Found at least 20 result(s)
Regular Seminar Gregoire Mathys (EPFL, Lausanne)
at: 01:00 - 01:00 KCL Strand room: S0.12 abstract: | In this talk, I will discuss a connection between the ANEC (Averaged Null Energy Condition) operator and monotonicity of the renormalization group. In particular, I will show how the 2d c-theorem and 4d a-theorem can be derived using the ANEC. This derivation relies on contact terms appearing in specific ANEC correlators. I will also review a new infinite set of constraints that can be derived from the ANEC in 2d QFT. This program hints at a more general role for light-ray operators in QFT, which I will argue for. Keywords: |
regular seminar Antonio d'Alfonso del Sordo (UCL)
at: 01:00 - 01:00 KCL, Strand room: UCL, 188 Tottenham Court Road, Room 03 abstract: | By the end of their degree, we expect our students to be independent learners who can read and understand mathematical texts (e.g. textbooks/papers) and study to understand the course material rather than trying to learn the exam. In practice, many of our students do not meet this expectation, in large part because we rarely teach these skills directly — they form part of the so-called hidden curriculum.
|
regular seminar Richard Webb (University of Manchester )
at: 01:00 - 01:00 KCL, Strand room: S4.29 abstract: | In this talk, we will focus on the group of Hamiltonian diffeomorphisms (and area-preserving homeomorphisms) of the 2-sphere. A tremendous amount of progress has been made in the study of these groups in the last few years, but many problems remain, including the Equator Conjecture. An equator on the 2-sphere is a simple closed curve whose complementary components have equal area. The Equator Conjecture predicts that for any positive K, there are pairs of equators such that any Hamiltonian diffeomorphism sending one equator to the other must have Hofer norm larger than K. We will prove an alternative conjecture, by replacing "Hofer norm" with "quantitative fragmentation norm". To prove this, we construct new quasimorphisms defined on all area-preserving homeomorphisms on the 2-sphere, coming from methods inspired from mapping class groups and geometric group theory. Joint work with Yongsheng Jia. Keywords: |
regular seminar Giuseppe Cannizarro (University of Warwick)
at: 01:00 - 01:00 KCL, Strand room: S4.29 abstract: | The study of stochastic PDEs has known tremendous advances in recent years and, thanks to Hairer's theory of regularity structures and Gubinelli and Perkowski's paracontrolled approach, (local) existence and uniqueness of solutions of subcritical SPDEs is by now well-understood. The goal of this talk is to move beyond the aforementioned theories and present novel tools to derive the scaling limit (in the so-called weak coupling scaling) for some stationary SPDEs at the critical dimension. Our techniques are inspired by the resolvent method developed by Landim, Olla, Yau, Varadhan, and many others, in the context of particle systems in the supercritical dimension. Time allowing, we will explain how it is possible to use our techniques to study a much wider class of statistical mechanics models at criticality such as (self-)interacting diffusions in random environment. Keywords: SPDEs, Regularity structures, resolvent method, statistical mechanics |
journal club Biswajit Sahoo (KCL)
at: 01:00 - 01:00 KCL, Strand room: Norfolk Building 342N abstract: | Keywords: |
regular seminar Linda Sharples (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine)
at: 01:00 - 01:00 KCL, Strand room: S5.20 abstract: | It is joint work with Caroline Chessang, Tom Cowling and Ruth Keogh. Keywords: |
regular seminar Panel Chair: Olga Egorova Panel members: Urte Adomaityte, Isabel Rendell and Stefania Vassiliadis (KCL)
at: 01:00 - 01:00 KCL, Strand room: K0.16 abstract: | You are invited to a lunch panel discussion and Q&A with early carreer researchers in mathematics. During this event, our panel members are going to discuss opportunities and challenges that a female mathematician has to face nowdays and how these might affect a career path. Information about the Women in Number Theory and Geometry spring retreat and the work of Piscopia local community at King's College London will also be provided.
|
regular seminar Abhay Jindal (IISc, Bangalore)
at: 01:00 - 01:00 KCL, Strand room: abstract: | In this talk, we shall talk about two invariants associated with complete Nevanlinna-Pick (CNP) spaces. One of the invariants is an operator-valued multiplier of a given CNP space, and another invariant is a positive real number. These two invariants are called characteristic function and curvature invariant, respectively. The origin of these concepts can be traced back to the classical theory of contractions by Sz.-Nagy and Foias. We will begin by delving into this classical theory, gradually leading into our main subject matter. Keywords: |
Regular Seminar Eric Bergshoeff (University of Groningen)
at: 01:00 - 01:00 KCL Strand room: S0.12 abstract: | Carroll symmetries were introduced many years ago by Levy-Leblond and Gupta as a possible contraction of the Lorentz symmetries in which effectively the speed of light is sent to zero. The name was inspired by the bizarre property that Carroll particles cannot move. After many years of silence Carroll symmetries have returned to the stage since they have been recognized as symmetries that do occur in several special situations such as the horizon of a black hole. In this presentation I will discuss some of the basic properties and mysteries of Carroll symmetries. Keywords: |
regular seminar Dr Gihan Marasingha (University of Exeter)
at: 01:00 - 01:00 KCL, Strand room: UCL, 188 Tottenham Court Road, Room 03 abstract: | Keywords: |
colloquium Jane Hutton (Warwick)
at: 01:00 - 01:00 KCL, Strand room: S-1.06 abstract: | A few mathematicians had considerable influence during the covid-19 epidemic. Some mathematicians have focussed on designing and implementing mathematical models which only consider a single illness. Applied statisticians know that it is critical to first decide what the question is: "Minimise deaths from Covid-19?" or "Minimise deaths due to Covid-19 and our decisions this year?" or "Minimise the impact of Covid-19 on well-being over ten years?" The ethical status of an expert who gives a simple answer to the first question, without uncertainty or alternatives, will be examined.
