# Seminars & Events for 2016-2017

December 6, 2016
4:30pm - 5:30pm
##### On Noether's inequality for stable log surfaces
###### Algebraic Geometry Seminar

In this talk I report on some recent progress on the geography problem of stable log surfaces. This is about restrictions on their holomorphic invariants, such as the volume K^2 and the geometric genus p_g. Compared to the case of surfaces of general type, a new feature here is that the volume of a stable log surface is not necessarily an integer.

Speaker: Wenfei Liu , Xiamen University
Location:
Fine Hall 322
December 7, 2016
3:00pm - 4:00pm
##### Uniqueness of weak solutions to the Ricci flow
###### Differential Geometry & Geometric Analysis Seminar

In his resolution of the Poincaré and Geometrization Conjectures, Perelman constructed Ricci flows in which singularities are removed by a surgery process. His construction depended on various auxiliary parameters, such as the scale at which surgeries are performed.

Speaker: Richard Bamler, UC Berkeley
Location:
Fine Hall 314
December 7, 2016
3:00pm - 4:00pm
##### The spectral gap of dense random regular graphs
###### Probability Seminar

Let G be uniformly distributed on the set of all simple d-regular graphs on n vertices, and assume d is bigger than some (small) power of n.

Speaker: Konstantin Tikhomirov , Princeton University
Location:
Fine Hall 214
December 7, 2016
4:30pm - 5:30pm
##### Energy Identity for Stationary Yang Mills
###### Department Colloquium

The first part of this talk will introduce and discuss the basics of Yang Mills connections, which are connections over a principle bundle which are critical points of the energy functional \int |F|^2, the L^2 norm of the curvature of A, and thus A may be viewed as a solution to a nonlinear pde. In many problems, e.g.

Speaker: Aaron Charles Naber, Northwestern University
Location:
Fine Hall 314
December 8, 2016
12:30pm - 1:30pm
##### Capsets, Sunflower-free sets in {0,1}^n, and the slice rank method

In this talk we will look at the recent breakthrough of Ellenberg and Gijswijt and Croot, Lev and Pach, which used polynomial method to obtain exponential upper bounds for the Capset problem, that is upper bounds for the size of the largest set in F_3^n which contains no three term arithmetic progressions.

Speaker: Eric Naslund, Princeton University
Location:
Fine Hall 110
December 8, 2016
2:00pm - 3:30pm
##### Quasi-periodic solutions to nonlinear PDE
###### Ergodic Theory & Statistical Mechanics

We discuss time quasi-periodic solutions to nonlinear Schroedinger (NLS) and nonlinear wave equations (NLW) on the torus in arbitrary dimensions. The latter is hyperbolic and uses additionally, a Diophantine property of algebraic numbers.  We mention also a work in progress, on space-time quasi-periodic solutions to non-integrable NLS, whose analysis rests on semi-algebraic geometry.

Speaker: Wei-Min Wang , Université Paris-Sud
Location:
December 8, 2016
2:30pm - 3:30pm
##### Non-Convex Phase Retrieval from STFT Measurements
###### PACM IDeAS

The problem of recovering a one-dimensional signal from its Fourier transform magnitude, called phase retrieval, is ill-posed in most cases. We consider the closely-related problem of recovering a signal from its phaseless short-time Fourier transform (STFT) measurements. This problem arises naturally in several applications, such as ultra-short pulse characterization and ptychography.

Speaker: Tamir Ben Dory, PACM
Location:
Fine Hall 214
December 8, 2016
3:00pm - 4:30pm
##### Improperly coloring K_t minor-free graphs
###### Discrete Mathematics Seminar

We show that for every t > 0 there exists a constant c=c(t) such that, if a graph G does not contain K_t as a minor, then its vertex set can be partitioned into at most t-1 parts such that every part induces a subgraph with maximum component of size at most c.

Speaker: Sergey Norin , McGill University
Location:
Fine Hall 224
December 8, 2016
4:30pm - 5:30pm
##### Global-in-x Steady Prandtl Expansion over a Moving Boundary
###### Analysis of Fluids and Related Topics

I will outline the proof that steady, incompressible Navier-Stokes flows posed over the moving boundary, y = 0, can be decomposed into Euler and Prandtl flows globally in the tangential variable, assuming a sufficiently small velocity mismatch. The main obstacles in the analysis center around obtaining sharp decay rates for the linearized profiles and the remainders.

Speaker: Sameer Iyer , Brown University
Location:
Fine Hall 322
December 8, 2016
4:30pm - 5:30pm
##### Arithmetic and Geometry of Picard modular surfaces
###### Princeton University/IAS Number Theory Seminar

Of interest are (i) the conjecture of Bombieri (and Lang) that for any smooth projective surface X of general type over a number field k, the set X(k) of k-rational points is not Zariski dense, and (ii) the conjecture of Lang that X(k) is even finite if in addition X is hyperbolic, i.e., there is no non-constant holomorphic map from the complex line C into X(C).

