Tue, 11 May 2021
14:15
Virtual

C*-blocks and crossed products for real and p-adic reductive groups

Anne-Marie Aubert
(Sorbonne Université - Université de Paris)
Abstract

Let G be a real or a p-adic connected reductive group. We will recall the description of the connected components of the tempered dual of G in terms of certain subalgebras of its reduced C*-algebra.

Each connected component comes with a torus equipped with a finite group action. We will see that, under a certain geometric assumption on the structure of stabilizers for that action (that is always satisfied for real groups), the component has a simple geometric structure which encodes the reducibility of the associate parabolically induced representations.

We will provide a characterization of the connected components for which the geometric assumption is satisfied, in the case when G is a symplectic group.

This is a joint work with Alexandre Afgoustidis.

Tue, 01 Jun 2021
15:30
Virtual

Random Determinants and the Elastic Manifold

Gérard Ben Arous
(Courant Institute)
Further Information

Part of the Oxford Discrete Maths and Probability Seminar, held via Zoom. Please see the seminar website for details. Joint with the Random Matrix Theory Seminar.

Abstract

This is joint work with Paul Bourgade and Benjamin McKenna (Courant Institute, NYU).
The elastic manifold is a paradigmatic representative of the class of disordered elastic systems. These models describe random surfaces with rugged shapes resulting from a competition between random spatial impurities (preferring disordered configurations), on the one hand, and elastic self-interactions (preferring ordered configurations), on the other. The elastic manifold model is interesting because it displays a depinning phase transition and has a long history as a testing ground for new approaches in statistical physics of disordered media, for example for fixed dimension by Fisher (1986) using functional renormalization group methods, and in the high-dimensional limit by Mézard and Parisi (1992) using the replica method.
We study the topology of the energy landscape of this model in the Mézard-Parisi setting, and compute the (annealed) topological complexity both of total critical points and of local minima. Our main result confirms the recent formulas by Fyodorov and Le Doussal (2020) and allows to identify the boundary between simple and glassy phases. The core argument relies on the analysis of the asymptotic behavior of large random determinants in the exponential scale.

Tue, 01 Jun 2021
14:30
Virtual

Invertibility of random square matrices

Konstantin Tikhomirov
(Georgia Tech)
Further Information

Part of the Oxford Discrete Maths and Probability Seminar, held via Zoom. Please see the seminar website for details. Joint with the Random Matrix Theory Seminar.

Abstract

Consider an $n$ by $n$ random matrix $A$ with i.i.d entries. In this talk, we discuss some results on the magnitude of the smallest singular value of $A$, and, in particular, the problem of estimating the singularity probability when the entries of $A$ are discrete.

Tue, 25 May 2021
15:30
Virtual

Cycle lengths in sparse random graphs

Michael Krivelevich
(Tel Aviv)
Further Information

Part of the Oxford Discrete Maths and Probability Seminar, held via Zoom. Please see the seminar website for details.

Abstract

We study the set $L(G)$ of cycle lengths that appear in a sparse binomial random graph $G(n,c/n)$ and in a random $d$-regular graph $G_{n,d}$. We show in particular that for most values of $c$, for $G$ drawn from $G(n,c/n)$ the set $L(G)$ contains typically an interval $[\omega(1), (1-o(1))L_{\max}(G)]$, where $L_{\max}(G)$ is the length of a longest cycle (the circumference) of $G$. For the case of random $d$-regular graphs, $d\geq 3$ fixed, we obtain an accurate asymptotic estimate for the probability of $L(G)$ to contain a full interval $[k,n]$ for a fixed $k\geq 3$. Similar results are obtained also for the supercritical case $G(n,(1+\epsilon)/n)$, and for random directed graphs.
A joint work with Yahav Alon and Eyal Lubetzky.

Tue, 25 May 2021
14:00
Virtual

Crossing probabilities for planar percolation

Vincent Tassion
(ETH)
Further Information

Part of the Oxford Discrete Maths and Probability Seminar, held via Zoom. Please see the seminar website for details.

Abstract

Percolation models were originally introduced to describe the propagation of a fluid in a random medium. In dimension two, the percolation properties of a model are encoded by so-called crossing probabilities (probabilities that certain rectangles are crossed from left to right). In the eighties, Russo, Seymour and Welsh obtained general bounds on crossing probabilities for Bernoulli percolation (the most studied percolation model, where edges of a lattice are independently erased with some given probability $1-p$). These inequalities rapidly became central tools to analyze the critical behavior of the model.
In this talk I will present a new result which extends the Russo-Seymour-Welsh theory to general percolation measures satisfying two properties: symmetry and positive correlation. This is a joint work with Laurin Köhler-Schindler.