|
regular seminar Clément Dupont (Institut Montpelliérain Alexander Grothendieck (IMAG))
at: 01:00 - 01:00 KCL, Strand room: S4.29 abstract: | One is sometimes faced with the task of assigning finite values to divergent integrals in a consistent and meaningful way. Since differential forms and integrals play a central role in geometry, how to think about divergent integrals in geometric terms? The goal of this talk will be to answer this question in the case of logarithmic divergences (such as the integral of 1/x near x=0).
|
regular seminar Samuel Johnston (King's College London)
at: 01:00 - 01:00 KCL, Strand room: S4.29 abstract: | The basic operations of free probability - additive free convolution, multiplicative free convolution, and free compression - describe how the eigenvalues of large random matrices interact under the basic matrix operations, such as addition, multiplication, and taking minors.
|
regular seminar Reimer Kuehn (KCL)
at: 01:00 - 01:00 KCL, Strand room: S4.23 abstract: | In this talk I will present a solution of the so-called Gaussian level set percolation problem on random graphs. It addresses the question whether a multivariate Gaussian defined on the vertices of a random graph (with inverse covariance matrix defined, e.g., in terms of a weighted graph Laplacian) exhibits a macroscopic contiguous cluster of sites on which the Gaussian exceeds a given level h, or whether on the contrary all such clusters are finite. Because of the correlations encoded in the multivariate Gaussian, the problem is considerably more complicated than the case of independent Bernoulli percolation, and a full solution has, to the best of my knowledge, not been available in the literature. It turns out that the solution of the problem requires control over the microscopic heterogeneity of the percolation problem, i.e. , over distributions of node dependent percolation probabilities on random graphs. Keywords: |
Regular Seminar Petr Kravchuk (King's)
at: 01:00 - 01:00 KCL Strand room: LIMS abstract: | In these lectures we will discuss various aspects of conformal field theories in Lorentzian signature. First, we will study the general properties of Lorentzian correlation functions, including their global conformal structure and the relation to Euclidean correlators. We will then consider the Regge limit of correlation functions and how this limit requires the introduction of complex spin. We will define complex spin using the Lorentzian inversion formula, and interpret it in terms of non-local light-ray operators. Finally, we will discuss applications of light-ray operators to even shape observables. Keywords: |
journal club Alex Radcliffe ()
at: 01:00 - 01:00 KCL, Strand room: Norfolk Building 342N abstract: | Keywords: |
regular seminar Helen Ogden (University of Southampton)
at: 01:00 - 01:00 KCL, Strand room: S5.20 abstract: | I will discuss models for longitudinal data, where the data consists of noisy measurements taken at several different time points for each individual, and the aim is to model how each individual's underlying response varies over time. If we assume linear variation of the responses over time, we could use a linear mixed model for this task. In this talk, I will discuss more flexible modelling approaches, which allow the variation of the response over time to be any smooth curve. There is a strong link with models for functional data, and I will describe previous work on adapting methods designed for functional data (where measurements are typically taken very frequently) to longitudinal data (with typically only a few measurements on each individual). However, these existing methods sometimes give fitted mean functions which are more complex than needed to provide a good fit to the data. I will describe a new penalised likelihood approach to flexibly model longitudinal data, with a penalty term to control the balance between fit to the data and smoothness of the subject-specific mean curves. I will show that the new method substantially improves the quality of inference relative to existing methods across a range of simulated examples, and apply the method to data on changes in body composition in adolescent girls. Keywords: |
regular seminar Prof Michael Grove (University of Birmingham)
at: 01:00 - 01:00 KCL, Strand room: UCL, Torrington Place (1-19), Room 102 abstract: | Within the mathematical sciences there exist particular challenges associated with the provision of timely and detailed feedback, both of which are important given the widespread use of formative, and typically weekly, problem sheet assessments to aid and structure the mathematical development of learners. In this talk I will report on the outcomes from a cycle of action research that was designed to enhance the feedback received by students and their subsequent engagement with it in a large research-intensive mathematical sciences department along with more recent work to explore how students engage with additional opportunities for support and feedback to aid their mathematical learning. Student views on the current feedback they receive will be discussed, but more broadly the findings offer insight into alternative feedback practices that mathematical sciences departments might wish to explore. Keywords: |
regular seminar JoaquÃn Singer (University of Buenos Aires)
at: 01:00 - 01:00 KCL, Strand room: S5.20 abstract: | Hadwiger's conjecture in convex geometry, formulated in 1957, states that every convex body in $\mathbb{R}^n$ can be covered by $2^n$ translations of its interior. Despite significant efforts, the best known bound related to this problem was $\mathcal{O}(4^n \sqrt{n} \log n)$ for more than sixty years. In 2021, Huang, Slomka, Tkocz, and Vritsiou made a major breakthrough by improving the estimate by a factor of $\exp\left(\Omega(\sqrt{n})\right)$. Further, for $\psi_2$ bodies they proved that at most $\exp(-\Omega(n))\cdot4^n$ translations of its interior are needed to cover it.
|
regular seminar JoaquÃn Singer (University of Buenos Aires)
at: 01:00 - 01:00 KCL, Strand room: S5.20 abstract: |
|