Events (click title for abstract):
Coming soon...Events (click title for abstract):
Thursday 15th December, Everything you didn't want to know about minesweeper – Rob Royals
Thursday 8th December, Regular closed subsets of polyadic spaces – Sharifa Al-Mahrouqi
Thursday 1st December, Talagrand's weight function – Omar Selim
Thursday 24th November, The Hodograph Method for solving steady flow problems – Moritz Reinhard
Thursday 17th November, Dipole Detection in Tar Sand Drilling – Neil Deacon
Thursday 10th November, Equidistribution and Counting lattice points on manifolds – Youssef Lazar
Thursday 3rd November, Dali and Maths: Taking Art to a Different Dimension – Lydia Rickett
Thursday 27th October, Cellular Algebras – Kelvin Corlett
Thursday 20th October, The Model Theory of Exponential Fields – Rob Henderson
Thursday 13th October, First Year Talks – Steffi Zegowitz, Greg McKay, Martin Walters, Julian Thompson
Thursday 6th October, A Brief Introduction to Differential Galois Theory – David Maycock
Thursday 15th December, Everything you didn't want to know about minesweeper – Rob Royals
As well as introducing the rules of minesweeper, in my talk I shall be looking at various strategies for solving the game, ways of measuring the difficulty of boards, and at the complexity of the problem of solving positions in general. The talk will be accessible for all, but if you desire background reading please see here.
Thursday 8th December, Regular closed subsets of polyadic spaces – Sharifa Al-Mahrouqi
Polyadic spaces, introduced by Mrowka in 1970, are Hausdorff continuous images of some power of the one point compactification of a discrete space. The main goal of my talk is to consider whether or not the property of being polyadic is a regular closed hereditary property. We do this by giving a Ramsey-like property which is satisfied by all polyadic spaces.
Thursday 1st December, Talagrand's weight function – Omar Selim
I will show that the following function is strictly increasing in $k\in N$ for a fixed $n\in N$ with $n\leq 2^{2k+10} 2^{k+5} (2^3 + 2^{k+5} 2^{k+4})$:
$$
(\frac{2^{2k+10} 2^{k+5} (2^3 + 2^{k+5} 2^{k+4})}{n})^{1/(k+5)}
$$
The calculation is horrific. I cannot find a simple one. So if YOU can then let me know (and I will acknowledge you accordingly (...maybe)). I will also explain why this stuff might be interesting.
Thursday 24th November, The Hodograph Method for solving steady flow problems – Moritz Reinhard
We consider two-dimensional, steady and irrotational flows of an inviscid and incompressible fluid. Kinematic and dynamic boundary conditions on the free surface makes the problem in terms of the velocity potential non-linear. A direct relation between the complex potential and the complex velocity or the so-called hodograph can provide a solution. This is achieved by the theory of conformal mapping. We discuss the example of a cavity flow due to an inclined plate . This presentation will be basic and of interest to both pure and applied mathematicians.
Thursday 17th November, Dipole Detection in Tar Sand Drilling – Neil Deacon
One method of extracting oil from tar sand is Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD). This consists of two horizontal wells drilled into a reservoir, separated by a vertical distance of a few metres. For the process to be as efficient as possible the lower well must stay the same distance from the top well. When drilling the lower well this is achieved through the use of magnets. The talk will cover how the magnets are used to achieve the required precision. The majority of the talk will be accessible to all.
Thursday 10th November, Equidistribution and Counting lattice points on manifolds – Youssef Lazar
The study of the arithmetic of algebraic varieties (in other words, the study of the integral points) appears to be very difficult; except in some very rare cases, very little is known. Using the geometry of varieties one can work on these problems via geometric-algebraic methods, but this does not provide a satisfactory understanding of the distribution of lattice points. However, a new method coming from Ergodic theory recently pioneered by Dani, Margulis, and Raghunathan has given new insight into hard number theoretical problems, such as the proof of the Oppenheim conjecture by Margulis. The aim of this talk will be to give some ideas about how Ergodic theory have been successful in solving difficult problems from number theory.
Thursday 3rd November, Dali and Maths: Taking Art to a Different Dimension – Lydia Rickett
Salvador Dali was well-known for his eccentric nature and dream-like paintings, but this talk explores his love of science and maths and specifically the use of mathematical concepts within his work. Understanding these concepts reveals an underlying structure to some of his strange pieces that may indicate that he wasn't quite as mad as some people assume...
Thursday 27th October, Cellular Algebras – Kelvin Corlett
Let F be a field. An F-algebra A is said to be 'cellular' if it admits a basis satisfying certain convenient multiplicative properties. A consequence of these properties is that identifying an algebra as being cellular provides us with a considerable amount of information about the A-modules, including a partial classification of the irreducible modules and insight into its decomposition matrix and block structure, as well as providing a framework on which to base further study. Examples of cellular algebras include the group algebra of symmetric groups, their Hecke Algebras, and the Temperley-Lieb Algebra.
Thursday 20th October, The Model Theory of Exponential Fields – Rob Henderson
We give a brief introduction to the aims and ideas of Model Theory, a branch of mathematical logic, and describe the motivation behind studying exponential fields, a certain kind of purely algebraic structure. The talk will be accessible to all, assuming (and encouraging) no prior knowledge of mathematical logic.
Thursday 6th October, A Brief Introduction to Differential Galois Theory – David Maycock
We look at some of the basic concepts and theory behind Differential Galois Theory and how they can be applied into showing that the Gaussian integral cannot be integrated using elementary functions (i.e. a finite list of trigonometric, exponential, logarithmic or polynomial functions).