Tue, 18 May 2021
14:00
Virtual

Benjamini-Schramm local limits of sparse random planar graphs

Mihyun Kang
(Graz)
Further Information

Part of the Oxford Discrete Maths and Probability Seminar, held via Zoom. Please see the seminar website for details.

Abstract

In this talk we will discuss some classical and recent results on local limits of random graphs. It is well known that the limiting object of the local structure of the classical Erdos-Renyi random graph is a Galton-Watson tree. This can nicely be formalised in the language of Benjamini-Schramm or Aldous-Steele local weak convergence. Regarding local limits of sparse random planar graphs, there is a smooth transition from a Galton-Watson tree to a Skeleton tree. This talk is based on joint work with Michael Missethan.

Tue, 11 May 2021
16:30
Virtual

Lower bounds for multicolor Ramsey numbers

Asaf Ferber
(University of California Irvine)
Further Information

Part of the Oxford Discrete Maths and Probability Seminar, held via Zoom. Please see the seminar website for details.

Abstract

We present an exponential improvement to the lower bound on diagonal Ramsey numbers for any fixed number of colors greater than two.
This is a joint work with David Conlon.
 

Tue, 11 May 2021
15:00
Virtual

The ants walk: finding geodesics in graphs using reinforcement learning

Cécile Mailler
(Bath)
Further Information

Part of the Oxford Discrete Maths and Probability Seminar, held via Zoom. Please see the seminar website for details.

Abstract

How does a colony of ants find the shortest path between its nest and a source of food without any means of communication other than the pheromones each ant leave behind itself?
In this joint work with Daniel Kious (Bath) and Bruno Schapira (Marseille), we introduce a new probabilistic model for this phenomenon. In this model, the nest and the source of food are two marked nodes in a finite graph. Ants perform successive random walks from the nest to the food, and the distribution of the $n$th walk depends on the trajectories of the $(n-1)$ previous walks through some linear reinforcement mechanism.
Using stochastic approximation methods, couplings with Pólya urns, and the electric conductances method for random walks on graphs (which I will explain on some simple examples), we prove that, depending on the exact reinforcement rule, the ants may or may not always find the shortest path(s) between their nest and the source food.

Tue, 04 May 2021
15:30
Virtual

Geodesics in random geometry

Jean-François Le Gall
(Paris-Saclay)
Further Information

Part of the Oxford Discrete Maths and Probability Seminar, held via Zoom. Please see the seminar website for details.

Abstract

We discuss the behavior of geodesics in the continuous models of random geometry known as the Brownian map and the Brownian plane. We say that a point $x$ is a geodesic star with $m$ arms if $x$ is the endpoint of $m$ disjoint geodesics. We prove that the set of all geodesic stars with $m$ arms has dimension $5-m$, for $m=1,2,3,4$. This complements recents results of Miller and Qian, who derived upper bounds for these dimensions.

Tue, 04 May 2021
14:00
Virtual

How does the chromatic number of a random graph vary?

Annika Heckel
(LMU München)
Further Information

Part of the Oxford Discrete Maths and Probability Seminar, held via Zoom. Please see the seminar website for details.

Abstract

How much does the chromatic number of the random graph $G(n, 1/2)$ vary? Shamir and Spencer proved that it is contained in some sequence of intervals of length about $n^{1/2}$. Alon improved this slightly to $n^{1/2} / \log n$. Until recently, however, no lower bounds on the fluctuations of the chromatic number of $G(n, 1/2)$ were known, even though the question was raised by Bollobás many years ago. I will talk about the main ideas needed to prove that, at least for infinitely many $n$, the chromatic number of $G(n, 1/2)$ is not concentrated on fewer than $n^{1/2-o(1)}$ consecutive values.
I will also discuss the Zigzag Conjecture, made recently by Bollobás, Heckel, Morris, Panagiotou, Riordan and Smith: this proposes that the correct concentration interval length 'zigzags' between $n^{1/4+o(1)}$ and $n^{1/2+o(1)}$, depending on $n$.
Joint work with Oliver Riordan.

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