Mon, 29 May 2023
13:00
L1

Operator dynamics in Floquet many-body systems

Takato Yoshimura
(All Souls. Oxford Physics)
Abstract

Random unitary circuits (RUCs) have served as important sources of insights in studying operator dynamics. While the simplicity of RUCs allows us to understand the nature of operator growth in a quantitative way, randomness of the dynamics in time prevents them to capture certain aspects of operator dynamics. To explore these aspects, in this talk, I consider the operator dynamics of a minimal Floquet many-body circuit whose time-evolution operator is fixed at each time step. In particular, I compute the partial spectral form factor of the model and show that it displays nontrivial universal physics due to operator dynamics. I then discuss the out-of-ordered correlator of the system, which turns out to capture the main feature of it in a generic chaotic many-body system, even in the infinite on-site Hilbert space dimension limit.

Wed, 26 Apr 2023

11:00 - 12:00
L3

"Orthogonal Intertwiners for Infinite Particle Systems On The Continuum"; "Spectral gap of the symmetric inclusion process".

Stefan Wagner and Federico Sau
Abstract

Orthogonal Intertwiners for Infinite Particle Systems On The Continuum:

Interacting particle systems are studied using powerful tools, including 
duality. Recently, dualities have been explored for inclusion processes, 
exclusion processes, and independent random walkers on discrete sets 
using univariate orthogonal polynomials. This talk generalizes these 
dualities to intertwiners for particle systems on more general spaces, 
including the continuum. Instead of univariate orthogonal polynomials, 
the talk dives into the theory of infinite-dimensional polynomials 
related to chaos decompositions and multiple stochastic integrals. The 
new framework is applied to consistent particle systems containing a 
finite or infinite number of particles, including sticky and correlated 
Brownian motions.

Spectral gap of the symmetric inclusion process:

In this talk, we consider the symmetric inclusion process on a general finite graph. Our main result establishes universal upper and lower bounds for the spectral gap of this interacting particle system in terms of the spectral gap of the random walk on the same graph. In the regime in which the gamma-like reversible measures of the particle system are log-concave, our bounds match, yielding a version for the symmetric inclusion process of the celebrated Aldous' spectral gap conjecture --- originally formulated for the interchange process and proved by Caputo, Liggett and Richthammer (JAMS 2010). Finally, by means of duality techniques, we draw analogous conclusions for an interacting diffusion-like unbounded conservative spin system known as Brownian energy process, which may be interpreted as a spatial version of the Wright-Fisher diffusion with mutation. Based on a joint work with Seonwoo Kim (SNU, South Korea).

Tue, 13 Jun 2023
14:00
L3

Constructing Structure-Preserving Timesteppers via Finite Elements in Time

Boris Andrews
(University of Oxford)
Abstract

For many stationary-state PDEs, solutions can be shown to satisfy certain key identities or structures, with physical interpretations such as the dissipation of energy. By reformulating these systems in terms of new auxiliary functions, finite-element models can ensure these structures also hold exactly for the numerical solutions. This approach is known to improve the solutions' accuracy and reliability.

In this talk, we extend this auxiliary function approach to the transient case through a finite-element-in-time interpretation. This allows us to develop novel structure-preserving timesteppers for various transient problems, including the Navier–Stokes and MHD equations, up to arbitrary order in time.

 

Tue, 02 May 2023
14:30
L3

Newton-MR methods for nonconvex optimization

Yang Liu
(University of Oxford)
Abstract

In this talk, we introduce Newton-MR variants for solving nonconvex optimization problems. Unlike the overwhelming majority of Newton-type methods, which rely on conjugate gradient method as the primary workhorse for their respective sub-problems, Newton-MR employs minimum residual (MINRES) method. With certain useful monotonicity properties of MINRES as well as its inherent ability to detect non-positive curvature directions as soon as they arise, we show that our algorithms come with desirable properties including the optimal first and second-order worst-case complexities. Numerical examples demonstrate the performance of our proposed algorithms.

On 7 May 1964, in the disused Wilbraham Road railway station in Manchester, UK, the Blues and Gospel Tour pulled in to the platform. And the local TV station were there to film it.

The line-up was the stuff of musical legend and included gospel star Sister Rosetta Tharpe whose guitar playing was hugely influential for the British blues youngsters such as Eric Clapton and Keith Richard.

Mon, 22 May 2023
13:00
L1

Generalized Charges of Symmetries

Lakshya Bhardwaj
(Oxford)
Abstract

I will discuss various possible ways a global symmetry can act on operators in a quantum field theory. The possible actions on q-dimensional operators are referred to as q-charges of the symmetry. Crucially, there exist generalized higher-charges already for an ordinary global symmetry described by a group G. The usual charges are 0-charges, describing the action of the symmetry group G on point-like local operators, which are well-known to correspond to representations of G. We find that there is a neat generalization of this fact to higher-charges: i.e. q-charges are (q+1)-representations of G. I will also discuss q-charges for generalized global symmetries, including not only invertible higher-form and higher-group symmetries, but also non-invertible categorical symmetries. This talk is based on a recent (arXiv: 2304.02660) and upcoming works with Sakura Schafer-Nameki.

Mon, 08 May 2023
13:00
L1

Star-shaped quivers in four dimensions

Shlomo Razamat
(Technion)
Abstract
We will review the notion of across dimension IR dualities. As a concrete example we will  discuss such 4d across dimensions dual Lagrangian descriptions of compactifications of the 6d  minimal D type conformal matter theory on a sphere with arbitrary number of punctures. The Lagrangian has the form of a ``star shaped quiver'' with the rank of the central node depending on the 6d theory and the number and type of punctures. Using these Lagrangians one can construct across dimensions duals for arbitrary compactifications (any genus and type of punctures) of the D type conformal matter.

 

Weighted signature kernels
Cass, T Lyons, T Xu, X Annals of Applied Probability volume 34 issue 1A 585-626 (28 Jan 2024)
Photos of, left to right, Angela, Anne and Clare

Why study mathematics? Where can it take you?

Well, you could be the UK's Chief Scientific Adviser (Angela McLean, left), the Director GCHQ, the UK intelligence agency (Anne Keast-Butler, centre) or Chief Executive Citizens Advice UK (Clare Moriarty, right).

Existence of large-data global weak solutions to kinetic models of nonhomogeneous dilute polymeric fluids
He, C Suli, E Kinetic and Related Models volume 17 issue 1 107-161 (14 Apr 2023)
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