TBA

TBA

Transonic flows over airfoils at certain combinations of Mach numbers and steady mean angle of attack exhibit buffet; a phenomenon of large shock-wave oscillations due to flow separation and vortex shedding at a characteristic flow frequency. Buffet may occur even when the airfoil does not move. The seminar will present two recent studies of numerical simulations of an airfoil that a) undergoes prescribed harmonic oscillations, and b) is suspended by a spring in transonic buffeting flows. Both studies focus on the nonlinear interaction between the two oscillatory systems, namely the buffeting flow and the oscillating airfoil. Flow simulations of prescribed airfoil motions (using a Navier-Stokes turbulent flow solver) reveal a lock-in phenomenon. Certain combinations of amplitude and frequency of a prescribed airfoil oscillatory motion caused the buffet flow oscillations to lock into the prescribed frequency. The combinations of prescribed frequencies and amplitudes that cause lock-in present an .Arnold tongue. structure. There is a broad analogy between this flow phenomenon and the flow field of the Von Karman vortex street found behind a cylinder with the cylinder undergoing a prescribed oscillation. Flow simulations of an airfoil that is suspended on a spring reveal three distinct response characteristics, depending on the relationship of the elastic system.s natural frequency to the buffet frequency, and on the system.s mass ratio (the structural to fluid mass ratio). Elastic systems with natural frequencies that are lower than the buffet frequency exhibit a single-frequency response, with a frequency that is shifted form the buffet frequency towards the elastic natural frequency as the mass ratio is decreased (and the magnitude of the elastic response increases). On the other hand, an elastic system with a natural frequency that is the same as the buffet frequency exhibits resonance. Finally, elastic systems with natural frequencies that are higher than the buffet frequency exhibit a response with two distinct frequencies, that of the buffet and that of the elastic natural frequency. As long as the pitch amplitudes are small, the response is mostly at the buffet frequency. As the pitch amplitudes increase there is more power in the elastic natural frequency, and less in the buffet frequency. As the pitch amplitudes further grow, the response is in the elastic natural frequency solely, and the buffet frequency vanishes. To the best of the authors. knowledge the nonlinear dynamics of elastic systems in buffeting flows has not been reported previously. The authors are interested to learn whether similar phenomena are known in other research communities.

Striking advances in observational cosmology over the past two decades have ushered in a golden era in cosmology, where our focus has turned from what the universe is made of to why it has the form we observe. The leading theory capable of answering such a question, Superstring Theory, does not appear capable of being tested using conventional accelerator-based experiments, forcing us to be more creative in our goal to verify or dismiss it. Focusing on brane inflation as a string theory-inspired model of inflationary cosmology, I will review how the cosmic microwave background (CMB) will provide a deluge of high- precision data into otherwise inaccessible energy scales. These data include possible "Transplanckian" signatures in the power spectrum, indications of variable sound speed or extra dimensions in non- Gaussianity, or constraining the inflation model parameter space using polarization. I then describe how the production of cosmic (super)strings in brane inflation would provide an additional means to verify superstring theory, and which would yield much detailed information about the underlying theory parameters.

We will give a description of the space of Bridgeland stability conditions on the derived category of sheaves on P2 sitting inside a compact Calabi-Yau threefold. We will discuss its fractal-like boundary, its relation with the group of auto-equivalences, with mirror symmetry, and with counting invariants for both P2 and the quotient stack [C3/Z_3]. This is joint work with E. Macri.

We present recent results that show that for any portion of a compact manifold that admits a bi-Lipschitz parametrization by a Euclidean ball one may find a well-chosen set of eigenfunctions of the Laplacian that gives a bi-Lipschitz parametrization almost as good as the best possible. A similar, and in some respect stronger result holds by replacing eigenfunctions with heat kernels. These constructions are motivated by applications to the analysis of the geometry of data sets embedded in high-dimensional spaces, that are assumed to lie on, or close to, a low-dimensional manifold. This is joint work with P.W. Jones and R. Schul.

The recovery of a data matrix from a sampling of its entries is a problem of considerable practical interest. In partially filled out surveys, for instance, we would like to infer the many missing entries. In the area of recommender systems, users submit ratings on a subset of entries in a database, and the vendor provides recommendations based on the user's preferences. Because users only rate a few items, we would like to infer their preference for unrated items (the famous Netflix problem). Formally, suppose that we observe m entries selected uniformly at random from a matrix. Can we complete the matrix and recover the entries that we have not seen? Surprisingly, one can recover low-rank matrices exactly from what appear to be highly incomplete sets of sampled entries; that is, from a minimally sampled set of entries. Further, perfect recovery is possible by solving a simple convex optimization program, namely, a convenient semi-definite program. We show that our methods are optimal and succeed as soon as recovery is possible by any method whatsoever. Time permitting, we will also present a very efficient algorithm based on iterative singular value thresholding, which can complete matrices with about a billion entries in a matter of minutes on a personal computer.

