Previous Conferences & Workshops

Feb
03
2014

Joint IAS/Princeton University Symplectic Geometry Seminar

A remark on the Euler equations of hydrodynamics
12:45pm|S-101

The time evolution of an ideal incompressible fluid is described by the Euler equations. In this mostly speculative talk I will discuss a connection between stationary solutions of these equations and symplectic topology, as well as possible...

Feb
03
2014

Computer Science/Discrete Mathematics Seminar I

Local Correctability of Expander Codes
Brett Hemenway
11:15am|S-101

An error-correcting code is called locally decodable if there exists a decoding algorithm that can recover any symbol of the message with high probability by reading only a small number of symbols of the corrupted codeword. There is a fundamental...

Jan
31
2014

Non-equilibrium Dynamics and Random Matrices

Tagged particle diffusion in one-dimensional systems with Hamiltonian dynamics
Abhishek Dhar
11:00am|S-101

I will present results on the study of various temporal correlation functions of a tagged particle in a one-dimensional system of interacting particles evolving with Hamiltonian dynamics and with initial conditions chosen from thermal equilibrium.

Jan
29
2014

Mathematical Conversations

Boltzmann's Entropy and the Time Evolution of Macroscopic Systems
6:00pm|Dilworth Room

Boltzmann defined the entropy, \(S(M)\), of a macroscopic system in a macrostate \(M\) as the "log of the volume of phase space" corresponding to the system being in \(M\). This definition was extended by von Neumann to quantum systems as "the log...

Jan
29
2014

Non-equilibrium Dynamics and Random Matrices

Random constraint satisfaction problems: the statistical mechanics approach and results
Guilhem Semerjian
2:00pm|S-101

In the 90's numerical simulations have unveiled interesting properties of random ensembles of constraint satisfaction problems (satisfiability and graph coloring in particular). When a parameter of the ensemble (the density of constraints per...

Jan
28
2014

Non-equilibrium Dynamics and Random Matrices

Self-avoiding walk in dimension 4
2:00pm|S-101

The (weakly) self-avoiding walk is a basic model of paths on the d-dimensional integer lattice that do not intersect (have few intersections), of interest from several different perspectives. I will discuss a proof that, in dimension 4, the...

Jan
28
2014

Computer Science/Discrete Mathematics Seminar II

Simplicial complexes as expanders
10:30am|S-101

Expanders are highly connected sparse graphs. Simplicial complexes are a natural generalization of graphs to higher dimension, and the notions of connectedness and expansion turn out to have interesting analogues, which relate to the homology and...

Jan
27
2014

Members’ Seminar

Rigidity and Flexibility of Schubert classes
2:00pm|S-101

Consider a rational homogeneous variety \(X\). (For example, take \(X\) to be the Grassmannian \(\mathrm{Gr}(k,n)\) of \(k\)-planes in complex \(n\)-space.) The Schubert classes of \(X\) form a free additive basis of the integral homology of \(X\)...

Jan
27
2014

Computer Science/Discrete Mathematics Seminar I

Unique games, the Lasserre hierarchy and monogamy of entanglement
Aram Harrow
11:15am|S-101

In this talk, I'll describe connections between the unique games conjecture (or more precisely, the closely relatedly problem of small-set expansion) and the quantum separability problem. Remarkably, not only are the problems related, but the...

Jan
22
2014

Mathematical Conversations

A new viewpoint on analytic geometry
Oren Ben-Bassat
6:00pm|Dilworth Room

What is the difference between algebraic and analytic geometry? Is there some way to construct moduli "spaces" in analytic geometry (in the Archimedean or non-Archimedean contexts)? Is there a common language for expressing the foundations of...