University of Georgia
Department of Mathematics

Seminar Schedule
November 17 - November 21, 2003

All Seminars are held in Boyd Graduate Studies Bldg. unless otherwise noted.

MONDAY, November 17, 2003

Numerical Analysis
1:30p.m., Room 524
Speaker: Victoria Baramidze, University of Georgia
Title of talk: Spherical splines for scattered data interpolation and fitting

Geometry
1:30p.m., Room 410
Speaker: Yuri Burago, Steklov Institute, St.Petersburg
Title of talk: Alexandrov Surfaces of Bounded Total Curvature: old and new
Abstract: I am going to introduce you to the world of the geometry of nonsmooth surfaces. There are at least three approaches to Alexandrov geometry, all resulting in the same class of surfaces. The main notions of 2-dimensional Riemannian geometry have natural generalizations in this theory. I will give some examples of problems in Riemannian geometry that could not be solved using classical methods, but were easily solved by the synthetic methods of Alexandrov geometry.

Topology
2:30p.m., Room 322
Speaker: TBA
Title of talk: TBA

VIGRE - Algebra Seminar
2:30p.m., Room 410
Organizer: Daniel Nakano, University of Georgia
Activity: We will work on making and implementing corrections to our paper.

Faculty and Graduate Social
3:00p.m., Room 409
Coffee, Tea, Cookies

Lie Theory
3:30p.m., Room 303
Speaker: TBA
Title of talk: TBA

TUESDAY, November 18, 2003

VIGRE Graduate Student Seminar
2:00-3:15pm, Room 304
Speaker: Andrew Sornborger, University of Georgia
Title of talk: Mathematical Aspects of Electrical Activity in the Heart
Abstract: This talk will be an overview of the material that I plan to cover in the Spring VIGRE Seminar on Mathematical Cardiac Physiology. The talk will be descriptive in nature. I will go over the anatomy of the heart and describe the pathways that serve as conduits for oscillatory electrical activity that causes the heart muscle to contract. Then I will discuss some of the details of excitability in myocardial (heart) cell membranes and point out some of the similarities they have with neurons. Finally, I will talk about how excitable populations of myocardial cells propagate their activity across the heart, and how that propagation can sometimes go horribly wrong.

Analysis
3:30p.m., Room 326
Speaker: TBA
Title of talk: TBA

WEDNESDAY, November 19, 2003

Group Representation & Cohomology
2:30p.m., Room 410
Speaker: Dan Nakano, University of Georgia
Title: On the realization of orbit closures as support varieties.

Algebraic Geometry
2:30pm, Room 303
Speaker: Bill Graham, University of Georgia
Title of talk: Nonemptiness of degeneracy loci
Abstract: Given a family of matrices of rank at most $r$, the subset of matrices of rank less than $r$ is a prototypical example of a degeneracy locus. More generally, degeneracy loci are defined using maps of vector bundles on algebraic varieties, and considering the subsets where certain rank conditions are satisfied. Because vector bundles are so common in geometry, it is useful to know facts about degeneracy loci. The most basic question about a degeneracy locus is whether or not it contains any points. In this talk I will discuss some conditions guaranteeing the nonemptiness
of certain degeneracy loci.

Faculty and Graduate Social
3:00pm, Room 409
Coffee, Cookies, Tea

Number Theory/Arithmetic Geometry
3:45pm, Room 304 **Note permanent time change**
No Meeting this week

THURSDAY, November 20, 2003

VIGRE - Contact Topology
9:00a.m., Room 326

VIGRE Quantum Mechanics Seminar
2:00p.m., Room 303
Speaker: Jerry Hower and Charles Pooh, University of Georgia
Title of talk: Filling in the periodic table

Student Number Theory
3:30p.m., Room 304
Speaker: Joe Rusinko, University of Georgia
Title of talk: An Introduction to Digital Watermarking
Abstract: Digital watermarking is the attempt of sending a secret message without other people being able to detect that a message was even sent. WE will discuss what properties a good digital watermarking scheme would have, and
some recent attempts to put this subject on a firm mathematical foundation.

FRIDAY, November 21, 2003

CATS
1:25p.m., Room 306
Speaker: TBA
Title of talk: TBA

Wavelet Analysis
2:30p.m., Room 524
Speaker: Ming-Jun Lai, University of Georgia
Title of talk: Multivariate multiwavelets (cont.)