Current Seminars
updated 2/13/ 2002
As of February 13 - 15
Department Colloquium
Topic: New Correspondences in the Theory of Automorphic Functions
Presenter: Freydoon Shahidi, Purdue University
Date: Wednesday, February 13, 2002, Time: 4:30 p.m., Location: Fine Hall 314
Abstract: We shall explain what Ramanujan-Selberg and Sato-Tate conjectures for Maass and holomorphic forms on upper half plane are and show how even partial results on Selberg conjecture can lead to a solution of hyperbolic circle problem. We then state what the best results on these conjectures presently are, solving the hyperbolic circle problem. They are obtained by transfering these forms to automorphic functions on GL(4) and GL(5), giving their third and fourth symmetric powers, respectively. These are two important and long standing cases of Langlands Functoriality Conjecture. This is joint work with Henry Kim.
Joint Discrete Mathematics/Ergodic Theory and Statistical Mechanics Seminar
Topic: A sharp threshold for network reliability
Presenter: Benny Sudakov, Princeton University and the Institute for Advanced Study
Date: Thursday, February 14, 2002, Time: 2:00 p.m., Location: Fine Hall 224
Abstract: One of the most interesting phenomenon in the theory of random structures is the "sharp threshold behavior" of random graphs properties. In this talk we will illustrate the known method for proving sharp thresholds on one particular example: network reliability. Consider the following popular model for network reliability problem. Given a graph $G$ with $n$ vertices and a real $p$ between 0 and 1, where $p$ may depend on $G$, a random subgraph $G_p$ of $G$ is obtained by keeping each edge of $G$ with probability $p$, randomly and independently. Denote the probability that $G_p$ is connected by $f(G,p)$. We would like to address the following central question: For which families of graphs, the probability $f(G,p)$ exhibits the sharp increase from 0 to 1 at a certain critical value of $p$? Strengthening a classical result of Margulis we obtain such a characterization of graph $G$. Our result is in some sense asymptotically tight. This is joint work with M. Krivelevich and V. Vu.
Joint Princeton University/IAS/Rutgers Non-Linear Analysis Seminar
Topic: On majoration of the blow-up rate for critical NLS
Presenter: Frank Merle, Universite de Cergy-Pontoise, France
Date: Thursday, February 14, 2002, Time: 4:00, Location: Fine Hall 214
Topology Seminar
Topic: 4-dimensional s-cobordisms and knotted RP^2's in S^4
Presenter: Selman Akbulut, Michigan State University and the Institute for Advanced Study
Date: Thursday, February 14, 2002, Time: 4:00, Location: Fine Hall 314
Princeton University/IAS Number Theory Seminar
Topic: Asymptotic formulas for the number of solutions of Diophantine inequalities
Presenter: Eric Freeman, University of Colorado and the Institute for Advanced Study
Date: Thursday, February 14, 2002, Time: 4:30, Location: IAS SH-101
Joint Princeton University/IAS/Rutgers Non-Linear Analysis Seminar
Topic: Optimal well-posedness for the Maxwell Klein-Gordon equations
Presenter: Matei Machedon, University of Maryland, College Park
Date: Thursday, February 14, 2002, Time: 5:00, Location: Fine Hall 214
Geometric Analysis Seminar
Topic: The maximum principles in Ricci flow
Presenter: Lu Peng, McMaster University
Date: Friday, February 15, 2002, Time: 3:00 p.m., Location: Fine Hall 314
February 18 - 22
Analysis Seminar
Topic: Non-Lipschitz minimizers for uniformly convex functionals
Presenter: Xiadong Yan, Courant Institute
Date: Monday, February 18, 2002, Time: 4:00 p.m., Location: Fine Hall 314
PACM Colloquium
Topic: Critical Thresholds in Restricted Euler Dynamics
Presenter: Eitan Tadmor, University of California at Los Angeles
Date: Monday, February 18, 2002, Time: 4:00 p.m., Location: Fine Hall 214
Algebraic Geometry Seminar
Topic: Fundamental groups of surfaces in characteristic p
Presenter: David Harbater, University of Pennsylvania
Date: Tuesday, February 19, 2002, Time: 4:30 p.m., Location: Fine Hall 314
Abstract: This talk concerns the fundamental group of an affine surface over an algebraically closed field. The complex case was studied by Zariski, Abhyankar, and Fulton, and is now well understood for the complement of a nodal curve in P^2. The characteristic p analog is much more mysterious, and will be the main focus of the talk. This case can be regarded as a higher dimensional generalization of the situation in Abhyankar's Conjecture about curves in characteristic p.