A drop translating in the presence of an electric field is studied using a combination of experiments and numerical analysis to determine the underly- ing mechanism that leads to chaotic advection. The flow is a combination of a Hadamard-Rybczynski, and a Taylor circulation due to the translation and electric field, respectively. Two cases for generating chaotic advection by, (i) tilting the electric field relative to the drops translation motion and (ii) time-dependent modulation of the electric field, will be considered. The numerical analysis includes qualitative analysis of the degree of mixing by Poincare mapping and quantitative estimates of the largest percentage of drop volume mixed by a single streamline as well as the rate of mixing by calculating the largest Lyapunov exponent. Experiments are performed using a castor oil/silicone oil system for the continuous and dispersed phases respectively.

If a partial differential equation has coefficients that vary with respect to the independent (spatial) variables, how do the fluctuations in the coefficients effect the solution? In particular, if these fluctuations have a statistical structure, can anything thing be said about the statistical behavior of the solutions? I'll consider these questions in the context of a scalar reaction diffusion equation. Without the variable coefficients, the equation admits stable traveling wave solutions. It turns out that the stability of wave-like solutions persists in a heterogeneous environment, and this fact can be used to derive a central limit theorem for the wave when the environment has a certain statistical structure.

I'll try to explain two interesting mathematical issues: First, how can one prove stability of the wave-like solution in this general setting, since spectral techniques don't seem applicable? Second, how can one use the structure of the problem to say something about how randomness in the environment effects the solution?

The celebrated "Hasse Principle" holds for plane conics over a number field, but generally not for algebraic curves of positive genus. Isolated examples of curves violating the Hasse Principle go back to Lind, Reichardt and Selmer in the 1940s and 1950s. Many more examples have been found since, and it now seems likely that the Hasse principle should, in some suitable sense, most often be false. However it is challenging to make, let alone prove, a precise statement to this effect. In talk I will discuss certain "anti-Hasse principles", some which are conjectural and others (more modest) which are known to hold. In particular I will address the problem of constructing curves of any given genus g >= 1 over any global field which violate the Hasse

Heegaard Floer homology, a kind of (3+1)-dimensional field theory, associates chain complexes to 3-manifolds and chain maps to 4-manifolds with boundary. These complexes and maps are defined by counting holomorphic curves, and are hard to compute. Bordered Floer homology extends Heegaard Floer theory one dimension lower, assigning algebras to surfaces and differential modules to 3-manifolds with (parameterized) boundary. After introducing the bordered Floer framework, we will illustrate its construction in a toy case where it is explicit and combinatorial: planar grid diagrams. This is joint work with Peter Ozsvath and Dylan Thurston.

Hilbert space frames have traditionally been used in signal/image processing. Recently, there have arisen a variety of new applications to speeding up the internet, producing cell phones which won't fade, quantum information theory, distributed processing and more. We will review the fundamentals of frame theory and then look at the myriad of applications of frames.

We present several high accuracy numerical methods for fluid flow problems and turbulence modeling.

First we consider a stabilized finite element method for the Navier-Stokes equations which has second order temporal accuracy. The method requires only the solution of one linear system (arising from an Oseen problem) per time step.

We proceed by introducing a family of defect correction methods for the time dependent Navier-Stokes equations, aiming at higher Reynolds' number. The method presented is unconditionally stable, computationally cheap and gives an accurate approximation to the quantities sought.

Next, we present a defect correction method with increased time accuracy. The method is applied to the evolutionary transport problem, it is proven to be unconditionally stable, and the desired time accuracy is attained with no extra computational cost.

We then turn to the turbulence modeling in coupled Navier-Stokes systems - namely, MagnetoHydroDynamics. We consider the mathematical properties of a model for the simulation of the large eddies in turbulent viscous, incompressible, electrically conducting flows. We prove existence, uniqueness and convergence of solutions for the simplest closed MHD model. Furthermore, we show that the model preserves the properties of the 3D MHD equations.

Lastly, we consider the family of approximate deconvolution models (ADM) for turbulent MHD flows. We prove existence, uniqueness and convergence of solutions, and derive a bound on the modeling error. We verify the physical properties of the models and provide the results of the computational tests.

For nearly 25 years Calabi-Yau spaces have played a central role in string theory, yet no explicit metric was known. I will outline ideas pioneered by Donaldson and Yau that lead to such metrics numerically; then extend this approach to solving the hermitian Yang-Mills equation, and also obtain metrics on moduli spaces. Knowledge of these quantities is unavoidable for physical predictions.

