Past

Let $L/K$ be an extension of number fields and let $J_L$ and $J_K$ be the associated groups of ideles. Using the diagonal embedding, we view $L^*$ and $K^*$ as subgroups of $J_L$ and $J_K$ respectively. The norm map $N: J_L\to  J_K$ restricts to the usual field norm $N: L^*\to K^*$ on $L^*$. Thus, if an element of $K^*$ is a norm from $L^*$, then it is a norm from $J_L$. We say that the Hasse norm principle holds for $L/K$ if the converse holds, i.e. if every element of $K^*$ which is a norm from $J_L$ is in fact a norm from $L^*$. 

The original Hasse norm theorem states that the Hasse norm principle holds for cyclic extensions. Biquadratic extensions give the smallest examples for which the Hasse norm principle can fail. One might ask, what proportion of biquadratic extensions of $K$ fail the Hasse norm principle? More generally, for an abelian group $G$, what proportion of extensions of $K$ with Galois group $G$ fail the Hasse norm principle? I will describe the finite abelian groups for which this proportion is positive. This involves counting abelian extensions of bounded discriminant with infinitely many local conditions imposed, which is achieved using tools from harmonic analysis.

This is joint work with Christopher Frei and Daniel Loughran.

CANCELLED

Surfactants are chemicals that adsorb onto the air-liquid interface and lower the surface tension there. Non-uniformities in surfactant concentration result in surface tension gradients leading to a surface shear stress, known as a Marangoni stress. This stress, if sufficiently large, can influence the flow at the interface.

Surfactants are ubiquitous in many aspects of technology and industry to control the wetting properties of liquids due to  their ability to modify surface tension. They are used in detergents, crop spraying, coating processes and oil recovery. Surfactants also occur naturally, for example in the mammalian lung. They reduce the surface tension within the liquid lining the airways, which assists in preventing the collapse of the smaller airways. In the lungs of premature infants, the quantity of surfactant produced is insufficient as the lungs are under- developed. This leads to a respiratory distress syndrome which is treated by Surfactant Replacement Therapy.

Motivated by this medical application, we theoretically investigate a model problem involving the spreading of a drop laden with an insoluble surfactant down an inclined and pre-wetted substrate.  Our focus is in understanding the mechanisms behind a “fingering” instability observed experimentally during the spreading process. High-resolution numerics reveal a multi-region asymptotic wave-like structure of the spreading droplet. Approximate solutions for each region is then derived using asymptotic analysis. In particular, a quasi-steady similarity solution is obtained for the leading edge of the droplet. A linear stability analysis of this region shows that the base state is linearly unstable to long-wavelength perturbations. The Marangoni effect is shown to be the dominant driving mechanism behind this instability at small wavenumbers. A small wavenumber stability criterion is derived and it's implication on the onset of the fingering instability will be discussed.

I will describe a method to find negatively curved structures on some groups, by manipulating metrics on piecewise hyperbolic complexes. As an example, I will prove that hyperbolic limit groups are CAT(-1).

Torsion in homology are invariants that have received increasing attention over the last twenty years, by the work of Lück, Bergeron, Venkatesh and others. While there are various vanishing results, no one has found a finitely presented group where the torsion in the first homology is exponential over a normal chain with trivial intersection. On the other hand, conjecturally, every 3-manifold group should be an example.

A group is right angled if it can be generated by a list of infinite order elements, such that every element commutes with its neighbors. Many lattices in higher rank Lie groups (like SL(n,Z), n>2) are right angled. We prove that for a right angled group, the torsion in the first homology has subexponential growth for any Farber sequence of subgroups, in particular, any chain of normal subgroups with trivial intersection. We also exhibit right angled cocompact lattices in SL(n,R) (n>2), for which the Congruence Subgroup Property is not known. This is joint work with Nik Nikolov and Tsachik Gelander.

Efficient factorization or efficient computation of class 
numbers would both suffice to break RSA.  However the talk lies more in 
computational number theory rather than in cryptography proper. We will 
address two questions: (1) How quickly can one construct a factor table 
for the numbers up to x?, and (2) How quickly can one do the same for the 
class numbers (of imaginary quadratic fields)? Somewhat surprisingly, the 
approach we describe for the second problem is motivated by the classical 
Hardy-Littlewood method.

What are the national maths societies for?  What can they do for us?  What can we do for them?

Featuring representatives from the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications, the London Mathematical Society, the OR Society, and the Royal Statistical Society.

This talk will describe the basic properties of the de Rham algebra, which is a generalisation of the de Rham algebra over smooth schemes, which was introduced by L. Illusie in his monograph 'Complexe cotangent et déformations'.

We aim to determine how cells faithfully complete genome replication. Accurate and complete genome replication is essential for all life. A single DNA replication error in a single cell division can give rise to a genomic disorder. However, almost all experimental data are ensemble; collected from millions of cells. We used a combination of high-resolution, genomic-wide DNA replication data, mathematical modelling and single cell experiments to demonstrate that ensemble data mask the significant heterogeneity present within a cell population; see [1-4]. Therefore, the pattern of replication origin usage and dynamics of genome replication in individual cells remains largely unknown. We are now developing cutting-edge single molecule methods and allied mathematical models to determine the dynamics of genome replication at the DNA sequence level in normal and perturbed human cells.

[1] de Moura et al., 2010, Nucleic Acids Research, 38: 5623-5633

[2] Retkute et al, 2011, PRL, 107:068103

[3] Retkute et al, 2012, PRE, 86:031916

[4] Hawkins et al., 2013, Cell Reports, 5:1132-41

I will consider automorphism groups of countable structures acting continuously on compact spaces: the viewpoint of topological dynamics. A beautiful paper of Kechris, Pestov and Todorcevic makes a connection between this and the ‘structural Ramsey theory’ of Nesetril, Rodl and others in finite combinatorics. I will describe some results and questions in the area and say how the Hrushovski predimension constructions provide answers to some of these questions (but then raise more questions). This is joint work with Hubicka and Nesetril.

Abstract: Ricci solitons are genralizations of Einstein metrics which have become subject of much interest over the last decade. In this talk I will give a basic introduction to these metrics and discuss how to reformulate the Ricci soliton equation as a Hamiltonian system assuming some symmetry conditions. Using this approach we will construct explicit solutions to the soliton equation for manifolds of dimension 5.

The sub-convexity barrier traditionally prevents one from applying the Hardy-Littlewood (circle) method to Diophantine problems in which the number of variables is smaller than twice the inherent total degree. Thus, for a homogeneous polynomial in a number of variables bounded above by twice its degree, useful estimates for the associated exponential sum can be expected to be no better than the square-root of the associated reservoir of variables. In consequence, the error term in any application of the circle method to such a problem cannot be expected to be smaller than the anticipated main term, and one fails to deliver an asymptotic formula. There are perishingly few examples in which this sub-convexity barrier has been circumvented, and even fewer having associated degree exceeding two. In this talk we review old and more recent progress, and exhibit a new class of examples of Diophantine problems associated with, though definitely not, of translation-invariant type.