Mathematics Events (New System)

Department Of Mathematics, Kansas State University

<< Events Calendar - SPRING 2008 (Reset) >>

THURSDAY Jan. 17 :	COLLOQUIUM
Title:	Character Varieties of Twist Knots
	Kathleen Petersen Queen's University Abstract: Finite volume hyperbolic 3-manifolds are determined by their fundamental groups. Character varieties associated to these groups encode much topological data, but little is known about the types of varieties which occur in this fashion. I will construct explicit equations for an infinite family of knots and discuss some consequences. This is joint work with R. Van Liujk and M. Macasieb
Time and Place:	2:30 PM CW 122

TUESDAY Jan. 22 :	COLLOQUIUM
Title:	Mean Values of L-Functions
	Qiao Zhang Johns Hopkins University Abstract: A fundamental principle in number theory is that the values of certain analytic functions, the L-functions, at some special points actually encode much arithmetic information. This idea is embodied in many deep results and open problems, including two out of the seven Clay Millennium Problems. In this talk we will begin with an expository discussion of these special values and their arithmetic significance, and then we will investigate their average behavior through two important approaches, namely random matrix theory (coming from high-energy physics) and multiple Dirichlet series (coming from analytic number theory and representation theory). Lastly, we will introduce a conjecture that predicts unexpectedly exotic behaviors of these special values, and present some supporting evidence for it.
Time and Place:	2:30 PM CW 122

THURSDAY Jan. 24 :	COLLOQUIUM
Title:	Duality for Spaces with Group Actions
	Pramod Achar Louisiana State University Abstract: In the 1890's, Henri Poincare discovered a remarkable and surprising symmetry among the cohomology groups of a compact, orientable manifold. In the intervening century, many generalizations of Poincare duality have been found, such as versions that hold on singular spaces (using "intersection cohomology"), or that hold for cohomology of vector bundles (Serre-Grothendieck duality). In representation theory, one is often interested in the geometry of spaces equipped with a group action. In this setting, Poincare duality is a powerful tool that has led to many stunning achievements in recent decades. I will try to give a glimpse of these results, and I will discuss new results that may lead to similar applications for Serre-Grothendieck duality.
Time and Place:	2:30 PM CW 122

TUESDAY Jan. 29 :	COLLOQUIUM
Title:	Diophantine Inequalities
	Craig Spencer University of Michigan Abstract: In this talk, we will investigate questions concerning integer solutions to inequalities. In particular, we will examine small solutions to systems of Diophantine inequalities, and we will also study the solvability of a single diagonal inequality. After discussing integer solutions to forms with real coefficients, our focus will shift to Diophantine inequalities in function fields.
Time and Place:	2:30 PM CW 122

THURSDAY Jan. 31 :	Function Theory Study Seminar
Title:	Random vectors in Hilbert spaces
	Xiang Fang, Kansas State University Let a_n= 1 or -1, then the series a_1 + a_2/2 + a_3/3 + ... + a_n/n + ... is not necessarily convergent, but it "almost always" converges. I will prove a classical convergence theorem for random vectors in Hilbert spaces, which generalizes the above fact. Then I will give two examples--multipliers of the Dirichlet space from complex analysis and Pisier algebra from harmonic analysis--to illustrate interests in random objects.
Time and Place:	3:30 PM CW 144

MONDAY Feb. 04 :	Algebra Seminar
Title:	Rational Homology of Spaces of Long Knots
	Victor Turchin Kansas State University The rational homology of these spaces are related to the Hochschild homology of the Poisson algebras operad. I will start with the necessary definitions: Hochschild complex, operads, spaces of knots, and so on.
Time and Place:	4:30 PM CW 144

TUESDAY Feb. 05 :	COLLOQUIUM
Title:	Finiteness Results in Arithmetic Dynamics
	Clayton Petsche CUNY Graduate Center Abstract: This talk will be an introduction to arithmetic dynamics, which is the study of the iteration of self-maps on varieties over global fields. I will discuss two open problems in the subject: the Morton-Silverman uniform boundedness conjecture, and Ih's conjecture on the finiteness of integral preperiodic points. I will conclude the talk by reporting recent progress on the latter problem.
Time and Place:	2:30 PM CW 122

WEDNESDAY Feb. 06 :	Analysis Seminar
Title:	Reproducing kernel spaces, boundary interpolation and rigidity theorems
	Daniel Alpay, Ben Gurion University We review the interpolation theory of functions analytic and bounded by one in the open unit disk (Schur functions) at a boundary point. The case of functions with a finite number of poles in the open unit disk is also considered. We apply these results to generalize a rigidity result of Burns and Krantz. This is joint work with S. Reich (Technion, Haifa, Israel), and D. Shoikhet (Braude College, Karmiel, Israel).
Time and Place:	4:30 PM Cardwell 144

