Past

In this talk, I will describe recent work in the application of machine learning to explore questions in algebraic geometry, specifically in the context of the study of Q-Fano varieties. These are Q-factorial terminal Fano varieties, and they are the key players in the Minimal Model Program. In this work, we ask and answer if machine learning can determine if a toric Fano variety has terminal singularities. We build a high-accuracy neural network that detects this, which has two consequences. Firstly, it inspires the formulation and proof of a new global, combinatorial criterion to determine if a toric variety of Picard rank two has terminal singularities. Secondly, the machine learning model is used directly to give the first sketch of the landscape of Q-Fano varieties in dimension eight. This is joint work with Tom Coates and Al Kasprzyk.

Multiparameter persistence is an area of topological data analysis that synthesises the geometric information of a topological space via filtered homology. Given a topological space and a function on it, one can consider a filtration given by the sublevel sets of the space induced by the function and then take the homology of such filtration. In the case when the filtering function assumes values in the real plane, the homological features of the filtered object can be recovered through a "curved" grid on the plane called the extended Pareto grid of the function. In this talk, we explore how the computation of the biparameter matching distance between regular filtering functions on a regular manifold depends on the extended Pareto grid of these functions. 
 

What should you expect in intercollegiate classes?  What can you do to get the most out of them?  In this session, experienced class tutors will share their thoughts, and a current student will offer tips and advice based on their experience.

All undergraduate and masters students welcome, especially Part B and MSc students attending intercollegiate classes. (Students who attended the Part C/OMMS induction event will find significant overlap between the advice offered there and this session!)

Let F be a p-adic field. In this talk I'll study the Om(F)-distinction of some specific principal series representations  of Glm(F). The main goal is to give a computing method to see if those representations are distinguished or not so we can also explicitly find a non zero  Om(F)-equivariant linear form. This linear form will be given by the integral of the representation's matrix coefficient over Om(F).
 

After explaining on what specific principal series representations I'm working and why I need those specificities, I'll explain the different steps to compute the integral of my representation's matrix coefficient over Om(F). I'll explicitly give the obtained result for the case m=3. After that I'll explain an asymptotic result we can obtain when we can't compute the integral explicitly.

Immunological health relies on a balance between the ability to mount an immune response against potential pathogens and tolerance to self. However, how we keep that balance in health and what goes wrong in disease is not well understood. Here, I will describe combination of novel experimental and computational approaches using multi-omics datasets, imaging and functional experiments to dissect the role and defects in immune cells across several disease areas in cancer and autoimmunity. We show how shared mechanisms that are disrupted across diseases, including cellular, migration, immuno-surveillance, regulation and activation, as well as the immunological features associated with better prognosis and immunomodulation.

Given a locally compact topological group, there is a correspondence between idempotent probability measures and compact subgroups. An analogue of this correspondence continues into the model theoretic setting. In particular, if G is a stable group, then there is a one-to-one correspondence between idempotent Keisler measures and type-definable subgroups. The proof of this theorem relies heavily on the theory of local ranks in stability theory. Recently, we have been able to extend a version of this correspondence to the abelian setting. Here, we prove that fim idempotent Keisler measures correspond to fim subgroups. These results rely on recent work of Conant, Hanson and myself connecting generically stable measures to generically stable types over the randomization. This is joint work with Artem Chernikov and Krzysztof Krupinski.

If $n$ is congruent to 0 or 4 modulo 6, there are infinitely many primes of the form $x^2 + ny^2$ with both $x$ and $y$ prime. (Joint work with Mehtaab Sawhney, Columbia)

The backward error analysis is an important part of the perturbation theory and it is particularly useful for the study of the reliability of the numerical methods. We focus on the backward error for nonlinear eigenvalue problems. In this talk, the matrix-valued function is given as a linear combination of scalar functions multiplying matrix coefficients, and the perturbation is done on the coefficients. We provide theoretical results about the backward error of a set of approximate eigenpairs. Indeed, small backward errors for separate eigenpairs do not imply small backward errors for a set of approximate eigenpairs. In this talk, we provide inexpensive upper bounds, and a way to accurately compute the backward error by means of direct computations or through Riemannian optimization. We also discuss how the backward error can be determined when the matrix coefficients of the matrix-valued function have particular structures (such as symmetry, sparsity, or low-rank), and the perturbations are required to preserve them. For special cases (such as for symmetric coefficients), explicit and inexpensive formulas to compute the perturbed matrix coefficients are also given. This is a joint work with Leonardo Robol (University of Pisa).

