Seminars and Colloquia by Series

Variational problems and PDEs arising in congested transport models

Series
PDE Seminar
Time
Thursday, April 12, 2012 - 15:05 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 005
Speaker
Guillaume CarlierUniversite de Paris IX (Paris-Dauphine)
In this talk, I will describe several models arising in congested transport problems. I will first describe static models which lead to some highly degenerate elliptic PDEs. In the second part of the talk, I will address dynamic models which can be seen as a generalization of the Benamou-Brenier formulation of the quadratic optimal transport problem and will discuss the existence and regularity of the adjoint state. The talk will be based on several joint works with Lorenzo Brasco, Pierre Cardaliaguet, Bruno Nazaret and Filippo Santambrogio.

Horocycle flows on $\Gamma/SL(2, \mathbb{R}$.

Series
Dynamical Systems Working Seminar
Time
Wednesday, April 11, 2012 - 16:00 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 005
Speaker
Mikel J. De VianaGeorgia Tech.
In the 1990's Marina Ratner published a famous series of papers showing that ergodic measures invariant under unipotent flows over quotients $\Gamma/G$ are homogeneous. From this, she deduced many other remarkable properties for these flows (e.g that the closure of orbits are homogeneous and that orbits are uniformly distributed in their closures). To prove this result will require several lectures, but already the case of horocycle flow in $\Gamma/SL(2, \mathbb{R})$ presents several or her ideas. In this talk we will present the ideas of the proof in this case and present an application due to Margulis.

The s-Riesz transform of an s-dimensional measure in R^2 is unbounded for 1<s<2

Series
Analysis Seminar
Time
Wednesday, April 11, 2012 - 14:00 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 005
Speaker
Vladimir EidermanUniversity of Wisconsin
This is a joint work with F.~Nazarov and A.~Volberg.Let $s\in(1,2)$, and let $\mu$ be a finite positive Borel measure in $\mathbb R^2$ with $\mathcal H^s(\supp\mu)<+\infty$. We prove that if the lower $s$-density of $\mu$ is+equal to zero $\mu$-a.~e. in $\mathbb R^2$, then$\|R\mu\|_{L^\infty(m_2)}=\infty$, where $R\mu=\mu\ast\frac{x}{|x|^{s+1}}$ and $m_2$ is the Lebesque measure in $\mathbb R^2$. Combined with known results of Prat and+Vihtil\"a, this shows that for any noninteger $s\in(0,2)$ and any finite positive Borel measure in $\mathbb R^2$ with $\mathcal H^s(\supp\mu)<+\infty$, we have+$\|R\mu\|_{L^\infty(m_2)}=\infty$.Also I will tell about the resent result of Ben Jaye, as well as about open problems.

Elasto-Capillarity

Series
Research Horizons Seminar
Time
Wednesday, April 11, 2012 - 12:05 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 005
Speaker
John McCuanGeorgia Tech
Classical mathematical capillarity theory has as its foundation variational methods introduced by Gauss. There was a heuristic explanation given earlier by Thomas Young, and his explanations did have quantitative scientific content. Due partially to their simplistic nature, the explanations of Young live on today in engineering textbooks, though in certain cases it has been pointed out that they lead to anomolous predictions (which are effectively avoided in the Gaussian variational framework). I will discuss a fundamentally new direction in mathematical capillarity which is motivated by an effort to harmonize the heuristic and rigorous elements of the theory and has other important applications as well.

On Aleksandrov-Bakelman-Pucci type estimates for integro-differential equations

Series
PDE Seminar
Time
Tuesday, April 10, 2012 - 15:05 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 005
Speaker
Russell SchwabCarnegie Mellon University
Despite much recent (and not so recent) attention to solutions of integro-differential equations of elliptic type, it is surprising that a result such as a comparison theorem which can deal with only measure theoretic norms (e.g. L-n and L-infinity) of the right hand side of the equation has gone unexplored. For the case of second order equations this result is known as the Aleksandrov-Bakelman-Pucci estimate (and dates back to circa 1960s), which says that for supersolutions of uniformly elliptic equation Lu=f, the supremum of u is controlled by the L-n norm of f (n being the underlying dimension of the domain). We will discuss this estimate in the context of fully nonlinear integro-differential equations and present a recent result in this direction. (Joint with Nestor Guillen, available at arXiv:1101.0279v3 [math.AP])