THURSDAY Feb. 07 :	COLLOQUIUM
Title:	Double Affine Lie Theory
	Nicolas Guay University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom Abstract: One of the major breakthrough in representation theory in the XXe century was the discovery by V. Kac and R. Moody of a new class of Lie algebras which encompasses the fundamental family of semisimple Lie algebras. Examples of such Kac-Moody algebras are given by affine Lie algebras, which admit various types of generalizations. In particular, over the last fifteen years, mathematicians have been interested in deformations of certain double affine structures in Lie theory. I will present examples of such mathematical objects: quantum toroidal algebras, double affine Hecke algebras, symplectic reflection algebras etc. I will also survey some of the developments in this active area of research and connections with other topics in mathematics.
Time and Place:	2:30 PM CW 122

	Function Theory Study Seminar
Title:	Time-frequency estimates and nonlinear Schrödinger equations
	Kasso Okoudjou, University of Maryland Abstract: In the first part of this talk, we shall present some new time-frequency estimates for a family of unimodular Fourier multipliers. It must be pointed out that, in general, these Fourier multipliers are known to be unbounded on Lebesgue spaces. In the second part of the talk we shall use these time-frequency estimates to obtain improved local well-posedness results for certain nonlinear Schrödinger equations with Cauchy data in the so-called modulation spaces. The talk will be based on recent joint work with A.Bényi, K.Gröchenig and L.Rogers
Time and Place:	3:30 PM CW 144

MONDAY Feb. 11 :	Algebra Seminar
Title:	Vertices of Lefschetz Modules
	John Maginnis Kansas State University Let G be a finite group acting on a finite simplicial complex. Form a (virtual) G-module as an alternating sum of the chain complex. We will discuss a condition on fixed point sets that implies this module is projective (or projective relative to a collection of p-subgroups). In the case of a finite Lie group acting on the Tits building, we obtain the projective and irreducible Steinberg module. We can also construct a simplicial complex using chains of inclusions of p-subgroups. For background material, I will give a brief review of ordinary and modular representation theory. These lectures will continue on February 18 and 25.
Time and Place:	4:30 PM CW 144

TUESDAY Feb. 12 :	Seminar
Title:	Permutations of even residues mod p, part I
	Speaker: Todd Cochrane Abstract: Goresky and Klapper conjectured that for any prime p>13 and any l-sequence based on p, every pair of allowable decimations of the l-sequence are cyclically distinct. This conjecture is equivalent to a statement regarding permutations of even residues. Jean Bourgain informed us that a proof of the conjecture for sufficiently large p follows from certain exponential sum bounds of Cochrane and Pinner. We outline a proof here for p>10^{90} and give a number of special cases when the result holds for smaller p.
Time and Place:	3:30 PM Cardwell 144

WEDNESDAY Feb. 13 :	Analysis Seminar
Title:	Fourier series and extrapolation methods
	Chuck Moore
Time and Place:	4:30 PM CW 144

THURSDAY Feb. 14 :	Function Theory Study Seminar
Title:	"on the Hausdorff dimension of harmonic measure in higher dimension", by J. Bourgain.
	Pietro Poggi-Corradini Kansas State University Celebrated results of Makarov, Jones, Wolff, etc.. showed that harmonic measure in the plane has dimension at most 1. I will read from a 1987 Inventiones paper of J. Bourgain where he showed that in n-space with n=3,4,5,...harmonic measure has dimension at most n-c(n) for some constant c(n)>0. I will make an effort to present all the necessary background.
Time and Place:	3:30 PM CW144

MONDAY Feb. 18 :	Algebra Seminar
Title:	Vertices of Lefschetz Modules
	John Maginnis Kansas State University
Time and Place:	4:30 PM CW 144

TUESDAY Feb. 19 :	Seminar
Title:	Permutations of even residues mod p, part II
	Speaker: Todd Cochrane Abstract: Goresky and Klapper conjectured that for any prime p>13 and any l-sequence based on p, every pair of allowable decimations of the l-sequence are cyclically distinct. This conjecture is equivalent to a statement regarding permutations of even residues. Jean Bourgain informed us that a proof of the conjecture for sufficiently large p follows from certain exponential sum bounds of Cochrane and Pinner. We outline a proof here for p>10^{90} and give a number of special cases when the result holds for smaller p.
Time and Place:	3:30 PM Cardwell 144

WEDNESDAY Feb. 20 :	Analysis Seminar
Title:	Fourier Series and Extrapolation methods
	Chuck Moore
Time and Place:	4:30 PM Cardwell 144

THURSDAY Feb. 21 :	Function Theory Study Seminar
Title:	"On the Hausdorff dimension of harmonic measure in higher dimension", by J. Bourgain. Part II.
	Pietro Poggi-Corradini Kansas State University Abstract Celebrated results of Makarov, Jones, Wolff, etc.. showed that harmonic measure in the plane has dimension at most 1. I will read from a 1987 Inventiones paper of J. Bourgain where he showed that in n-space with n=3,4,5,...harmonic measure has dimension at most n-c(n) for some constant c(n)>0. I will make an effort to present all the necessary background.
Time and Place:	3:30 PM CW144

MONDAY Feb. 25 :	Algebra Seminar
Title:	Vertices of Lefschetz Modules
	John Maginnis Kansas State University
Time and Place:	4:30 PM CW 144

