Thu, 02 Nov 2023

11:00 - 12:00
C6

Unlikely Double Intersections in a power of a modular curve (Part 1)

Francesco Ballini
(University of Oxford)
Abstract

The Zilber-Pink Conjecture, which should rule the behaviour of intersections between an algebraic variety and a countable family of "special varieties", does not take into account double intersections; some results related to tangencies with special subvarieties have been obtained by Marché-Maurin in 2014 in the case of powers of the multiplicative group and by Corvaja-Demeio-Masser-Zannier in 2019 in the case of elliptic schemes. We prove that any algebraic curve contained in Y(1)^2 is tangent to finitely many modular curves, which are the one-codimensional special subvarieties. The proof uses the Pila-Zannier strategy: the Pila-Wilkie counting theorem is combined with a degree bound coming from a Weakly Bounded Height estimate. The seminar will be divided into two talks: in the first one, we will explain the general Zilber-Pink Conjecture philosophy, we will describe the main tools used in this context and we will see what the differences in the double intersection case are; in the second one, we will focus on the proofs and we will see how o-minimality plays a main role here. In the case of a curve in Y(1)^2, o-minimality is also used for height estimates (which are then ineffective, which is usually not the case).

Thu, 19 Oct 2023

11:00 - 12:00
C6

New ideas in Arakelov intersection theory

Michał Szachniewicz
(Mathematical Insitute, Oxford)
Abstract

I will give an overview of new ideas showing up in arithmetic intersection theory based on some exciting talks that appeared at the very recent conference "Global invariants of arithmetic varieties". I will also outline connections to globally valued fields and some classical problems.

Wed, 13 Sep 2023

14:00 - 15:00
C6

Nonlinear SPDE approximation of the Dean-Kawasaki equation

Professor Ana Djurdjevac
(Free University Berlin)
Abstract

Interacting particle systems provide flexible and powerful models that are useful in many application areas such as sociology (agents), molecular dynamics (proteins) etc. However, particle systems with large numbers of particles are very complex and difficult to handle, both analytically and computationally. Therefore, a common strategy is to derive effective equations that describe the time evolution of the empirical particle density, the so-called Dean-Kawasaki equation.

 

Our aim is to derive and study continuum models for the mesoscopic behavior of particle systems. In particular, we are interested in finite size effects. We will introduce nonlinear and non-Gaussian models that approximate the Dean-Kawasaki equation, in the special case of non-interacting particles. We want to study the well-posedness of these nonlinear SPDE models and to control the weak error of the SPDE approximation.  This is the joint work with H. Kremp (TU Wien) and N. Perkowski (FU Berlin).

Tue, 06 Jun 2023
14:00
C6

Dr. Guillaume St-Onge

Dr. Guillaume St-Onge
(Northeastern University Network Science Institute)
Abstract

TBA

Tue, 23 May 2023
14:00
C6

What we do in the shadows: mining temporal motifs from transactions on the Dark Web

Dr. Naomi Arnold
(Northeastern University London)
Abstract
Dark web marketplaces are forums where users can buy or sell illicit goods/services and transactions are typically made using cryptocurrencies. While there have been numerous coordinated shutdowns of individual markets by authorities, the ecosystem has been found to be immensely resilient. In addition, while transactions are open and visible by anyone on the blockchain, the sheer scale of the data makes monitoring beyond basic characteristics a huge effort.

In this talk, I propose the use of temporal motif counting, as a way of monitoring both the system as a whole and the users within it. Focusing on the Alphabay and Hydra dark markets, I study all the motifs formed by three sequential transactions among two to three users, finding that they can tell us something more complex than can be captured by simply degree or transaction volume. Studying motifs local to the node, I show how users form salient clusters, which is a promising route for classification or anomaly detection tasks.
Tue, 16 May 2023
14:00
C6

Laplacian renormalization group for heterogeneous networks

Dr. Pablo Villegas
(Enrico Fermi Center for Study and Research)

Note: we would recommend to join the meeting using the Zoom client for best user experience.

Further Information

Pablo's main research interests concern complex systems in various fields, from biology to self-organized criticality theory, both from a theoretical and an applicative point of view.
As for the theoretical aspect, he contributed to the definition of mesoscopic models of the dynamics of the cortex, to the analysis of Griffiths Phases in complex networks. In term of applied works, he conducted an analysis of emerging patterns in tropical forests, such as those of Barro Colorado in Panama.

