Seminars & Events for 2008-2009

December 8, 2008
4:00pm - 6:00pm
Computational Astrophysics and the Dynamics of Accretion Disks
PACM/Applied Mathematics Colloquium

The ever increasing performance of computer hardware and improvements to the accuracy of numerical algorithms are revolutionizing scientific research in many disciplines, but perhaps none more so than astrophysics.

Speaker: James M. Stone, PACM & Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University
Location:
Fine Hall 214
December 9, 2008
4:30pm - 6:30pm
Towards a classification of modular compactifications of the moduli space of curves
Algebraic Geometry Seminar

The class of stable curves is deformation-open and satisfies the unique limit property, hence gives rise to the modular Deligne-Mumford compactification of $M_{g,n}$.

Speaker: David Smyth, Harvard University
Location:
Fine Hall 322
December 10, 2008
4:30pm - 6:30pm
The geometry underlying Donaldson-Thomas theory
Department Colloquium

Donaldson-Thomas invariants are algebraic analogues of Casson invariants. They are virtual counts of stable coherent sheaves on Calabi-Yau threefolds.

Speaker: Kai Behrend, University of British Columbia
Location:
Fine Hall 314
December 11, 2008
2:30pm - 4:30pm
Packing cycles with modularity
Discrete Mathematics Seminar

Erdős and Posa proved that a there exists a function $f$ such that any graph either has $k$ disjoint cycles or there exists a set of $f(k)$ vertices that intersects every cycle. The analogous statement is not true for odd cycles - there exist numerous examples of graphs that do not have two disjoint odd cycles, and yet no bounded number of vertices intersects every odd cycle.

Speaker: Paul Wollan, Universität Hamburg
Location:
Fine Hall 224
December 11, 2008
4:30pm - 6:30pm
Primitive-stable representations of the free group
Topology Seminar

Automorphisms of the free group $F_n$ act on its representations into a given group $G$. When $G$ is a simple compact Lie group and $n>2$, Gelander showed that this action is ergodic. We consider the case $G=PSL(2,C)$, where the variety of (conjugacy classes of) representations has a natural invariant decomposition, up to sets of measure $0$, into discrete and dense representations.

Speaker: Yair Minsky, Yale University
Location:
Fine Hall 314
December 11, 2008
4:30pm - 6:30pm
Langlands functoriality and the inverse problem in Galois theory
Princeton University/IAS Number Theory Seminar

In a couple of recent works with C. Khare and M. Larsen we contruct finte groups of Lie type $B_n$, $C_n$ and $G_2$ as Galois groups over rational numbers. The method combines some established, special cases of the functoriality principle with $l$-adic representations attached to self-dual automrophic representations of $GL(n)$.

Speaker: Gordon Savin, University of Utah
Location:
IAS - Simonyi Hall Seminar Room SH-101
January 29, 2009
4:30pm - 6:30pm
The subconvexity problem for ${GL}_2$
Princeton University/IAS Number Theory Seminar

The subconvexity problem consist in providing non-trivial upper bounds for central values of $L$-function. In recent years, this has been recognized as a central point to many arithmetic problems which could be related to the analytic theory of automorphic forms (like tha arithmetic quantum unique ergodicity conjecture or the study of representations of integers by ternary quadratic forms).

Speaker: P. Michel, International School of Lausanne
Location:
IAS - Simonyi Hall Seminar Room SH-101
February 2, 2009
4:00pm - 6:00pm
Global Existence for Nonlinear Dispersive Equation
Analysis Seminar

Starting from small data, when does a nonlinear dispersive PDE have global solutions? A classical approach, just like for ODE, is to study resonances. But I will show that for PDE a new kind of resonances arises, that I call space resonances.

Speaker: Pierre Germain, Courant Institute for Mathematics, NYC
Location:
Fine Hall 110
February 2, 2009
4:00pm - 6:00pm
Systems Engineering for Water Management
PACM/Applied Mathematics Colloquium

It is estimated that we harvest and utilize about 65% of the readily available fresh water resources of the world. In general, perhaps because water is perceived as an abundantly available resource, we use water rather poorly. Typically less than half the water taken from the environment serves the objective for which it was intended.

