Seminar Schedule
January 31 – February 4, 2005
All Seminars are held in Boyd Graduate Studies Bldg. unless otherwise noted.
Algebra
2:30 – 3:30p.m., Room 410
Speaker: Dave Benson, University of Georgia
Title of talk: An introduction to the cohomology of groups
Abstract: My intention is to go over the basic algebraic
and topological definitions of group cohomology, say why they give the
same answer, give a few examples, and talk a little bit about duality. This
talk is intended for Graduate Students.
Probability Theory
2:45-4:00p.m., Room 222
Speaker: Q. Zhang, University of Georgia
Title of talk: Two-time scale Markov chains (cont.)
Faculty and Graduate Social
3:00p.m., Room 409
Coffee, Cookies, Tea
Topology
3:30-4:30p.m., Room 326
Speaker: Will Kazez, University of Georgia
Title of talk: Computing Ozsvath-Szabo invariants,
continued
CATS
4:40-5:30p.m., Room 306
Speaker: Ananda Chowdbury, Dept. of Computer Science, University
of Georgia
Title of talk: Solving Jigsaw Puzzles by a Computer
Abstract: The jigsaw puzzle assembly problem is regarded
as a classical problem in pattern recognition and was first addressed by Freeman
et al. as early as 1964. After 24 years in 1988, Wolfson et al. proposed a
novel algorithm for assembling large jigsaw puzzles (with many almost similar
pieces) using curve matching and combinatorial optimization techniques. The
algorithm by Wolfson et al. could successfully handle a puzzle assembly of
104 pieces. Even the algorithm could be extended to solve an
intermixed puzzle of 208 pieces which is an assembly of two intermixed 104-piece
puzzles. I will briefly touch upon the curve matching part and mainly focus
on the combinatorial optimization issues of this very interesting puzzle assembly
algorithm (by Wolfson et al.).
VIGRE
Graduate Student Seminar
2:00p.m., Room 304
Speaker: Clay Petsche, University of Georgia
Title of talk: The p-adic Numbers
Abstract: This will be a gentle introduction to the field
of p-adic numbers. Although this number theoretic object shares many properties
in common with the field of real numbers, the p-adic field can be rather bizarre
in some respects as well. For example, in this field the closed unit ball
forms a ring, every triangle is isosceles, and in any open ball, every point
is the center! We'll discuss these oddities and more.
Dynamics on Berkovich Space
3:30-5:30p.m., Room 326
Speaker: Robert Rumely, University of Georgia
Title of talk: Wandering Domains
Spline Analysis
1:30-2:30pm, Room 326
Speaker: V. Baramidze, University of Georgia
Title of talk: Markov's Inequality over Spherical Triangles
Abstract: I will show how to prove Markov's inequality over
spherical triangles using the radial projection method introduced in a previous
week.
Algebraic Geometry
2:30-3:45 p.m., Room 410
No Meeting this week
VIGRE – Cardiac Physiology
2:30p.m., Room 640
Faculty and Graduate Social
3:00 p.m., Room 409
Coffee, Cookies, Tea
Colloquium
3:30p.m., Room 304
Speaker: David Savitt, McGill University
Title of talk: Modular Galois representations
Abstract: The study of Galois representations (representations
of Galois groups) plays a fundamental role in number theory today. By a celebrated
theorem of Deligne, one can associate to every modular form a two-dimensional
(p-adic) representation of the automorphism group of the field of algebraic
numbers. To what extent is the converse true? The first breakthrough in this
direction was Wiles's work proving Fermat's last theorem, in which Galois
representations played an intermediary role between elliptic curves and modular
forms. We will describe recent progress in this area, with an emphasis on
p-adic aspects of the theory.
VIGRE – Algebra
2:30-3:30p.m., Room 222*
*Please note the change of time and room are for this week only
Speakers: Daniel Nakano, Brian Boe, University of Georgia
Title of activity: Beyond p^2 continued
Student Arithmetic/Algebraic Geometry Seminar
3:30-4:45p.m., Room 326
Speaker: TBA
Title of talk: TBA
Number Theory
3:45-5:15pm, Room 304
No Meeting this week
VIGRE – Algebraic Geometry
2:00p.m., Room 304
Geometry
2:30p.m., Room 326
Speaker: Jason Cantarella, U. of Georgia
Title of talk: How hard is it to find the self-contacts
of a tube or necklace? (part II)
Abstract: Suppose you are given a necklace of N tangent unit-radius
spheres in 3-space, and you want to figure out whether or not any of these
two spheres overlap. One obvious algorithm is to calculate the distances between
each pair of sphere centers. Since there are N spheres, there are O(N^2) pairs,
and this algorithm takes time O(N^2). Various computational-geometric methods
have been proposed to accomplish this task faster-- for instance in (expected)
time O(N log N) (but worst-case time O(N^2)). In this talk, we'll prove that
for "well-behaved" necklaces, a class of partitioning methods is
guaranteed to solve the problem in time O(N^{4/3}). (This is an expository
talk.)
VIGRE – Clifford Algebras
3:30-4:30p.m. Room 302
Wavelet Analysis
3:30-4:30p.m., Room 322
Speaker: Ming-Jun Lai, University of Georgia
Title of talk: The reversed polynomials (Christoffel-Darboux
formula)