Image of 4 of our mathematicians

Want a quick flavour of who we are and what we do?

Our YouTube shorts are, unsurprisingly, short films featuring Oxford Mathematicians talking about, among other things, their research, their toys and their toothpaste. And there are also clips from our popular public lectures to whet the appetite for the full thing.

Tue, 11 Feb 2025
16:00

Derivative moments of CUE characteristic polynomials and the Riemann zeta function

Nick Simm
(University of Sussex)
Abstract
I will discuss recent work on the derivative of the characteristic polynomial from the Circular Unitary Ensemble. The main focus is on the calculation of moments with values of the spectral parameter z inside the unit disc. We investigate three asymptotic regimes depending on the distance of z to the unit circle, as the size of the matrices tends to infinity. I will also discuss some corresponding results for the derivative of the Riemann zeta function. This is joint work with Fei Wei (Sussex).



 

Tue, 03 Jun 2025
14:00
L5

tbc

Giovanna Carnoval
(University of Padova)
Abstract

to follow

Tue, 17 Jun 2025
14:00
L6

tbc

Finn Wiersig
(National University of Singapore)
Abstract

to follow

Mon, 24 Feb 2025
16:30
L4

Stability of positive radial steady states for the parabolic Henon-Lane-Emden system

Paschalis Karageorgis
(Trinity College Dublin)
Abstract

When it comes to the nonlinear heat equation u_t - \Delta u = u^p, a sharp condition for the stability of positive radial steady states was derived in the classical paper by Gui, Ni and Wang.  In this talk, I will present some recent joint work with Daniel Devine that focuses on a more general system of reaction-diffusion equations (which is also also known as the parabolic Henon-Lane-Emden system).  We obtain a sharp condition that determines the stability of positive radial steady states, and we also study the separation property of these solutions along with their asymptotic behaviour at infinity.

Wednesday 12th March.

It would be great to have as many teams as possible racing in this idyllic 4-leg relay around Oxford, encompassing the River Thames and Christ Church Meadow and beginning and ending at Iffley Road track where Roger Bannister ran the first ever sub-4-minute mile. Each leg is approximately 7km in length. Further details can be found on the Facebook event page.

Fri, 31 Jan 2025
12:00
L5

Holomorphic-topological theories: gauge theory applied to integrability

Lewis Cole
(Swansea)
Abstract

In recent years, a novel approach to studying integrable models has emerged which leverages a higher-dimensional gauge theory, specifically a holomorphic-topological theory. This new framework provides alternative methods for investigating quantum aspects of integrability and for constructing integrable models in more than two dimensions. This talk will review the foundations of this approach, its applications, and the exciting possibilities it opens up for future research in the field of integrable systems. 


 
Mon, 27 Jan 2025
13:00
L6

Spectrum of 4d near-BPS black holes and their dual CFT

Alice Lüscher
Abstract

 While extremal black hole microstates are reproduced by index calculations, the study of near-BPS black holes requires special care to account for quantum fluctuations. A semiclassical analysis indicates that the spectrum of such black holes has a large extremal degeneracy followed by a mass gap up to a continuum of non-BPS states. The inclusion of a theta angle term alters the properties of the spectrum (Witten effect shifting the mass gap and mixed 't Hooft anomaly). This journal club will study two papers by Toldo and Heydeman, [2412.03695] and [2412.03697] where they study 4d near-BPS black holes. As we shall see, a key point of their derivation is the reduction to 2d JT gravity. The dual CFTs are ABJM and some class R (non lagrangian) theories. Since these theories are strongly coupled, the gravity analysis offers a powerful tool to describe their specturm at finite temperature.

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