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Thursday, September 19, 2019 — 1:00 PM EDT
Title: Orthogonal Polynomials and the Addition Formula
| Speaker: | Chris Godsil |
| Affiliation: | University of Waterloo |
| Room: | MC 5479 |
Abstract:
Many questions about designs and codes in the unit sphere can be reduced to questions about members of a family of orthogonal polynomials, the so-called Gegenbauer polynomials.
Thursday, September 19, 2019 — 3:30 PM EDT
Title: When are two Schur functions the same?
| Speaker: | Nick Olson-Harris |
| Affiliation: | University of Waterloo |
| Room: | MC 5417 |
Abstract:
A pair of skew shapes are said to be (skew) equivalent if they admit the same number of semistandard tableaux of any weight; i.e. if their associated skew Schur functions are equal.
Thursday, September 19, 2019 — 4:00 PM EDT
Title: The sparsest matroids omitting an independent flat
| Speaker: | Peter Nelson |
| Affiliation: | University of Waterloo |
| Room: | MC 5501 |
Abstract:
Given integers $k,r \ge 1$, what is the smallest a rank-$r$ matroid can be that does not contain a $k$-element independent set that is also a flat? I will answer this question, characterize the extremal examples, and draw parallels with a problem in graph theory.
Friday, September 20, 2019 — 1:00 PM EDT
Title: Submodular function maximization
| Speaker: | Chaitanya Swamy |
| Affiliation: | University of Waterloo |
| Room: | MC 5417 |
Abstract:
I will give the introductory talk for this term's topic for the Combinatorial-Optimization Reading group, namely submodular function maximization. Submodular functions arise in diverse contexts in combinatorial optimization.
Friday, September 20, 2019 — 3:30 PM EDT
Title: Undermining key exchange
| Speaker: | Douglas Stebila |
| Affiliation: | University of Waterloo |
| Room: | MC 5501 |
Abstract:
There are many ways to undermine systems that rely on cryptography. An attacker could of course try to find flaws in the hardware and software implementing the system, or find mathematical weaknesses in the cryptographic algorithms.
Friday, September 27, 2019 — 3:30 PM EDT
Title: Countable weighted graphs with no unfriendly partitions