Past

https://www.maths.ox.ac.uk/system/files/attachments/website_material.pdf

Topic to be confirmed. (This is the postponed workshop from Michaelmas term!)

String theory derives the features of the quantum field theory describing the gauge interactions between the elementary particles in four spacetime dimensions from the physics of strings propagating on the internal manifold, e.g. a Calabi-Yau threefold. A simplified version of this correspondence relates the SU(2)-equivariant generalization of the Donaldson theory (and its further generalizations involving the non-abelian monopole equations) to the Gromov-Witten (GW) theory of the so-called local Calabi-Yau threefolds, for the SU(2) subgroup of the rotation symmetry group SO(4). In recent years the GW theory was related to the Donaldson-Thomas (DT) theory enumerating the ideal sheaves of curves and points. On the toric local Calabi-Yau manifolds the latter theory is studied using localization, producing the so-called topological vertex formalism (which was originally based on more sophisticated open-closed topological string dualities).

In order to accomodate the full SO(4)-equivariant version of the four dimensional Donaldson theory, the so-called "refined topological vertex" was proposed. Unlike that of the ordinary topological vertex, its relation to the DT theory remained unclear.

In these talks, based on joint work with Andrei Okounkov, this gap will be partially filled by showing that the equivariant K-theoretic version of the DT theory reproduces both the SO(4)-equivariant Donaldson theory in four dimensions, and the refined topologica vertex formalism, for all toric Calabi-Yau's admitting the latter.

String theory derives the features of the quantum field theory describing the gauge interactions between the elementary particles in four spacetime dimensions from the physics of strings propagating on the internal manifold, e.g. a Calabi-Yau threefold. A simplified version of this correspondence relates the SU(2)-equivariant generalization of the Donaldson theory (and its further generalizations involving the non-abelian monopole equations) to the Gromov-Witten (GW) theory of the so-called local Calabi-Yau threefolds, for the SU(2) subgroup of the rotation symmetry group SO(4). In recent years the GW theory was related to the Donaldson-Thomas (DT) theory enumerating the ideal sheaves of curves and points. On the toric local Calabi-Yau manifolds the latter theory is studied using localization, producing the so-called topological vertex formalism (which was originally based on more sophisticated open-closed topological string dualities).

In order to accomodate the full SO(4)-equivariant version of the four dimensional Donaldson theory, the so-called "refined topological vertex" was proposed. Unlike that of the ordinary topological vertex, its relation to the DT theory remained unclear.

In these talks, based on joint work with Andrei Okounkov, this gap will be partially filled by showing that the equivariant K-theoretic version of the DT theory reproduces both the SO(4)-equivariant Donaldson theory in four dimensions, and the refined topological vertex formalism, for all toric Calabi-Yau's admitting the latter.

In many fields of science and engineering, such as fluid or structural mechanics and electric circuit design, large scale dynamical systems need to be simulated, optimized or controlled. They are often described by discretizations of systems of nonlinear partial differential equations yielding high-dimensional discrete phase spaces. For this reason, in recent decades, research has mainly focused on the development of sophisticated analytical and numerical tools to help understand the overall system behavior. During this time meshless methods have enjoyed significant interest in the research community and in some commercial simulators (e.g., LS-DYNA). In this talk I will describe a normalized-corrected meshless method which ensures linear completeness and improved accuracy. The resulting scheme not only provides first order consistency O(h) but also alleviates the particle deficiency (kernel support incompleteness) problem at the boundary. Furthermore, a number of improvements to the kernel derivative approximation are proposed.

To illustrate the performance of the meshless method, we present results for different problems from various fields of science and engineering (i.e. nano-tubes modelling, solid mechanics, damage mechanics, fluid mechanics, coupled interactions of solids and fluids). Special attention is paid to fluid flow in porous media. The primary attraction of the present approach is that it provides a weak formulation for Darcy's law which can be used in further development of meshless methods.