TUESDAY Feb. 26 :	Seminar
Title:	Permutations of even residues mod p, part III
	Speaker: Todd Cochrane Abstract: Goresky and Klapper conjectured that for any prime p>13 and any l-sequence based on p, every pair of allowable decimations of the l-sequence are cyclically distinct. This conjecture is equivalent to a statement regarding permutations of even residues. Jean Bourgain informed us that a proof of the conjecture for sufficiently large p follows from certain exponential sum bounds of Cochrane and Pinner. We outline a proof here for p>10^{90} and give a number of special cases when the result holds for smaller p.
Time and Place:	3:30 PM Cardwell 144

WEDNESDAY Feb. 27 :	Analysis Seminar
Title:	The Cauchy problem for the two phase Stefan problem
	Marianne Korten On the upper half space, we consider the two-phase Stefan problem taken in the sense of conservation laws. We show that the Cauchy problem is solvable for function and measure data which satisfy the proper growth condition at infinity.
Time and Place:	4:30 PM Cardwell 144

THURSDAY Feb. 28 :	Function Theory Study Seminar
Title:	"On the Hausdorff dimension of harmonic measure in higher dimension", by J. Bourgain. Part III
	Pietro Poggi-Corradini Kansas State University Abstract Celebrated results of Makarov, Jones, Wolff, etc.. showed that harmonic measure in the plane has dimension at most 1. I will read from a 1987 Inventiones paper of J. Bourgain where he showed that in n-space with n=3,4,5,...harmonic measure has dimension at most n-c(n) for some constant c(n)>0. I will make an effort to present all the necessary background.
Time and Place:	3:30 PM CW144

MONDAY Mar. 03 :	Algebra Seminar
Title:	Hodge Decomposition in the Homology of Spaces of Long Knots
	Victor Turchin Kansas State University Gerstenhaber and Schack defined this decomposition for the Hochschild homology of a commutative algebra with coefficients in a commutative bimodule. I will recall this construction which has natural geometrical interpretation for the study of free loop spaces. It turns out that this construction also works nicely for embedding spaces. (This is work in progress.)
Time and Place:	4:30 PM CW 144

TUESDAY Mar. 04 :	Seminar
Title:	Decimations of l-Sequences and Applications
	Speaker: Jennifer Paulhus A conjecture about the cyclic structure of subsequences of l-sequences is equivalent to the conjecture which has been discussed the last few weeks in this seminar. These l-sequences arise out of certain applications to cryptography and error correcting codes and exhibit several nice properties. We discuss the connection between these conjectures as well as explain a bit about the applications and the consequences of this conjecture being true.
Time and Place:	3:30 PM Cardwell 144

WEDNESDAY Mar. 05 :	Analysis Seminar
Title:	Singular quasilinear and Hessian equations and inequalities
	Nguyen Cong Phuc, Purdue University
Time and Place:	4:30 PM Cardwell 144

THURSDAY Mar. 06 :	Function Theory Study Seminar
Title:	"Integral Transforms Controlled by Maximal Functions" by Mircea Martin and Pawel Szeptycki
	Mukta Bhandari Kansas State University Abstract The paper characterizes the kernel functions on R^n with the property that the associated convolution operators are controlled by certain maximal operators. Key words: Integral transform, Maximal operator, Hedberg inequality.
Time and Place:	3:30 PM CW144

MONDAY Mar. 10 :	Geometry,Topology&Physics Seminar
Title:	On the rational homotopy theory of semi-algebraic sets
	Pascal Lambrechts Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium abstract According to de Rham theorem the homology of the differential algebra of smooth forms on a smooth manifold, $\Omega^(M)$, is isomorphic to the singular cohomology algebra of $M$ with real coefficients. Actually rational homotopy theory of Sullivan implies that the quasi-isomorphism type of $\Omega^(M)$ contains all the information about the ``real homotopy type of $M$''. More genrally Sullivan has associated to any topogical space an analog of the de Rham algebra of smooth forms which also capture all the real or rational homotopy type of the space. In this talk we will explain some theory initiated by Kontsevich and Soibelman who build a more geometric analog of Sullivan's functor suitable for semi-algebraic sets. This is useful for Kontsevich's proof of formality of the litlle discs operad. (This is joint work with B. Hardt , V. Turchin, I. Volic)
Time and Place:	3:30 PM CW146

	Algebra Seminar
Title:	Hodge Decomposition in the Homology of Spaces of Long Knots
	Victor Turchin Kansas State University
Time and Place:	4:30 PM CW 144

TUESDAY Mar. 11 :	Faculty Meeting
Title:	Graduate Faculty Meeting
	.
Time and Place:	2:30 PM CW 122

	Seminar
Title:	The Measure of a Polynomial in Terms of the Normalizers of
	Speaker: John Garza University of Texas at Austin Abstract: John will talk about his research on Mahler Measure and the Lehmer Problem.
Time and Place:	3:30 PM CW 144

	Seminar
Title:	The Measure of a Polynomial in Terms of the Normalizers of
	Speaker: John Garza University of Texas at Austin Abstract: John will talk about his research on Mahler Measure and the Lehmer Problem.
Time and Place:	3:30 PM CW 144

	Number Theory Seminar
Title:	The Measure of a Polynomial in Terms of the Normalizers of Stabilizers
	John Garza University of Texas at Austin Abstract: John will talk about his research on Mahler Measure and the Lehmer Problem.
Time and Place:	3:30 PM CW144

