Seminars and Colloquia by Series

On the behavior at infinity of solutions to difference equations in Schroedinger form

Series
Analysis Seminar
Time
Wednesday, January 18, 2012 - 14:00 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 005
Speaker
Lillian Wong – Georgia Tech
We offer several perspectives on the behavior at infinity of solutions of discrete Schroedinger equations. First we study pairs of discrete Schroedinger equations whose potential functions differ by a quantity that can be considered small in a suitable sense as the index n \rightarrow \infty. With simple assumptions on the growth rate of the solutions of the original system, we show that the perturbed system has a fundamental set of solutions with the same behavior at infinity, employing a variation-of-constants scheme to produce a convergent iteration for the solutions of the second equation in terms of those of the original one. We use the relations between the solution sets to derive exponential dichotomy of solutions and elucidate the structure of transfer matrices. Later, we present a sharp discrete analogue of the Liouville-Green (WKB) transformation, making it possible to derive exponential behavior at infinity of a single difference equation, by explicitly constructing a comparison equation to which our perturbation results apply. In addition, we point out an exact relationship connecting the diagonal part of the Green matrix to the asymptotic behavior of solutions. With both of these tools it is possible to identify an Agmon metric, in terms of which, in some situations, any decreasing solution must decrease exponentially.This talk is based on joint work with Evans Harrell.

Dynamics of the support of the equilibrium measure in a quartic field

Series
Analysis Seminar
Time
Wednesday, December 7, 2011 - 14:00 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 006
Speaker
Andrei Martinez Finkelshtein – University of Almeria, Spain –
The asymptotic analysis of orthogonal polynomials with respect to a varying weight has found many interesting applications in approximation theory, random matrix theory and other areas. It has also stimulated a further development of the logarithmic potential theory, since the equilibrium measure in an external field associated with these weights enters the leading term of the asymptotics and its support is typically the place where zeros accumulate and oscillations occur. In a rather broad class of problems the varying weight on the real line is given by powers of a function of the form exp(P(x)), where P is a polynomial. For P of degree 2 the associated orthogonal polynomials can be expressed in terms of (varying) Hermite polynomials. Surprisingly, the next case, when P is of degree 4, is not fully understood. We study the equilibrium measure in the external field generated by such a weight, discussing especially the possible transitions between different configurations of its support. This is a joint work with E.A. Rakhmanov and R. Orive.

Comments on the BMV Trace Conjecture

Series
Analysis Seminar
Time
Thursday, December 1, 2011 - 14:00 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 006
Speaker
Pierre Moussa – CEA/Saclay, Service de Physique Theorique, France
The term "BMV Conjecture" was introduced in 2004 by Lieb and Seiringer for a conjecture introduced in 1975 by Bessis, Moussa and Villani, and they also introduced a new form for it : all coefficients of the polynomial Tr(A+xB)^k are non negative as soon as the hermitian matrices A and B are positive definite. A recent proof of the conjecture has been given recently by Herbert Stahl. The question occurs in various domains: complex analysis, combinatorics, operator algebras and statistical mechanics.

Weierstrass Theorem for homogeneous polynomials on convex bodies and rate of approximation of convex bodies by convex algebraic level surfaces

Series
Analysis Seminar
Time
Tuesday, November 29, 2011 - 14:00 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 006
Speaker
Prof. Andras Kroo – Hungarian Academy of Sciences
By the classical Weierstrass theorem, any function continuous on a compact set can be uniformly approximated by algebraic polynomials. In this talk we shall discuss possible extensions of this basic result of analysis to approximation by homogeneous algebraic polynomials on central symmetric convex bodies. We shall also consider a related question of approximating convex bodies by convex algebraic level surfaces. It has been known for some time time that any convex body can be approximated arbitrarily well by convex algebraic level surfaces. We shall present in this talk some new results specifying rate of convergence.

