Seminars and Colloquia by Series

Linear dependence among powers of polynomials

Series
Algebra Seminar
Time
Monday, December 3, 2018 - 15:00 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 006
Speaker
Bruce Reznick – University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign
One variation of the Waring problem is to ask for the shortest non-trivial equations of the form f_1^d + ... + f_r^d = 0, under various conditions on r, d and where f_j is a binary form. In this talk I'll limit myself to quadratic forms, and show all solutions for r=4 and d=3,4,5. I'll also give tools for you to find such equations on your own. The talk will touch on topics from algebra, analysis, number theory, combinatorics and algebraic geometry and name-check such notables as Euler, Sylvester and Ramanujan, but be basically self-contained. To whet your appetite: (x^2 + xy - y^2)^3 + (x^2 - xy - y^2)^3 = 2x^6 - 2y^6.

Maximal Weinstein domains

Series
Geometry Topology Seminar
Time
Monday, December 3, 2018 - 14:00 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 006
Speaker
Oleg Lazarev – Columbia
Weinstein cobordisms give a natural relationship on the set of Weinstein domains. Flexible Weinstein domains are minimal with respect to this relationship. In this talk, I will use these minimal domains to construct maximal Weinstein domains: any two high-dimensional Weinstein domains with the same topology are Weinstein subdomains of a maximal Weinstein domain also with the same topology. Using this construction, a wide range of new Weinstein domains can be produced, for example exotic cotangent bundles of spheres containing many different closed exact Lagrangians. On the other hand, I will explain how the same line of ideas can be used to prove restrictions on which categories can arise as the Fukaya categories of certain Weinstein domains.

Nonparametric inference of interaction laws in particles/agent systems

Series
Applied and Computational Mathematics Seminar
Time
Monday, December 3, 2018 - 13:55 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 005
Speaker
Fei Lu – Johns Hopkins University –
Self-interacting systems of particles/agents arise in many areas of science, such as particle systems in physics, flocking and swarming models in biology, and opinion dynamics in social science. An interesting question is to learn the laws of interaction between the particles/agents from data consisting of trajectories. In the case of distance-based interaction laws, we present efficient regression algorithms to estimate the interaction kernels, and we develop a nonparametric statistic learning theory addressing learnability, consistency and optimal rate of convergence of the estimators. Especially, we show that despite the high-dimensionality of the systems, optimal learning rates can still be achieved.

Convex bodies in high dimensions and algebraic geometry

Series
High Dimensional Seminar
Time
Monday, December 3, 2018 - 12:55 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 006
Speaker
Yanir Rubinshtein – University of Maryland –

Please Note: Note the special time!

In joint work with J. Martinez-Garcia we study the classification problem of asymptotically log del Pezzo surfaces in algebraic geometry. This turns out to be equivalent to understanding when certain convex bodies in high-dimensions intersect the cube non-trivially. Beyond its intrinsic interest in algebraic geometry this classification is relevant to differential geometery and existence of new canonical metricsin dimension 4.

Introduction to symplectic flexibility

Series
Geometry Topology Seminar Pre-talk
Time
Monday, December 3, 2018 - 12:45 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 006
Speaker
Oleg Lazarev – Columbia
I will describe the h-principle philosophy and explain some recent developments on the flexible side of symplectic topology, including Murphy's h-principle for loose Legendrians and Cieliebak and Eliashberg's construction of flexible symplectic manifolds in high-dimensions.

Spectra of limit-periodic Schrödinger operators

Series
Math Physics Seminar
Time
Friday, November 30, 2018 - 16:00 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 006
Speaker
Jake Fillman – Virginia Polytechnic Institute
A limit-periodic function on R^d is one which lies in the L^\infty closure of the space of periodic functions. Schr\"odinger operators with limit-periodic potentials may have very exotic spectral properties, despite being very close to periodic operators. Our discussion will revolve around the transition between ``thick'' spectra and ``thin'' spectra.