Please attend if you would like to give a talk in the Logic Advanced Class this term.

How much can the order type - the list of element orders (with multiplicities)—reveal about the structure of a finite group G? Can it tell us whether G is abelian, nilpotent? Can it always determine whether G is solvable? 

This last question was posed in 1987 by John G. Thompson and I answered it negatively this year. The search for a counterexample was quite a puzzle hunt! It involved turning the problem into linear algebra and solving an integer matrix equation Ax=b. This would be easy if not for the fact that the size of A was 100,000 by 10,000…

I will explain the recent techniques developed with co-authors to obtain fine estimates about the large values of the Riemann zeta functions on the critical line. An emphasis will be put on the ideas originating from statistical mechanics and large deviations that may be of general interest for a stochastic analysis audience. No number theory knowledge will be assumed!

I will present joint work with Alessandro Fazzari in which we prove precise conditional estimates for the third (non-absolute) moment of the logarithm of the Riemann zeta function, beyond the Selberg central limit theorem, both for the real and imaginary part. These estimates match predictions made in work of Keating and Snaith. We require the Riemann Hypothesis, a conjecture for the triple correlation of Riemann zeros and another ``twisted'' pair correlation conjecture which captures the interaction of a prime power with Montgomery's pair correlation function. This conjecture can be proved on a certain subrange unconditionally, and on a larger range under the assumption of a variant of the Hardy-Littlewood conjecture with good uniformity.

In this talk, based on a joint work with Ilijas Farah, I will present an application of an old continuous selection theorem due to Michael to the study of II1 factors. More precisely, I'll show that if two strongly continuous paths (or loops) of projections (p_t), (q_t), for t in [0,1], in a II1 factor are such that every p_t is subequivalent to q_t, then the subequivalence can be realized by a strongly continuous path (or loop) of partial isometries. I will then use an extension of this result to solve affirmatively the so-called trace problem for factorial W*-bundles whose base space is 1-dimensional.

I will describe some recent developments in random walks on Gromov-hyperbolic spaces. I will focus in particular on the notions of Schottky sets and pivoting technique introduced respectively by Boulanger-Mathieu-S-Sisto and Gouëzel and mention some consequences. The talk will be introductory; I will not assume specialized knowledge in probability theory.

The problem of finding an explicit description of the centre of the restricted universal enveloping algebra of sl2 for a general prime characteristic p is still open. We use a computational approach to find a basis for the centre for small p. Building on this, we used a special central element t to construct a complete set of (p+1)/2 orthogonal primitive idempotents e_i, which decompose Z into one 1-dimensional and (p-1)/2 3-dimensional subspaces e_i Z. These allow us to compute e_i N as subspaces of the e_i Z, where N is the largest nilpotent ideal of Z. Looking forward, the results perhaps suggest N is a free k[T] / (T^{(p-1)/2}-1)-module of rank 2.

We show that an $n$-vertex $k$-uniform hypergraph, where all $(k-1)$-subsets that are supported by an edge are in fact supported by at least $n/2+o(n)$ edges, contains a spanning $(k-1)$-dimensional sphere. This generalises Dirac's theorem, and confirms a conjecture of Georgakopoulos, Haslegrave, Montgomery, and Narayanan. Unlike typical results in the area, our proof does not rely on the absorption method or the regularity lemma. Instead, we use a recently introduced framework that is based on covering the vertex set of the host hypergraph with a family of complete blow-ups.

This is joint work with Freddie Illingworth, Richard Lang, Olaf Parczyk, and Amedeo Sgueglia.

A well-known open problem for representations of symmetric groups is the Saxl conjecture. In this talk, we put Saxl's conjecture into a Lie-theoretical framework and present a natural generalisation to Weyl groups. After giving necessary preliminaries on spin representations and the Springer correspondence, we present our progress on the generalised conjecture. Next, we reveal connections to tensor product decomposition problems in symmetric groups and provide an alternative description of Lusztig’s cuspidal families. Finally, we propose a further generalisation to all finite Coxeter groups.

