Current contact: Thomas Ng and Zachary Cline.

The seminar takes place on Fridays (from 1:00-2:00pm) in Room 617 on the sixth floor of Wachman Hall. Pizza and refreshments are available beforehand in the lounge next door.

• Friday April 27, 2018 at 11:00, Rm 617
TBA

Yang Xiao, Brown University

• Friday April 13, 2018 at 11:00, Rm 617
TBA

Geoff Schneider

• Friday March 30, 2018 at 11:00, Rm 617
TBA

Rebekah Parlmer, Temple University

• Friday March 23, 2018 at 11:00, Rm 617
The tree for SL(2)

Khanh Le, Temple University

• Friday March 16, 2018 at 11:00, Rm 617
Eigenvalues of analytic kernels

Narek Hovsepyan, Temple University

It is shown that the eigenvalues of an analytic kernel on a finite interval go to zero at least as fast as $R^{ - n}$ for some fixed $R < 1$. The best possible value of R is related to the domain of analyticity of the kernel. The method is to apply the Weyl–Courant minimax principle to the tail of the Chebyshev expansion for the kernel. An example involving Legendre polynomials is given for which R is critical.

Reference - G. Little, J. B. Reade, Eigenvalues of analytic kernels , SIAM J. Math. Anal., 15(1), 1984, 133–136.

• Friday February 16, 2018 at 16:30, Rm 617
Building blocks for low-dimensional manifolds

Thomas Ng, Temple University

• Friday February 16, 2018 at 16:00, Rm 617
Numerical linear algebra: the hidden math in everything

Kathryn Lund, Temple University

• Friday February 9, 2018 at 11:00, Rm 617
Random graphs and surfaces

Thomas Ng, Temple University

We will describe a model introduced by Bollob\'as for random finite k-regular graph. In the case when k=3, we will discuss connections with two constructions of random Riemann surfaces introduced by Buser and Brooks-Makover. Along the way, we will see a glimpse of the space of metrics on a surface (Teichmuller space) and (ideal) triangulations.

• Friday February 2, 2018 at 11:00, Rm 617
Jones polynomial as a quantum invariant

Zachary Cline, Temple University

There is a cool construction of a variant of this polynomial which is instructive and which anyone remotely interested in knot theory should see at least once in their life. I will present this construction and then explain how this polynomial invariant arises as a functor from the tangle category to the category of vector spaces over $C$.