Past

We will sketch a new proof of the Theorem of Ax and Kochen that any projective hypersurface over the p-adic numbers has a p-adic rational point, if it is given by a homogeneous polynomial with more variables than the square of its degree d, assuming that p is large enough with respect to the degree d. Our proof is purely algebraic geometric and (unlike all previous ones) does not use methods from mathematical logic. It is based on a (small upgrade of a) theorem of Abramovich and Karu about weak toroidalization of morphisms. Our method also yields a new alternative approach to the model theory of henselian valued fields (including the Ax-Kochen-Ersov transfer principle and quantifier elimination).

Rubbers and biological soft tissues undergo large isochoric motions in service, and can thus be modelled as nonlinear, incompressible elastic solids. It is easy to enforce incompressibility in the finite (exact) theory of nonlinear elasticity, but not so simple in the weakly nonlinear formulation, where the stress is expanded in successive powers of the strain. In linear and second-order elasticity, incompressibility means that Poisson's ratio is 1/2. Here we show how third- and fourth-order elastic constants behave in the incompressible limit. For applications, we turn to the propagation of elastic waves in soft incompressible solids, a topic of crucial importance in medical imaging (joint work with Ray Ogden, University of Aberdeen).

I will talk about a recent paper of Huh, who, building on a wealth of pretty geometry and topology, has given a proof of a conjecture dating back to 1968 regarding the chromatic polynomial (the polynomial that determines how many ways there are of colouring the vertices of a graph with n colours in such a way that no vertices which are joined by an edge have the same colour). I will mainly talk about the way in which a problem that is explicitly a combinatorics problem came to be encoded in algebraic geometry, and give an overview of the geometry and topology that goes into the solution. The talk should be accessible to everyone: no stacks, I promise.

The reconstruction of the early universe amounts to recovering the tiny density fluctuations of the early universe (shortly after the "big bang") from the current observation of the matter distribution in the universe. Following Zeldovich, Peebles and, more recently Frisch and collaboratoirs, we use a newtonian gravitational model with time dependent coefficients taking into accont general relativity effects. Due to the (remarkable) convexity of the corresponding action, the reconstruction problem apparently reduces to a straightforward convex minimization problem. Unfortunately, this approach completely ignores the mass concentration effects due to gravitational instabilities.

In this lecture, we show a way of modifying the action in order to take concentrations into account. This is obtained through a (questionable) modification of the gravitation model,

by substituting the fully nonlinear Monge-Amp`ere equation for the linear Poisson equation. (This is a reasonable approximation in the sense that it makes exact some approximate solutions advocated by Zeldovich for the original gravitational model.) Then the action can be written as a perfect square in which we can input mass concentration effects in a canonical way, based on the theory of gradient flows with convex potentials and somewhat related to the concept of self-dual Lagrangians developped by Ghoussoub. A fully discrete algorithm is introduced for the EUR problem in one space dimension.

The construction of the asymptotic cone of a metric space which allows one to capture the "large scale geometry" of that space has been introduced by Gromov and refined by van den Dries and Wilkie in the 1980's. Since then asymptotic cones have mainly been used as important invariants for finitely generated groups, regarded as metric spaces using the word metric.

However since the construction of the cone requires non-principal ultrafilters, in many cases the cone itself is very hard to compute and seemingly basic questions about this construction have been open quite some time and only relatively recently been answered.

In this talk I want to review the definition of the cone as well as considering iterated cones of metric spaces. I will show that every proper metric space can arise as asymptotic cone of some other proper space and I will answer a question of Drutu and Sapir regarding slow ultrafilters.

I will give a short introduction to non-standard analysis using Nelson's Internal Set Theory, and attempt to give some interesting examples of what can be done in NSA. If time permits I will look at building models for IST inside the usual ZFC set theory using ultrapowers.

I will show that one can (at least in theory) guarantee the "validity" of a numerical approximation of a solution of the 3D Navier-Stokes equations using an explicit a posteriori test, despite the fact that the existence of a unique solution is not known for arbitrary initial data.

The argument relies on the fact that if a regular solution exists for some given initial condition, a regular solution also exists for nearby initial data ("robustness of regularity"); I will outline the proof of robustness of regularity for initial data in $H^{1/2}$.

I will also show how this can be used to prove that one can verify numerically (at least in theory) the following statement, for any fixed R > 0: every initial condition $u_0\in H^1$ with $\|u\|_{H^1}\le R$ gives rise to a solution of the unforced equation that remains regular for all $t\ge 0$.

This is based on joint work with Sergei Chernysehnko (Imperial), Peter Constantin (Chicago), Masoumeh Dashti (Warwick), Pedro Marín-Rubio (Seville), Witold Sadowski (Warsaw/Warwick), and Edriss Titi (UC Irivine/Weizmann).

We consider a process $X_t\in\R^d$, $t\ge0$, introduced by Durrett and Rogers in 1992 in order to model the shape of a growing polymer; it undergoes a drift which depends on its past trajectory, and a Brownian increment. Our work concerns two conjectures by these authors (1992), concerning repulsive interaction functions $f$ in dimension $1$ ($\forall x\in\R$, $xf(x)\ge0$).