Galois groups of Schubert problems of lines are at least alternating

Series
Algebra Seminar
Time
Tuesday, April 10, 2012 - 14:00 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 006
Speaker
Abraham Martin del CampoTexas A&amp;amp;M
The Galois group of a problem in enumerative geometry is a subtle invariant that encodes special structures in the set of solutions. This invariant was first introduced by Jordan in 1870. In 1979, Harris showed that the Galois group of such problems coincides with the monodromy group of the total space. These geometric invariants are difficult to determine in general. However, a consequence of Vakil's geometric Littlewood-Richardson rule is a combinatorial criterion to determine if a Schubert problem on a Grassmannian contains at least the alternating group. Using Vakil's criterion, we showed that for Schubert problems of lines, the Galois group is at least the alternating group.

Leaping Lizards, Gripping Geckos and Crashing Cockroaches Inspire Robots, Artificial Muscles and Adhesives

Series
Other Talks
Time
Tuesday, April 10, 2012 - 11:00 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
IBB 1128
Speaker
Robert FullUniversity of California Berkeley

Please Note: Host: Daniel Goldman, School of Physics

Guided by direct experiments on many-legged animals, mathematical models and physical models (robots), we postulate a hierarchical family of control loops that necessarily include constraints of the body's mechanics. At the lowest end of this neuromechanical hierarchy, we hypothesize the primacy of mechanical feedback - neural clocks exciting tuned muscles acting through chosen skeletal postures. Control algorithms appear embedded in the form and skeleton of the animal itself. The control potential of muscles must be realized through complex, viscoelastic bodies. Bodies can absorb and redirect energy for transitions. Tails can be used as inertial control devices. On top of this physical layer reside sensory feedback driven reflexes that increase an animal's stability further and, at the highest level, environmental sensing that operates on a stride-to-stride timescale to direct the animal's body. Most importantly, locomotion requires an effective interaction with the environment. Understanding control requires understanding the coupling to environment. Amazing feet permit creatures such as geckos to climb up walls at over meter per second without using claws, glue or suction - just molecular forces using hairy toes. Fundamental principles of animal locomotion have inspired the design of self-clearing dry adhesives and autonomous legged robots such as the Ariel, Mecho-gecko, Sprawl, RHex, RiSE and Stickybot that can aid in search and rescue, inspection, detection and exploration.

Ford Commemorative Lecture - God does play dice - Why Quantum Mechanics is craps, how chaos crafted the Kuiper belt, and other curmudgeonly concepts

Series
Other Talks
Time
Monday, April 9, 2012 - 15:00 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Marcus Nano Conference Room 1116
Speaker
David FarrellyUtah State University

Please Note: Host: Turgay Uzer, School of Physics

Joseph Ford saw beauty in "Chaos" and the potential for ``villainous chaos" to be used in a constructive manner. His ideas have proved prescient. The talk will focus mainly on how chaotic dynamics may have played a key constructive -- rather than destructive -- role in shaping certain features of the Kuiper belt: in particular, the formation and properties of binary objects in the transneptunian part of the Solar System. Kuiper belt binaries stand out from other known binary objects in having a range of peculiar orbital and physical properties which may, actually, be the fingerprint of chaos in the primordial Kuiper belt. Understanding how these remote binaries formed may shed light on the formation and evolution of the Solar System itself.

Georgia Tech Workshop on Hamiltonian Dynamics and Chaos

Series
Other Talks
Time
Monday, April 9, 2012 - 14:30 for 4 hours (half day)
Location
Marcus Nanotechnology Building Room 1116
Speaker
CNS-CDSNS WorkshopGeorgia Tech

Please Note: Hosts: Michael Schatz and Predrag Cvitanovic, School of Physics

Georgia Tech Workshop on Hamiltonian Dynamics and Chaos: Ground Control to Niels Bohr: Exploring Outer Space with Atomic Physics. Workshop Committee: Cristel Chandre: Cristel.Chandre@cpt.univ-mrs.fr, Chair; Predrag Cvitanović: predrag@gatech.edu; Rafael de la Llave: rll6@math.gatech.edu; Mike Schatz: michael.schatz@physics.gatech.edu

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