Big Data Lecture now online

Viktor Mayer-Schonberger's Inaugural Oxford-Nie Financial Big Data Laboratory lecture is now online. We should welcome Big Data he argues and all the opportunities it brings, but we should also approach it with humility and humanity. 

Viktor Mayer-Schonberger is Professor of Internet Governance and Regulation at the University of Oxford's Internet Institute. The Oxford-Nie Financial Big Data Laboratory was made possible by the generous support of Financial Data Technologies Ltd and is located in the Mathematical Institute in Oxford.

Mon, 01 Dec 2014
14:15
L5

An Abundance of K3 Fibrations and the Structure of the Landscape

Philip Candelas
(Oxford)
Abstract

Even a cursory inspection of the Hodge plot associated with Calabi-Yau threefolds that are hypersurfaces in toric varieties reveals striking structures. These patterns correspond to webs of elliptic K3 fibrations whose mirror images are also elliptic K3 fibrations. Such manifolds arise from reflexive polytopes that can be cut into two parts along slices corresponding to the K3 fibers. Any two half-polytopes over a given slice can be combined into a reflexive polytope. This fact, together with a remarkable relation on the additivity of Hodge numbers, explains much of the structure of the observed patterns.

Tue, 02 Dec 2014

17:00 - 18:00
C2

Branch groups: groups that look like trees

Alejandra Garrido
(Oxford)
Abstract

Groups which act on rooted trees, and branch groups in particular, have provided examples of groups with exotic properties for the last three decades. This and their links to other areas of mathematics such as dynamical systems has made them the object of intense research.
One of their more useful properties is that of having a "tree-like" subgroup structure, in several senses. 
I shall explain what this means in the talk and give some applications.

Axiom - art in the Andrew Wiles Building

As you enter the main entrance lobby of the Andrew Wiles Building you are greeeted by Axiom. Created by artist Mat Chivers, the sculpture is the winner of the Mathematical Institute's Sculpture Competition. The competition invited artists to propose, and eventually create, a substantial and artistically significant sculpture to be placed in the main entrance lobby. We would encourage you all to visit and meanwhile allow Mat to explain the work and its construction.

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