THURSDAY Mar. 13 :	COLLOQUIUM
Title:	Closed Geodesics On Connected Sums
	Pascal Lambrechts Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium Abstract: Consider a Riemannian manifold M. A closed geodesic is a geodesic $\gamma\colon \BR\to M$ that is $T$-periodic, $\gamma(t+T)=\gamma(t)$, for some $T>0$. It is conjectured that every closed riemannian manifold of dimension $\geq2$ admits infinitely many geometrically distinct closed geodesics. Sullivan and Vigu\'e have proved that conjecture when the topology of $M$ is complicated enough. A more quantitative question is about the asymptotic behaviour of the function $\ell\mapsto N_M(\ell)$ counting the number of closed geodesics of length $\leq\ell$. Gromov has developped some theory to study this question and conjectures that this function has an exponential growth for almost all manifolds. In our talk we will explain the ideas on how these questions have been approached and we will settle them for non trivial connected sums.
Time and Place:	2:30 PM CW 122

	Function Theory Study Seminar
Title:	"Integral Transforms Controlled by Maximal Functions" by Mircea Martin and Pawel Szeptycki, Part II.
	Mukta Bhandari Kansas State University Abstract The paper characterizes the kernel functions on R^n with the property that the associated convolution operators are controlled by certain maximal operators. Key words: Integral transform, Maximal operator, Hedberg inequality.
Time and Place:	3:30 PM CW144

WEDNESDAY Mar. 26 :	Analysis Seminar
Title:	A T(1)-Theorem for variable coefficient bilinear Hilbert transforms
	Rodolfo Torres, University of Kansas We will quickly review the (linear) T1-Theorem for Calderon-Zygmund singular integral operators and some of the ideas behind it. We will then introduce some results about bilinear operators and some motivation for their study. We will conclude with a new result for bilinear operators which are variable coefficient versions of the bilinear Hilbert transform. The new results are joint work with A. Benyi, C. Demeter, A. Nahmod, C. Thiele, and P. Villarroya.
Time and Place:	4:30 PM Cardwell 144

THURSDAY Mar. 27 :	NINETEENTH HARRY E. VALENTINE LECTURE
Title:	Compliments To Bad Spaces
	Oleg Viro SUNY Abstract: Could Mathematics be made any better by a different choice of basic definitions? Definitions in some mathematical theories exclude objects, which are believed to be nasty. We will consider few examples of such "political correctness". Speaking on differential manifolds, we usually pretend that they have no singular siblings. This causes lots of inconveniences. The image of a differential manifold under a differentiable map may fail to be a manifold. In the category of differentiable manifolds and mappings we miss the flexibility that we enjoy in general topology, where any set-theoretic construction has a counter-part: a subset is a subspace, a quotient set is a quotient space, etc. Another example is finite topological spaces. Most mathematicians believe that all finite topological spaces are either trivial or nasty. Topology appears to be the only mathematical field that feels ashamed of its finite objects. However, in the early days of topology, finite topological spaces were the main objects of what was called combinatorial topology.
Time and Place:	2:30 PM TH 1018

	Function Theory Study Seminar
Title:	"Integral Transforms Controlled by Maximal Functions" by Mircea Martin and Pawel Szeptycki, Part III.
	Mukta Bhandari Kansas State University Abstract The paper characterizes the kernel functions on R^n with the property that the associated convolution operators are controlled by certain maximal operators. Key words: Integral transform, Maximal operator, Hedberg inequality.
Time and Place:	3:30 PM CW144

FRIDAY Mar. 28 :	Geometry Topology
Title:	Patchworking of algebraic varieties and tropical geometry
	Oleg Viro SUNY Abstract Algebraic Geometry has a piecewise linear core visible in logarithmic coordinates. This core was recently named Tropical Geometry. The relation between Tropical and Algebraic Geometries is similar to that between Classical and Quantum Mechanics. Deformations similar to quantization turn tropical varieties into usual complex or real algebraic varieties. This is used as a powerful way to construct algebraic varieties with interesting properties. As long as we are interested in topological or other coarse properties of real algebraic varieties, we can build varieties by patchworking, a sort of "cut and paste" technique. If the building blocks are essentially linear, the patchworking can be considered as a deformation of a tropical variety to a real one.
Time and Place:	3:30 PM CW 146

MONDAY Mar. 31 :	Topology
Title:	Fibered knots and the Bennequin bound
	John Etnyre Georga Institute of Technology In the early 80's Bennequin proved that the self-linking number of a transverse knot in the standard contact structure on S^3 was bounded above by minus the Euler characteristic of any Seifert surface for the knot. Eliashberg later proved the same bound in any tight contact manifold. It has been know for quit some time now that this bound is not optimal for many knot types. It turns out there is a elegant interaction between the optimality of the Bennequin inequality for fibered knots and Giroux's work on the relation between open books and contact structures. In this talk I will explain this interaction and give a precise characterization of when the Bennequin bound is optimal for fibered knots.
Time and Place:	3:30 PM CW 143

	Algebra Seminar
Title:	Vertices of Lefschetz Modules
	John Maginnis Kansas State University
Time and Place:	4:30 PM CW 144