Come along for free Pizza and to hear about the Mathematrix events this term. 

Three-dimensional QFTs with 8 supercharges (N=4 supersymmetry) are a rich playground rife with connections to mathematics. For example, they admit two topological twists and furnish a three-dimensional analogue of the famous mirror symmetry of two-dimensional N=(2,2) QFTs, creatively called 3d mirror symmetry, that exchanges these twists. Recently, there has been increased interest in so-called rank 0 theories that typically do not admit Lagrangian descriptions with manifest N=4 supersymmetry, but their topological twists are expected to realize finite, semisimple TQFTs which are amenable to familiar descriptions in terms of, e.g., modular tensor categories and/or rational vertex operator algebras. In this talk, based off of joint work (arXiv:2406.00138) with Thomas Creutzig and Heeyeon Kim, I will introduce two families of rank 0 theories exchanged by 3d mirror symmetry and various mathematical conjectures stemming from our analysis thereof.

When studying interacting particle systems, two distinct categories emerge: indistinguishable systems, where particle identity does not influence system dynamics, and non-exchangeable systems, where particle identity plays a significant role. One way to conceptualize these second systems is to see them as particle systems on weighted graphs. In this talk, we focus on the latter category. Recent developments in graph theory have raised renewed interest in understanding largepopulation limits in these systems. Two main approaches have emerged: graph limits and mean-field limits. While mean-field limits were traditionally introduced for indistinguishable particles, they have been extended to the case of non-exchangeable particles recently. In this presentation, we introduce several models, mainly from the field of opinion dynamics, for which rigorous convergence results as N tends to infinity have been obtained. We also clarify the connection between the graph limit approach and the mean-field limit one. The works discussed draw from several papers, some co-authored with Nastassia Pouradier Duteil and David Poyato.

We give a gentle introduction to the theory of self-similar sets and self-similar measures. Connections of this topic to Diophantine approximation on Lie groups as well as to additive combinatorics will be exposed. In particular, we will discuss recent progress on Bernoulli convolutions. If time permits, we mention recent joint work with Samuel Kittle on absolutely continuous self-similar measures. 
 

We develop a model based on mean-field games of competitive firms producing similar goods according to a standard AK model with a depreciation rate of capital generating pollution as a byproduct. Our analysis focuses on the widely-used cap-and-trade pollution regulation. Under this regulation, firms have the flexibility to respond by implementing pollution abatement, reducing output, and participating in emission trading, while a regulator dynamically allocates emission allowances to each firm. The resulting mean-field game is of linear quadratic type and equivalent to a mean-field type control problem, i.e., it is a potential game. We find explicit solutions to this problem through the solutions to differential equations of Riccati type. Further, we investigate the carbon emission equilibrium price that satisfies the market clearing condition and find a specific form of FBSDE of McKean-Vlasov type with common noise. The solution to this equation provides an approximate equilibrium price. Additionally, we demonstrate that the degree of competition is vital in determining the economic consequences of pollution regulation.

This is based on joint work with Gianmarco Del Sarto and Marta Leocata. 

https://arxiv.org/pdf/2407.12754

In his final paper in 1954, Alan Turing wrote `No systematic method is yet known by which one can tell whether two knots are the same.' Within the next 20 years, Wolfgang Haken and Geoffrey Hemion had discovered such a method. However, the computational complexity of this problem remains unknown. In my talk, I will give a survey on this area, that draws on the work of many low-dimensional topologists and geometers. Unfortunately, the current upper bounds on the computational complexity of the knot equivalence problem remain quite poor. However, there are some recent results indicating that, perhaps, knots are more tractable than they first seem. Specifically, I will explain a theorem that provides, for each knot type K, a polynomial p_K with the property that any two diagrams of K with n_1 and n_2 crossings differ by at most p_K(n_1) + p_K(n_2) Reidemeister moves.

Bryant’s Laplacian flow is an analogue of Ricci flow that seeks to flow an arbitrary initial closed $G_2$-structure on a 7-manifold toward a torsion-free one, to obtain a Ricci-flat metric with holonomy $G_2$. This talk will give an overview of joint work with Mark Haskins and Rowan Juneman about complete self-similar solutions on the anti-self-dual bundles of ${\mathbb CP}^2$ and $S^4$, with cohomogeneity one actions by SU(3) and Sp(2) respectively. We exhibit examples of all three classes of soliton (steady, expander and shrinker) that are asymptotically conical. In the steady case these form a 1-parameter family, with a complete soliton with exponential volume growth at the boundary of the family. All complete Sp(2)-invariant expanders are asymptotically conical, but in the SU(3)-invariant case there appears to be a boundary of complete expanders with doubly exponential volume growth.

