Mon, 16 Nov 2026

15:30 - 16:30
L3

On fraudulent stochastic algorithms

Laurent Miclo
(Abraham de Moivre International Research Laboratory Imperial College London and CNRS)
Abstract
We introduce and analyse the almost sure convergence of a stochastic algorithm for the global minimisation of smooth functions. This diffusion process is called fraudulent because it requires the knowledge of minimal value of the function. Nevertheless, its investigation is not without interest, since in particular it appears as the limit behaviour of non-fraudulent and time-inhomogeneous swarm mean-field algorithms for global optimisation or in stochastic gradient descent algorithms in over-parametrised deep learning applications. 
 
The talk is based on collaborations with Benaïm, Bolte and Villeneuve.
Textured phase diagrams of featureless insulators
Singam, S Jones, N Prakash, A Physical Review B volume 114 issue 30 (09 Nov 2026) doi:10.1103/5wf2-j1lm
Actionable guidelines for promoting equity, diversity and inclusion in infectious disease modelling
Li, X Zhang, D Clapham, H Dyson, L Hollingsworth, T Leung, K Mollison, D Panngum, W Swallow, B Thompson, R Tran-Kiem, C Woodruff, J Bansal, S Epidemics 100954 (Nov 2026) doi:10.1016/j.epidem.2026.100954
Thu, 12 Nov 2026
11:00
C6

Existence over an arid predicate

Martin Bays
(Oxford University)
Abstract
I will talk more on the topic introduced in my Week 2 talk, though this talk will be self-contained. As mentioned then, with Itay Kaplan and Pierre Simon we prove the existence property for stably embedded predicates in simple (or just rosy) countable theories, going via the notion of an "arid" predicate. I will present this result and its proof. Time allowing, I may explain how this recovers the result (proven independently by Chatzidakis and Afshordel) that any difference field with pseudofinite fixed field extends to an existentially closed difference field without extending the fixed field, and/or discuss other examples and non-examples.

The first in our series of films abut the impact of AI on mathematics features Ben Green and James Maynard in conversation with Jan Obloj about the impact of the recent avalanche of AI-generated proofs, and how mathematics may evolve as a consequence.

Embedding stochastic dynamics in latent manifolds of recurrent neural networks
Nartallo-Kaluarachchi, R Lambiotte, R Goriely, A Physical Review Research (05 Nov 2026) doi:10.1103/r397-cxtl
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