Previous Conferences & Workshops

Apr
07
2021

Stability and Testability

Approximations of infinite groups
Goulnara Arzhantseva
11:00am|Remote Access

We discuss various (still open) questions on approximations of finitely generated groups, focusing on finite-dimensional approximations such as residual finiteness and soficity. We survey our results on the existence, stability and quantification of...

Apr
06
2021

Computer Science/Discrete Mathematics Seminar II

How difficult is it to certify that a random 3SAT formula is unsatisfiable?
Toniann Pitassi
10:30am|Remote Access - see Zoom link below

The Satisfiability problem is perhaps the most famous problem in theoretical computer science, and significant effort has been devoted to understanding randomly generated SAT instances. The random k-SAT model (where a random k-CNF formula is chosen...

Apr
05
2021

Analysis Seminar

Yang-Mills Instantons, Quivers and Bows
Sergey Cherkis
4:30pm|Simonyi Hall 101 and Remote Access

The study of hyperkaehler manifolds of lowest dimension (and of gauge theory on them) leads to a chain of generalizations of the notion of a quiver: quivers, bows, slings, and monowalls. This talk focuses on bows, their representations, and...

Apr
05
2021

Members' Colloquium

The Earth's Dynamo: a Mathematical Model
Susan Friedlander
2:00pm|Simonyi Hall 101 and Remote Access

Earlier this semester we heard a fascinating talk by James Stone describing how the equations of compressible magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) can help us understand the Cosmos. Today we will return to Earth and describe a mathematical model, derived from...

Apr
05
2021

Computer Science/Discrete Mathematics Seminar I

Pandora's Box with Correlations: Learning and Approximation
Shuchi Chawla
11:15am|Remote Access - see Zoom link below

In the Pandora's Box problem, the algorithm is provided with a number of boxes with unknown (stochastic) rewards contained inside them. The algorithm can open any box at some cost, discover the reward inside, and based on these observations can...

Apr
03
2021

Workshop on Representation Theory and Geometry

The Drinfeld--Sokolov reduction of admissible representations of affine Lie algebras
Gurbir Dhillon
12:00pm|Virtual

Let $g$ be a semisimple Lie algebra. The affine W-algebra associated to $g$ is a topological algebra which quantizes the algebraic loop space of the Kostant slice. It is constructed as a quantum Hamiltonian (alias quantum Drinfeld--Sokolov)...

Apr
03
2021

Workshop on Representation Theory and Geometry

Flag manifolds over semifields II
Xuhua He
10:30am|Virtual

The study of totally positive matrices, i.e., matrices with positive minors, dates back to 1930s. The theory was generalised by Lusztig to arbitrary split reductive groups using canonical bases, and has significant impacts on the theory of cluster...

Apr
03
2021

Workshop on Representation Theory and Geometry

Towards derived Satake equivalence for symmetric varieties
Tsao-Hsien Chen
9:00am|Virtual

In an ongoing project of D. Ben-Zvi, Y. Sakellaridis and A. Venkatesh, the authors propose a conjectural generalization of the derived Satake equivalence for complex reductive groups to spherical varieties. I will describe a program aimed at...