions of
phase/parameter space satisfying a given property (stability,
linearization, etc).  In this talk, given a family of analytic circle
diffeomorphisms depending on a parameter, we obtain effective (almost
optimal) lower bounds of the Lebesgue measure of the set of parameters
for which that diffeomorphism is conjugate to a rigid rotation.
We estimate this measure using an a-posteriori KAM
scheme that relies on quantitative conditions that
are checkable using computer-assistance. We carefully describe
how the hypotheses in our theorems are reduced to a finite number of
computations, and apply our methodology to the case of the
Arnold family, in the far-from-integrable regime.

This is joint work with Jordi Lluis Figueras and Alejandro Luque.

 

Spin Dynamics: Algorithms and Spin of Planets

Series
SIAM Student Seminar
Time
Friday, October 25, 2019 - 15:00 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 249
Speaker
Renyi ChenGT Math

In this talk, we will focus on the spin dynamics of rigid bodies.
Algorithm part: There are many algorithms designed for N body simulations. 
But, to study the climates of a planet, we need to extend the simulation from point mass bodies to rigid bodies.
In the N-rigid-body simulations, we will consider the orientation and angular momentum of the rigid body to understand the spin.
In terms of the algorithm, symplectic integrators are designed by splitting methods. 
Physical part: We studied the spin dynamics of an Earth-like planet in circumbinary systems.
Canonical Delaunay variables and Andoyer variables are applied to split the variables to be slow part and fast part.
Applying averaging method, we approximated the spin dynamics.
From the approximated dynamics, we may draw some interesting physical conclusions.
 

The proxy point method for rank-structured matrices

Series
Dissertation Defense
Time
Friday, October 25, 2019 - 13:30 for 1.5 hours (actually 80 minutes)
Location
Skiles 311
Speaker
Xin XingSchool of Mathematics, Georgia Tech

Rank-structured matrix representations, e.g., H2 and HSS, are commonly used to reduce computation and storage cost for dense matrices defined by interactions between many bodies. The main bottleneck for their applications is the expensive computation required to represent a matrix in a rank-structured matrix format which involves compressing specific matrix blocks into low-rank form.
We focus on the study and application of a class of hybrid analytic-algebraic compression methods, called the proxy point method. We address several critical problems concerning this underutilized method which limit its applicability. A general form of the method is proposed, paving the way for its wider application in the construction of different rank-structured matrices with kernel functions that are more general than those usually used. Further, we extend the applicability of the proxy point method to compress matrices defined by electron repulsion integrals, which accelerates one of the main computational steps in quantum chemistry. 

Committee members: Prof. Edmond Chow (Advisor, School of CSE, Georgia Tech), Prof. David Sherrill (School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Georgia Tech), Prof. Jianlin Xia (Department of Mathematics, Purdue University), Prof. Yuanzhe Xi (Department of Mathematics, Emory University), and Prof. Haomin Zhou (School of Mathematics, Georgia Tech).

High-Order Langevin Diffusion Yields an Accelerated MCMC Algorithm

Series
ACO Student Seminar
Time
Friday, October 25, 2019 - 13:05 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 005
Speaker
Wenlong MouEECS, UC Berkeley

We propose a Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithm based on third-order Langevin dynamics for sampling from distributions with log-concave and smooth densities. The higher-order dynamics allow for more flexible discretization schemes, and we develop a specific method that combines splitting with more accurate integration. For a broad class of d-dimensional distributions arising from generalized linear models, we prove that the resulting third-order algorithm produces samples from a distribution that is at most \varepsilon in Wasserstein distance from the target distribution in O(d^{1/3}/ \varepsilon^{2/3}) steps. This result requires only Lipschitz conditions on the gradient. For general strongly convex potentials with α-th order smoothness, we prove that the mixing time scales as O (d^{1/3} / \varepsilon^{2/3} + d^{1/2} / \varepsilon^{1 / (\alpha - 1)} ). Our high-order Langevin diffusion reduces the problem of log-concave sampling to numerical integration along a fixed deterministic path, which makes it possible for further improvements in high-dimensional MCMC problems. Joint work with Yi-An Ma, Martin J, Wainwright, Peter L. Bartlett and Michael I. Jordan.

