Current Seminars
updated 12/4/ 2002

 

WEEK OF DECEMBER 4 - DECEMBER 6, 2002

Statististical Mechanics Seminar
Topic: Phase separation in the Falicov-Kimball Model
Presenter: Pedro Goldbaum,   Princeton University
Date Wednesday, December 4, 2002, Time: 2:00 p.m., Location: Jadwin 343
Abstract: The proof of phase separation of the two kinds of fermions in the Falicov-Kimball model will be discussed. This segregated phase away from half-filling results from strong fermion correlations and is in contrast to the crystalline phase which displays long range order at half-filling. Recent calculations of a new coefficient for the segregation energy will also be discussed.
Department Colloquium
Topic: $H^{1/2}$ with values into $S^1$ and the Ginzburg-Landau model in 3-d
Presenter:  Haim Brezis,  Rutgers University and Paris VI
Date:  Wednesday, December 4, 2002, Time: 4:30 p.m., Location: Fine Hall 314
Abstract: Please click here to view abstract
Discrete Mathematics Seminar
Topic: Optical Networks and Konig's Theorem
Presenter:  Peter Winkler, Bell Labs
Date:  Thursday, December 5, 2002, Time: 2:15  p.m., Location: Fine Hall 224
Abstract: Technology keeps changing in the optical communications world, but somehow Konig's Theorem - to the effect that the edge-chromatic number of a bipartite graph is its maximum degree - is always in the picture.  We'll give four examples of problems which arose at Lucent, all related to both ends of the title, capped off by an ambitious conjecture.  The work is joint in various combinations with April Rasala (MIT) and with Bell Labs colleagues Penny Haxell, Gordon Wilfong and Lisa Zhang.
Arnold's Diffusion Seminar ***  Please note the change in date form Tuesday, December 3, 2002
Topic: Random lagrangian systems in unbounded domains
Presenter:  K. Khanin,  Cambridge University
Date:  Thursday, December 5, 2002, Time: 4:00 p.m., Location: Fine Hall 801
Joint Princeton University/IAS Number Theory Seminar
Topic: Shioda-Inose structures of one parameter families of K3 surfaces
Presenter:  Ling Long,  IAS
Date:  Thursday, December 5,  2002:  Time:  4:30, Location:  Fine Hall 322
Abstract: Based on a special structure for certain  K3 surfaces with large Picard number, the Shioda-Inose structure, we develop an algorithm to solve some arithmetic problems. For example, given a one parameter family of algebraic elliptic  K3 surfaces with generic Picard number 19,  we can use this algorithm to identify fibers whose groups of global sections (with respect to a fixed fibration) having larger rank. As a further result, we can obtain some identities involving character sums.
Topology Seminar *** Please note change in time
Topic: Ending laminations and the classification of hyperbolic 3-manifolds
Presenter:  Yair Minsky, SUNY at Stonybrook
Date:  Thursday, December 5, 2002:  Time:  4:30 p.m., Location:  Fine Hall 314
Graduate Student  Seminar
Topic: Tube volumes and small hyperbolic three-manifolds
Presenter:  Peter Milley, Princeton University
Date:  Friday, December 6, 2002, Time: 12:30 p.m., Location: Fine Hall 1201
Abstract: In two dimensions, the Gauss-Bonnet theorem says that the area of a complete hyperbolic surface is just a constant multiple of its Euler characteristic.  In three dimensions, however, the situation is much more complicated; in particular, the question of which hyperbolic three-manifolds have the smallest volume is still open.  In this talk I will give a brief history of this problem and my own efforts to tackle it using, among other things, a rigourous computer-aided computation.
Geometric Analysis  Seminar
Topic: Asymptotic analysis of the equation $\Delta u = 2 u_x \wedge u_y$
Presenter:  Andrea Malchiodi, IAS
Date:  Friday, December 6, 2002, Time: 3:00 p.m., Location: Fine Hall 314
WEEK OF DECEMBER 9 - DECEMBER 13, 2002
Analysis Seminar
Topic: TBA
Presenter:  Vincent Moncrief,  Yale University
Date:  Monday, December 9, 2002, Time: 4:00 p.m., Location: Fine Hall 314
Algebraic Geometry Seminar
Topic: Jets, arcs and minimal log discrepancies
Presenter:  Mircea Mustata, Clay and Harvard University
Date:  Tuesday, December 10, 2002, Time: 4:30 p.m., Location: Fine Hall 322
Statististical Mechanics Seminar
Topic: Kolmogorov and Anosov Flows: from Classical to Quantum
Presenter: Gerard Emch,   University of Florida, Gainesville
Date Wednesday, December 11, 2002, Time: 2:00 p.m., Location: Jadwin 343
Abstract: The place of classical Kolmogorov and Anosov flows in the hierarchy of classical ergodic theory will be reviewed with the help of elementary models (from Boltzmann and Hadamard up). I will then explain how these notions generalize naturally to the quantum realm with the help of a few tools from functional analysis, in particular von Neumann algebras, a toolbox that will be open slowly enough to make the generalisations appear natural indeed.
Department Colloquium
Topic: Gauge Symmetry Breaking
Presenter:  Ed Witten,  Institute for Advanced Study
Date:  Wednesday, December 11, 2002, Time: 4:30 p.m., Location: Fine Hall 314
Abstract: I will describe the gauge symmetry breaking that is observed in superconductors and has an analog in four-manifold theory, and the gauge symmetry breaking in elementary particle physics that physicists are still aiming to understand more fully.
Discrete Mathematics Seminar
Topic: A generalisation of a conjecture of Erdos and Rothschild
Presenter:  Peter Keevash, Princeton University
Date:  Thursday, December 12, 2002, Time: 2:15  p.m., Location: Fine Hall 224
Abstract: Please click here to view abstract
Joint Princeton University/IAS Number Theory Seminar
Topic: Automorphic representations of a symplectic group
Presenter:  Yuval Flicker,  Ohio State University
Date:  Thursday, December 12,  2002:  Time:  4:30, Location:  Fine Hall 322
Abstract: I would like to describe the admissible and automorphic representations of PGSp(2) in terms of liftings related to PGL(4), PGL(2)xPGL(2), SO(4), stated using character relations. This permits a definition of packets, proof of multiplicity one, listing all counter-examples to Ramanujan's conjecture, and potential applications toShimura varieties.
Topology Seminar *** Please note change in time
Topic: Negative curvature and exotic smooth surfaces
Presenter:  Tom Farrell, State University of New York at Binghamton
Date:  Thursday, December 12, 2002:  Time:  4:30p.m., Location:  Fine Hall 314