Fri, 04 Dec 2026

11:00 - 12:00
L4

To be announced

Dr Jochen Kursawe
(School of Mathematics and Statistics University of St Andrews)
Fri, 27 Nov 2026

11:00 - 12:00
L4

To be announced

Prof Calum Gabbutt
(Department of Immunology and Inflammation Imperial College London)
Fri, 13 Nov 2026

11:00 - 12:00
L4

To be announced

Prof Gabriela Gomes
(Dept of Mathematics and Statistics University of Strathclyde)
Fri, 16 Oct 2026

11:00 - 12:00
L4

Emergent phenomena in protein complexes out of equilibrium: from topologically-protected states to computation

Dr Jaime Agudo-Canalejo
(Dept of Physics & Astronomy UCL)
Abstract
Protein complexes, typically made up of a small number of identical subunits, are very common in biology. These subunits can additionally undergo post-translational modifications, such as phosphorylation and dephosphorylation, resulting in a high dimensional state space for the protein complex. Importantly, such modifications are catalyzed by enzymes that are driven out of equilibrium by the consumption of a fuel such as ATP. I will discuss, from a theoretical perspective, how very simple enzyme-catalyzed operations at the single subunit level can result in emergent behaviour at the level of the entire protein complex. First, I will discuss how topologically-protected edge currents emerge and become enhanced in arbitrarily high-dimensional stochastic systems representing the state of the complex, extending previous results for two-dimensional stochastic systems [1]. Second, I will discuss how enzymes that act on a subunit in a context-dependent manner provide a molecular implementation of stochastic cellular automata,  that can be exploited to engineer molecular-scale computing devices, such as an error-tolerant memory or a finite-state machine [2].
 
[1] E. Tang, J. Agudo-Canalejo, and R. Golestanian, Phys. Rev. X 11, 031015 (2021)
[2] J. Kocka, K. Husain, and J. Agudo-Canalejo, PRX Life 4, 013036 (2026)
Fri, 19 Jun 2026
13:00
L4

Simplicial Novikov Homology

Vidit Nanda
Abstract

I will describe a circle-valued Morse theory for simplicial complexes. The central objects of study are partial matchings which admit certain zigzag cycles; these cyclic matchings lift canonically to acyclic matchings on the infinite cyclic cover of the underlying simplicial complex. From the lifted acyclic matchings, we obtain a finitely generated Morse chain complex defined over the Novikov ring, which consists of power series in one variable with finite negative support. We then establish a quasi-isomorphism between this Morse-Novikov complex and the simplicial chain complex of the cyclic cover, duly completed over the Novikov ring. As a pleasant consequence, we can define new computable invariants to detect (obstructions to) the fiberedness of tame knots.

Wed, 24 Jun 2026

11:00 - 13:00
L4

Wasserstein Limits for Empirical Measures of Markov Processes

Fengyu Wang
(University of Swansea)
Abstract

In this talk we summary some recent progress on limit theorems for the Wasserstein distance of empirical measures of Markov processes. For symmetric diffusion processes on Riemannian manifold possibly with reflecting or killing boundary, the sharp convergence rate is derived with renormalization limit formulated by using the spectrum of the generator. Moreover, a general framework is established to estimate the convergence rate in Wasserstein distance of empirical measures for ergodic Markov processes.

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