Georgia Institute of Technology College of Sciences

Cars are placed with density p on the lattice. The remaining vertices are parking spots that can fit one car. Cars then drive around at random until finding a parking spot. We study the effect of p on the availability of parking spots and observe some intriguing behavior at criticality. Joint work with Michael Damron, Janko Gravner, Hanbeck Lyu, and David Sivakoff. arXiv id: 1710.10529.

Random effects models are commonly used to measure genetic variance-covariance matrices of quantitative phenotypic traits. The population eigenvalues of these matrices describe the evolutionary response to selection. However, they may be difficult to estimate from limited samples when the number of traits is large. In this talk, I will present several results describing the eigenvalues of classical MANOVA estimators of these matrices, including dispersion of the bulk eigenvalue distribution, bias and aliasing of large "spike" eigenvalues, and distributional limits of eigenvalues at the spectral edges. I will then discuss a new procedure that uses these results to obtain better estimates of the large population eigenvalues when there are many traits, and a Tracy-Widom test for detecting true principal components in these models. The theoretical results extend proof techniques in random matrix theory and free probability, which I will also briefly describe.This is joint work with Iain Johnstone, Yi Sun, Mark Blows, and Emma Hine.

In this talk, I will discuss some polynomials that are best approximants (in some sense!) to reciprocals of functions in some analytic function spaces of the unit disk. I will examine the extremal problem of finding a zero of minimal modulus, and will show how that extremal problem is related to the spectrum of a certain Jacobi matrix and real orthogonal polynomials on the real line.

Geometric tangential analysis refers to a constructive systematic approach based on the concept that a problem which enjoys greater regularity can be “tangentially" accessed by certain classes of PDEs. By means of iterative arguments, the method then imports regularity, properly corrected through the path used to access the tangential equation, to the original class. The roots of this idea likely go back to the foundation of De Giorgi’s geometric measure theory of minimal surfaces, and accordingly, it is present in the development of the contemporary theory of free boundary problems. This set of ideas also plays a decisive role in Caffarelli’s work on fully non-linear elliptic PDEs, and subsequently in his studies on Monge-Ampere equations from the 1990’s. In recent years, however, geometric tangential methods have been significantly enhanced, amplifying their range of applications and providing a more user-friendly platform for advancing these endeavors. In this talk, I will discuss some fundamental ideas supporting (modern) geometric tangential methods and will exemplify their power through select examples.