Previous Conferences & Workshops

Nov
07
2015

Workshop on Topology: Identifying Order in Complex Systems

Critical mechanical structures: topology and entropy
Xiaoming Mao
10:00am|S-101

Critical mechanical structures are structures at the verge of mechanical instability. These structures are characterized by their floppy modes, which are deformations costing little energy. On the one hand, numerous interesting phenomena in soft...

Nov
06
2015

Joint IAS/Princeton University Symplectic Geometry Seminar

Negative and positive results in the intersection between systolic and symplectic geometry
Umberto Hryniewicz
2:00pm|S-101

How small is the smallest period of a closed trajectory of a Reeb flow? In this talk I will present recent answers to instances of this question in three-dimensions which reveal connections between systolic and symplectic geometry. I will present...

Nov
03
2015

Geometric Structures on 3-manifolds

Random walks on weakly hyperbolic groups
Joseph Maher
4:00pm|S-101

Let $G$ be a group acting by isometries on a Gromov hyperbolic space, which need not be proper. If $G$ contains two hyperbolic elements with disjoint fixed points, then we show that a random walk on $G$ converges to the boundary almost surely. This...

Nov
03
2015

Geometric Structures on 3-manifolds

Random walks on groups with hyperbolic properties
Joseph Maher
2:00pm|S-101

We give a brief introduction to random walks on groups with hyperbolic properties.

Nov
03
2015

Computer Science/Discrete Mathematics Seminar II

Two-source dispersers for polylogarithmic entropy and improved Ramsey graphs II
10:30am|S-101

In his 1947 paper that inaugurated the probabilistic method, Erdős proved the existence of $2 \log(n)$-Ramsey graphs on $n$ vertices. Matching Erdős' result with a constructive proof is a central problem in combinatorics that has gained a...