Finite time dynamics of chaotic and random systems

Series
Stochastics Seminar
Time
Thursday, October 24, 2019 - 15:05 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 006
Speaker
Leonid BunimovichGeorgia Institute of Technology

Everybody are convinced that everything is known about the simplest random process of coin tossing. I will show that it is not the case. Particularly not everything was known for the simplest chaotic dynamical systems like the tent map (which is equivalent to coin tossing). This new area of finite time predictions emerged from a natural new question in the theory of open dynamical systems.

6-connected graphs are two-three linked

Series
Dissertation Defense
Time
Thursday, October 24, 2019 - 13:40 for 1.5 hours (actually 80 minutes)
Location
Skiles 005
Speaker
Shijie XieSchool of Mathematics, Georgia Tech

Let $G$ be a graph and $a_0, a_1, a_2, b_1,$ and $b_2$ be distinct vertices of $G$. Motivated by their work on Four Color Theorem, Hadwiger's conjecture for $K_6$, and Jorgensen's conjecture, Robertson and Seymour asked when does $G$ contain disjoint connected subgraphs $G_1, G_2$, such that $\{a_0, a_1, a_2\}\subseteq V(G_1)$ and $\{b_1, b_2\}\subseteq V(G_2)$. We prove that if $G$ is 6-connected then such $G_1,G_2$ exist. Joint work with Robin Thomas and Xingxing Yu.

Advisor: Dr. Xingxing Yu (School of Mathematics, Georgia Institute of Technology)

Committee: Dr. Robin Thomas (School of Mathematics, Georgia Institute of Technology), Dr. Prasad Tetali (School of Mathematics, Georgia Institute of Technology), Dr. Lutz Warnke (School of Mathematics, Georgia Institute of Technology), Dr. Richard Peng (School of Computer Science, Georgia Institute of Technology)

Reader: Dr. Gexin Yu (Department of Mathematics, College of William and Mary)

Rapid Convergence of the Unadjusted Langevin Algorithm: Isoperimetry Suffices

Series
High Dimensional Seminar
Time
Wednesday, October 23, 2019 - 15:00 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 006
Speaker
Andre WibisonoGeorgia Tech

Sampling is a fundamental algorithmic task. Many modern applications require sampling from complicated probability distributions in high-dimensional spaces. While the setting of logconcave target distribution is well-studied, it is important to understand sampling beyond the logconcavity assumption. We study the Unadjusted Langevin Algorithm (ULA) for sampling from a probability distribution on R^n under isoperimetry conditions. We show a convergence guarantee in Kullback-Leibler (KL) divergence assuming the target distribution satisfies log-Sobolev inequality and the log density has bounded Hessian. Notably, we do not assume convexity or bounds on higher derivatives. We also show convergence guarantees in Rényi divergence assuming the limit of ULA satisfies either log-Sobolev or Poincaré inequality. Joint work with Santosh Vempala (arXiv:1903.08568).

Heegaard Floer obstruction to knot surgery

Series
Geometry Topology Student Seminar
Time
Wednesday, October 23, 2019 - 14:00 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 006
Speaker
Hongyi ZhouGeorgia Tech

Which manifold can be obtained from surgery on a knot? Many obstructions to this have been studied. We will discuss some of them, and use Heegaard Floer homology to give an infinite family of seifert fibered integer spheres that cannot be obtained by surgery on a knot in S^3. We will also discuss a recipe to compute HF+ of surgery on a knot (Short review on Heegaard Floer homology included).

Uncertainty principles and Schrodinger operators on fractals

Series
Analysis Seminar
Time
Wednesday, October 23, 2019 - 13:55 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 005
Speaker
Kasso OkoudjouUniversity of Maryland and M.I.T.

In the first part of this talk, I will give an overview of a theory of harmonic analysis on a class of fractals that includes the Sierpinski gasket. The starting point of the theory is the introduction by J. Kigami of a Laplacian operator on these fractals. After reviewing the construction of this fractal Laplacian, I will survey some of the properties of its spectrum. In the second part of the talk, I will discuss the fractal analogs of the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, and the spectral properties a class of  Schr\"odinger operators.  

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