TUESDAY Apr. 01 :	THIRTIETH WILLIAM J. SPENCER LECTURE
Title:	Contact Geometry and Legendrian Knots
	John Etnyre Georgia Institute of Technology Abstract: Contact geometry is a venerable subject that arose out of the study of Geometric Optics and PDEs in the 1800's. Through the years it has repeatedly cropped up in many areas of mathematics, but only in the past 30 years or so has it received serious attention. In the recent past there have been many breakthroughs in the study of contact geometry that have shown surprising connections with low-dimensional topology, complex geometry and dynamics. In this talk, I will briefly survey the history of contact geometry and then describe some of these recent breakthroughs. A key player in the talk --- that simply and elegantly exhibits some of the connections with topology --- will be Legendrian knots. These are knots that are well adapted to the contact geometry. I will describe various ways of studying these knots, indicate how they mediate some of the subtle connections to topology, and discuss what is known of their classification.
Time and Place:	2:30 PM TH 1018

	Seminar
Title:	Using Landau's criterion for determining when certain rational numbers composed of factorials are integral.
	Abstract: We will talk about an open question that we discussed with Prof. Frits Beukers at the AWS- 2008. The question concerns when certain rational numbers composed of factorials are integral.
Time and Place:	3:30 PM CW 144

WEDNESDAY Apr. 02 :	Analysis Seminar
Title:	Floating drops and functions of bounded variation
	Ray Treinen, Kansas State University Consider a volume of fluid resting on the interface between two other fluids. We measure the energy of the configuration and prove that a minimizing configuration exists. We consider first a bounded cylindrical container, then, in order to make the connection to results of Elcrat, Neel, and Siegel, we take a limit of bounded containers and show that the limiting configuration is also minimizing in a local sense. This is joint work with Alan Elcrat. We will begin with a short review of the basic theorems from the theory of functions of bounded variation.
Time and Place:	4:30 PM CW 144

THURSDAY Apr. 03 :	INAUGURAL BRENT P. SMITH MEMORIAL LECTURE
Title:	Geometry and Topology of 3-Dimensional Spaces
	John Morgan Columbia University Abstract: When he introduced Riemannian geometry, Riemann vastly generalized what had come before and explicitly separated geometry from the topology of the underlying space; geometry became an extra structure given to a topological space. Around the turn of the 20th century Poincaré put topology on an independent footing as a subdiscipline of mathematics and formulated a question which he considered as central. That question was to characterize the simplest 3-dimensional space, the 3-sphere. In the 1980s Thurston conjectured that 3-dimensional spaces could be classified, and Poincaré's original conjecture could be resolved, by uniting homogeneous Riemannian geometry and topology in dimension 3, undoing, in a sense for 3-dimensional spaces, Riemann's separation of topology and geometry. Richard Hamilton proposed a method of attacking Thurston's conjecture by using a version of the heat equation to evolve any Riemannian metric to a nice Riemannian metric. Recently, Perelman has given a complete proof of Thurston's conjecture along the general lines envisioned by Hamilton. This talk is aimed at a general mathematical audience and will introduce ways of thinking about the topology 3-dimensional spaces and the homogeneous geometries that come into play. The talk will describe the version of the heat-type equation, called the Ricci flow equation, for Riemannian metrics and give an overview how Perelman used it to resolve the topological questions.
Time and Place:	2:30 PM TH 1018

	Function Theory Study Seminar
Title:	"Complete Nevanlinna-Pick Kernels" by Jim Agler and John E. McCarthy, publ. in JFA 175 (2000)
	Dan Volok Kansas State University Abstract In this paper the authors give a representation of all complete Nevanlinna-Pick kernels and show that they are all restrictions of a universal complete Nevanlinna-Pick kernel.
Time and Place:	3:30 PM CW144

FRIDAY Apr. 04 :	Topology
Title:	Ricci flow and the Geometrization of $3$-dimensional manifolds.
	John Morgan Columbia University This talk is a continuation of the overview to be given in the first, general talk. We will describe Ricci flow and Ricci flow with surgery. We will discuss the topological changes introduced by surgery and then outline how one uses this evolution to establish the Poincaré Conjecture and the Geometrization of $3$-dimensional manifolds as conjectured by Thurston.
Time and Place:	3:30 PM CW 143

MONDAY Apr. 07 :	Topology
Title:	Euler Characteristics of Knots
	Ken Baker Gerogia Institute of Technology The Euler characteristic of a knot in a closed 3-manifold is the maximal Euler characteristic among connected, orientable surfaces properly embedded in the exterior of the knot. The set of Euler characteristics of knots in S^3 is {1,-1,-3,...}. The same is true for knots in the trivial homology class in any 3-manifold. In general, however, this is not the case for knots in a given non-trivial, finite-order homology class. We will discuss the behavior of the set of Euler characteristics of a homology class and pose some related questions.
Time and Place:	3:30 PM CW 143

	Algebra Seminar
Title:	Vertices of Lefschetz Modules
	John Maginnis Kansas State University
Time and Place:	4:30 PM CW 144