Can we efficiently find a local minimum of a nonconvex continuous optimization problem? 

We give a rather complete answer to this question for optimization problems defined by polynomial data. In the unconstrained case, the answer remains positive for polynomials of degree up to three: We show that while the seemingly easier task of finding a critical point of a cubic polynomial is NP-hard, the complexity of finding a local minimum of a cubic polynomial is equivalent to the complexity of semidefinite programming. In the constrained case, we prove that unless P=NP, there cannot be a polynomial-​time algorithm that finds a point within Euclidean distance $c^n$ (for any constant $c\geq 0$) of a local minimum of an $n$-​variate quadratic polynomial over a polytope. 
This result (with $c=0$) answers a question of Pardalos and Vavasis that appeared on a list of seven open problems in complexity theory for numerical optimization in 1992.

Based on joint work with Jeffrey Zhang (Yale).

Biography

One recent(ish) development in classical black hole thermodynamics is the inclusion of vacuum energy (cosmological constant) in the form of thermodynamic pressure. New thermodynamic phase transitions emerge in this extended phase space, beyond the usual Hawking—Page transition. This allows us to understand black holes from the viewpoint of chemistry in terms of concepts such as Van Der Waals fluids, reentrant phase transitions and triple points. I will review these developments and discuss the dictionary between the bulk laws and those of the dual CFT.
 

In this informal talk I will review some theoretical and practical aspects related to the finite element approximation of eigenvalue problems arising from PDEs.
The review will cover elliptic eigenvalue problems and eigenvalue problems in mixed form, with particular emphasis on the Maxwell eigenvalue problem.
Other topics can be discussed depending on the interests of the audience, including adaptive schemes, approximation of parametric problems, reduced order models.
 

In the first half of the talk, I will briefly survey the theory of matroids with coefficients, which was introduced by Andreas Dress and Walter Wenzel in the 1980s and refined by the speaker and Nathan Bowler in 2016. This theory provides a unification of vector subspaces, matroids, valuated matroids, and oriented matroids. Then, in the second half, I will outline an intriguing connection between Lorentzian polynomials, as defined by Petter Brändén and June Huh, and matroids with coefficients.  The second part of the talk represents joint work with June Huh, Mario Kummer, and Oliver Lorscheid.

We define a version of algebraic K-theory for bornological algebras, using the recently developed continuous K-theory by Efimov. In the commutative setting, we prove that this invariant satisfies descent for various topologies that arise in analytic geometry, generalising the results of Thomason-Trobaugh for schemes. Finally, we prove a version of the Grothendieck-Riemann-Roch Theorem for analytic spaces. Joint work with Jack Kelly and Federico Bambozzi. 

We discuss the trace problem and stable rank for tracialy complete C*-algebras

In the category of operator systems, identification comes via complete order isomorphisms, and so an operator system can be identified with a C*-algebra without itself being an algebra. So, when is an operator system a C*-algebra? This question has floated around the community for some time. From Choi and Effros, we know that injectivity is sufficient, but certainly not necessary outside of the finite-dimensional setting. In this talk, I will give a characterization in the separable nuclear setting coming from C*-encoding systems. This comes from joint work with Galke, van Lujik, and Stottmeister.

The "curse of dimensionality" refers to the host of difficulties that occur when we attempt to extend our intuition about what happens in low dimensions (i.e. when there are only a few features or variables)  to very high dimensions (when there are hundreds or thousands of features, such as in genomics or imaging).  With very high-dimensional data, there is often an intuition that although the data is nominally very high dimensional, it is typically concentrated around a much lower dimensional, although non-linear set. There are many approaches to identifying and representing these subsets.  We will discuss topological approaches, which represent non-linear sets with graphs and simplicial complexes, and permit the "measuring of the shape of the data" as a tool for identifying useful lower dimensional representations.

