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We study a very general class of first-order linear hyperbolic
systems that both become weakly hyperbolic and contain singular
lower-order coefficients at a single time t = 0. In "critical" weakly
hyperbolic settings, it is well-known that solutions lose a finite
amount of regularity at t = 0. Here, we both improve upon the analysis
in the weakly hyperbolic setting, and we extend this analysis to systems
containing critically singular coefficients, which may also exhibit
modified asymptotics and regularity loss at t = 0.

In particular, we give precise quantifications for (1) the asymptotics
of solutions as t approaches 0, (2) the scattering problem of solving
the system with asymptotic data at t = 0, and (3) the loss of regularity
due to the degeneracies at t = 0. Finally, we discuss a wide range of
applications for these results, including weakly hyperbolic wave
equations (and equations of higher order), as well as equations arising
from relativity and cosmology (e.g. at big bang singularities).

This is joint work with Bolys Sabitbek (Ghent).

Even in a totally discrete space $X$ you need to know how to move between distinct points. A path $P_{x,y}$ between two points $x,y \in X$ is a sequence of points in $X$ that starts with $x$ and ends with $y$. A path system is a collection of paths $P_{x,y}$, one per each pair of distinct points $x, y$ in $X$. We restrict ourselves to the undirected case where $P_{y,x}$ is $P_{x,y}$ in reverse.

Strictly metrical path systems are ubiquitous. They are defined as follows: There is some spanning, connected graph $(X, E)$ with positive edge weights $w(e)$ for all $e\in E$ and $P_{x,y}$ is the unique $w$-shortest $xy$ path. A metrical path system is defined likewise, but $w$-shortest paths need not be unique. Even more generally, a path system is called consistent  (no $w$ is involved here) if it satisfies the condition that when point $z$ is in $P_{x,y}$, then $P_{x,y}$ is $P_{x,z}$ concatenated with $P_{z,y}$. These three categories of path systems are quite different from each other and in our work we find quantitative ways to capture these differences.

Joint work with Daniel Cizma.

The Friedmann--Lemaitre--Robertson--Walker family of spacetimes are the standard homogenous isotropic cosmological models in general relativity.  Each member of this family describes a torus, evolving from a big bang singularity and expanding indefinitely to the future, with expansion rate encoded by a suitable scale factor.  I will discuss a mixing effect which occurs for the Vlasov equation on these spacetimes when the expansion rate is suitably slow.

 This is joint work with Renato Velozo Ruiz (Imperial College London).

A 1977 conjecture of Erdős and Hajnal asserts that for every hereditary class of graphs not containing all graphs, every graph in the class has a polynomial-sized clique or stable set. Fox, Pach, and Suk and independently Chernikov, Starchenko, and Thomas asked whether this conjecture holds for every class of graphs of bounded VC-dimension. In joint work with Alex Scott and Paul Seymour, we resolved this question in the affirmative. The talk will introduce the Erdős–Hajnal conjecture and discuss some ideas behind the proof of the bounded VC-dimension case.

The Ginzburg–Landau energy is often used to approximate the Dirichlet energy. As the perturbation parameter tends to zero, critical points of the Ginzburg–Landau energy converge, in an appropriate (bubbling) sense, to harmonic maps. In this talk I will first explain key analytical properties of this approximation procedure, then show that not every harmonic map can be approximated in this way. This is based on a rigidity theorem: under the energy threshold of 8pi, we classify all solutions of the associated nonlinear elliptic system from S2 to S2, thereby identifying exactly which harmonic maps can arise as Ginzburg–Landau limits in this regime.