Seminars & Colloquia

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Uniform continuity and uniform convergence revisited

Wed, 01/13/2010 - 2:00pm, Skiles 269

Gerald Beer, California State University, Los Angeles        Organizer: Plamen Iliev

Sandro Levi and I have investigated variational strengthenings of uniform continuity and uniform  convergence of nets or sequences of functions with respect to a family of subsets of the domain. Out of our theory comes  an answer to this basic question: what is the weakest topology  stronger than the topology of pointwise convergence in which continuity is preserved under taking limits?   We argue that the classical theory constitues a misunderstanding of what is fundamentally a variational phenomenon.

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

An Extension of the Cordoba-Fefferman Theorem on the Equivalence Between the Boundedness Maximal and Multiplier Operators

Wed, 12/02/2009 - 2:00pm, Skiles 269

Alexander Stokolos, Georgia Southern University        Organizer: Brett Wick

I will speak about an extension of Cordoba-Fefferman Theorem on the equivalence between boundedness properties of certain classes of maximal and multiplier operators.  This extension utilizes the recent work of Mike Bateman on directional maximal operators as well as my work with Paul Hagelstein on geometric maximal operators associated to homothecy invariant bases of convex sets satisfying Tauberian conditions.

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

How likely is Buffon's needle to land near a 1-dimensional Sierspinski gasket? A power estimate via Fourier analysis.

Wed, 11/18/2009 - 2:00pm, Skiles 269

Matt Bond, Michigan State University        Organizer: Brett Wick

It is well known that a needle thrown at random has zero probability of intersecting any given irregular planar set of finite 1-dimensional Hausdorff measure. Sharp quantitative estimates for fine open coverings of such sets are still not known, even for such sets as the Sierpinski gasket and the 4-corner Cantor set (with self-similarities 1/4 and 1/3). In 2008, Nazarov, Peres, and Volberg provided the sharpest known upper bound for the 4-corner Cantor set. Volberg and I have recently used the same ideas to get a similar estimate for the Sierpinski gasket. Namely, the probability that Buffon's needle will land in a 3^{-n}-neighborhood of the Sierpinski gasket is no more than C_p/n^p, where p is any small enough positive number.

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

A topological separation condition for attractors of contraction mapping systems

Wed, 11/11/2009 - 2:00pm, Skiles 269

Sergiy Borodachov, Towson University        Organizer: Plamen Iliev

We consider finite systems of contractive homeomorphisms of a complete metric space, which are non-redundanton every level. In general, this condition is weaker than the strong open set condition and is not equivalent to the weak separation property. We show that the set of N-tuples of contractive homeomorphisms, which satisfy this separation condition is a G_delta set in the topology of pointwise convergence of every component mapping with an additional requirement that the supremum of contraction coefficients of mappings in the sequence be strictly less than one.We also give several sufficient conditions for this separation property. For every fixed N-tuple of dXd invertible contraction matrices from a certain class, we obtain density results for vectors of fixed points, which defineN-tuples of affine contraction mappings having this separation property. Joint work with Tim Bedford (University of Strathclyde) and Jeff Geronimo (Georgia Tech). 

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

On a Bargmann transform and coherent states for the n-sphere

Wed, 11/04/2009 - 2:00pm, Skiles 269

Dr Carlos Villegas Blas, Instituto de Matematicas UNAM, Unidad. Cuernavaca, email        Organizer: Jean Bellissard

We will introduce a Bargmann transform from the space of square integrable functions on the n-sphere onto a suitable Hilbert space of holomorphic functions on a null quadric.  On base of our Bargmann transform, we will introduce a set of coherent states and study their semiclassical properties.  For the particular cases n=2,3,5, we will show the relation with two known regularizations of the Kepler problem: the Kustaanheimo-Stiefel and Moser regularizations.

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

The Extremal Nevanlinna-Pick problem for Riemann Surfaces

Wed, 10/28/2009 - 2:00pm, Skiles 269

Mrinal Ragupathi, Vanderbilt University        Organizer: Brett Wick

Given points $z_1,\ldots,z_n$ on a finite open Riemann surface $R$ and complex scalars $w_1,\ldots,w_n$, the Nevanlinna-Pick problem is to determine conditions for the existence of a holomorphic map $f:R\to \mathbb{D}$ such that $f(z_i) = w_i$. In this talk I will provide some background on the  problem, and then discuss the extremal case. We will try to discuss how a method of McCullough can be used to provide more qualitative information about the solution. In particular, we will show that extremal cases are precisely the ones for which the solution is unique.

Friday, October 23, 2009

From transfinite diameter to order-density to best-packing: the asymptotics of ground state configurations

Fri, 10/23/2009 - 2:00pm, Skiles 269

Doug Hardin, Vanderbilt University        Organizer: Jeff Geronimo

I will review recent and classical results concerning the asymptotic properties (as N --> \infty) of 'ground state' configurations of N particles restricted to a d-dimensional compact set A\subset {\bf R}^p that minimize the Riesz s-energy functional \sum_{i\neq j}\frac{1}{|x_{i}-x_{j}|^{s}} for s>0. Specifically, we will discuss the following (1) For s < d, the ground state configurations have limit distribution as N --> \infty given by the equilibrium measure \mu_s, while the first order asymptotic growth of the energy of these configurations is given by the 'transfinite diameter' of A. (2) We study the behavior of \mu_s as s approaches the critical value d (for s\ge d, there is no equilibrium measure). In the case that A is a fractal, the notion of 'order two density' introduced by Bedford and Fisher naturally arises. This is joint work with M. Calef. (3) As s --> \infty, ground state configurations approach best-packing configurations on A. In work with S. Borodachov and E. Saff we show that such configurations are asymptotically uniformly distributed on A.