Mathematical Physics Seminar
Topic: Infraparticle States and Spectrum in Non-Relativistic QED
Presenter: Thomas Chen, Courant Institute
Date: Tuesday, February 19, 2002, Time: 4:30 p.m., Location: Jadwin A06
Department Colloquium
Topic: Integrable PDEs, "quantum" Riemann-Hilbert problem, and Gromov-Witten invariants
Presenter: Boris A. Dubrovin, Moscow State University and the Institute for Advanced Study
Date: Wednesday, February 20, 2002, Time: 4:30 p.m., Location: Fine Hall 314
Discrete Mathematics Seminar
Topic: Voting paradoxes and digraphs realizations
Presenter: Noga Alon, Tel Aviv University and the Institute for Advanced Study
Date: Thursday, February 21, 2002, Time: 2:00 p.m., Location: Fine Hall 224
Topology Seminar
Topic: Legendrian connected sums
Presenter: John Etnyre, University of Pennsylvania
Date: Thursday, February 21, 2002, Time: 4:00, Location: Fine Hall 314
Princeton University/IAS Number Theory Seminar
Topic: Non-negativity of L-functions at the center of symmetry
Presenter: Erez Lapid, Ohio State University
Date: Thursday, February 21, 2002, Time: 4:30, Location: IAS SH-101
Geometric Analysis Seminar
Topic: Christoffel-Minkowski problem: convexity of solutions of fully nonlinear equations
Presenter: Peifei Guan, McMaster University
Date: Friday, February 22, 2002, Time: 3:00 p.m., Location: Fine Hall 314
Geometric Analysis Seminar *** Rescheduled from January 25, 2002 ***
Topic: Sharp Sobolev and isoperimetric inequalities with partial free boundary
Presenter: Zhu Meijun, Princeton University & Oklahoma University
Date: Friday, February 22, 2002, Time: 4:00 p.m., Location: Fine Hall 314
February 25 - March 1
Analysis Seminar
Topic: TBA
Presenter: Lars Andersson, University of Miami
Date: Monday, February 25, 2002, Time: 4:00 p.m., Location: Fine Hall 314
PACM Colloquium
Topic: Multiscale analysis in micromagnetism: the cross--tie wall
Presenter: Felix Otto, University of Bonn
Date: Monday, February 25, 2002, Time: 4:00 p.m., Location: Fine Hall 214
Algebraic Geometry Seminar
Topic: TBA
Presenter: Florian Pop, University of Bonn and the Institute for Advanced Study
Date: Tuesday, February 26, 2002, Time: 4:30 p.m., Location: Fine Hall 314
Mathematical Physics Seminar
Topic: The Cauchy Problem for a Dynamical Euler Elastica
Presenter: Almut Burchard, University of Virginia
Date: Tuesday, February 26, 2002, Time: 4:30 p.m., Location: Jadwin A06
Abstract: We consider the dynamics for a thin, closed loop inextensible Euler's elastica moving in three dimensions. The equations of motion for the elastica include a wave equation involving fourth order spatial derivatives, and a second order elliptic equation for its tension. Local existence and uniqueness of solutions are established for sufficiently regular initial data. This is joint work with L.E. Thomas.
