Abstract: In 1934, Loewner proved a remarkable and deep theorem about matrix monotone functions. Recently, the young Finnish mathematician, Otte Heinävarra settled a 10 year old conjecture and found a 2 page proof of a theorem in Loewner theory whose only prior proof was 35 pages. I will describe his proof and use that as an excuse to discuss matrix monotone and matrix convex functions including, if time allows, my own recent proof of Loewner’s original theorem.

Symbolic dynamics is a tool that simplifies the study of dynamical systems in various aspects. It is known for almost fifty years that uniformly hyperbolic systems have ``good'' codings. For non-uniformly hyperbolic systems, Sarig constructed in 2013 ``good'' codings for surface diffeomorphisms. In this talk we will discuss some recent developments on Sarig's theory, when the map has discountinuities and/or critical points, such as multimodal maps of the interval and Bunimovich billiards.

Let X be a stationary Z^d-process. We say that X is a factor of an i.i.d. process if there is a (deterministic and translation-invariant) way to construct a realization of X from i.i.d. variables associated to the sites of Z^d. That is, if there is an i.i.d. process Y and a measurable map F from the underlying space of Y to that of X, which commutes with translations of Z^d and satisfies that F(Y)=X in distribution. Such a factor is called finitary if, in order to determine the value of X at a given site, one only needs to look at a finite (but random) region of Y.

Abstract: In this talk, we will discuss the notion of small extensions in its various incarnations, from torsors under abelian groups to square-zero extensions of algebras. We will then focus on the somewhat less familiar case of small extensions of ∞-categories. Our main goal is to make this abstract concept concrete and intuitive through a variety of examples. In particular, we will advocate the point of view that small extensions of  ∞-categories offer a unifying perspective in understanding many constructions appearing in obstruction, classification, and deformation theoretic problems

We will present briefly the "multiverse view" of set theory, advocated by Hamkins, that there are a multitude of set-theoretic universes, and not one background universe, and his proposed "Multiverse Axioms". We will then move on to present the main result of Gitman and Hamkins in their paper "A natural model of the multiverse axioms" - that the countable computably saturated models of ZFC form a "toy model" of the multiverse axioms.

Weak Prediction Principles Speaker: Yair Hayut Abstract: Jensen's diamond is a well studied prediction principle. It holds in L (and other core models), and in many cases it follows from local instances of GCH. In the talk I will address a weakening of diamond (due to Shaleh and Abraham) and present Abraham's theorem about the equivalence between weak diamond and a weak consequence of GCH. Abraham's argument works for successor cardinals. I will discuss what is known and what is open for inaccessible cardinals. This is a joint work with Shimon Garti and Omer Ben-Neria.

In an attempt to classify the geometries arising in strongly minimal sets, Zil'ber conjectured them to split into three different types: Trivial geometries, vector space-like geometries and field-like geometries. Soon after, Hrushovski refuted this conjecture while introducing a new construction method, which has been modified and used a lot ever since.

Arbault sets (briefly, A-sets) were first introduced by Jean Arbault in the context of Fourier analysis. One of his major results concerning these sets,asserts that the union of an A-set with a countable set is again an A-set. The next obvious step is to ask what happens if we replace the word "countable" by א_1. Apparently, an א_1 version of Arbault's theorem is independent of ZFC. The aim of this talk would be to give a proof (as detailed as possible) of this independence result. The main ingredients of the proof are infinite combinatorics and some very basic Fourier analysis.

Reflections on the coloring and chromatic numbers Speaker: Chris Lambie-Hanson Abstract: Compactness phenomena play a central role in modern set theory, and the investigation of compactness and incompactness for the coloring and chromatic numbers of graphs has been a thriving area of research since the mid-20th century, when De Bruijn and Erdős published their compactness theorem for finite chromatic