Thu, 27 Nov 2025
17:00
L3

Pfaffian Incidence Geometry and Applications

Martin Lotz
(University of Warwick)
Abstract

Pfaffian functions, and by extension Pfaffian and semi-Pfaffian sets, play a crucial role in various areas of mathematics, including o-minimal theory. Incidence combinatorics has recently experienced a surge of activity, fuelled by the introduction of the polynomial partitioning method of Guth and Katz. While traditionally restricted to simple geometric objects such as points and lines, focus has shifted towards incidence questions involving higher dimensional algebraic or semi-algebraic sets. We present a generalization of the polynomial partitioning method to semi-Pfaffian sets and illustrate how this leads to Pfaffian generalizations of classic results in incidence geometry, such as the Szemerédi-Trotter Theorem. Finally, we outline an application of semi-Pfaffian geometry and Khovanskii's bound to the robustness of neural networks.

Thu, 16 Oct 2025
17:00
L3

Integration in finite terms and exponentially algebraic functions

Jonathan Kirby
(University of East Anglia)
Abstract

The problem of integration in finite terms is the problem of finding exact closed forms for antiderivatives of functions, within a given class of functions. Liouville introduced his elementary functions (built from polynomials, exponentials, logarithms and trigonometric functions) and gave a solution to the problem for that class, nearly 200 years ago. The same problem was shown to be decidable and an algorithm given by Risch in 1969.

We introduce the class of exponentially-algebraic functions, generalising the elementary functions and much more robust than them, and give characterisations of them both in terms of o-minimal local definability and in terms of their types in a reduct of the theory of differentially closed fields.

We then prove the analogue of Liouville's theorem for these exponentially-algebraic functions and give some new decidability results.

This is joint work with Rémi Jaoui, Lyon

Induced subgraph density. VI. Bounded VC-dimension
Nguyen, T Scott, A Seymour, P Advances in Mathematics
Mon, 10 Nov 2025
15:30
L3

$\Phi^4_3$ as a Markov field

Nikolay Barashkov
(Max Planck Institute Leipzig)
Abstract

Random Fields with posses the Markov Property have played an important role in the development of Constructive Field Theory. They are related to their relativistic counterparts through Nelson Reconstruction. In this talk I will describe an attempt to understand the Markov Property of the $\Phi^4$ measure in 3 dimensions. We will also discuss the Properties of its Generator (i.e) the $\Phi^4_3$ Hamiltonian. This is based on Joint work with T. Gunaratnam.

How Long are the Arms in DBM?
Losev, I Smirnov, S Communications in Mathematical Physics volume 406 issue 4 (02 Apr 2025)
Enhanced symmetries in minimally twisted three-dimensional supersymmetric theories
Garner, N Raghavendran, S Williams, B Advances in Theoretical and Mathematical Physics volume 29 issue 4 815-862 (29 Sep 2025)
Thu, 16 Oct 2025
16:00
L5

The Relative Entropy of Expectation and Price

Paul McCloud
(nomura)
Abstract

Understanding the relationship between expectation and price is central to applications of mathematical finance, including algorithmic trading, derivative pricing and hedging, and the modelling of margin and capital. In this presentation, the link is established via dynamic entropic risk optimisation, which is promoted for its convenient integration into standard pricing methodologies and for its ability to quantify and analyse model risk. As an example of the versatility of entropic pricing, discrete models with classical and quantum information are compared, with studies that demonstrate the effectiveness of quantum decorrelation for model fitting.

Thu, 23 Oct 2025
16:00
L5

An 𝛼-Potential Game Framework for Dynamic Games

XinYu Li
(Mathematical Insitute, Oxford)
Abstract

We study  dynamic -player noncooperative games called -potential games, where the change of a player’s objective function upon her unilateral deviation from her strategy is equal to the change of an -potential function up to an error . Analogous to the static potential game (which corresponds to ), the -potential game framework is shown to reduce the challenging task of finding -Nash equilibria for a dynamic game to minimizing the -potential function. Moreover, an analytical characterization of -potential functions is established, with  represented in terms of the magnitude of the asymmetry of objective functions’ second-order derivatives. For stochastic differential games in which the state dynamic is a controlled diffusion,  is characterized in terms of the number of players, the choice of admissible strategies, and the intensity of interactions and the level of heterogeneity among players. Two classes of stochastic differential games, namely, distributed games and games with mean field interactions, are analyzed to highlight the dependence of  on general game characteristics that are beyond the mean field paradigm, which focuses on the limit of  with homogeneous players. To analyze the -NE (Nash equilibrium), the associated optimization problem is embedded into a conditional McKean–Vlasov control problem. A verification theorem is established to construct -NE based on solutions to an infinite-dimensional Hamilton–Jacobi–Bellman equation, which is reduced to a system of ordinary differential equations for linear-quadratic games.

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