Speaker: Dinakar Ramakrishnan, California Institute of Technology
Location:
IAS Room S-101
December 8, 2016
4:30pm - 5:30pm
##### A monopole invariant for foliations without transverse invariant measure
###### Topology Seminar

The question about existence and flexibility of taut foliations on a three manifold has been studied for decades. Floer-theoretical obstructions for the existence of taut foliations on rational homology spheres have been obtained by Kronheimer, Mrowka, Ozsvath, and Szabo by perturbing of the foliation to contact structures.

Speaker: Boyu Zhang , Harvard University
Location:
Fine Hall 314
December 9, 2016
3:30pm - 5:00pm
##### New Junior Faculty Lectures II
###### Special Events and Conferences

The Department of Mathematics is holding the second of two events where instructors and assistant professors wh joined the department this fall will speak briefly about their research.

3:30 p.m. — Otis Chodosh, Veblen Research Instructor
“Global geometric questions involving scalar curvature”

Speaker: ,
Location:
McDonnell Hall A01
December 12, 2016
3:00pm - 4:30pm
##### Maximizers for the Stein–Tomas Inequality
###### Analysis Seminar

We give a necessary and sufficient condition for the precompactness of all optimizing sequences for the Stein–Tomas inequality. In particular, if a well-known conjecture about the optimal constant in the Strichartz inequality is true, we obtain the  existence of an optimizer in the Stein–Tomas inequality. Our result is valid in any dimension.

Speaker: Rupert Frank , Caltech
Location:
Fine Hall 314
December 12, 2016
4:00pm - 5:00pm
##### Quantum Oracle Classification: The Case of Group Structure
###### PACM/Applied Mathematics Colloquium

The Quantum Oracle Classification (QOC) problem is to classify a function, given only quantum black box access, into one of several classes without necessarily determining the entire function. Generally, QOC captures a very wide range of problems in quantum query complexity.

Speaker: Mark Zhandry, Princeton University
Location:
Fine Hall 214
December 13, 2016
3:00pm - 4:00pm
##### Positive loops of loose Legendrians and applications
###### Joint PU/IAS Symplectic Geometry Seminar

In this talk, I will give a simple and geometrical proof of the following theorem from my thesis: Every loose Legendrian is in a positive loop amongst Legendrian embeddings. The idea is that we add wrinkles to a loose Legendrian and rotate the wrinkles positively then resolve the wrinkles without changing the isotopy class of the initial Legendrian.

Speaker: Guogang Liu , Nantes
Location:
Fine Hall 224
December 13, 2016
4:30pm - 5:30pm
##### Log geometric techniques for open invariants in mirror symmetry
###### Algebraic Geometry Seminar, Joint PU/IAS Symplectic Geometry Seminar

This is a joint Algebraic Geometry and Symplectic Geometry seminar.  Please note different room (322) and start time (4:30). We would like to discuss an algebraic-geometric approach to some open invariants arising naturally on the A-model side of mirror symmetry.

Speaker: Hülya Argüz , IAS
Location:
Fine Hall 322
December 13, 2016
4:30pm - 5:30pm
##### Log geometric techniques for open invariants in mirror symmetry
###### Algebraic Geometry Seminar, Joint PU/IAS Symplectic Geometry Seminar

This is a joint Algebraic Geometry and Symplectic Geometry seminar.  Please note different room (322) and start time (4:30). We would like to discuss an algebraic-geometric approach to some open invariants arising naturally on the A-model side of mirror symmetry.

Speaker: Hülya Argüz , IAS
Location:
Fine Hall 322
December 14, 2016
2:00pm - 3:00pm
##### Properly immersed CMC surfaces in hyperbolic 3-manifolds of finite volume
###### Differential Geometry & Geometric Analysis Seminar

Please note special time:  2:00.    If $N$ is a noncompact hyperbolic 3-manifold of finite volume and $\Sigma$ is a properly immersed surface of finite topology with nonnegative constant mean curvature less than 1, then we prove that each end of $\Sigma$ is asymptotic (with finite positive multiplicity) to a totally umbilic annulus, properly embedded in $N$.

Speaker: Álvaro Krüger Ramos, UFRGS-Brazil
December 14, 2016
2:30pm - 3:30pm
##### Alternating projections for phase retrieval with random sensing vectors
###### PACM IDeAS

Phase retrieval problems are a subclass of low-rank matrix recovery problems, that have been studied for a long time because of their important applications in physics. They have traditionally been solved with non-convex algorithms, that came with no theoretical convergence guarantees, and were known to sometimes get stuck in local optima.

Speaker: Irene Waldspurger, MIT
Location:
Fine Hall 224
December 14, 2016
3:00pm - 4:00pm
##### Gaussian complex zeros on the hole event: the emergence of a forbidden region
###### Probability Seminar

Consider the Gaussian Entire Function (GEF) whose Taylor coefficients are independent complex-valued Gaussian variables, and the variance of the k-th coefficient is 1/k!. This random Taylor series is distinguished by the invariance of its zero set with respect to the isometries of the complex plane.

Speaker: Alon Nishry , University of Michigan
Location:
Fine Hall 214