Abstract: If X is an object such that the notion of an automorphism of X is defined (e.g., an algebraic structure, a graph, a topological space, etc.), then one can define an equivalence relation ∼ on X via x ∼ y if and only if α(x) = y for some automorphism α of X. The equivalence classes of ∼ are called the automorphism orbits of X. Say that X is highly symmetric if and only if all elements of X lie in the same automorphism orbit. Finite highly symmetric objects are studied across various mathematical disciplines, e.g. in combinatorics, graph theory and geometry. When

Abstract: Mirror symmetry is a correspondence between symplectic geometry on a manifold M and complex geometry on a mirror manifold W. The question of why one sort of geometry on M should be reflected in another sort of geometry on the topologically distinct manifold W, and the question of how to find W given M, are a priori highly mysterious. One attempt to explain the mysteries of mirror symmetry is the SYZ conjecture, which asserts that the mirror manifold W can be realized as the moduli space of certain objects of a category associated to M.

Numerous problems in extremal hypergraph theory ask to determine the maximal size of a k-uniform hypergraph on n vertices that does not contain an 'enlarged' copy H^+ of a fixed hypergraph H. These include well-known problems such as the Erdos-Sos 'forbidding one intersection' problem and the Frankl-Furedi 'special simplex' problem.

Abstract: We will prove a sharp average-case variant of a classical embedding theorem of John through the theory of nonlinear spectral gaps. We will use this theorem to provide a new answer to questions of Johnson and Lindenstrauss (1983) and Bourgain (1985) on metric dimension reduction, and explain how it leads to algorithms for approximate nearest neighbor search.

A finite graph is automatically also a metric space, but is there any interesting geometry to speak of? In this lecture I will try to convey the idea that indeed there is very interesting geometry to explore here. I will say something on the local side of this as well as on the global aspects. The k-local profile of a big graph G is the following distribution. You sample uniformly at random k vertices in G and observe the subgraph that they span. Question - which distributions can occur? We know some of the answer but by and large it is very open.

Consider a simplicial complex that allows for an embedding into R^d. How many faces of dimension d/2 or higher can it have? How dense can they be? This basic question goes back to Descartes. Using it and other rather fundamental combinatorial problems, I will motivate and introduce a version of Grothendieck's "standard conjectures" beyond positivity (which will be explored in detail in the Sunday Seminar). All notions used will be explained in the talk (I will make an effort to be very elementary)

Abstract: The nodal set of a Laplacian eigenfunction forms a partition of the underlying manifold. An alternative partition, based on the gradient field of the eigenfunction, is via the so called Neumann domains. A Neumann domain of an eigenfunction is a connected component of the intersection between the stable manifold of a certain minimum and the unstable manifold of a certain maximum. We introduce this subject, discuss various properties of Neumann domains and point out the similarities and differences between nodal domains and Neumann domains.

In the early 1970’s, Hindman proved a beautiful theorem in additive Ramsey theory asserting that for any partition of the set of natural numbers into finitely many cells, there exists some infinite set such that all of its finite sums belong to a single cell. In this talk, we shall address generalizations of this statement to the realm of the uncountable. Among other things, we shall present a negative partition relation for the real line which simultaneously generalizes a recent theorem of Hindman, Leader and Strauss, and a classic theorem of Galvin and Shelah.

A tribute to the Legacy of Marina Ratner

For more information and registration click here. Read more about The 22nd Midrasha Mathematicae : Equidistribution, Invariant Measures and Applications

Speaker: Yuval Filmus, Technion Title: Structure of (almost) low-degree Boolean functions Abstract: Boolean function analysis studies (mostly) Boolean functions on {0,1}^n. Two basic concepts in the field are *degree* and *junta*. A function has degree d if it can be written as a degree d polynomial. A function is a d-junta if it depends on d coordinates. Clearly, a d-junta has degree d. What about the converse (for Boolean functions)? What if the Boolean function is only *close* to degree d? The questions above were answered by Nisan-Szegedy, Friedgut-Kalai-Naor, and Kindler-Safra.

Let $\alpha, \beta$ be elements of infinite order in the circle group. A closed set K in the circle is called an \alpha \beta set if for every x\in K either x+\alpha \in K or x+\beta \in K. In 1979 Katznelson proved that there exist non-dense \alpha \beta sets, and that there exist \alpha \beta sets of arbitrarily small Hausdorff dimension. We shall discuss this result, and a more recent result of Feng and Xiong, showing that the lower box dimension of every \alpha \beta set is at least 1/2.

Decoupling is a recent development in Fourier analysis. In the late 90s, Tom Wolff proposed a decoupling conjecture and made the first progress on it. The full conjecture had seemed well out of reach until a breakthrough by Jean Bourgain and Ciprian Demeter about five years ago. Decoupling has applications to problems in PDE and also to analytic number theory. One application involves exponential sums, sums of the form $$\sum_j e^{2 pi i \omega_j x}.$$