Tue, 31 May 2022

15:30 - 16:30
L6

Magic squares and the symmetric group

Ofir Gorodetsky
(University of Oxford)
Abstract

In 2004, Diaconis and Gamburd computed statistics of secular coefficients in the circular unitary ensemble. They expressed the moments of the secular coefficients in terms of counts of magic squares. Their proof relied on the RSK correspondence. We'll present a combinatorial proof of their result, involving the characteristic map. The combinatorial proof is quite flexible and can handle other statistics as well. We'll connect the result and its proof to old and new questions in number theory, by formulating integer and function field analogues of the result, inspired by the Random Matrix Theory model for L-functions.

Partly based on the arXiv preprint https://arxiv.org/abs/2102.11966

Tue, 24 May 2022

15:30 - 16:30
L5

Correlations of the Riemann Zeta on the critical line

Valeriya Kovaleva
(University of Oxford)
Further Information

Note the unusual venue.

Abstract

In this talk we will discuss the correlations of the Riemann Zeta in various ranges, and prove a new result for correlations of squares. This problem is closely related to correlations of the characteristic polynomial of CUE with a very subtle difference. We will explain where this difference comes from, and what it means for the moments of moments of the Riemann Zeta, and its maximum in short intervals.

Fri, 06 May 2022

14:00 - 15:00
N3.12

Once and Twice Categorified Algebra

Thibault Décoppet
(University of Oxford)
Abstract

I will explain in what sense the theory of finite tensor categories is a categorification of the theory of finite dimensional algebras. In particular, I will introduce finite module categories, review a key result of Ostrik, and present Morita theory for finite categories. I will give many examples to illustrate these ideas. Then, I will explain the elementary properties of finite braided tensor categories. If time permits, I will also mention my own work, which consists in categorifying these ideas once more!

Tue, 08 Mar 2022

12:30 - 13:30
C5

Modelling the labour market: Occupational mobility during the pandemic in the U.S.

Anna Berryman
(University of Oxford)
Abstract

Understanding the impact of societal and economic change on the labour market is important for many causes, such as automation or the post-carbon transition. Occupational mobility plays a role in how these changes impact the labour market because of indirect effects, brought on by the different levels of direct impact felt by individual occupations. We develop an agent-based model which uses a network representation of the labour market to understand these impacts. This network connects occupations that workers have transitioned between in the past, and captures the complex structure of relationships between occupations within the labour market. We develop these networks in both space and time using rich survey data to compare occupational mobility across the United States and through economic upturns and downturns to start understanding the factors that influence differences in occupational mobility.

Fri, 18 Feb 2022

14:00 - 15:00
Virtual

Deriving the Deligne-Langlands correspondence

Jonas Antor
(University of Oxford)
Abstract

Affine Hecke algebras and their representations play an important role in the representation theory of p-adic groups since they classify smooth representations generated by Iwahori-fixed vectors. The Deligne-Langlands correspondence, which was proved by Kazhdan and Lusztig, parametrises these representations by geometric data on the Langlands dual group. This talk is supposed to be a gentle introduction to this topic. I will also briefly talk about how this correspondence can be lifted to the derived level.

Fri, 11 Feb 2022

14:00 - 15:00
Virtual

The Bruhat-Tits building of a p-adic group

Emile Okada
(University of Oxford)
Abstract

The Bruhat-Tits building is a mysterious combinatorial gadget that encodes key information about the structure and representation theory of a p-adic group. In this talk we will talk about apartments, buildings, and all the furnishings therein to hopefully demystify this beautiful subject.

Tue, 01 Mar 2022

14:00 - 15:00
Virtual

FFTA: Compressibility of random geometric graphs and structures

Mihai-Alin Badiu
(University of Oxford)
Abstract

Data that have an intrinsic network structure are becoming increasingly common in various scientific applications. Compressing such data for storage or transmission is an important problem, especially since networks are increasingly large. From an information theoretic perspective, the limit to compression of a random graph is given by the Shannon entropy of its distribution. A relevant question is how much of the information content of a random graph pertains to its structure (i.e., the unlabelled version of the graph), and how much of it is contained in the labels attached to the structure. Furthermore, in applications in which one is interested only in structural properties of a graph (e.g., node degrees, connectedness, frequency of occurrence of certain motifs), the node labels are irrelevant, such that only the structure of the graph needs to be compressed, leading to a more compact representation. In this talk, I will consider the random geometric graph (RGG), where pairs of nodes are connected based on the distance between them in some latent space. This model captures well important characteristics of biological systems, information networks, social networks, or economic networks. Since determination of the entropy is extremely difficult for this model, I will present upper bounds we obtained for the entropy of the labelled RGG. Then, we will focus on the structural information in the one-dimensional RGG. I will show our latest results in terms of the number of structures in the considered model and bounds on the structural entropy, together with the asymptotic behaviour of the bounds for different regimes of the connection range. Finally, I will also present a simple encoding scheme for one-dimensional RGG structures that asymptotically achieves the obtained upper limit on the structural entropy.

arXiv link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2107.13495

Tue, 15 Feb 2022

14:00 - 15:00
C1

Discrete curvature on graphs from the effective resistance

Karel Devriendt
(University of Oxford)
Abstract

Measures of discrete curvature are a recent addition to the toolkit of network analysts and data scientists. At the basis lies the idea that networks and other discrete objects exhibit distinct geometric properties that resemble those of smooth objects like surfaces and manifolds, and that we can thus find inspiration in the tools of differential geometry to study these discrete objects. In this talk, I will introduce how this has lead to the development of notions of discrete curvature, and what they are good for. Furthermore, I will discuss our latest results on a new notion of curvature on graphs, based on the effective resistance. These new "resistance curvatures" are related to other well-known notions of discrete curvature (Ollivier, Forman, combinatorial curvature), we find evidence for convergence to continuous curvature in the case of Euclidean random graphs and there is a naturally associated discrete Ricci flow.

A preprint on this work is available on arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2201.06385

Mon, 31 Jan 2022

16:30 - 17:30
Virtual

Geometric measure theory on singular spaces with lower Ricci bounds and the isoperimetric problem

Daniele Semola
(University of Oxford)
Abstract

The aim of this talk is to present some recent developments of Geometric Measure Theory on non smooth spaces with lower Ricci Curvature bounds, mainly related to the first and second variation formula for the area, and their applications to the isoperimetric problem on non compact manifolds. The reinterpretation of some classical results in Geometric Analysis in a low regularity setting, combined with the compactness and stability theory for spaces with lower curvature bounds, leads to a series of new geometric inequalities for smooth, non compact Riemannian manifolds. The talk is based on joint works with Andrea Mondino, Gioacchino Antonelli, Enrico Pasqualetto and Marco Pozzetta.

Fri, 04 Mar 2022

14:00 - 15:00
L6

Koszul Monoids in Quasi-abelian Categories

Rhiannon Savage
(University of Oxford)
Abstract

In this talk I will discuss my extension of the Koszul duality theory of Beilinson, Ginzburg, and Soergel to the more general setting of quasi-abelian categories. In particular, I will define the notions of Koszul monoids, and quadratic monoids and their duals. Schneiders' embedding of a quasi-abelian category into an abelian category, its left heart, allows us to prove an equivalence of derived categories for certain categories of modules over Koszul monoids and their duals. The key examples of categories for which this theory works are the categories of complete bornological spaces and the categories of inductive limits of Banach spaces. These categories frequently appear in derived analytic geometry.

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