Since Gromov's celebrated polynomial growth theorem, the understanding of nilpotent groups has become a cornerstone of geometric group theory. An interesting aspect is the conjectural quasiisometry classification of nilpotent groups. One important quasiisometry invariant that plays a significant role in the pursuit of classifying these groups is the Dehn function, which quantifies the solvability of the world problem of a finitely presented group. Notably, Gersten, Holt, and Riley's work established that the Dehn function of a nilpotent group of class $c$ is bounded above by $n^{c+1}$.  

In this talk, I will explain recent results that allow us to compute Dehn functions for extensive families of nilpotent groups arising as central products. Consequently, we obtain a large collection of pairs of nilpotent groups with bilipschitz equivalent asymptotic cones but with different Dehn functions.

This talk is based on joint work with Claudio Llosa Isenrich and Gabriel Pallier.

Since Gromov's celebrated polynomial growth theorem, the understanding of nilpotent groups has become a cornerstone of geometric group theory. An interesting aspect is the conjectural quasiisometry classification of nilpotent groups. One important quasiisometry invariant that plays a significant role in the pursuit of classifying these groups is the Dehn function, which quantifies the solvability of the world problem of a finitely presented group. Notably, Gersten, Holt, and Riley's work established that the Dehn function of a nilpotent group of class $c$ is bounded above by $n^{c+1}$.  

In this talk, I will explain recent results that allow us to compute Dehn functions for extensive families of nilpotent groups arising as central products. Consequently, we obtain a large collection of pairs of nilpotent groups with bilipschitz equivalent asymptotic cones but with different Dehn functions.

This talk is based on joint work with Claudio Llosa Isenrich and Gabriel Pallier.

The Cuntz semigroup of a C*-algebra is an ordered monoid consisting of equivalence classes of positive elements in the stabilization of the algebra.  It can be thought of as a generalization of the Murray-von Neumann semigroup, and records substantial information about the structure of the algebra.  Here we examine the set of positive elements having a fixed equivalence class in the Cuntz semigroup of a simple, separable, exact and Z-stable C*-algebra and show that this set is path connected when the class is non-compact, i.e., does not correspond to the class of a projection in the C*-algebra.  This generalizes a known result from the setting of real rank zero C*-algebras.

The classification of simple, unital, nuclear UCT C*-algebras with finite nuclear dimension can be achieved using an invariant derived from K-theory and tracial information. In this talk, I will present a classification theorem for certain classes of C*-algebras that rely solely on tracial deformations.  

 Structural properties of C*-Algebras such as Stable Rank One, Real Rank Zero, and radius of comparison have played an important role in classification.  Crossed product C*-Algebras are useful examples to study because knowledge of the base Algebra can be leveraged to determine properties of the crossed product.  In this talk we will discuss the permanence of various structural properties when taking crossed products of several types.  Crossed products considered will include the usual C* crossed product by a group action along with generalizations such as crossed products by a partial automorphism.  

This talk is based on joint work with Julian Buck and N. Christopher Phillips and on joint work with Maria Stella Adamo, Marzieh Forough, Magdalena Georgescu, Ja A Jeong, Karen Strung, and Maria Grazia Viola.

In recent work, Aganagic proposed a categorification of quantum link invariants based on a category of A-branes. The theory is a generalization of Heegaard–Floer theory from gl(1|1) to arbitrary Lie algebras. It turns out that this theory is solvable explicitly and can be used to compute homological link invariants associated to any minuscule representation of a simple Lie algebra. This invariant coincides with Khovanov–Rozansky homology for type A and gives a new invariant for other types. In this talk, I will introduce the relevant category of A-branes, explain the explicit algorithm used to compute the link invariants, and give a sketch of the proof of invariance. This talk is based on 2305.13480 with Mina Aganagic and Miroslav Rapcak and work in progress with Mina Aganagic and Ivan Danilenko.

The Zappa–Szép (ZS) product of two groupoids is a generalization of the semi-direct product: instead of encoding one groupoid action by homomorphisms, the ZS product groupoid encodes two (non-homomorphic, but “compatible”) actions of the groupoids on each other. I will show how to construct the ZS product of two twists over such groupoids and give an example using Weyl twists from Cartan pairs arising from Kumjian--Renault theory.

 Based on joint work with Boyu Li, New Mexico State University