Department Colloquium
Topic: On the Monge Ampere equation in periodic media
Presenter: Luis A. Caffarelli, University of Texas at Austin
Date: Wednesday, February 27, 2002, Time: 4:30 p.m., Location: Fine Hall 314
Discrete Mathematics Seminar
Topic: Bipartite cuts and judicious partitions in graphs without short cycles
Presenter: Michael Krivelevich, Tel Aviv University
Date: Thursday, February 28, 2002, Time: 2:00 p.m., Location: Fine Hall 224
Princeton University/IAS Number Theory Seminar
Topic: Automorphisms of even unimodular lattices
Presenter: Benedict Gross, Harvard University
Date: Thursday, February 28, 2002, Time: 4:30, Location: IAS SH-101
Joint Princeton University/IAS/Rutgers Non-Linear Analysis Seminar *** Note special day and time
Topic: TBA
Presenter: Luis A. Caffarelli, University of Texas at Austin
Date: Friday, March 1, 2002, Time: 4:30, Location: Fine Hall 214
March 4 - 8
PACM Colloquium
Topic: Solving Differential Equations Without the Equations
Presenter: William Gear, NEC Research
Date: Monday, March 4, 2002, Time: 4:00 p.m., Location: Fine Hall 214
Algebraic Geometry
Topic: TBA
Presenter: Brendan Hassett, Rice University
Date: Tuesday, March 5, 2002, Time: 4:30 p.m., Location: Fine Hall 314
Department Colloquium
Topic: TBA
Presenter: Ingrid Daubchies, Princeton University
Date: Wednesday, March 6, 2002, Time: 4:30 p.m., Location: Fine Hall 314
Discrete Mathematics Seminar
Topic: TBA
Presenter: John Conway, Princeton University
Date: Thursday, March 7, 2002, Time: 2:00 p.m., Location: Fine Hall 224
Princeton University/IAS Number Theory Seminar
Topic: TBA
Presenter: Henry Cohn, Microsoft and the American Institute of Mathematics (AIM)
Date: Thursday, March 7, 2002, Time: 4:30, Location: TBA
Geometric Analysis Seminar
Topic: Cohomology ring of crepant resolutions of orbifolds
Presenter: Ruan Yongbin, University of Wisconsin and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Date: Friday, March 8, 2002, Time: 3:00 p.m., Location: Fine Hall 314
March 11 - 15
Analysis Seminar
Topic: TBA
Presenter: Alexandru Ionescu, University of Wisconsin
Date: Monday, March 11, 2002, Time: 4:00 p.m., Location: Fine Hall 314
PACM Colloquium
Topic: Moving Mesh Methods Based on Harmonic Maps
Presenter: Pingwen Zhang, Peking University and Princeton University
Date: Monday, March 11, 2002, Time: 4:00 p.m., Location: Fine Hall 214
Mathematical Physics Seminar
Topic: Coherent State Path Integrals without Resolutions of Unity
Presenter: John Klauder, University of Florida, Gainesville
Date: Tuesday, March 12, 2002, Time: 4:30 p.m., Location: Jadwin A06
Abstract: From the very beginning, coherent state path integrals have always relied on a coherent state resolution of unity for their construction. By choosing an inadmissible fiducial vector, a set of ``coherent states'' spans the same space but loses its resolution of unity, and for that reason has been called a set of weak coherent states. Despite having no resolution of unity, it is nevertheless shown how the propagator in such a basis may admit a phase-space path integral representation in essentially the same form as if it had a resolution of unity.
Discrete Mathematics Seminar
Topic: TBA
Presenter: Van Vu, University of California, San Diego
Date: Thursday, March 14, 2002, Time: 2:00 p.m., Location: Fine Hall 224
Joint Princeton University/IAS/Rutgers Non-Linear Analysis Seminar
Topic: TBA
Presenter: Simon Brendle, University of Tuebingnon
Date: Thursday, March 14, 2002, Time: 4:00, Location: Fine Hall 214
Princeton University/IAS Number Theory Seminar
Topic: TBA
Presenter: Florian Pop, University of Bonn and the Institute for Advanced Study
Date: Thursday, March 14, 2002, Time: 4:30, Location: TBA
Geometric Analysis Seminar
Topic: On the Singular Set of J-holomorphic Maps
Presenter: Tristan Riviere, ETH (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich)
