# MSCS Seminar Calendar

Tuesday September 2, 2014
Number Theory Seminar
Elliptic curves with 2-torsion contained in the 3-torsion field
Nathan Jones (University of Illinois at Chicago)
11:00 AM in SEO 427
There is a modular curve X'(6) of level 6 defined over Q whose rational points correspond to j-invariants of elliptic curves E over Q for which Q(E[2]) is a subfield of Q(E[3]). In this talk I will characterize the j-invariants of elliptic curves with this property by exhibiting an explicit model of X'(6). The motivation is two-fold: on the one hand, X'(6) belongs to the list of modular curves which parametrize non-Serre curves (and is not well-known), and on the other hand, the set of rational points of X'(6) gives an infinite family of examples of elliptic curves with non-abelian entanglement fields,'' which is relevant to the systematic study of correction factors of various conjectural constants for elliptic curves over Q. This is based on joint work with J. Brau (Cambridge University, UK).
The seminar ends at 12:30.

Quantum Topology / Hopf Algebra Seminar
Quantum Link Invariants and Rotational Virtual Knot Theory
Louis H. Kauffman (UIC)
3:00 PM in SEO 612
This talk is self-contained. We define quantum link invariants via augmented solutions to the Yang-Baxter equation. We show how the bracket polynomial model of the Jones polynomial fits into this framework and we show how many other invariants fit into this framework. We also briefly discuss how quantum link invariants can be formulated in terms of Hopf algebras. Then we discuss how classical knot theory extends to virtual knot theory and to rotational virtual knot theory. In rotational virtual knot theory one adds virtual crossings and augments the Reidemeister moves by detour moves that are regular homotopies of the arc moved in the detour. We then prove the Theorem: Every quantum link invariant of classical links extends to an invariant of rotational virtual knots and links. This theorem shows that Rotational Virtual Knot Theory is the Proper Domain for the Study of Quantum Link Invariants. The talk will consider many examples and questions that arise.

Logic Seminar
Tameness in Abstract Elementary Classes
Will Boney (UIC)
4:00 PM in SEO 427
Tameness is a locality property of Galois types in AECs. Since its isolation by Grossberg and VanDieren 10 years ago, it has been used to prove new results (upward categoricity transfer, stability transfer) and replace set-theoretic hypotheses (existence of independence notions). In this talk, we will outline the basic definitions, summarize some key results, and discuss some open questions related to tameness.
Wednesday September 3, 2014
Adjoint linear systems on algebraic surfaces I
Xudong Zheng (UIC)
2:00 PM in SEO 427
Let $X$ be a smooth projective surface and $L$ a big and nef line bundle. The pluricanonical $|nK_X|$ and adjoint linear systems $|K_X + L|$ have been well studied. The aim of this talk is to introduce the circle of ideas of Bombieri, Mumford, Van de Ven, Sommese, Reider, among others on the positivity and global generation of $|K_X + L|$ in the case that the base field has characteristic zero.

Organizational Meeting
2:00 PM in SEO 427

Graduate Geometry, Topology and Dynamics Seminar
Organizational Meeting
Ellie Dannenberg
3:00 PM in SEO 612

Organizational Meeting
Cara Mullen (UIC)
3:00 PM in SEO 712

Algebraic Geometry Seminar
Ample divisors on moduli spaces of sheaves on the plane
Jack Huizenga (UIC)
4:00 PM in SEO 427
Let $v$ be the set of numerical invariants of a sheaf on $\mathbb{P}^2$. The moduli space $M(v)$ parameterizes isomorphism classes of semistable sheaves with Chern character $v$. In this talk, I will discuss recent work with Izzet Coskun computing the cone of ample divisors on $M(v)$ for many choices of the character $v$. Our results in particular cover the case where the rank and first Chern class of $v$ are coprime and the discriminant of $v$ is sufficiently large.

Statistics Seminar
Stat Wars Episode VI: Return of the Fiducialist
Keli Liu (Stanford University)
4:00 PM in SEO 636
Priors are the path to the dark side. Fisher developed the Fiducial argument to obtain prior free "posterior" inferences but at the seeming cost of violating basic probability laws. Was Fisher crazy or did madness mask innovation? Fiducial calculations can be easily understood through the missing-data perspective which illuminates for us that the Fiducial "posterior" is in fact a prior updated not with the full data likelihood, but a partial likelihood in the spirit of Cox regression. Just as Cox regression arose from a need to render inferences robust to an unknown hazard function, so Fiducial inferences are insensitive to the prior. While Statistics has fixated two extremes---fully conditional (but fragile) Bayesian inferences or unconditional (but robust) Frequentist inferences---a compromise via partial conditioning has gone ignored. Surely, the middle ground is more fiducial than either extreme.
Thursday September 4, 2014
Jan Verschelde (UIC)
1:00 PM in SEO 1227
The giftwrapping method computes convex hull of polytopes in any dimension. In this seminar, we apply the giftwrapping method to Newton polytopes, polytopes spanned by points with integer coordinates. The second part of the seminar will describe the implementation in PHCpack.
Please notice the change in time: 1pm instead of 4pm. The seminar room 1227 SEO is not yet confirmed.