TUESDAY Apr. 08 :	Faculty Meeting
Title:	Tenured Faculty Meeting
	.
Time and Place:	2:30 PM CW 122

	Faculty Meeting
Title:	Tenured Faculty Meeting
	.
Time and Place:	2:30 PM CW 122

	Seminar
Title:	Using Landau's criterion for determining when certain rational numbers composed of factorials are integral.
	Speaker: Ishak Mohamed Abstract: We will talk about an open question that we discussed with Prof. Frits Beukers at the AWS- 2008. The question concerns when certain rational numbers composed of factorials are integral.
Time and Place:	3:30 PM CW 145

WEDNESDAY Apr. 09 :	Analysis Seminar
Title:	Floating drops and functions of bounded variation, part 2
	Ray Treinen, Kansas State University Consider a volume of fluid resting on the interface between two other fluids. We measure the energy of the configuration and prove that a minimizing configuration exists. We consider first a bounded cylindrical container, then, in order to make the connection to results of Elcrat, Neel, and Siegel, we take a limit of bounded containers and show that the limiting configuration is also minimizing in a local sense. This is joint work with Alan Elcrat. We will begin with a short review of the basic theorems from the theory of functions of bounded variation.
Time and Place:	4:30 PM Cardwell 144

THURSDAY Apr. 10 :	Function Theory Study Seminar
Title:	"Complete Nevanlinna-Pick Kernels" by Jim Agler and John E. McCarthy, publ. in JFA 175 (2000), Part II
	Dan Volok Kansas State University Abstract In this paper the authors give a representation of all complete Nevanlinna-Pick kernels and show that they are all restrictions of a universal complete Nevanlinna-Pick kernel.
Time and Place:	3:30 PM CW144

MONDAY Apr. 14 :	Algebra Seminar
Title:	Vertices of Lefschetz Modules
	John Maginnis Kansas State University
Time and Place:	4:30 PM CW 144

TUESDAY Apr. 15 :	SECOND BRENT P. SMITH MEMORIAL LECTURE
Title:	The Mathematical Equation of Simple Bubbles and the Estimation of Height
	John McCuan Georgia Institute of Technology Abstract: In a series of lectures, the existence theory and geometry associated with simple bubbles bounded by a convex planar curve will be described. In this first lecture we will give an overview of some of the surprising things we think are true about these bubbles but for which we know no proof. In addition, the first in a sequence of estimates related to the mathematical existence theory of these bubbles (and to existence theory for more general equations) will be discussed. We will also introduce the most important fundamental tool used in the analysis of these equations---the maximum principle.
Time and Place:	2:30 PM CW 103

	Number Theory Seminar
Title:	Schinzel's lower bound for heights in abelian extensions
	Chris Pinner Kansas State University Abstract: I will go through the proof of Schinzel's lower bound for the Mahler measure of a polynomial with abelian galois group when the polynomial does not have all its roots on the unit circle.
Time and Place:	3:30 PM CW144

WEDNESDAY Apr. 16 :	Analysis Seminar
Title:	Dynamical systems method for solving linear finite-rank operator equations
	Nguyen Hoang, Kansas State University A version of the Dynamical Systems Method (DSM) for solving ill-conditioned linear algebraic systems is studied in this paper. An a priori and a posteriori stopping rules are justified. An iterative scheme is constructed for solving ill-conditioned linear algebraic systems. This is a joint work with Prof. A. G. Ramm.
Time and Place:	4:30 PM Cardwell 144

THURSDAY Apr. 17 :	Special
Title:	Mathematics of soap films
	John McCuan Georgia Institute of Technology
Time and Place:	1:30 PM W 115

	THIRTY-FIRST WILLIAM J. SPENCER LECTURE
Title:	Revisiting the Classification of the Finite Simple Groups
	Stephen Smith University of Illinois at Chicago Abstract: The classification of the finite simple groups was a huge project, involving hundreds of mathematicians and thousands of journal pages. Most of the work was done in the 1970s and early 1980s---though the final piece was not put in place until the 2004 publication of the Aschbacher-Smith classification of the "quasithin" groups. The talk will give an expository overview of the classification effort---including the original history, along with a number of more recent insights. Some of the latter are emerging from a joint work in progress, aimed at publishing an outline of the classification.
Time and Place:	2:30 PM TH 1018

	Function Theory Study Seminar
Title:	"A note on the Gurov-Reshetnyak condition." by Korenovskyy, A. A.; Lerner, A. K.; Stokolos, A. M.
	Sharad Silwal Kansas State University Abstract Korenovskyy, A. A.; Lerner, A. K.; Stokolos, A. M. A note on the Gurov-Reshetnyak condition. Math. Res. Lett. 9 (2002), no. 5-6, 579--583. I will present the main result of this paper which establishes an equivalence condition between the Gurov-Reshetnyak (GR(epsilon)) and Muckenhoupt A(infinity) conditions.
Time and Place:	3:30 PM CW144

MONDAY Apr. 21 :	Special
Title:	Soap films
	John McCuan Georgia Institute of Technology
Time and Place:	3:30 PM CW 143

	Seminar
Title:	Bounds on Character Sums
	Andrew Granville, University of Montreal
Time and Place:	4:30 PM CW 145

