We propose a multilevel paradigm for the global optimisation of polynomials with sparse support. Such polynomials arise through the discretisation of PDEs, optimal control problems and in global optimization applications in general. We construct projection operators to relate the primal and dual variables of the SDP relaxation between lower and higher levels in the hierarchy, and theoretical results are proven to confirm their usefulness. Numerical results are presented for polynomial problems that show how these operators can be used in a hierarchical fashion to solve large scale problems with high accuracy.

Most current methods of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) reconstruction interpret raw signal values as samples of the Fourier transform of the object. Although this is computationally convenient, it neglects relaxation and off–resonance evolution in phase, both of which can occur to significant extent during a typical MRI signal. A more accurate model, known as Parameter Assessment by Recovery from Signal Encoding (PARSE), takes the time evolution of the signal into consideration. This model uses three parameters that depend on tissue properties: transverse magnetization, signal decay rate, and frequency offset from resonance. Two difficulties in recovering an image using this model are the low SNR for long acquisition times in single-shot MRI, and the nonlinear dependence of the signal on the decay rate and frequency offset. In this talk, we address the latter issue by using a second order approximation of the original PARSE model. The linearized model can be solved using convex optimization augmented with well-stablished regularization techniques such as total variation. The sensitivity of the parameters to noise and computational challenges associated with this approximation will be discussed.

This is will be a progress report on our long-ongoing joint work with Bezrukavnikov on lifting the monodromy of the quantum differential equation for symplectic resolutions to automorphisms of their derived categories of coherent sheaves. I will attempt to define the ingredient that go both into the problem and into its solution.
 

Following an idea of Gaiotto, a symplectic representation of a complex Lie group G defines a complex Lagrangian subvariety inside the moduli space of G-Higgs bundles. The talk will discuss the case of G=SL(2) and its link with determinant  divisors, or equivalently Brill-Noether loci, in the moduli space of semistable SL(2)-bundles. 

Given a (-1)-shifted symplectic derived scheme or stack (X,w) over C equipped with an orientation, we explain how to construct a perverse sheaf P on the classical truncation of X so that its hypercohomology H*(P) can be regarded as a categorification of (or linearisation of) X. Given also a Lagrangian morphism L -> X equipped with a relative orientation, we outline a programme in progress to construct a natural morphism of constructible complexes on the truncation of L from the (shifted) constant complex on L to a suitable pullback of P to L. The morphisms and resulting hypercohomology classes are expected to satisfy various identities under products, composition of Lagrangian correspondences, etc. This programme will have interesting applications, such as proving associativity of a Kontsevich-Soibelman type COHA multiplication on H*(P) when X is the derived moduli stack of coherent sheaves on a Calabi-Yau 3-fold Y, and defining Lagrangian Floer cohomology and the Fukaya cat!
 egory of an algebraic or complex symplectic manifold S.