Louise Hay Logic Seminar
Logical 0-1 Laws
Caroline Terry (UIC)
4:00 PM in SEO 427
We introduce the notion of a logical 0-1 law for classes of finite first order structures. We then sketch the proof that the class of finite triangle-free graphs has a logical 0-1 law.
Monday September 8, 2014
Model Theory Seminar
Quasiminimal Excellent Classes II
Gabe Conant (UIC)
1:00 PM in SEO 427
We continue with Kirby's paper on quasiminimal excellent classes

Geometry, Topology and Dynamics Seminar
von Neumann algebras of negatively curved groups
Thomas Sinclair (UCLA)
3:00 PM in SEO 636
Negatively curved groups have long been and continue to be one of the most intensely studied classes of discrete groups. These groups have also played an important role in functional analysis, notably via K-theory and the Baum-Connes conjecture. In this talk I will survey some recent results in the classification of von Neumann algebras generated by negatively curved groups and their measurable actions. I will explain how negative curvature is central to these results in terms of a broad, cohomogical-type property such groups possess. As an application, I will show how these techniques generalize some results on the measurable dynamics of hyperbolic groups. No knowledge of von Neumann algebras will be assumed.

Applied Mathematics Seminar
Modeling tuberculosis, from cells to populations
Leonid Chindelevitch (Harvard School of Public Health)
4:00 PM in SEO 636
Tuberculosis continues to afflict millions of people and causes over a million deaths a year worldwide. Multi-drug resistance is also on the rise, causing concern among public-health experts. This talk will give an overview of my work on modeling tuberculosis at various scales. On the cellular side I will describe models of the metabolism of M. tuberculosis, where insights from duality led to a consistent analysis of existing models, a systematic method for reconciling discrepant models, and the identification of putative drug targets. On the population side I will describe models of strain evolution, where a new metric combined with an optimization-based approach resulted in an accurate classification of complex infections as originating from mutation or mixed infection, as well as the identification of the strains composing these complex infections.
Tuesday September 9, 2014
Number Theory Seminar
Elliptic modules and Frobenius endomorphisms
A.C. Cojocaru (University of Illinois at Chicago)
11:00 AM in SEO 427
Given a finite Galois extension L/K of global fields and a conjugacy class C of Gal(L/K), a fundamental problem is that of describing the (unramified) primes p of K for which the conjugacy class of the Frobenius at p is C. The Chebotarev Density Theorem provides the density of these primes, while, in general, the characterization of the primes themselves is a finer and deeper question. We focus on unraveling this question for the division fields of a generic Drinfeld module. For Drinfeld modules of rank 2, we obtain an explicit global description of the Frobenius. We apply this description to derive a criterion for the splitting modulo primes of a class of non-solvable polynomials and to study the frequency with which the reductions of Drinfeld modules have small endomorphism rings. We also generalize some of these results to higher rank Drinfeld modules and prove CM-lifting theorems for Drinfeld modules. This is joint work with Mihran Papikian (Pennsylvania State University, USA).
The seminar ends at 12:30.

