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Series: Job Candidate Talk
Carleson's Corona Theorem from the 1960's has served as a major motivation for many results in complex function theory, operator theory and harmonic analysis. In its simplest form, the result states that for two bounded analytic functions, g_1 and g_2, on the unit disc with no common zeros, it is possible to find two other bounded analytic functions, f_1 and f_2, such that f_1g_1+f_2g_2=1. Moreover, the functions f_1 and f_2 can be chosen with some norm control. In this talk we will discuss an exciting new generalization of this result to certain function spaces on the unit ball in several complex variables. In particular, we will highlight the Corona Theorem for the Drury-Arveson space and its applications in multi-variable operator theory.
Series: Job Candidate Talk
Numerical algebraic geometry provides a collection of novel methods to treat the solutions of systems of polynomial equations. These hybrid symbolic-numerical methods based on homotopy continuation technique have found a wide range of applications in both pure and applied areas of mathematics. This talk gives an introduction to numerical algebraic geometry and outlines directions in which the area has been developing. Two topics are highlighted: (1) computation of Galois groups of Schubert problems, a recent application of numerical polynomial homotopy continuation algorithms to enumerative algebraic geometry; (2) numerical primary decomposition, the first numerical method that discovers embedded solution components.
Series: Job Candidate Talk
After introducing and reviewing the situation for rational and integral points on curves, I will discuss various aspects of integral points on higher-dimensional varieties. In addition to discussing recent higher-dimensional results, I will also touch on connections with the value distribution theory of holomorphic functions and give some concrete open problems.
Series: Job Candidate Talk
After introducing and reviewing the situation for rational and integral points on curves, I will discuss various aspects of integral points on higher-dimensional varieties. In addition to discussing recent higher-dimensional results, I will also touch on connections with the value distribution theory of holomorphic functions and give some concrete open problems.
Series: Job Candidate Talk
We construct our understanding of the world solely from neuronal activity generated in our brains. How do we do this? Many studies have investigated how the electrical activity of neurons (action potentials) is related to outside stimuli, and maps of these relationships -- often called receptive fields -- are routinely computed from data collected in neuroscience experiments. Yet how the brain can understand the meaning of this activity, without the dictionary provided by these maps, remains a mystery. I will present some recent results on this question in the context of hippocampal place cells -- i.e., neurons in rodent hippocampus whose activity is strongly correlated to the animal's position in space. In particular, we find that topological and geometric features of the animal's physical environment can be derived purely from the activity of hippocampal place cells. Relating stimulus space topology and geometry to neural activity opens up new opportunities for investigating the connectivity of recurrent networks in the brain. I will conclude by discussing some current projects along these lines.
Series: Job Candidate Talk
It is now increasingly common in statistical practice to encounter datasets in which the number of observations, n, is of the same order of magnitude as the number of measurements, p, we have per observation. This simple remark has important consequences for theoretical (and applied) statistics. Namely, it suggests on the theoretical front that we should study the properties of statistical procedures in an asymptotic framework where p and n both go to infinity (and p/n has for instance a finite non-zero limit). This is drastically different from the classical theory where p is held fixed when n goes to infinity. Since a number of techniques in multivariate statistics rely fundamentally on sample covariance matrices and their eigenvalues and eigenvectors, the spectral properties of large dimensional covariance matrices play a key role in such "large n, large p" analyses. In this talk, I will present a few problems I have worked on, concerning different aspects of the interaction between random matrix theory and multivariate statistics. I will discuss some fluctuation properties of the largest eigenvalue of sample covariance matrices when the population covariance is (fairly) general, talk about estimation problems for large dimensional covariance matrices and, time permitting, address some applications in a classic problem of mathematical finance. The talk will be self-contained and no prior knowledge of statistics or random matrix theory will be assumed.
Series: Job Candidate Talk
I will present properties of polynomials mappings and generalizations. I will first describe all polynomials f and g for which there is a complex number c such that the orbits {c, f(c), f(f(c)), ...} and {c, g(c), g(g(c)), ...} have infinite intersection. I will also discuss a common generalization of this result and Mordell's conjecture (Faltings' theorem). After this I will move to polynomial mappings over finite fields, with connections to curves having large automorphism groups and instances of a positive characteristic analogue of Riemann's existence theorem.
