Fri, 11 Dec 2020

14:00 - 15:00
Virtual

Equivariant etale coverings of the Drinfeld half-plane

Amy Zhu
(University of Cambridge)
Abstract

The Drinfeld half-plane is a rigid analytic variety over a p-adic field. In this talk, I will give an overview of the geometric aspects of this space and describe its connection with representation theory.

Thu, 19 Nov 2020

16:00 - 17:00

Agent-based Modeling of Markets using Multi-agent Reinforcement Learning

SUMITRA GANESH
(JP MORGAN)
Abstract

Agent-based models are an intuitive, interpretable way to model markets and give us a powerful mechanism to analyze counterfactual scenarios that might rarely occur in historical market data. However, building realistic agent-based models is challenging and requires that we (a) ensure that agent behaviors are realistic, and (b) calibrate the agent composition using real data. In this talk, we will present our work to build realistic agent-based models using a multi-agent reinforcement learning approach. Firstly, we show that we can learn a range of realistic behaviors for heterogeneous agents using a shared policy conditioned on agent parameters and analyze the game-theoretic implications of this approach. Secondly, we propose a new calibration algorithm (CALSHEQ) which can estimate the agent composition for which calibration targets are approximately matched, while simultaneously learning the shared policy for the agents. Our contributions make the building of realistic agent-based models more efficient and scalable.

 

Over the next few weeks we shall we making a wide range of our undergraduate lectures available via our YouTube channel to add to those that are already there. The aim is not to provide detailed tuition but to give an insight in to the student experience in Oxford. However, we will be putting up one full course as part of the Autumn series.

Fri, 13 Nov 2020
16:00
Virtual

Holographic correlators at finite temperature

Murat Koloğlu
(University of Oxford)
Abstract

We consider weakly-coupled QFT in AdS at finite temperature. We compute the holographic thermal two-point function of scalar operators in the boundary theory. We present analytic expressions for leading corrections due to local quartic interactions in the bulk, with an arbitrary number of derivatives and for any number of spacetime dimensions. The solutions are fixed by judiciously picking an ansatz and imposing consistency conditions. The conditions include analyticity properties, consistency with the operator product expansion, and the Kubo-Martin-Schwinger condition. For the case without any derivatives we show agreement with an explicit diagrammatic computation. The structure of the answer is suggestive of a thermal Mellin amplitude. Additionally, we derive a simple dispersion relation for thermal two-point functions which reconstructs the function from its discontinuity.

Predicting the effects of deep brain stimulation using a reduced coupled oscillator model
Weerasinghe, G Duchet, B Cagnan, H Brown, P Bick, C Bogacz, R (2018)
Tue, 10 Nov 2020
10:00
Virtual

Geometries for scattering of particles and strings

Song He
(Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing)
Further Information

Please contact Erik Panzer or Ömer Gürdoğan to be added to the mailing list and receive joining instructions to the online seminar.

Abstract

I will review recent works on geometries underlying scattering amplitudes of (certain generalizations of) particles and strings  Tree amplitudes of a cubic scalar theory are given by "canonical forms" of the so-called ABHY associahedra defined in kinematic space. The latter can be naturally extended to generalized associahedra for finite-type cluster algebra, and for classical types their canonical forms give scalar amplitudes through one-loop order. We then consider vast generalizations of string amplitudes dubbed “stringy canonical forms”, and in particular "cluster string integrals" for any Dynkin diagram, which for type A reduces to usual string amplitudes. These integrals enjoy remarkable factorization properties at finite $\alpha'$, obtained simply by removing nodes of the Dynkin diagram; as $\alpha'\rightarrow 0$ they reduce to canonical forms of generalized associahedra, or the aforementioned tree and one-loop scalar amplitudes.

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