# Seminars & Events for 2015-2016

November 11, 2015
3:00pm - 4:00pm
##### Bigeodesics in first-passage percolation
###### Probability Seminar

In first-passage percolation, we place i.i.d. continuous weights at the edges of Z^2 and consider the weighted graph metric. A distance minimizing path between points x and y is called a geodesic, and a bigeodesic is a doubly-infinite path whose segments are geodesics. It is a famous conjecture that almost surely, there are no bigeodesics.

Speaker: Michael Damron, GeorgiaTech
Location:
Fine Hall 214
November 11, 2015
4:30pm - 5:30pm
##### Lecture II: Dynamics on moduli spaces of hyperbolic surfaces
###### Minerva Lectures

In the second lecture, I will discuss several natural geometric flows defined on bundles over the moduli spaces of curves. I will describe basic ergodic properties of these flows. I will discuss some open questions and some of the progress made in recent years.

Speaker: Maryam Mirzakhani, Stanford University
Location:
McDonnell Hall A02
November 12, 2015
12:30pm - 1:30pm
##### Applications of the Chebotarev density theorem

The Chebotarev density theorem is a basic and useful theorem in number theory. I will introduction some applications of CDT to modular forms based on Deligne’s theorem on l-adic representation attached to modular forms, and make connections with conjectures of Maeda and Lang-Trotter.

Speaker: Congling Qiu, Princeton University
Location:
Fine Hall 314
November 12, 2015
2:00pm - 3:00pm
##### Regularity theory for fully nonlinear integro-differential equations
###### Differential Geometry & Geometric Analysis Seminar

Please note special day (Thursday) and room (Fine1001).  Integro-differential equations appear naturally when studying discontinuous stochastic processes, and we are interested in the regularity properties of their solutions.

Speaker: Tianling Jin , The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Location:
Fine Hall 1001
November 12, 2015
2:00pm - 3:30pm
##### Large deviations and random polynomials
###### Ergodic Theory & Statistical Mechanics

We consider large deviation principles (LDP) in the context of random polynomials. In one direction, we obtain a large deviations principle for the empirical measure of zeroes of random polynomials with i.i.d. exponential coefficients. One of the key challenges here is the fact that the coefficients are a.s.

Speaker: Subhro Ghosh, Princeton University
Location:
Fine Hall 601
November 12, 2015
3:00pm - 4:00pm
##### Constructing equivariant spectra
###### Algebraic Topology Seminar

Equivariant spectra determine cohomology theories that incorporate a group action on spaces. Such spectra are increasingly important in algebraic topology but can be difficult to understand or construct. I will discuss recent work with Angelica Osorno, in which we build such spectra out of purely algebraic data based on symmetric monoidal categories.

Speaker: Anna Marie Bohmann , Vanderbilt University
Location:
Fine Hall 214
November 12, 2015
4:30pm - 5:30pm
##### A Riemannian structure on the space of conformal metrics
###### Differential Geometry & Geometric Analysis Seminar

Please note special day (Thursday) and room (Fine 601).    I will describe a Riemannanian structure on the space of conformal metrics satisfying a certain positivity condition. This metric is inspired by the Riemannian of the space of Kahler metrics, and shares many of the same properties.

Speaker: Matthew Gursky, University of Notre Dame
Location:
Fine Hall 601
November 12, 2015
4:30pm - 5:30pm
##### Convection enhanced mixing and spectral properties of the advection-diffusion equation in the semi-classical limit for vanishing diffusivity
###### Analysis of Fluids and Related Topics

We consider the two-dimensional advection-diffusion equation on a bounded domain subject to Dirichlet or von Neumann boundary conditions involving a Liouville integrable Hamiltonian. Transformation to action-angle coordinates permits averaging in time and angle, resulting in an equation that allows for separation of variables.

Location:
Fine Hall 322
November 12, 2015
4:30pm - 5:30pm
##### Heegaard Floer homology for tangles and cobordisms between them
###### Topology Seminar

Heegaard Floer homology was generalized for non-closed 3-manifolds with certain boundary decoration called sutured manifolds, by Juhasz, Eftekhary and I. Sutured manifolds can be described as a generalization of oriented tangles. We use this description to define a notion of cobordism between sutured manifolds.

Speaker: Akram Alishahi , Columbia University
Location:
Fine Hall 314
November 12, 2015
4:30pm - 5:30pm
##### Hasse principle for Kummer varieties
###### Princeton University/IAS Number Theory Seminar

The existence of rational points on the Kummer variety associated to a 2-covering of an abelian variety A over a number field can sometimes be established through the variation of the 2-Selmer group of quadratic twists of A.

