L1

The space of complete collineations is an important and beautiful chapter of algebraic geometry, which has its origins in the classical works of Chasles, Schubert and many others, dating back to the 19th century. It provides a 'wonderful compactification' (i.e. smooth with normal crossings boundary) of the space of full-rank maps between two (fixed) vector spaces. More recently, the space of complete collineations has been studied intensively and has been used to derive groundbreaking results in diverse areas of mathematics. One such striking example is L. Lafforgue's compactification of the stack of Drinfeld's shtukas, which he subsequently used to prove the Langlands correspondence for the general linear group. 

In joint work with M. Kapranov, we look at these classical spaces from a modern perspective: a complete collineation is simply a spectral sequence of two-term complexes of vector spaces. We develop a theory involving more full-fledged (simply graded) spectral sequences with arbitrarily many terms. We prove that the set of such spectral sequences has the structure of a smooth projective variety, the 'variety of complete complexes', which provides a desingularization, with normal crossings boundary, of the 'Buchsbaum-Eisenbud variety of complexes', i.e. a 'wonderful compactification' of the union of its maximal strata.
 

We investigate properties of minimisers of a variational model describing the shape of charged liquid droplets. Roughly speaking, the shape of a charged liquid droplet is determined by the competition between an ”aggerating” term, due to surface tension forces, and to a ”disaggergating” term due to the repulsive effect between charged particles.

In my talk I want to present our ”first” analysis of the so called Deby-Hückel-type free energy. In particular we show that minimisers satisfy a partial regularity result, a first step of understanding the further properties of a minimiser. The presented results are joint work with Guido De Philippis and Giulia Vescovo.

This session is particularly aimed at fourth-year and OMMS students who are completing a dissertation this year. The talk will be given by Dr Richard Earl who chairs Projects Committee. For many of you this will be the first time you have written such an extended piece on mathematics. The talk will include advice on planning a timetable, managing the  workload, presenting mathematics, structuring the dissertation and creating a narrative, providing references and avoiding plagiarism.

Outbreaks and epidemics from Ebola to influenza and measles are often in the news. Statistical analysis and modelling are frequently used to understand the transmission dynamics of epidemics as well as to inform and evaluate control measures, with real-time analysis being the most challenging but potentially most impactful. Examples will be drawn from diseases affecting both humans and animals.

This week's Fridays@2 will be a panel discussion focusing on what it is like to pursue a research degree. The panel will share their thoughts and experiences in a question-and-answer session, discussing some of the practicalities of being a postgraduate student, and where a research degree might lead afterwards. Participants include:

Jono Chetwynd-Diggle (Smith Institute)

Victoria Patel (PDE CDT, Mathematical Institute)

Robin Thompson (Christ Church)

Rosemary Walmsley (DPhil student Health Economics Research Centre, Oxford) 

How can it be that so many clever, competent and capable people can feel that they are just one step away from being exposed as a complete fraud? Despite evidence that they are performing well they can still have that lurking fear that at any moment someone is going to tap them on the shoulder and say "We need to have a chat". If you've ever felt like this, or you feel like this right now, then this Friday@2 session might be of interest to you. We'll explore what "Imposter Feelings" are, why we get them and steps you can start to take to help yourself and others. This event is likely to be of interest to undergraduates and MSc students at all stages. 

Despite the stereotype of the lone genius working by themselves, most professional mathematicians collaborate with others.  But when you're learning maths as a student, is it OK to work with other people, or is that cheating?  And if you're not used to collaborating with others, then you might feel shy about discussing your ideas when you're not confident about them.  In this session, we'll explore ways in which you can get the most out of collaborations with your fellow students, whilst avoiding inadvertently passing off other people's work as your own.  This session will be suitable for undergraduate and MSc students at any stage of their degree who would like to increase their confidence in collaboration.  Please bring a pen or pencil!