Logic Seminar
Existentially closed C*-algebras
Thomas Sinclair (UCLA)
4:00 PM in SEO 427
A C*-algebra A is said to be existentially closed if, roughly, every set of equations involving norms of noncommutative *-polynomials which has a solution in B(H) has a sequence of approximate solutions in A. A basic result in continuous logic shows that every separable C*-algebra is contained in a separable, existentially closed C*-algebra. In this talk I will survey some basic properties of existentially closed C*-algebras. In particular I will describe how existential closure is deeply connected to several open problems in C*-algebras such as Kirchberg's problem on whether every separable C*-algebra embeds in an ultrapower of the Cuntz algebra O_2, as well as Kirchberg's C*-algebraic reformulation of of Connes' embedding problem. This talk is based on joint work with Isaac Goldbring.
Wednesday September 10, 2014
Adjoint linear systems on algebraic surfaces II
Xudong Zheng (UIC)
2:00 PM in SEO 427
This is the second part of the talk on adjoint linear systems on surfaces, in characteristic $p > 0$. In circumventing the classical vanishing theorems and Bogomolov's inequality on rank 2 vector bundles in characteristic zero, we briefly introduce the construction of Ekedahl and Shepherd-Barron on purely inseparable degree $p$ coverings.
Monday September 15, 2014
Applied Mathematics Seminar
Nonexistence of small coherent structures for dispersive equations
David Ambrose (Drexel University)
4:00 PM in SEO 636
For dispersive PDE on spatially periodic domains, we formulate the time-periodic solutions problem as a fixed point problem. The operator in question is the composition of a linear operator and a nonlinear operator. The linear operator can be bounded with small divisor estimates, losing derivatives in the process. If the nonlinear operator can be shown to have smoothing properties, then the composition can be shown to be a local contraction. Thus, the nonexistence of nontrivial small-amplitude doubly periodic waves follows from dispersive smoothing estimates. We demonstrate that the smoothing estimate holds for several equations, including the Korteweg-de Vries equation. Extensions to nonlinear Schrodinger equations and to solitons may be discussed.
Tuesday September 16, 2014
Logic Seminar
TBA
Spencer Unger (UCLA)
4:00 PM in SEO 427
Wednesday September 17, 2014
Algebraic Geometry Seminar
TBA
Matthew Woolf (UIC)
4:00 PM in SEO 427
Monday September 22, 2014
Applied Mathematics Seminar
Soft metrics for decision analysis under uncertainty
Michelle Quirk (National Intelligence University and National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency)
4:00 PM in SEO 636
Modern decision making challenges the human capacity to reason in an environment of uncertainty, imprecision, and incompleteness of information. Probability measures are not well-suited when the evidence is scarce and unreliable. Built from fuzzy sets, possibility metrics overcomes some of the restrictions and insufficiencies of probabilities, in a complementary, yet not competitive manner. We show the theoretical foundation and the interdisciplinary approach required to devise soft metrics as attributes of decision criteria that cannot be expressed numerically. This talk concludes with an example of soft metrics used in real-world ranking exercises.
Tuesday September 23, 2014
Number Theory Seminar
TBA
Ali Rajaei
11:00 AM in SEO 636
The seminar ends at 12:30.
Wednesday September 24, 2014
Algebraic Geometry Seminar
TBA
Mihai Fulger (Princeton)
4:00 PM in SEO 427
Friday September 26, 2014
Departmental Colloquium
TBA
Rodrigo Banuelos (Purdue University)
3:00 PM in SEO 636
Monday September 29, 2014
Geometry, Topology and Dynamics Seminar
Hausdorff dimension in graph matchbox manifolds
Olga Lukina (UIC)
3:00 PM in SEO 636
A lamination is a compact connected metric space, where each point has a neighborhood homeomorphic to the product of a Euclidean disc and a totally disconnected space. Given a lamination, one can ask if this lamination can be realised as a subset of a smooth foliated finite-dimensional manifold, so that the leaves of the lamination are contained in the leaves of the foliation of the manifold. More precisely, one asks if there exists a foliated embedding of a given lamination into a smooth foliated manifold by a bi-Lipschitz homeomorphism.
Hausdorff dimension provides an obstruction to the existence of such an embedding. In the talk, we study a specific class of laminations, called graph matchbox manifolds, obtained as suspensions of pseudogroup actions on the space of pointed trees. We give examples of such laminations which have infinite Hausdorff dimension of their transversals, and, therefore, cannot be embedded as a subset of a smooth foliation of a finite-dimensional manifold by a bi-Lipschitz homeomorphism.

Applied Mathematics Seminar
TBA
Thomas Chen (University of Texas at Austin)
4:00 PM in SEO 636
Monday October 6, 2014
Applied Mathematics Seminar
TBA
Phoolan Prasad (Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore)
4:00 PM in SEO 636
Wednesday October 8, 2014
Algebraic Geometry Seminar
TBA
Jarek Bucynzki (Institute of Mathematics, Polish Academy of Sciences)
4:00 PM in SEO 427
Monday October 13, 2014
Applied Mathematics Seminar
TBA
Florian Mehats (University of Rennes)
4:00 PM in SEO 636
Wednesday October 15, 2014
Distinguished Lecture Series
The "P vs. NP" problem: efficient computation, Internet security, and the limits to human knowledge
Avi Wigderson (Institute for Advanced Study)
4:00 PM in TBA
The "P vs. NP" problem, formulated by computer theorists in the 1970s, quickly became a central outstanding problem of science and mathematics. In this talk I will attempt to describe its mathematical, scientific and philosophical content. I will discuss its status, and the implications of its resolution on science and technology (making clear that the \\$1M prize on solving it pales in comparison with these implications).
No special background will be assumed.