Date: Friday, March 15, 2002, Time: 3:00 p.m., Location: Fine Hall 314
March 18 - 22
PACM Colloquium
Topic: Local Discontinuous Galerkin Methods for Partial Differential Equations with Higher Order Derivatives
Presenter: Chi-Wang Shu, Brown University
Date: Monday, March 18, 2002, Time: 4:00 p.m., Location: Fine Hall 214
Mathematical Physics Seminar
Topic: TBA
Presenter: Jakob Yngvason, University of Vienna
Date: Tuesday, March 19, 2002, Time: 4:30 p.m., Location: Jadwin A06
Joint Princeton University/IAS/Rutgers Non-Linear Analysis Seminar
Topic: TBA
Presenter: Alberto Bressan, Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati (SISSA), Italy
Date: Thursday, March 21, 2002, Time: 4:00, Location: Fine Hall 214
March 25 - 29
PACM Colloquium
Topic: TBA
Presenter: Bard Ermentrout, University of Pittsburgh
Date: Monday, March 25, 2002, Time: 4:00 p.m., Location: Fine Hall 214
Algebraic Geometry Seminar
Topic: TBA
Presenter: Kiran Kedlaya, University of California, Berkeley
Date: Tuesday, March 26, 2002, Time: 4:30 p.m., Location: Fine Hall 314
Princeton University/IAS Number Theory Seminar
Topic: TBA
Presenter: Thomas Watson, UCLA
Date: Thursday, March 28, 2002, Time: 4:30, Location: TBA
Geometric Analysis Seminar
Topic: TBA
Presenter: Bruce Kleiner, University of Michigan & Courant Institute of Mathematics
Date: Friday, March 29, 2002, Time: 3:00 p.m., Location: Fine Hall 314
April 1-5
PACM Colloquium
Topic: Some themes of feedback control theory, and their relevance to systems molecular biology
Presenter: Eduardo Sontag, Rutgers University and Princeton University
Date: Monday, April 1, 2002, Time: 4:00 p.m., Location: Fine Hall 214
Algebraic Geometry
Topic: TBA
Presenter: Jeremy Teitelbaum, University Illinois at Chicago.
Date: Tuesday, April 2, 2002, Time: 4:30 p.m., Location: Fine Hall 314
Mathematical Physics Seminar
Topic: Tunneling on Quantum Graphs
Presenter: Pavel Exner, Theor. Physics, Czech Academy of Science, Prague
Date: Tuesday, April 2, 2002, Time: 4:30 p.m., Location: Jadwin A06
Department Colloquium
Topic: Evolution of Language
Presenter: Stephen Smale, University of California at Berkeley
Date: Wednesday, April 3, 2002, Time: 4:30 p.m., Location: Fine Hall 314
Abstract: A mathematical model is presented which helps to understand how languages are formed. A theorem in this setting is the convergence to a common language under a hypothesis on linguistic encounters.
April 8 - 12
Analysis Seminar
Topic: TBA
Presenter: Diego Cordoba, Princeton University
Date: Monday, April 8, 2002, Time: 4:00 p.m., Location: Fine Hall 314
Algebraic Geometry Seminar
Topic: TBA
Presenter: Joseph Silverman, Brown University
Date: Tuesday, April 9, 2002, Time: 4:30 p.m., Location: Fine Hall 314
Department Colloquium
Topic: TBA
Presenter: Michael Rabin, Harvard University
Date: Wednesday, April 10, 2002, Time: 4:30 p.m., Location: Fine Hall 314
Princeton University/IAS Number Theory Seminar
Topic: Galois groups and geometry of modular varieties
Presenter: Alexander Goncharov, Brown University
Date: Thursday, April 11, 2002, Time: 4:30, Location: TBA
Geometric Analysis Seminar
Topic: TBA
Presenter: Rina Rotman, University of Toronto and the Courant Institute of Mathematics
Date: Friday, April 12, 2002, Time: 3:00 p.m., Location: Fine Hall 314
April 15 - 19
PACM Colloquium
Topic: TBA
Presenter: Christodolous Floudas, Chemical Engineering, Princeton University
Date: Monday, April 15, 2002, Time: 4:00 p.m., Location: Fine Hall 214
April 22 - 26
Analysis Seminar
Topic: TBA
Presenter: Barry Simon, Caltech
Date: Monday, April 22, 2002, Time: 4:00 p.m., Location: Fine Hall 314
April 29 -May 3
PACM Colloquium
Topic: TBA
Presenter: Herb Keller, California Institute of Technology
Date: Monday, April 29, 2002, Time: 4:00 p.m., Location: Fine Hall 214