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Inequalities for Derivatives and their Applications

Wed, 10/21/2009 - 2:00pm, Skiles 269

Yuliya Babenko, Sam Houston State University        Organizer: Brett Wick

In this talk we will discuss Kolmogorov and Landau type inequalities for the derivatives.  These are the inequalities which estimate the norm of the intermediate derivative of a function (defined on an interval, R_+, R, or their multivariate analogs) from some class in terms of the norm of the function itself and norm of its highest derivative. We shall present several new results on sharp inequalities of this type for special classes of functions (multiply monotone and absolutely monotone) and sequences. We will also highlight some of the techniques involved in the proofs (comparison theorems) and discuss several applications.

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Point Perturbation and Asymptotics Orthogonal Polynomials

Thu, 10/15/2009 - 2:00pm, Skiles 255 **NOTE ROOM CHANGE AND SPECIAL DAY**

Lillian Wong, University of Oklahoma        Organizer: Brett Wick

In this talk, I will discuss some results obtained in my Ph.D. thesis. First, the point mass formula will be introduced. Using the formula, we shall see how the asymptotics of orthogonal polynomials relate to the perturbed Verblunsky coefficients. Then I will discuss two classes of measures on the unit circle -- one with Verblunsky coefficients \alpha_n --> 0 and the other one with \alpha_n --> L (non-zero) -- and explain the methods I used to tackle the point mass problem involving these measures. Finally, I will discuss the point mass problem on the real line. For a long time it was believed that point mass perturbation will generate exponentially small perturbation on the recursion coefficients. I will demonstrate that indeed there is a large class of measures such that that proposition is false.

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Positive Matrices and Applications to Hankel Operators

Wed, 10/14/2009 - 2:00pm, Skiles 269

Marcus Carlsson, Purdue University        Organizer: Brett Wick

Given an "infinite symmetric matrix" W we give a simple condition, related to the shift operator being expansive on a certain sequence space, under which W is positive. We apply this result to AAK-type theorems for generalized Hankel operators, providing new insights related to previous work by S. Treil and A. Volberg. We also discuss applications and open problems.

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Embeddings of Modulation Spaces into BMO

Wed, 10/07/2009 - 2:00pm, Skiles 269

Ramazan Tinaztepe, Georgia Tech        Organizer: Plamen Iliev

Modulation spaces are a class of Banach spaces which provide a quantitative time-frequency analysis of functions via the Short-Time Fourier Transform. The modulation spaces are the "right" spaces for time-frequency analysis andthey occur in many problems in the same way that Besov Spaces are attached to wavelet theory and issues of smoothness. In this seminar, I will talk about embeddings of modulation Spaces into BMO or VMO (the space of functions of bounded or vanishing mean oscillation, respectively ). Membership in VMO is central to the  Balian-Low Theorem, which is a cornerstone of time-frequency analysis.

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Trigonometric Grassmannian and a difference W-algebra

Wed, 09/30/2009 - 2:00pm, Skiles 269

Plamen Illiev, Georgia Tech        Organizer: Brett Wick

The trigonometric Grassmannian parametrizes specific solutions of the KP hierarchy which correspond to rank one solutions of a differential-difference bispectral problem. It can be considered as a completion of the phase spaces of the trigonometric Calogero-Moser particle system or the rational Ruijsenaars-Schneider system. I will describe the characterization of this Grassmannian in terms of representation theory of a suitable difference W-algebra. Based on joint work with L. Haine and E. Horozov.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Convergent Interpolation to Cauchy Integrals of Jacobi-type Weights and RH∂-Problems

Wed, 09/23/2009 - 2:00pm, Skiles 269

Maxym Yattselev, Vanderbilt University        Organizer: Brett Wick

We consider multipoint Padé approximation to Cauchy transforms of complex measures. First, we recap that if the support of a measure is an analytic Jordan arc and if the measure itself is absolutely continuous with respect to the equilibrium distribution of that arc with Dini-continuous non-vanishing density, then the diagonal multipoint Padé approximants associated with appropriate interpolation schemes converge locally uniformly to the approximated Cauchy transform in the complement of the arc. Second, we show that this convergence holds also for measures whose Radon–Nikodym derivative is a Jacobi weight modified by a Hölder continuous function. The asymptotics behavior of Padé approximants is deduced from the analysis of underlying non–Hermitian orthogonal polynomials, for which the Riemann–Hilbert–∂ method is used.

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Time-frequency analysis of pseudodifferential operators and Fourier integral operators

Wed, 09/09/2009 - 2:00pm, Skiles 269

Shannon Bishop, Georgia Tech        Organizer: Brett Wick

We describe how time-frequency analysis is used to analyze boundedness and Schatten class properties of pseudodifferential operators and Fourier integral operators.

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Two weight inequalities for singular integrals, Continued

Wed, 09/02/2009 - 2:00pm, Skiles 269

Michael Lacey, Georgia Institute of Technology        Organizer: Brett Wick

We will survey recent developments in the area of two weight inequalities, especially those relevant for singular integrals.  In the second lecture, we will go into some details of recent characterizations of maximal singular integrals of the speaker, Eric Sawyer, and Ignacio Uriate-Tuero.