Oxford

 Suppose A is a nice abelian category (such as coherent sheaves coh(X) on a smooth complex projective variety X, or representations mod-CQ of a quiver Q) or T is a nice triangulated category (such as D^bcoh(X) or D^bmod-CQ) over C. Let M be the moduli stack of objects in A or T. Consider the homology H_*(M) over some ring R.
  Given a little extra data on M, for which there are natural choices in our examples, I will explain how to define the structure of a graded vertex algebra on H_*(M). By a standard construction, one can then define a graded Lie algebra from the vertex algebra; roughly speaking, this is a Lie algebra structure on the homology H_*(M^{pl}) of a "projective linear” version M^{pl} of the moduli stack M.
  For example, if we take T = D^bmod-CQ, the vertex algebra H_*(M) is the lattice vertex algebra attached to the dimension vector lattice Z^{Q_0} of Q with the symmetrized intersection form. The degree zero part of the graded Lie algebra contains the associated Kac-Moody algebra.
  The construction appears to be new, but is connected with a lot of work in Geometric Representation Theory, to do with Ringel-Hall-type algebras and their representations, such as the results of Grojnowski-Nakajima on Hilbert schemes. The vertex algebra construction is enormously general, and applies in huge classes of examples. There is a differential-geometric version too.
  The question I am hoping someone in the audience will answer is this: what is the physical interpretation of these vertex algebras?
  It is in some sense an "even Calabi-Yau” construction: when applied to coh(X) or D^bcoh(X), it is most natural for X a Calabi-Yau 2-fold or Calabi-Yau 4-fold, and is essentially trivial for X a Calabi-Yau 3-fold. I discovered it when I was investigating wall-crossing for Donaldson-Thomas type invariants for Calabi-Yau 4-folds. So perhaps one should look for an explanation in the physics of Calabi-Yau 2-folds or 4-folds, with M the moduli space of boundary conditions for the associated SCFT.

This lecture will give a brief review of the theory of non-abelian reciprocity maps and their applications to Diophantine geometry, and pose some questions for model-theorists.
 

Over the past decade, the randomized singular value decomposition (RSVD) algorithm has proven to be an efficient, reliable alternative to classical algorithms for computing low-rank approximations in a number of applications. However, in cases where no information is available on the singular value decay of the data matrix or the data matrix is known to be close to full-rank, the RSVD is ineffective. In recent years, there has been great interest in randomized algorithms for computing full factorizations that excel in this regime.  In this talk, we will give a brief overview of some key ideas in randomized numerical linear algebra and introduce a new randomized algorithm for computing a full, rank-revealing URV factorization.

A C^infinity scheme is a version of a scheme that uses a maximal spectrum. The category of C^infinity schemes contains the category of Manifolds as a full subcategory, as well as being closed under fibre products. In other words, this category is equipped to handle intersection singularities of smooth spaces.

While originally defined in the set up of Synthetic Differential Geometry, C^infinity schemes have more recently been used to describe derived manifolds, for example, the d-manifolds of Joyce. There are applications of this in Symplectic Geometry, such as the describing the moduli space of J-holomorphic forms.

In this talk, I will describe the category of C^infinity schemes, and how this idea can be extended to manifolds with corners. If time, I will mention the applications of this in derived geometry.

A C^k-extension of a smooth and connected Lorentzian manifold (M,g) is an isometric embedding of M into a proper subset of a connected Lorentzian manifold (N,h) of the same dimension, where the Lorentzian metric h is C^k regular. If no such extension exists, then we say that (M,g) is C^k-inextendible. The study of low-regularity inextendibility criteria for Lorentzian manifolds is motivated by the strong cosmic censorship conjecture in general relativity.

The Schwarzschild spacetime is manifestly inextendible as a Lorentzian manifold with a C^2 regular metric. In this talk I will describe how one
proves the stronger statement that the maximal analytic Schwarzschild spacetime is inextendible as a Lorentzian manifold with a continuous metric.

In the first part of this talk the two-dimensional Landau-de Gennes energy with several elastic constants, subject to general k-radial symmetric boundary conditions, will be analysed. It will be shown that for generic elastic constants the critical points consistent with the symmetry of the boundary conditions exist only in the case k=2. Analysis of the associated harmonic map type problem arising in the limit of small elastic constants allows to identify three types of radial profiles: with two, three or full five components. In the second part of the talk different paths for emergency of non-radially symmetric solutions and their analytical structure in 2D as well as 3D cases will be discussed. These results is a joint work with Jonathan Robbins, Valery Slastikov and Arghir Zarnescu.
 

We consider a collisionless kinetic equation describing the probability density of particles moving in a one-dimensional domain subject to partly diffusive reflection at the boundary. It was shown in 2017 by Mokhtar-Kharroubi and Rudnicki that for large times such systems either converge to an invariant density or, if no invariant density exists, exhibit a so-called “sweeping phenomenon” in which the mass concentrates near small velocities. This dichotomy is obtained by means of subtle arguments relying on the theory of positive operator semigroups. In this talk I shall review some of these results before discussing how, under suitable assumptions both on the boundary operators (which in particular ensure that an invariant density exists) and on the initial density, one may even obtain estimates on the rate at which the system converges to its equilibrium. This is joint work with Mustapha Mokhtar-Kharroubi (Besançon).

The construction of permutation functions of a finite field is a task of great interest in cryptography and coding theory. In this talk we describe a method which combines Chebotarev density theorem with elementary group theory to produce permutation rational functions over a finite field F_q. Our method is entirely constructive and as a corollary we get the classification of permutation polynomials up to degree 4 over any finite field of odd characteristic.

This is a joint work with Andrea Ferraguti.
 

We study the winding mode sector of recently discovered string theories, which were, until now, believed to describe only conventional field theories in target space. We discover that upon compactification winding modes allows the string to acquire an oscillator spectrum giving rise to an infinite tower of massive higher-spin modes. We study the spectra, S-matrices, T-duality and high-energy behaviour of the bosonic and supersymmetric models. In the tensionless limit, we obtain formulae for amplitudes based on the scattering equations. The windings decouple from the scattering equations but remain in the integrands. The existence of this winding sector shows that these new theories do have stringy aspects and describe non-conventional field theories.  This talk is based on https://arxiv.org/abs/1710.01241.