Special Lagrangian submanifolds are area minimizing Lagrangian submanifolds discovered by Harvey and Lawson. There is no obstruction to deforming compact special Lagrangian

submanifolds by a theorem of Mclean. It is however difficult to understand singularities of

special Lagrangian submanifolds (varifolds). Joyce has studied isolated singularities with multiplicity one smooth tangent cones. Suppose that there exists a compact special Lagrangian submanifold M of dimension three with one point singularity modelled on the Clliford torus cone. We may apply the gluing technique to M by a theorem of Joyce.

We obtain then a compact non-singular special Lagrangian submanifold sufficiently close to M as varifolds in Geometric Measure Theory. The main result of this talk is as follows: all special Lagrangian varifolds sufficiently close to M are obtained by the gluing technique.

The proof is similar to that of a theorem of Donaldson in the Yang-Mills theory.

One first proves an analogue of Uhlenbeck's removable singularities theorem in the Yang-Mills theory. One uses here an idea of a theorem of Simon, who proved the uniqueness of multiplicity one tangent cones of minimal surfaces. One proves next the uniqueness of local models for desingularizing M (see above) using symmetry of the Clifford torus cone.

These are the main part of the proof.

We discuss new symmetry results for nonconstant entire local minimizers of the standard Ginzburg-Landau functional  for maps in ${H}^{1}_{\rm{loc}}(\mathbb{R}^3;\mathbb{R}^3)$ satisfying a natural energy bound.

Up to  translations and rotations, such solutions of the Ginzburg-Landau system are given by an explicit map equivariant under the action of the orthogonal group.

More generally, for any $N\geq 3$ we  characterize the $O(N)-$equivariant vortex solution for Ginzburg-Landau type equations in the $N-$dimensional Euclidean space and we prove its local energy minimality for the corresponding energy functional.

In the operation of high frequency resonators in micro electromechanical systems (MEMS)there is a strong need to be able to accurately determine the energy loss rates or alternativelythe quality of the resonance. The resonance quality is directly related to a designer’s abilityto assemble high fidelity system response for signal filtering, for example. This hasimplications on robustness and quality of electronic communication and also stronglyinfluences overall rates of power consumption in such devices – i.e. battery life. Pastdesign work was highly focused on the design of single resonators; this arena of work hasnow given way to active efforts at the design and construction of arrays of coupledresonators. The behavior of such systems in the laboratory shows un-necessarily largespread in operational characteristics, which are thought to be the result of manufacturingvariations. However, such statements are difficult to prove due to a lack of availablemethods for predicting resonator damping – even the single resonator problem is difficult.The physical problem requires the modeling of the behavior of a resonant structure (or setof structures) supported by an elastic half-space. The half-space (chip) serves as a physicalsupport for the structure but also as a path for energy loss. Other loss mechanisms can ofcourse be important but in the regime of interest for us, loss of energy through theanchoring support of the structure to the chip is the dominant effect.

The construction of a basic discretized model of such a system leads to a system ofequations with complex-symmetric (not Hermitian) structure. The complex-symmetryarises from the introduction of a radiation boundary conditions to handle the semi-infinitecharacter of the half-space region. Requirements of physical accuracy dictate rather finediscretization and, thusly, large systems of equations. The core to the extraction of relevantphysical performance parameters is dependent upon the underlying modeling framework.In three dimensional settings of practical interest, such systems are too large to be handleddirectly and must be solved iteratively. In this talk, I will cover the physical background ofthe problem class of interest, how such systems can be modeled, and then solved. Particularinterest will be paid to the radiation boundary conditions (perfectly matched layers versushigher order absorbing boundary conditions), issues associated with frequency domainversus time domain methods, and how these choices interact with iterative solvertechnologies in sometimes unexpected ways. Time permitting I will also touch upon the issue of harmonic inversion methods of this class of problems.

Probability does not exist. At least no more so than "mass" "spin" or "charm" exist. Yet probability forecasts are common, and there are fine reasons for deprecating point forecasts, as they require an unscientific certainty in exactly what the future holds. What roles do our physical understanding and laws of physics play in the construction of probability forecasts to support of decision making and science-based policy? Will probability forecasting more likely accelerate or retard the advancement of our scientific understanding?