Speaker: Alexei Skorobogatov , Imperial College London/IAS
Location:
Fine Hall 214
November 12, 2015
4:30pm - 6:00pm
##### Excluding theta graphs
###### Discrete Mathematics Seminar

A theta graph, denoted T(a,b,c), consists of a pair of vertices together with three disjoint paths between the vertices of lengths a, b, and c. In this talk, we characterize graphs which exclude certain theta graphs as a minor. We begin with small theta graphs, in particular those with at most 7 edges.

Speaker: Emily Marshall , Louisiana State University
Location:
Fine Hall 224
November 13, 2015
2:00pm - 3:00pm
##### Legendrian Fronts in Contact Topology
###### Joint PU/IAS Symplectic Geometry Seminar

In this talk we focus on Legendrian presentations of Weinstein manifolds; in particular, we discuss loose Legendrian embeddings and their absolute analogues, flexible Weinstein manifolds and overtwisted contact structures. The required definitions and necessary results will be provided.

Speaker: Roger Casals, MIT
Location:
IAS Room S-101
November 13, 2015
4:30pm - 5:30pm
##### Lecture III: Counting mapping class group orbits on hyperbolic surfaces
###### Minerva Lectures

Let $X$ be a complete hyperbolic metric on a surface of genus $g$ with $n$ punctures. In this lecture I will discuss the problem of the growth of $s^{k}_{X}(L)$, the number of closed curves of length at most $L$ on $X$ with at most $k$ self-intersections.

Speaker: Maryam Mirzakhani, Stanford University
Location:
McDonnell Hall A02
November 16, 2015
3:15pm - 4:30pm
##### Absolute continuity and rectifiability of harmonic measure
###### Analysis Seminar

Please note special location.   The properties of harmonic measure (most importantly, absolute continuity and rectifiability) are key to many problems in Analysis, Probability, Geometric Measure Theory, as well as PDEs.

Speaker: Svitlana Mayboroda , University of Minnesota
Location:
Fine Hall 224
November 16, 2015
4:30pm - 5:30pm
##### On the Complexity of Detecting Planted Solutions
###### PACM/Applied Mathematics Colloquium

Many combinatorial problems appear to be hard even when inputs are drawn from simple, natural distributions, e.g., SAT for random formulas, clique in random graphs etc. To understand their complexity, we consider random problems with planted solutions, e.g., planted k-SAT/k-CSP (clauses are drawn at random from those satisfying a fixed assignment), planted clique (a large clique is added to a r

Speaker: Santosh Vempala , Georgia Institute of Technology
Location:
Fine Hall 214
November 16, 2015
4:30pm - 5:30pm
##### Almost optimal local existence for radially symmetric time like minimal surface equation in 1+3 dimensional Minkowski space
###### Analysis Seminar

Please note special time and location.

Speaker: Yi Zhou , Fudan University
Location:
Fine Hall 224
November 17, 2015
3:00pm - 4:00pm
##### Needle decomposition and Ricci curvature
###### Analysis Seminar

Please note special day and time.   Needle decomposition is a technique in convex geometry, which enables one to prove isoperimetric and spectral gap inequalities, by reducing an n-dimensional problem to a 1-dimensional one. This technique was promoted by Payne-Weinberger, Gromov-Milman and Kannan-Lovasz-Simonovits.

Speaker: Bo'az Klartag, Tel Aviv University
Location:
Fine Hall 110
November 17, 2015
4:30pm - 6:00pm
##### Syzygies on abelian surfaces, construction of singular divisors, and Newton-Okounkov bodies
###### Algebraic Geometry Seminar

Constructing divisors with prescribed singularities is one of the most powerful techniques in modern projective geometry, leading to proofs of major results in the minimal model program and the strongest general positivity theorems by Angehrn-Siu and Kollár-Matsusaka. We present a novel method for constructing singular divisors on surfaces based on infinitesimal Newton-Okounkov bodies.

Speaker: Alex Küronya , Goethe Universität Frankfurt am Main
Location:
Fine Hall 322
November 18, 2015
4:30pm - 5:30pm
##### Stochastic Arnold diffusion of deterministic systems
###### Department Colloquium

In 1964 V. Arnold constructed an example of nearly integrable deterministic system exhibiting instabilities. In the 1970s physicist B. Chirikov coined the term for this phenomenon Arnold diffusion'', where diffusion refers to stochastic nature of instability.

Speaker: Vadim Kaloshin , University of Maryland
Location:
Fine Hall 314
November 19, 2015
11:00am - 12:00pm
##### Birkhoff Conjecture for convex planar billiards and deformational spectral rigidity of planar domains
###### Ergodic Theory & Statistical Mechanics

Please note special time and location.   The classical Birkhoff conjecture states that the only integrable convex planar domains are circles and ellipses. In a joint work with A. Avila and J. De Simoi we show that this conjecture is true for perturbations of ellipses of small eccentricity.

Speaker: Vadim Kaloshin, University of Maryland
Location:
Fine Hall 110