Statistics Seminar
TBA
Mengyu Xu (University of Chicago)
4:00 PM in SEO 636
Thursday October 16, 2014
Distinguished Lecture Series
Randomness
Avi Wigderson (Institute for Advanced Study)
3:00 PM in SEO 636
Is the universe inherently deterministic or probabilistic? Perhaps more importantly - can we tell the difference between the two?
Humanity has pondered the meaning and utility of randomness for millennia. There is a remarkable variety of ways in which we utilize perfect coin tosses to our advantage: in statistics, cryptography, game theory, algorithms, gambling... Indeed, randomness seems indispensable! Which of these applications survive if the universe had no randomness in it at all? Which of them survive if only poor quality randomness is available, e.g. that arises from "unpredictable" phenomena like the weather or the stock market?
A computational theory of randomness, developed in the past three decades, reveals (perhaps counter-intuitively) that very little is lost in such deterministic or weakly random worlds. In the talk I'll explain the main ideas and results of this theory.
The talk is aimed at a general scientific audience.
Friday October 17, 2014
Distinguished Lecture Series
Permanent & Determinant: non-identical twins
Avi Wigderson (Institute for Advanced Study)
3:00 PM in SEO 636
The determinant is undoubtedly the most important polynomial function in mathematics. Its lesser known sibling, the permanent, plays very important roles in enumerative combinatorics, statistical and quantum physics, and the theory of computation. In this lecture I plan to survey some of the remarkable properties of the permanent, its applications and impact on fundamental computational problems, its similarities to and apparent differences from the determinant, and how these relate to the P vs. NP prolem.
This lecture is intended to a general Math & CS audience.

Departmental Colloquium
TBA
Jun Liu (Harvard)
3:00 PM in SEO 636
Monday October 20, 2014
Applied Mathematics Seminar
TBA
Kasso Okoudjou (University of Maryland)
4:00 PM in SEO 636
Wednesday October 22, 2014
Statistics Seminar
TBA
Wei Zheng (IUPUI)
4:00 PM in SEO 636

Algebraic Geometry Seminar
TBA
Alex Kuronya (Budapest University of Technology and Economics)
4:00 PM in SEO 427
Monday October 27, 2014
Algebraic Geometry Seminar
TBA
Chenyang Xu (Beijing International Center of Mathematics Research)
4:00 PM in SEO 427

Applied Mathematics Seminar
TBA
Rafael Iorio (Instituto Nacional de Matemática Pura e Aplicada)
4:00 PM in SEO 636
Wednesday October 29, 2014
Algebraic Geometry Seminar
TBA
Brooke Ullery (University of Michigan)
4:00 PM in SEO 427

Statistics Seminar
Some important statistical considerations in biomarker discovery from high-dimensional data
V. Devanarayan (AbbVie)
4:00 PM in SEO 636
Biomarkers such as those based on genomic, proteomic and imaging modalities play a vital role in biopharmaceutical R&D. Examples include the discovery of novel genes/targets related to various diseases based on which a suitable therapeutic can be developed, diagnostics for different disease subtypes, identification of patients that are more likely to progress in disease or benefit from a particular therapeutic, etc. The discovery of such biomarkers are typically based on the evaluation of high-dimensional datasets that require a strong combination of bioinformatic and statistical considerations. This seminar will provide a practical overview and intuitive explanation of some important concepts and considerations around the analyses of such high-dimensional data.
Wednesday November 5, 2014
Algebraic Geometry Seminar
TBA
Daniel Litt (Stanford University)
4:00 PM in SEO 427

Statistics Seminar
TBA
Sonja Petrovic (IIT)
4:00 PM in SEO 636
Friday November 7, 2014
Departmental Colloquium
TBA
Wilfrid Gangbo (Georgia Tech)
3:00 PM in SEO 636
Monday November 10, 2014
Applied Mathematics Seminar
TBA
Natasa Pavlovic (University of Texas at Austin)
4:00 PM in SEO 636
Wednesday November 12, 2014
Algebraic Geometry Seminar
TBA
Howard Nuer (Rutgers University)
4:00 PM in SEO 427
Wednesday November 19, 2014
Algebraic Geometry Seminar
TBA
Eric Riedl (Harvard University)
4:00 PM in SEO 427
Wednesday November 26, 2014
Algebraic Geometry Seminar
N/A
NO SEMINAR (Thanksgiving)
4:00 PM in SEO 427
Wednesday December 3, 2014
Algebraic Geometry Seminar
TBA
Ana-Maria Castravet (Ohio State University)
4:00 PM in SEO 427

Algebraic Geometry Seminar
TBA
Emanuele Macri (Ohio State University)
5:00 PM in SEO 427
Friday May 1, 2015
Departmental Colloquium
Atkin Memorial Lecture
Alireza Salehi-Golsefidi (University of California, San Diego )
3:00 PM in TBA
UIC LAS MSCS seminars seminar calendar