	Algebra Seminar
Title:	The Size of Character Sums
	Andrew Granville University of Montreal
Time and Place:	4:30 PM CW 144

TUESDAY Apr. 22 :	Special
Title:	Soap films
	John McCuan Georgia Institute of Technology
Time and Place:	1:30 PM W115

	NINTEENTH ISIDORE & HILDA DRESSLER LECTURE
Title:	Patterns in the Primes
	Andrew Granville University of Montreal Abstract: Primes are the building blocks from which the integers are made, and so it is of interest to understand how they are distributed. Questions abound: * How many primes are there? * How many primes are there up to a given point? * Is there a good formula that tells us what is a prime and what is not? * Is there a way to find out quickly whether a given integer is prime? * How many primes are there in certain patterns? * Do polynomials take on many prime values? How about consecutive prime values? * How are primes spaced? Versions of some of these questions are considered to be among the most difficult open problems in mathematics. On the other hand there has been spectacular recent progress on several of these questions. We will discuss all this and more in this lecture.
Time and Place:	2:30 PM TH 1018

WEDNESDAY Apr. 23 :	Special Analysis Seminar
Title:	The Little Shift Equivalence Conjecture
	Sarah Reznikoff, University of Victoria and Kansas State University Determining when two shifts of finite type are topologically conjugate is a fundamental question in the field of symbolic dynamics. There are many known invariants, such as periodic point data, entropy, and the dimension group. In 1970 Bob Williams proved that topological conjugacy of two shifts was equivalent to Strong Shift Equivalence, a condition on their corresponding matrices. However, Strong Shift Equivalence is quite difficult to establish. Williams conjectured that a simpler condition, Shift Equivalence, might suffice, but this was disproved by Kim-Roush in 1997. A special case of Williams' conjecture, the Little Shift Equivalence Conjecture, is still open. In this talk we will go over the basic definitions and background material, and then present some results related to the Little Shift Equivalent Conjecture. The talk should be accessible to anyone with an undergraduate-level understanding of linear algebra.
Time and Place:	4:30 PM Cardwell 144

THURSDAY Apr. 24 :	Seminar
Title:	Soap films
	John McCuan Georgia Institute of Technology
Time and Place:	1:30 PM W115

	COLLOQUIA
Title:	Classification of Symmetric CMC Surfaces in the Three-Sphere
	John McCuan Georgia Institute of Technology Abstract: All rotationally symmetric constant mean curvature (CMC) surfaces in three dimensional Euclidean space were classified in the 1860's by Ch. Delaunay. We discuss analogous notions of symmetry for surfaces in the three-dimensional sphere and for CMC surfaces in particular. We also describe several recent classification theorems.
Time and Place:	2:30 PM CW 122

	Function Theory Study Seminar
Title:	CANCELED Local Non-Archimedean Dynamics
	Adrian Jenkins Kansas State University Abstract In the early 80's, Herman and Yoccoz laid the foundation for the study of the dynamics of an analytic map with respect to a non-archimedean norm near its fixed point. This is of course a classical problem in complex analysis. I will give an overview of this subject, and will discuss recent results obtained in joint work with Steven Spallone. All relevant definitions will be given, and technical details will be kept to a minimum - the talk should be accessible to anyone with an understanding of power series, really.
Time and Place:	3:30 PM CW144

FRIDAY Apr. 25 :	Seminar
Title:	Translating Tridents
	Xuan Hien Nguyen In this talk, we will first introduce the mean curvature flow then discuss examples with some interesting behavior under the flow. From these examples, we will construct a new self-translating surface for the mean curvature flow. We are mainly interested in finding embedded surfaces. The strategy is inspired by Kapouleas' construction of minimal surfaces. The proof uses techniques from differential geometry, differential equations, and functional analysis.
Time and Place:	3:30 PM CW 143

MONDAY Apr. 28 :	Algebra Seminar
Title:	Vertices of Lefschetz Modules
	John Maginnis Kansas State University
Time and Place:	4:30 PM CW 144

TUESDAY Apr. 29 :	TWENTY-SIXTH ANNUAL FRIENDS OF MATHEMATICS LECTURE
Title:	A Matter of Gravity
	Steven Krantz American Institute of Mathematics and Washington University Abstract: We take a new look at the concept of center of gravity for domains in the plane and, more generally, in Euclidean space. We identify some new phenomena regarding existence, stability, and multiplicity. The talk will be broadly accessible for both faculty and students.
Time and Place:	2:30 PM TH 1018

	Seminar
Title:	"A new bound for the minimal conformal weight of self-dual vertex operator superalgebras"
	Gerald Hoehn First, I will review the sphere packing problem and discuss an analogous bound for self-dual lattices. Then I will discuss briefly Witten's approach to the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy of black holes in tree dimensional pure quantum gravity which motivated the new bound. Finally, I will sketch the proof of my new bound using modular functions.
Time and Place:	3:30 PM Cardwell 144

	TWENTY-SIXTH ANNUAL FRIENDS OF MATHEMATICS AWARDS BANQUET
Title:	Abstract Thoughts on Concrete Mathematics
	Steven Krantz American Institute of Mathematics and Washington University Abstract: We provide some ruminations on the mathematics profession and its denizens based on 35 years experience in the business.
Time and Place:	6:00 PM Union, 2nd floor Concourse

