Events

Title:  A curious identity between the orthogonal Brezin--Gross--Witten integral and Schur symmetric functions via b-deformed monotone Hurwitz numbers

Abstract:

This talk is intended for an algebraic combinatorial community and no prior knowledge is required. All the difficult words (Hurwitz numbers, KP hierarchy, HCIZ and BGW integrals, Jack symmetric functions, the b-conjecture) will be explained and gently introduced.

Title: On reverse mixing in quantum walks

Abstract:

A random walk on a connected undirected graph mixes to the principal eigenvector. We consider a continuous-time quantum walk to reverse this process: starting with the principal eigenvector, can we reach an arbitrary vertex if we were to place a loop on the target vertex?

Title: Homomorphism counts in robustly sparse graphs

Abstract:

For a fixed graph H and for arbitrarily large host graphs G, the number of homomorphisms from H to G and the number of subgraphs isomorphic to H contained in G have been extensively studied when the host graphs are allowed to be dense.

Title: Densest Subgraph: Supermodularity, Iterative Peeling, and Flow

Abstract:

The densest subgraph problem in a graph (DSG), in the simplest form, is the following. Given an undirected graph G = (V, E) find a subset S of vertices that maximizes the ratio |E(S)|/|S| where E(S) is the set of edges with both endpoints in S. DSG and several of its variants are well-studied in theory and practice and have many applications in data mining and network analysis.

Title: Packing and covering balls in planar graphs

Abstract:

The set of all vertices at distance at most r from a vertex v in a graph G is called an r-ball. We prove that the minimum number of vertices hitting all r-balls in a planar graph G is at most a constant (independent of r) times the maximum number of vertex-disjoint r-balls in G.

Title: Lineup polytopes and exclusion principles

Abstract:

The set of all possible spectra of 1-reduced density operators for systems of N particles on a d-dimensional Hilbert space is a polytope called hypersimplex and this is related to Pauli's exclusion principle. If the spectrum of the original density operators is fixed, the set of spectra (ordered decreasingly) of 1-reduced density operators is also a polytope.

Title: Counting planar maps, 50 years after William Tutte

Abstract:

Every planar map can be properly coloured with four colours. But how many proper colourings has, on average, a planar map with $n$ edges? What if we allow a prescribed number of "monochromatic" edges, the endpoints of which share the same colour? What if we have $q$ colours rather than four?

Title: Polynomial ideals, association schemes, and the Q-polynomial property

Abstract:

Let X ⊆ S^{m−1} be a spherical code in C^m. We study the ideal I ⊆ C[z_1, . . . , z_m] of polynomials that vanish on the points of X: I = { F(z) | (∀a ∈ X) (F(a) = 0) }. The primary example of interest is where the Gram matrix of X is proportional to the first idempotent in some Q-polynomial ordering of an association scheme (X, R) defined on X.

Title: Obstructions for matroids of path-width at most k and graphs of linear rank-width at most k

Abstract:

Every minor-closed class of matroids of bounded branch-width can be characterized by a minimal list of excluded minors, but unlike graphs, this list could be infinite in general. However, for each fixed finite field $\mathbb F$, the list contains only finitely many $\mathbb F$-representable matroids, due to the well-quasi-ordering of $\mathbb F$-representable matroids of bounded branch-width under taking matroid minors [J. F. Geelen, A. M. H. Gerards, and G. Whittle (2002)].

Title: “Lattice-Based Zero-Knowledge Arguments for Integer Relations” by Benoit Libert, San Ling, Khoa Nguyen, and Huaxiong Wang

Abstract:

We provide lattice-based protocols allowing to prove relations among committed integers. While the most general zero-knowledge proof techniques can handle arithmetic circuits in the lattice setting, adapting them to prove statements over the integers is non-trivial, at least if we want to handle exponentially large integers while working with a polynomial size modulus q.