Speaker: Iven Mareels, Biomedical Engineering, University of Melbourne
Location:
Fine Hall 214
February 3, 2009
4:30pm - 6:30pm
Automorphism groups of curves
Algebraic Geometry Seminar

Hurwitz proved that a complex curve of genus $g>1$ has at most $84(g-1)$ automorphisms. In case equality holds, the automorphism group has a quite special structure.

Speaker: Michael Zieve, IAS
Location:
Fine Hall 322
February 5, 2009
12:30pm - 2:30pm
The Nielsen Realization Problem

The purpose of this talk will be to describe some problems in topology whose solutions rely on geometric techniques. I will introduce the mapping class group of a space $X$, which is the group of homeomorphisms of $X$ up to isotopy.

Speaker: Will Cavendish, Princeton University
Location:
Fine Hall 314
February 5, 2009
2:30pm - 4:30pm
On simple additive configurations in random sets
Discrete Mathematics Seminar

We show that with high probability a random subset of $[n]$ of size $\theta(n^{1-1/k})$ contains two elements $a$ and $a+d^k$, where $d$ is a positive integer. As a consequence, we prove an analogue of the Sarkozy-Furstenberg theorem for a random subset of $[n]$.

Speaker: Hoi H. Nguyen, Rutgers University
Location:
Fine Hall 224
February 5, 2009
4:30pm - 6:30pm
A quadratic bound on the number of boundary slopes of essential surfaces
Topology Seminar
Speaker: Tao Li, Boston College and Princeton University
Location:
Fine Hall 314
February 5, 2009
4:30pm - 6:30pm
On the Andre-Oort conjecture
Princeton University/IAS Number Theory Seminar

Let S be a Shimura variety and L a set of special points on S. Andre and Oort conjecture that any irreducible component of the Zariki-closure of L is a subvariety of Hodge type of S. I will indicate a proof of this conjecture under GRH (this is joint work with A. Yafaev, relying on some work by Ullmo-Yafaev).

Speaker: B. Klingler, IAS
Location:
Fine Hall 214
February 6, 2009
3:00pm - 4:00pm
Ends of locally symmetric spaces
Differential Geometry & Geometric Analysis Seminar

We intend to explain joint work with Lizhen Ji and Peter Li on relating the size of the bottom spectrum to the number of ends for locally symmetric spaces.

Speaker: Jiaping Wang, University of Minnesota
Location:
Fine Hall 314
February 6, 2009
4:00pm - 6:00pm
Hyperdiscriminant polytopes, Chow Polytopes, and K-energy asymptotics
Differential Geometry & Geometric Analysis Seminar

Let (X,L) be a polarized algebraic manifold. I have recently proved that the Mabuchi energy of (X,L) is bounded from below along any degeneration if and only if the Hyperdiscriminant polytope contains the Chow polytope (with respect to the various Kodaira embeddings).

Speaker: Sean Paul, University of Wisconsin
Location:
Fine Hall 314
February 9, 2009
4:00pm - 6:00pm
Stable Internet Routing Without Global Coordination
PACM/Applied Mathematics Colloquium

Global Internet connectivity results from a competitive cooperation of tens of thousands of independently-administered networks (called Autonomous Systems), each with their own preferences for how traffic should flow. The responsibility for reconciling these preferences falls to interdomain routing, realized today by the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP).

Speaker: Jennifer Rexford, Princeton University
Location:
Fine Hall 214
February 9, 2009
4:00pm - 6:00pm
The cubic fourth order Schrödinger equation
Analysis Seminar

We will discuss on which dimensions the cubic fourth-order Schrödinger equation is globally wellposed in the natural energy space. We will mainly concentrate on the case when the equation becomes energy-critical.

Location:
Fine Hall 110
February 12, 2009
2:00pm - 4:00pm
Limiting Distribution of Large Frobenius Numbers
Ergodic Theory & Statistical Mechanics
Speaker: Yakov Sinai and Ilya Vinogradov, Princeton University
Location:
Fine Hall 401
February 12, 2009
2:30pm - 4:30pm
Square-paths and square-cycles in graphs with high minimum degree
Discrete Mathematics Seminar

We investigate under which minimum-degree condition does a graph G contain a square-path and a square-cycle of a given length. We give precise thresholds, assuming that the order of G is large. This extends results of Fan and Kierstead [J. Combin. Theory Ser.

Speaker: Jan Hladky, Charles University, Prague
Location:
Fine Hall 322