Low degree points on curves

Series
Algebra Seminar
Time
Friday, November 30, 2018 - 14:00 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 005
Speaker
Isabel Vogt – Massachusetts Institute of Technology –
In this talk we will discuss an arithmetic analogue of the gonality of a nice curve over a number field: the smallest positive integer e such that the points of residue degree bounded by e are infinite. By work of Faltings, Harris--Silverman and Abramovich--Harris, it is understood when this invariant is 1, 2, or 3; by work of Debarre-Fahlaoui these criteria do not generalize. We will focus on scenarios under which we can guarantee that this invariant is actually equal to the gonality using the auxiliary geometry of a surface containing the curve. This is joint work with Geoffrey Smith.

An Oral Exam: Curvature, Contact Topology and Reeb Dynamics

Series
Geometry Topology Working Seminar
Time
Friday, November 30, 2018 - 14:00 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 006
Speaker
Surena Hozoori – Georgia Institute of Technology –
In post-geometrization low dimensional topology, we expect to be able to relate any topological theory of 3-manifolds to the Riemannian geometry of those manifolds. On the other hand, originated from reformalization of classical mechanics, the study of contact structures has become a central topic in low dimensional topology, thanks to the works of Eliashberg, Giroux, Etnyre and Taubes, to name a few. Yet we know very little about how Riemannian geometry fits into the theory.In my oral exam, I will talk about "Ricci-Reeb realization problem" which asks which functions can be prescribed as the Ricci curvature of a "Reeb vector field" associated to a contact manifold. Finally motivated by Ricci-Reeb realization problem and using the previous study of contact dynamics by Hofer-Wysocki-Zehnder, I will prove new topological results using compatible geometry of contact manifolds. The generalization of these results in higher dimensions is the first known results achieving tightness based on curvature conditions.

Sparse random graphs with overlapping community structure

Series
ACO Student Seminar
Time
Friday, November 30, 2018 - 13:05 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 005
Speaker
Samantha Petti – Math, Georgia Tech –
In this talk we introduce two different random graph models that produce sparse graphs with overlapping community structure and discuss community detection in each context. The Random Overlapping Community (ROC) model produces a sparse graph by constructing many Erdos Renyi random graphs (communities) on small randomly selected subsets of vertices. By varying the size and density of these communities, ROC graphs can be tuned to exhibit a wide range normalized of closed walk count vectors, including those of hypercubes. This is joint work with Santosh Vempala. In the second half of the talk, we introduce the Community Configuration Model (CCM), a variant of the configuration model in which half-edges are assigned colors and pair according to a matching rule on the colors. The model is a generalization of models in the statistical physics literature and is a natural finite analog for classes of graphexes. We describe a hypothesis testing algorithm that determines whether a graph came from a community configuration model or a traditional configuration model. This is joint work with Christian Borgs, Jennifer Chayes, Souvik Dhara, and Subhabrata Sen.

Prevalence of heavy-tailed distributions in systems with multiple scales: insights through stochastic averaging

Series
Stochastics Seminar
Time
Thursday, November 29, 2018 - 15:05 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 006
Speaker
Rachel Kuske – School of Mathematics, GaTech
Heavy tailed distributions have been shown to be consistent with data in a variety of systems with multiple time scales. Recently, increasing attention has appeared in different phenomena related to climate. For example, correlated additive and multiplicative (CAM) Gaussian noise, with infinite variance or heavy tails in certain parameter regimes, has received increased attention in the context of atmosphere and ocean dynamics. We discuss how CAM noise can appear generically in many reduced models. Then we show how reduced models for systems driven by fast linear CAM noise processes can be connected with the stochastic averaging for multiple scales systems driven by alpha-stable processes. We identify the conditions under which the approximation of a CAM noise process is valid in the averaged system, and illustrate methods using effectively equivalent fast, infinite-variance processes. These applications motivate new stochastic averaging results for systems with fast processes driven by heavy-tailed noise. We develop these results for the case of alpha-stable noise, and discuss open problems for identifying appropriate heavy tailed distributions for these multiple scale systems. This is joint work with Prof. Adam Monahan (U Victoria) and Dr. Will Thompson (UBC/NMi Metrology and Gaming).

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