Thu, 27 Nov 2014

14:00 - 16:00
L4

Geometric Satake Equivalence

Pavel Safronov
(University of Oxford)
Abstract

Both sides of the geometric Langlands correspondence have natural Hecke
symmetries. I will explain an identification between the Hecke
symmetries on both sides via the geometric Satake equivalence. On the
abelian level it relates the topology of a variety associated to a group
and the representation category of its Langlands dual group.
 

Tue, 02 Dec 2014

14:30 - 15:00
L5

The maximal Sobolev regularity of distributions supported by arbitrary subsets of R^n

David Hewett
(University of Oxford)
Abstract

Given a subset E of R^n with empty interior, what is the maximum regularity exponent s for which there exist non-zero distributions in the Bessel potential Sobolev space H^s_p(R^n) that are supported entirely inside E? This question has arisen many times in my recent investigations into boundary integral equation formulations of linear wave scattering by fractal screens, and it is closely related to other fundamental questions concerning Sobolev spaces defined on ``rough'' (i.e. non-Lipschitz) domains. Roughly speaking, one expects that the ``fatter'' the set, the higher the maximum regularity that can be supported. For sets of zero Lebesgue measure one can show, using results on certain set capacities from classical potential theory, that the maximum regularity (if it exists) is negative, and is (almost) characterised by the fractal (Hausdorff) dimension of E. For sets with positive measure the maximum regularity (if it exists) is non-negative,but appears more difficult to characterise in terms of geometrical properties of E.  I will present some partial results in this direction, which have recently been obtained by studying the asymptotic behaviour of the Fourier transform of the characteristic functions of certain fat Cantor sets.

Tue, 25 Nov 2014

14:00 - 14:30
L5

Efficient optimization algorithms for nonlinear least-squares and inverse problems

Coralia Cartis
(University of Oxford)
Abstract
I will present an on-going project with Simon Tett, Mike Mineter and Kuniko Yamazaki (School of GeoSciences, Edinburgh University) that investigates automatically tuning relevant parameters of a standard climate model to match observations. The resulting inverse/least-squares problems are nonconvex, expensive to evaluate and noisy which makes them highly suitable for derivative-free optimisation algorithms. We successfully employ such methods and attempt to interpret the results in a meaningful way for climate science.
Tue, 18 Nov 2014

14:00 - 14:30
L5

On sparse representations for piecewise smooth signals

Andrew Thompson
(University of Oxford)
Abstract

It is well known that piecewise smooth signals are approximately sparse in a wavelet basis. However, other sparse representations are possible, such as the discrete gradient basis. It turns out that signals drawn from a random piecewise constant model have sparser representations in the discrete gradient basis than in Haar wavelets (with high probability). I will talk about this result and its implications, and also show some numerical experiments in which the use of the gradient basis improves compressive signal reconstruction.

Mon, 19 Jan 2015

17:00 - 18:00
L4

Carleman Estimates and Unique Continuation for Fractional Schroedinger Equations

Angkana Ruland
(University of Oxford)
Abstract
In this talk I present Carleman estimates for fractional Schroedinger
equations and discuss how these imply the strong unique continuation
principle even in the presence of rough potentials. Moreover, I show how
they can be used to derive quantitative unique continuation results in
the setting of compact manifolds. These quantitative estimates can then
be exploited to deduce upper bounds on the Hausdorff dimension of nodal
domains (of eigenfunctions to the investigated Dirichlet-to-Neumann maps).
Tue, 11 Nov 2014

14:00 - 14:30
L5

Fast evaluation of the inverse Poisson CDF

Mike Giles
(University of Oxford)
Abstract

One general approach to random number generation is to take a uniformly distributed (0,1) random variable and then invert the cumulative distribution function (CDF) to generate samples from another distribution.  This talk follows this approach, approximating the inverse CDF for the Poisson distribution in a way which is particularly efficient for vector execution on NVIDIA GPUs.

Thu, 23 Oct 2014

14:00 - 15:00
L4

Towards the compatibility of Geometric Langlands with the extended Whittaker model

Dario Beraldo
(University of Oxford)
Abstract

Let $G$ be a connected reductive group and $X$ a smooth complete curve, both defined over an algebraically closed field of characteristic zero. Let $Bun_G$ denote the stack of $G$-bundles on $X$. In analogy with the classical theory of Whittaker coefficients for automorphic functions, we construct a “Fourier transform” functor, called $coeff_{G}$, from the DG category of D-modules on $Bun_G$ to a certain DG category $Wh(G, ext)$, called the extended Whittaker category. Combined with work in progress by other mathematicians and the speaker, this construction allows to formulate the compatibility of the Langlands duality functor  $$\mathbb{L}_G : \operatorname{IndCoh}_{N}(LocSys_{\check{G}} ) \to D(Bun_G)$$ with the Whittaker model. For $G = GL_n$ and $G = PGL_n$, we prove that $coeff_G$ is fully faithful. This result guarantees that, for those groups, $\mathbb{L}_G$ is unique (if it exists) and necessarily fully faithful.

Tue, 04 Nov 2014

14:00 - 14:30
L5

Fast and backward stable computation of roots of polynomials

Jared Aurentz
(University of Oxford)
Abstract

A stable algorithm to compute the roots of polynomials is presented. The roots are found by computing the eigenvalues of the associated companion matrix by Francis's implicitly-shifted $QR$ algorithm.  A companion matrix is an upper Hessenberg matrix that is unitary-plus-rank-one, that is, it is the sum of a unitary matrix and a rank-one matrix.  These properties are preserved by iterations of Francis's algorithm, and it is these properties that are exploited here. The matrix is represented as a product of $3n-1$ Givens rotators plus the rank-one part, so only $O(n)$ storage space is required.  In fact, the information about the rank-one part is also encoded in the rotators, so it is not necessary to store the rank-one part explicitly.  Francis's algorithm implemented on this representation requires only $O(n)$ flops per iteration and thus $O(n^{2})$ flops overall.  The algorithm is described, backward stability is proved under certain conditions on the polynomial coefficients, and an extensive set of numerical experiments is presented.  The algorithm is shown to be about as accurate as the (slow) Francis $QR$ algorithm applied to the companion matrix without exploiting the structure.  It is faster than other fast methods that have been proposed, and its accuracy is comparable or better.

 

Tue, 28 Oct 2014

14:00 - 14:30
L5

The convergence of stationary iterations with indefinite splitting

Andy Wathen
(University of Oxford)
Abstract

The relationship of diagonal dominance ideas to the convergence of stationary iterations is well known. There are a multitude of situations in which such considerations can be used to guarantee convergence when the splitting matrix (the preconditioner) is positive definite. In this talk we will describe and prove sufficient conditions for convergence of a stationary iteration based on a splitting with an indefinite preconditioner. Simple examples covered by this theory coming from Optimization and Economics will be described.

This is joint work with Michael Ferris and Tom Rutherford

Tue, 14 Oct 2014

14:00 - 14:30
L5

X-ray imaging with emitter arrays

Raphael Hauser
(University of Oxford)
Abstract

We investigate an X-ray imaging system that fires multiple point sources of radiation simultaneously from close proximity to a probe. Radiation traverses the probe in a non-parallel fashion, which makes it necessary to use tomosynthesis as a preliminary step to calculating a 2D shadowgraph. The system geometry requires imaging techniques that differ substantially from planar X-rays or CT tomography. We present a proof of concept of such an imaging system, along with relevant artefact removal techniques.  This work is joint with Kishan Patel.

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