In this seminar, Pablo will present his recent work titled "Laplacian renormalization group for heterogeneous networks", published in Nature Physics earlier this year (link to the paper below).
 

Article: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41567-022-01866-8

 

Join Zoom Meeting
https://zoom.us/j/99314750082?pwd=L3kvZVh0TVJNRnk5Tm95YUpVODVRZz09

Meeting ID: 993 1475 0082
Passcode: 669691

 

Abstract

Complex networks usually exhibit a rich architecture organized over multiple intertwined scales. Information pathways are expected to pervade these scales reflecting structural insights that are not manifest from analyses of the network topology. Moreover, small-world effects correlate with the different network hierarchies complicating identifying coexisting mesoscopic structures and functional cores. We present a communicability analysis of effective information pathways throughout complex networks based on information diffusion to shed further light on these issues. This leads us to formulate a new renormalization group scheme for heterogeneous networks. The Renormalization Group is the cornerstone of the modern theory of universality and phase transitions, a powerful tool to scrutinize symmetries and organizational scales in dynamical systems. However, its network counterpart is particularly challenging due to correlations between intertwined scales. The Laplacian RG picture for complex networks defines both the supernodes concept à la Kadanoff, and the equivalent momentum space procedure à la Wilson for graphs.

Tue, 02 May 2023
14:00
C6

Real-world Walk Processes with Dr. Carolina Mattsson

Dr. Carolina Mattsson
(CENTAI Institute)
Abstract

What do football passes and financial transactions have in common? Both are observable events in some real-world walk process that is happening over some network that is, however, not directly observable. In both cases, the basis for record-keeping is that these events move something tangible from one node to another. Here we explore process-driven approaches towards analyzing such data, with the goal of answering domain-specific research questions. First, we consider transaction data from a digital community currency recorded over 16 months. Because these are records of a real-world walk process, we know that the time-aggregated network is a flow network. Flow-based network analysis techniques let us concisely describe where and among whom this community currency was circulating. Second, we use a technique called trajectory extraction to transform football match event data into passing sequence data. This allows us to replicate classic results from sports science about possessions and uncover intriguing dynamics of play in five first-tier domestic leagues in Europe during the 2017-18 club season. Taken together, these two applied examples demonstrate the interpretability of process-driven approaches as opposed to, e.g., temporal network analysis, when the data are records of a real-world walk processes.

Mon, 15 May 2023
14:00
C6

Ext in functor categories and stable cohomology of Aut(F_n) (Arone)

Greg Arone
Abstract

 

We present a homotopy-theoretic method for calculating Ext groups between polynomial functors from the category of (finitely generated, free) groups to abelian groups. It enables us to substantially extend the range of what can be calculated. In particular, we can calculate torsion in the Ext groups, about which very little has been known. We will discuss some applications to the stable cohomology of Aut(F_n), based on a theorem of Djament.   

 

 

Tue, 21 Jun 2022

14:00 - 15:00
C6

Sequential Motifs in Observed Walks

Timothy LaRock
(Mathematical Institute (University of Oxford))
Abstract

The structure of complex networks can be characterized by counting and analyzing network motifs, which are small graph structures that occur repeatedly in a network, such as triangles or chains. Recent work has generalized motifs to temporal and dynamic network data. However, existing techniques do not generalize to sequential or trajectory data, which represents entities walking through the nodes of a network, such as passengers moving through transportation networks. The unit of observation in these data is fundamentally different, since we analyze observations of walks (e.g., a trip from airport A to airport C through airport B), rather than independent observations of edges or snapshots of graphs over time. In this work, we define sequential motifs in trajectory data, which are small, directed, and sequenced-ordered graphs corresponding to patterns in observed sequences. We draw a connection between counting and analysis of sequential motifs and Higher-Order Network (HON) models. We show that by mapping edges of a HON, specifically a kth-order DeBruijn graph, to sequential motifs, we can count and evaluate their importance in observed data, and we test our proposed methodology with two datasets: (1) passengers navigating an airport network and (2) people navigating the Wikipedia article network. We find that the most prevalent and important sequential motifs correspond to intuitive patterns of traversal in the real systems, and show empirically that the heterogeneity of edge weights in an observed higher-order DeBruijn graph has implications for the distributions of sequential motifs we expect to see across our null models.

ArXiv link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2112.05642

Tue, 14 Jun 2022

14:00 - 15:00
C6

TBA

Luc Rocher
(Oxford Internet Institute)
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