Model-based probability forecasts can vary significantly with alterations in the method of data assimilation, ensemble formation, ensemble interpretation, and forecast evaluation, not to mention questions of model structure, parameter selection and the available forecast-outcome archive. The role of each of these aspects of forecasting, in the context of interpreting the forecast as a real-world probability, is considered and contrasted in the cases of weather forecasting, climate forecasting, and economic forecasting. The notion of what makes a probability forecast "good" will be discussed, including the goals of "sharpness given calibration" and "value".

For a probability forecast to be decision-relevant as such, it must be reasonably interpreted as a basis for rational action through the reflection of the probability of the outcomes forecast. This rather obvious sounding requirement proves to be the source of major discomfort as the distinct roles of uncertainty (imprecision) and error (structural mathematical "misspecification") are clarified. Probabilistic forecasts can be of value to decision makers even when it is irrational to interpret them as probability forecasts. A similar statement, of course, can be said for point forecasts, or for spin. In this context we explore the question: do decision-relevant probability forecasts exist?

We provide a general construction of time-consistent sublinear expectations on the space of continuous paths. In particular, we construct the conditional G-expectation of a Borel-measurable (rather than quasi-continuous) random variable.

• Graham Morris - 'Topics in Voltammetry'
• James Lottes - 'Algebraic Multigrid for Nonsymmetric Systems'
• Amy Smith - 'Multi-scale modelling of blood flow in the coronary microcirculation'

In April 2010 Eguchi--Ooguri--Tachikawa observed a fascinating connection between the elliptic genus of a K3 surface and the largest Mathieu group. We will report on joint work with Miranda Cheng and Jeff Harvey that identifies this connection as one component of a system of surprising relationships between a family of finite groups, their representation theory, and automorphic forms of various kinds Mock modular forms, and particularly their shadows, play a key role in the analysis, and we find several of Ramanujan's mock theta functions appearing as McKay--Thompson series arising from the umbral groups.

In this talk I review the use of the spectral decomposition for understanding the solution of ill-posed inverse problems. It is immediate to see that regularization is needed in order to find stable solutions. These solutions, however, do not typically allow reconstruction of signal features such as edges. Generalized regularization assists but is still insufficient and methods of total variation are commonly suggested as an alternative. In the talk I consider application of standard approaches from Tikhonov regularization for finding appropriate regularization parameters in the total variation augmented Lagrangian implementations. Areas for future research will be considered.

Twistor theory is a technology that can be used to translate analytical problems on Euclidean space $\mathbb R^4$ into problems in complex algebraic geometry, where one can use the powerful methods of complex analysis to solve them. In the first half of the talk we will explain the geometry of the Twistor correspondence, which realises $\mathbb R^4$ , or $S^4$, as the space of certain "real" lines in the (projective) Twistor space $\mathbb{CP}^3$. Our discussion will start from scratch and will assume very little background knowledge. As an application, we will discuss the Twistor description of instantons on $S^4$ as certain holomorphic vector bundles on $\mathbb{CP}^3$ due to Ward.

In this talk, I will present reflected backward stochastic differential equations (reflected BSDEs) and their connection with the pricing of American options. Then I will present a simple perturbative method for studying them. Under the appropriate assumptions on the coefficient, the terminal condition and the lower obstacle, similar to those used by Kobylankski, this method allows to prove the existence of a solution. I will also provide the usual comparison theorem and a new proof for a refined comparison theorem, specific to RBSDEs.

We study the mean-field models describing the evolution of distributions of particle radii obtained by taking the small volume fraction limit of the free boundary problem describing the micro phase separation of diblock copolymer melts, where micro phase separation consists of an ensemble of small balls of one component. In the dilute case, we identify all the steady states and show the convergence of solutions.

Next we study the dynamics for a free boundary problem in two dimension, obtained as a gradient flow of Ohta- Kawasaki free energy, in the case that one component is a distorted disk with a small volume fraction. We show the existence of solutions that a small, almost circular interface moves along a curve determined via a Green’s function of the domain. This talk is partly based on a joint work with Xiaofeng Ren.