Georgia Institute of Technology College of Sciences

Animal behavior is often quantified through subjective, incomplete variables that may mask essential dynamics. Here, we develop a behavioral state space in which the full instantaneous state is smoothly unfolded as a combination of short-time posture dynamics. Our technique is tailored to multivariate observations and extends previous reconstructions through the use of maximal prediction. Applied to high-resolution video recordings of the roundworm C. elegans, we discover a low-dimensional state space dominated by three sets of cyclic trajectories corresponding to the worm's basic stereotyped motifs: forward, backward, and turning locomotion. In contrast to this broad stereotypy, we find variability in the presence of locally-unstable dynamics, and this unpredictability shows signatures of deterministic chaos: a collection of unstable periodic orbits together with a positive maximal Lyapunov exponent. The full Lyapunov spectrum is symmetric with positive, chaotic exponents driving variability balanced by negative, dissipative exponents driving stereotypy. The symmetry is indicative of damped, driven Hamiltonian dynamics underlying the worm's movement control.

In this talk, I will introduce my old(1.) and current works(2.).

1. Bounds on regularity of quadratic monomial ideals

We can understand invariants of monomial ideals by invariants of clique (or flag) complex of  corresponding graphs. In particular, we can bound the Castelnuovo-Mumford regularity (which is a measure of algebraic complexity) of the ideals by bounding homol0gy of corresponding (simplicial) complex. The construction and proof of our main theorem are simple, but it provides (and improves) many new bounds of regularities of quadratic monomial ideals.

2. Pythagoras numbers on projections of Rational Normal Curves

Observe that forms of degree $2d$ are quadratic forms of degree $d$. Therefore, to study the cone of  sums of squares of degree $2d$, we may study quadratic forms on Veronese embedding of degree $d$.  In particular,  the rank of sums of squares (of degree $2d$) can be studied via Pythagoras number  (which is a classical notion) on the Veronese embedding of degree $d$. In this part, I will compute the Pythagoras number on rational normal curve (which is a veronese embedding of $\mathbb{P}^1$) and discuss about how Pythagoras numbers are changed when we take some projections away from some points.

We study whether all stationary solutions of 2D Euler equation must be radially symmetric, if the vorticity is compactly supported or has some decay at infinity. Our main results are the following:

(1) On the one hand, we are able to show that for any non-negative smooth stationary vorticity  that is compactly supported (or has certain decay as |x|->infty), it must be radially symmetric up to a translation. 

(2) On the other hand, if we allow vorticity to change sign, then by applying bifurcation arguments to sign-changing radial patches, we are able to show that there exists a compactly-supported, sign-changing smooth stationary vorticity that is non-radial.

We have also obtained some symmetry results for uniformly-rotating solutions for 2D Euler equation, as well as stationary/rotating solutions for the SQG equation. The symmetry results are mainly obtained by calculus of variations and elliptic equation techniques. This is a joint work with Javier Gomez-Serrano, Jia Shi and Yao Yao. 

Mathapalooza! is simultaneously a Julia Robinson Mathematics Festival and an event of the Atlanta Science Festival. There will be puzzles and games, a magic show by Matt Baker, mathematically themed courtroom skits by GT Club Math, a presentation about math and dance by Manuela Manetta, a presentation about math and music by David Borthwick, and a gallery of mathematical art curated by Elisabetta Matsumoto. It is free, and we anticipate engaging hundreds of members of the public in the wonders of mathematics. More info at https://mathematics-in-motion.org/about/Be there or B^2 !