	DISTINGUISHED ALUMNUS CLASS OF 1963
Title:	Mathematics: A Great Way To Get Started
	Jim Baxter Sutton Homes, Owner/Operator
Time and Place:	6:00 PM Union, 2nd floor Concourse

WEDNESDAY Apr. 30 :	Analysis Seminar
Title:	Quasiconformal frames
	Pekka Pankka, University of Michigan Heinonen and Sullivan have used the Cartan-Whitney presentations of the metric gauge to study natural local parametrization of generalized Lipschitz manifolds. Quasiconformal frames can be seen as a counterpart of Cartan-Whitney presentations in the context of quasiconformal geometry. In this talk I will discuss the notion of quasiconformal frames and show how a normalized blow-up process leads to the results of Heinonen-Sullivan type. This is joint work with Juha Heinonen and Kai Rajala.
Time and Place:	4:30 PM Cardwell 144

THURSDAY May. 01 :	ELEVENTH KARL STROMBERG MEMORIAL LECTURE
Title:	The Corona Problem On Plane Domains
	John Garnett UCLA Abstract:
Time and Place:	2:30 PM TH 1018

MONDAY May. 05 :	Seminar
Title:	From left modules to algebras over an operad
	Muriel Livernet University of Paris 13 Abstract The talk will answer the question: when does a left module over an operad is an algebra over an operad? it will involve some lax monoidal functors between monoidal categories, review some results concerning twisted Lie algebras, twisted enveloping algebras following Stover and connect operads to combinatorial Hopf algebras.
Time and Place:	3:30 PM CW146

TUESDAY May. 06 :	COLLOQUIUM
Title:	On Overview of PreLie Structures
	Muriel Livernet University of Paris 13 & MIT Abstract: In this talk I will explain how preLie algebras and preLie structures appear in many areas as topology, algebra and mathematical physics. I'll give some examples and explain the relation with Gerstenhaber and Batalin-Vilkovisky structures, Steenrod algebra and renormalisation theory. I will explain also some issues in combinatorics and results obtained together with F. Chapoton and N. Bergeron.
Time and Place:	2:30 PM CW 122

	Seminar
Title:	Weighted quadratic partitions and small zeros of quadratic forms mod p"
	Ali Hakami, Kansas State University The talk will discuss quadratic exponential sums and the problem of finding small zeros of quadratic forms (mod p).
Time and Place:	3:30 PM CW 145

WEDNESDAY May. 07 :	Analysis Seminar
Title:	The Jacobian of biLipschitz maps and non-linear elliptic PDEs
	Diego Maldonado, Kansas State University Celebrated examples due to Dmitri Burago and Bruce Kleiner (2002); and Curtis T. McMullen (2003) show that there exist bounded, bounded away from zero, uniformly continuous functions f : [0,1]^2 --> R^2 such that no biLipschitz mapping F: [0,1]^2 --> R^2 satisfies det DF(x) = f(x), a.e. x in [0,1]^2. Basic results on geometric function theory allow to replace the word "biLipschitz" by the word "quasi-conformal" in the previous statement. We use non-linear elliptic PDE techniques to show that if K is a subset of R^n is a Lipschitz domain and f : K --> R^n is bounded, bounded away from zero, and Dini continuous, then there are infinitely many biLipschitz mappings F: K --> R^n verifying det DF(x) = f(x) a.e. x in K. Moreover, we show that each one of those mappings F is of the form F=grad(u), where u: K --> R is a strictly convex function. As a consequence, our result also sheds some light on the so-called quasi-conformal Jacobian problem. This is joint work with Leonid Kovalev from Texas A&M University.
Time and Place:	4:30 PM Cardwell 144

	Special Algebra Seminar
Title:	Finite Groups and Zeta Functions
	Jiping Zhang Peking University, China Arithmetic properties of various invariants of finite groups have been studied intensively; in recent years a systematic theory has been developed. In this talk, we will discuss this theory and some applications to Zeta functions.
Time and Place:	4:30 PM CW 146

THURSDAY May. 08 :	COLLOQUIUM
Title:	Multiply Connected Schwarz-Christoffel Transformations
	Alan Elcrat Wichita State University Abstract: The Schwarz-Christoffel formula for the derivative of a conformal mapping from the upper half plane to the interior of a polygon is well known to all students in a complex variable course. This formula was derived in the 19th century, but its use was limited to polygons with only a few sides until an effective numerical procedure for determining the accessory parameters was developed around 1980. Less well known is the formula for mapping an annulus to the interior of a doubly connected domain bounded by two polygons, although it has long been available. Here fractional powers are replaced by fractional powers of theta functions. It was a puzzle for a long time about how this might be generalized to polygonally bounded domains of higher connectivity. The first resolution of this puzzle was given by DeLillo, Elcrat and Pfaltzgraff (J d'Analyse 2004). The key idea was to obtain an appropriate 'singularity function' by repeated reflections. The derivation of this will be given, some applications will be indicated, and recent progress on the mapping problem will be reviewed.
Time and Place:	2:30 PM CW 122

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