Chromatic Derivatives and Approximations Speaker

Series
Analysis Seminar
Time
Wednesday, November 9, 2011 - 14:00 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 006
Speaker
Aleks Ignjatovic – University of New South Wales
Chromatic derivatives are special, numerically robust linear differential operators which provide a unification framework for a broad class of orthogonal polynomials with a broad class of special functions. They are used to define chromatic expansions which generalize the Neumann series of Bessel functions. Such expansions are motivated by signal processing; they grew out of a design of a switch mode power amplifier. Chromatic expansions provide local signal representation complementary to the global signal representation given by the Shannon sampling expansion. Unlike the Taylor expansion which they are intended to replace, they share all the properties of the Shannon expansion which are crucial for signal processing. Besides being a promising new tool for signal processing, chromatic derivatives and expansions have intriguing mathematical properties connecting in a novel way orthogonal polynomials with some familiar concepts and theorems of harmonic analysis. For example, they introduce novel spaces of almost periodic functions which naturally correspond to a broad class of families of orthogonal polynomials containing most classical families. We also present a conjecture which generalizes the Paley Wiener Theorem and which relates the growth rate of entire functions with the asymptotic behavior of the recursion coefficients of a corresponding family of orthogonal polynomials.

Bernstein's problem on weighted polynomial approximation

Series
Analysis Seminar
Time
Wednesday, November 2, 2011 - 14:05 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 006
Speaker
Alexei Poltoratski – Texas A&M
The problem of weighted polynomial approximation of continuousfunctionson the real line was posted by S. Bernstein in 1924. It asks for adescription of theset of weights such that polynomials are dense in the space of continuousfunctions withrespect to the corresponding weighted uniform norm. Throughout the 20thcentury Bernstein's problem was studied by many prominent analysts includingAhkiezer, Carleson, Mergelyan andM. Riesz.In my talk I will discuss some of the complex analytic methods that can beapplied in Bernstein's problem along with a recently found solution.

Weierstrass Theorem for homogeneous polynomials on convex bodies and rate of approximation of convex bodies by convex algebraic level surfaces

Series
Analysis Seminar
Time
Wednesday, October 26, 2011 - 14:00 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 006
Speaker
Prof. Andras Kroo – Hungarian Academy of Sciences
Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 By the classical Weierstrass theorem, any function continuous on a compact set can be uniformly approximated by algebraic polynomials. In this talk we shall discuss possible extensions of this basic result of analysis to approximation by homogeneous algebraic polynomials on central symmetric convex bodies. We shall also consider a related question of approximating convex bodies by convex algebraic level surfaces. It has been known for some time time that any convex body can be approximated arbirarily well by convex algebraic level surfaces. We shall present in this talk some new results specifying rate of convergence.

Wavelet analysis on a metric space

Series
Analysis Seminar
Time
Wednesday, September 28, 2011 - 14:00 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 006
Speaker
Tuomas Hytonen – University of Helsinki
Expansion in a wavelet basis provides useful information ona function in different positions and length-scales. The simplest example of wavelets are the Haar functions, which are just linearcombinations of characteristic functions of cubes, but often moresmoothness is preferred. It is well-known that the notion of Haarfunctions carries over to rather general abstract metric spaces. Whatabout more regular wavelets? It turns out that a neat construction canbe given, starting from averages of the indicator functions over arandom selection of the underlying cubes. This is yet anotherapplication of such probabilistic averaging methods in harmonicanalysis. The talk is based on joint work in progress with P. Auscher.

Average Density of States for Hermitian Wigner Matrices

Series
Analysis Seminar
Time
Wednesday, June 15, 2011 - 14:00 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 05
Speaker
Dr Anna Maltsev – University of Bonn
We consider ensembles of $N \times N$ Hermitian Wigner matrices, whose entries are (up to the symmetry constraints) independent and identically distributed random variables. Assuming sufficient regularity for the probability density function of the entries, we show that the expectation of the density of states on arbitrarily small intervals converges to the semicircle law, as $N$ tends to infinity.

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