We showed the first one with T. Mountford (AIHP, 2008, AIHP Prize 2009), for certain functions $f$ with heavy tails, leading to transience to $+\infty$ or $-\infty$ with probability $1/2$. We partially proved the second one with B. T\'oth and B. Valk\'o (to appear in Ann. Prob. 2011), for rapidly decreasing functions $f$, through a study of the local time environment viewed from the

particule: we explicitly display an associated invariant measure, which enables us to prove under certain initial conditions that $X_t/t\to_{t\to\infty}0$ a.s., that the process is at least diffusive asymptotically and superdiffusive under certain assumptions.

Thanks to a Last Passage Percolation model, 3 colored sources are in competition to fill all the positive quadrant N2. There is coexistence when the 3 souces have infected an infinite number of sites.
A coupling between the percolation model and a particle system -namely, the TASEP- allows us to compute the coexistence probability.

There are several different approaches to noncommutative algebraic geometry. I will present one of these approaches. A noncommutative space will be an (abelian) category. I will show how to associate a ringed space to a category. In the case of the category of quasi-coherent sheaves on a scheme this construction will recover the scheme back. I will also give examples coming from quantum groups.

• Laura Gallimore - Modelling Cell Motility
• Y. M. Lai - Stochastic Synchronization of Neural Populations
• Jay Newby - Quasi-steady State Analysis of Motor-driven Transport on a 2D Microtubular Network

Games are ubiquitous in set theory and in particular can be used to build models (often using some large cardinal property to justify the existence of strategies). As a reversal one can define large cardinal properties in terms of such games.

We look at some such that build models through indiscernibles, and that have recently had some effect on structures at aleph_2.

I will introduce the notion of a nilsequence, which is a kind of

"higher" analogue of the exponentials used in classical Fourier analysis. I

will summarise the current state of our understanding of these objects. Then

I will discuss a variety of applications: to solving linear equations in

primes (joint with T. Tao), to a version of Waring's problem for so-called

generalised polynomials (joint with V. Neale and Trevor Wooley) and to

solving certain pairs of diagonal quadratic equations in eight variables

(joint work with L. Matthiesen). Some of the work to be described is a

little preliminary!

Predicting the dynamics of foams requires input from geometry and both Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluid mechanics, among many other fields. I will attempt to give a flavour of this richness by discussing the static structure of a foam and how it allows the derivation of dynamic properties, at least to leading order. The latter includes coarsening due to gas diffusion, liquid drainage under gravity, and the flow of the bubbles themselves.

Based on an MPI library written over 10 years ago, OP2 is a new open-source library which is aimed at application developers using unstructured grids. Using a single API, it targets a variety of HPC architectures, including both manycore GPUs and multicore CPUs with vector units. The talk will cover the API design, key aspects of the parallel implementation on the different platforms, and preliminary performance results on a small but representative CFD test code.

Project homepage: http://people.maths.ox.ac.uk/gilesm/op2/

Many classes of polarised projective algebraic varieties can be constructed via explicit constructions of corresponding graded rings. In this talk we will discuss two methods, namely Basket data method and Key varieties method, which are often used in such constructions. In the first method we will construct graded rings corresponding to some topological data of the polarised varieties. The second method is based on the notion of weighted flag variety, which is the weighted projective analogue of a flag variety. We will describe this notion and show how one can use their graded rings to construct interesting classes of polarised varieties.

In portfolio management, there are specific strategies for trading between two assets that are cointegrated. These are commonly referred to as pairs-trading or spread-trading strategies. In this paper, we provide a theoretical framework for portfolio choice that justifies the choice of such strategies. For this, we consider a continuous-time error correction model to model the cointegrated price processes and analyze the problem of maximizing the expected utility of terminal wealth, for logarithmic and power utilities. We obtain and justify an extra no-arbitrage condition on the market parameters with which one obtains decomposition results for the optimal pairs-trading portfolio strategies.

After a quick-and-dirty introduction to nonstandard analysis, we will

define the asymptotic cones of a metric space and we will play around

with nonstandard tools to show some results about them.

For example, we will hopefully prove that any separable asymptotic cone

is proper and we will classify real trees appearing as asymptotic cones

of groups.

This talk will be divided into three parts. In the first part we will recall basic notions and facts of differential geometry and the Ricci flow equation. In the second part we will talk about singularities for the Ricci flow and Ricci flow on homogeneous spaces. Finally, in the third part

of the talk, we will focus on the case of Ricci flow on compact homogeneous spaces with two isotropy summands.

Abstract:

this is joint work with Eli Aljadeff.

Let G be a group, H a finite index subgroup. Moore's conjecture says that under a certain condition on G and H (which we call the Moore's condition), a G-module M which is projective over H is projective over G. In other words- if we know that a module is ``almost projective'', then it is projective. In this talk we will survey cases in which the conjecture is known to be true. This includes the case in which the group G is finite and the case in which the group G has finite cohomological dimension.