We consider the problem of constructing systems of hyperbolic conservation laws in one space dimension with prescribed geometry in state space: the eigenvectors of the Jacobian of the flux are given. This is formulated as a system of algebraic-differential equations whose solution space is analyzed using Darboux and Cartan-K\"ahler theorems. It turns out that already the case with three equations is fairly complex. We give a complete list of possible scenarios for the general systems of two and three equations and for rich systems (i.e. when the given eigenvector fields are pairwise in involution) of arbitrary size. As an application we characterize conservative systems with the same eigencurves as compressible gas dynamics.

This is joint work with Kris Jenssen (Penn State University)

The Conley Index is a topological tool in dynamical systems which makes heavy use of basic homological techniques, particularly exact sequence. I will present a short primer on relative homology, describe the homological version of the Conley Index, and then present a diagram chase that contains information about the unstable manifolds of invariant sets in a dynamical system. This talk is aimed at students in the Algebraic Topology I course as well as anyone interested in dynamical systems.

It is known that the simple random walk on the unique infinite cluster of supercritical percolation on Z^d diffuses in the same way it does on the original lattice. In critical percolation, however, the behavior of the random walk changes drastically. The infinite incipient cluster (IIC) of percolation on Z^d can be thought of as the critical percolation cluster conditioned on being infinite. Alexander and Orbach (1982) conjectured that the spectral dimension of the IIC is 4/3. This means that the probability of an n-step random walk to return to its starting point scales like n^{-2/3} (in particular, the walk is recurrent). In this work we prove this conjecture when d>18; that is, where the lace-expansion estimates hold. Joint work with Gady Kozma.

Let M be an algebraic complex surface equipped with a singular foliation F. We assume that F leaves invariant a closed current on M or, equivalently, that F possesses a transversely invariant measure. The purpose of this talk is two-fold. First we want to classify the pairs (M, F) as above, a problem that is usually regarded as a step towards developing a suitable Ergodic Theory for these foliations. On the other hand we want to explain the connection of this problem with the Kobayashi hyperbolicity of general type surfaces. In particular we shall sketch a new proof of McQuillan's theorem proving the Green-Griffiths conjecture for general type surfaces having positive Segre class.

Porous, deformable membranes are encountered in a wide range of applications including red blood cells, vesicles, porous wave makers, and parachutes. The "immersed boundary method" has already proven to be a versatile and robust approach for simulating the interaction of impermeable, elastic structures with an incompressible fluid flow. We demonstrate how to extend the method to handle porous boundaries by incorporating an explicit porous slip velocity that is determined by Darcy's law. We derive a simple, radially-symmetric exact solution, which is then used to validate numerical simulations of porous membranes in two dimensions.

What does it mean for a problem to be in P, or NP? What is NP completeness? These are questions, among others, that I hope to answer in my talk on computational complexity. Computational complexity is a branch of theoretical computer science dealing with analysis of algorithms. I hope to make it as accessible as possible, with no prior knowledge of algorithms and running times.

For neutral branching models of two types of populations there are three universality classes of behavior: independent branching, (one-sided) catalytic branching and mutually catalytic branching. Loss of independence in the two latter models generates many new features in the way that the populations evolve. In this talk I will focus on describing the genealogy of a catalytic branching diffusion. This is the many individual fast branching limit of an interacting branching particle model involving two populations, in which one population, the "catalyst", evolves autonomously according to a Galton-Watson process while the other population, the "reactant", evolves according to a branching dynamics that is dependent on the number of catalyst particles. We show that the sequence of suitably rescaled family forests for the catalyst and reactant populations converge in Gromov-Hausdorff topology to limiting real forests. We characterize their distribution via a reflecting diffusion and a collection of point-processes. We compare geometric properties and statistics of the catalytic branching forests with those of the "classical" (independent branching) forest. This is joint work with Andreas Greven and Anita Winter.

The theory of homogenization for equations with random coefficients is now quite well-developed. What is less studied is the theory for the correctors to homogenization, which asymptotically characterize the randomness in the solution of the equation and as such are important to quantify in many areas of applied sciences. I will present recent results in the theory of correctors for elliptic and parabolic problems and briefly mention how such correctors may be used to improve reconstructions in inverse problems. Homogenized (deterministic effective medium) solutions are not the only possible limits for solutions of equations with highly oscillatory random coefficients as the correlation length in the medium converges to zero. When fluctuations are sufficiently large, the limit may take the form of a stochastic equation and stochastic partial differential equations (SPDE) are routinely used to model small scale random forcing. In the very specific setting of a parabolic equation with large, Gaussian, random potential, I will show the following result: in low spatial dimensions, the solution to the parabolic equation indeed converges to the solution of a SPDE, which however needs to be written in a (somewhat unconventional) Stratonovich form; in high spatial dimension, the solution to the parabolic equation converges to a homogenized (hence deterministic) equation and randomness appears as a central limit-type corrector. One of the possible corollaries for this result is that SPDE models may indeed be appropriate in low spatial dimensions but not necessarily in higher spatial dimensions.