Tue, 24 Oct 2017

14:00 - 14:30
L5

Gaussian Processes for Demand Unconstraining

Ilan Price
(University of Oxford)
Abstract

One of the key challenges in revenue management is unconstraining demand data. Existing state of the art single-class unconstraining methods make restrictive assumptions about the form of the underlying demand and can perform poorly when applied to data which breaks these assumptions. In this talk, we propose a novel unconstraining method that uses Gaussian process (GP) regression. We develop a novel GP model by constructing and implementing a new non-stationary covariance function for the GP which enables it to learn and extrapolate the underlying demand trend. We show that this method can cope with important features of realistic demand data, including nonlinear demand trends, variations in total demand, lengthy periods of constraining, non-exponential inter-arrival times, and discontinuities/changepoints in demand data. In all such circumstances, our results indicate that GPs outperform existing single-class unconstraining methods.

The importance of a University's teaching may seem a given, but it has received additional scrutiny in the last twelve months via the Government's Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) and more widely as part of a debate on what Universities should offer their students. Oxford has annual teaching awards, voted by its most demanding assessors, namely its students, and this year plenty of mathematicians - Faculty, Postdocs and Graduate students - featured in those awards.

Thu, 30 Nov 2017
17:00
L3

RG flows in 3d N=4 gauge theories

Benjamin Assel
(Cern)
Abstract

I will present a new approach to study the RG flow in 3d N=4 gauge theories, based on an analysis of the Coulomb branch of vacua. The Coulomb branch is described as a complex algebraic variety and important information about the strongly coupled fixed points of the theory can be extracted from the study of its singularities. I will use this framework to study the fixed points of U(N) and Sp(N) gauge theories with fundamental matter, revealing some surprising scenarios at low amount of matter.

 
Fri, 15 Dec 2017

10:00 - 11:00
L3

Interpreting non-invasive measurement of markers of diseases including diabetes and Alzheimer’s

Dan Daly
(Lein Applied Diagnostics)
Abstract

Lein Applied Diagnostics has a novel optical measurement technique that is used to measure various parameters in the body for medical applications.

Two particular areas of interest are non-invasive glucose measurement for diabetes care and the diagnosis of diabetes. Both measurements are based on the eye and involve collecting complex data sets and modelling their links to the desired parameter.

If we take non-invasive glucose measurement as an example, we have two data sets – that from the eye and the gold standard blood glucose reading. The goal is to take the eye data and create a model that enables the calculation of the glucose level from just that eye data (and a calibration parameter for the individual). The eye data consists of measurements of apparent corneal thickness, anterior chamber depth, optical axis orientation; all things that are altered by the change in refractive index caused by a change in glucose level. So, they all correlate with changes in glucose as required but there are also noise factors as these parameters also change with alignment to the meter etc. The goal is to get to a model that gives us the information we need but also uses the additional parameter data to discount the noise features and thereby improve the accuracy.

Mon, 23 Oct 2017
15:45
L6

A Reduced Tensor Product of Braided Fusion Categories containing a Symmetric Fusion Category

Thomas Wassermann
(Oxford)
Abstract


In this talk I will construct a reduced tensor product of braided fusion categories containing a symmetric fusion category $\mathcal{A}$. This tensor product takes into account the relative braiding with respect to objects of $\mathcal{A}$ in these braided fusion categories. The resulting category is again a braided fusion category containing $\mathcal{A}$. This tensor product is inspired by the tensor product of $G$-equivariant once-extended three-dimensional quantum field theories, for a finite group $G$.
To define this reduced tensor product, we equip the Drinfeld centre $\mathcal{Z}(\mathcal{A})$ of the symmetric fusion category $\mathcal{A}$ with an unusual tensor product, making $\mathcal{Z}(\mathcal{A})$ into a 2-fold monoidal category. Using this 2-fold structure, we introduce a new type of category enriched over the Drinfeld centre to capture the braiding behaviour with respect to $\mathcal{A}$ in the braided fusion categories, and use this encoding to define the reduced tensor product.
 

Tue, 31 Oct 2017

12:00 - 13:15
L4

Superradiance by charged black holes, a numerical exploration

Jean-Philippe Nicolas
(Université de Brest)
Abstract

Superradiance in black hole spacetimes is a phenomenon by which a field of spin 0 or 1 can extract energy from the background. Typically, one can imagine sending a wave packet with a given energy towards a black hole and receiving in return a superposition of wave packets carrying a total amount of energy that is larger than the energy sent in. It can be caused by rotation or by interaction between the charges of the black hole and the field. In the first case, the region where superradiance takes place (the ergoregion) has a clear geometrical localization depending only on the physical parameters of the black hole. For charge induced superradiance, this is not the case and we have a generalized ergoregion depending also on the physical properties of the field (mass, charge, angular momentum). In the most severe cases, the generalized ergoregion may cover the whole exterior of the black hole. We focus on charge-induced superradiance for spin 0 fields in spherically symmetric situations. Alain Bachelot wrote a thorough theoretical study of this question in 2004, which, to my knowledge, is the only work of its kind. When I was in Bordeaux, he and I discussed the possibility of investigating superradiance numerically. Over the years it became an actual research project, involving Laurent Di Menza and more recently Mathieu Pellen, of which this talk is an account. The idea was to observe numerically some superradiant behaviours and gain a more precise understanding of the phenomenon. We shall show an exact analogue of the Penrose process with the superradiance of wave packets and a slightly different behaviour for fields "emerging" inside the ergoregion. We shall also explore the related question of black hole bombs and present some recent observations. 

Tue, 24 Oct 2017

12:00 - 13:15
L4

Convergence and new perspectives in perturbative algebraic quantum field theory

Kasia Rejzner
(University of York)
Abstract

In this talk I will present recent results obtained within the
framework of perturbative algebraic quantum field theory. This novel
approach to mathematical foundations of quantum field theory allows to
combine the axiomatic framework of algebraic QFT by Haag and Kastler with
perturbative methods. Recently also non-perturbative results have been
obtained within this approach. I will report on these results and present
new perspectives that they open for better understanding of foundations of
QFT.

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