As a generalization of these two cases, we shall present Kropholler's hierarchy LHF, and discuss the conjecture for groups in this hierarchy. In the case of finite groups and in the case of finite cohomological dimension groups, the conjecture is proved by the same finiteness argument. This argument is straightforward in the finite cohomological dimension case, and is a result of a theorem of Serre in case the group is finite. We will show that inside Kropholler's hierarchy the conjecture holds even though this finiteness condition might fail to hold.

We will also discuss some other cases in which the conjecture is known to be true (e.g. Thompson's group F).

The $C_\ell$-free process starts with the empty graph on $n$ vertices and adds edges chosen uniformly at random, one at a time, subject to the condition that no copy of $C_\ell$ is created. For every $\ell \geq 4$ we show that, with high probability as $n \to \infty$, the maximum degree is $O((n \log n)^{1/(\ell-1)})$, which confirms a conjecture of Bohman and Keevash and improves on bounds of Osthus and Taraz. Combined with previous results this implies that the $C_\ell$-free process typically terminates with $\Theta(n^{\ell/(\ell-1)}(\log n)^{1/(\ell-1)})$ edges, which answers a question of Erd\H{o}s, Suen and Winkler. This is the first result that determines the final number of edges of the more general $H$-free process for a non-trivial \emph{class} of graphs $H$. We also verify a conjecture of Osthus and Taraz concerning the average degree, and obtain a new lower bound on the independence number. Our proof combines the differential equation method with a tool that might be of independent interest: we establish a rigorous way to `transfer' certain decreasing properties from the binomial random graph to the $H$-free process.

If $X$ is a Fano variety with canonical bundle $O(-k)$, its derived category

has a semi-orthogonal decomposition (I will say what that means)

\[ D(X) = \langle O(-k+1), ..., O(-1), O, A \rangle, \]

where the subcategory $A$ is the "interesting piece" of $D(X)$. In the previous talk we saw that $A$ can have very rich geometry. In this talk we will see a less well-understood example of this: when $X$ is a smooth cubic in $P^5$, $A$ looks like the derived category of a K3 surface. We will discuss Kuznetsov's conjecture that $X$ is rational if and only if $A$ is geometric, relate it to Hassett's earlier work on the Hodge theory of $X$, and mention an autoequivalence of $D(Hilb^2(K3))$ that I came across while studying the problem.

There is a long-studied correspondence between intersections of two quadrics and hyperelliptic curves, first noticed by Weil and since used

as a testbed for many fashionable theories: Hodge theory, motives, and moduli of vector bundles in the '70s and '80s, derived categories in the '90s, non-commutative geometry and mirror symmetry today. The story generalizes to three, four, and more quadrics, exhibiting new geometric behaviour at each step. The case of four quadrics nicely illustrates the modern theory of flops and derivced categories and, as a special case, gives a pair of derived-equivalent Calabi-Yau 3-folds.

In this talk we will present some recent results on the long time

asymptotics of the generalized (non-Markovian) Langevin equation (gLE). In particular,

we will discuss about the ergodic properties of the gLE and present estimates on the rate of convergence to equilibrium, we will present

a homogenization result (invariance principle) and we will discuss

about the convergence of the gLE dynamics to the (Markovian) Langevin

dynamics, in some appropriate asymptotic limit. The analysis is based on the approximation of the gLE by a

high (and possibly infinite) dimensional degenerate Markovian system,

and on the analysis of the spectrum of the generator of this Markov

process. This is joint work with M. Ottobre and K. Pravda-Starov.

In this talk I describe some results obtained in collaboration with

J.F. Lafont and A. Sisto, which concern rigidity theorems for a class of

manifolds which are ``mostly'' non-positively curved, but may not support

any actual non-positively curved metric.

More precisely, we define a class of manifolds which contains

non-positively curved examples.

Building on techniques coming from geometric group theory, we show

that smooth rigidity holds within our class of manifolds

(in fact, they are also topologically rigid - i.e. they satisfy the Borel

conjecture - but this fact won't be discussed in my talk).

We also discuss some results concerning the quasi-isometry type of the

fundamental groups

of mostly non-positively curved manifolds.

A very general model of evolving graphs was introduced by Cooper and Frieze in 2003, and further analysed by Cooper. At each stage of the process, either a new edge is added
between existing vertices, or a new vertex is added and joined to some number of existing vertices. Each vertex gaining a new neighbour may be chosen either uniformly, or by preferential attachment, i.e., with probability proportional to the current degree.
It is known that the degrees of vertices in any such model follow a ``power law''. Here we study in detail the degree sequence of a graph obtained from such a procedure, looking at the vertices of large degree as well as the numbers of vertices of each fixed degree.
This is joint work with Graham Brightwell.

The talk will explain how a geometric principle gave rise to a new variational description of information-theoretic entropy and how this led to the solution of a problem dating back to the 50's: whether the the central limit theorem is driven by an analogue of the second law of thermodynamics.