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Events in September 2009

Modelling fluid-structure interactions in micro-devices
15:00 Thu 3 Sep 09 :: School Board Room :: Dr Richard Clarke :: University of Auckland

The flows generated in many modern micro-devices possess very little convective inertia, however, they can be highly unsteady and exert substantial hydrodynamic forces on the device components. Typically these components exhibit some degree of compliance, which traditionally has been treated using simple one-dimensional elastic beam models. However, recent findings have suggested that three-dimensional effects can be important and, accordingly, we consider the elastohydrodynamic response of a rapidly oscillating three-dimensional elastic plate that is immersed in a viscous fluid. In addition, a preliminary model will be presented which incorporates the presence of a nearby elastic wall.
Spin-up in a torus
16:00 Thu 3 Sep 09 :: School Board Room :: Dr Richard Hewitt :: University of Manchester

Defect formulae for integrals of pseudodifferential symbols: applications to dimensional regularisation and index theory
13:10 Fri 4 Sep 09 :: School Board Room :: Prof Sylvie Paycha :: Universite Blaise Pascal, Clermont-Ferrand, France

The ordinary integral on L^1 functions on R^d unfortunately does not extend to a translation invariant linear form on the whole algebra of pseudodifferential symbols on R^d, forcing to work with ordinary linear extensions which fail to be translation invariant. Defect formulae which express the difference between various linear extensions, show that they differ by local terms involving the noncommutative residue. In particular, we shall show how integrals regularised by a "dimensional regularisation" procedure familiar to physicists differ from Hadamard finite part (or "cut-off" regularised) integrals by a residue. When extended to pseudodifferential operators on closed manifolds, these defect formulae express the zeta regularised traces of a differential operator in terms of a residue of its logarithm. In particular, we shall express the index of a Dirac type operator on a closed manifold in terms of a logarithm of a generalized Laplacian, thus giving an a priori local description of the index and shall discuss further applications.
The Monster
12:10 Thu 10 Sep 09 :: Napier 210 :: Dr David Parrott :: University of Adelaide

Media...
The simple groups are the building blocks of all finite groups. The classification of finite simple groups is a towering achievement of 20th century mathematics. In addition to 18 infinite families of finite simple groups, there are 26 sporadic groups. The biggest sporadic group, dubbed The Monster, has about 10^54 elements. The talk will give a glimpse of this deep area of mathematics.
Covering spaces and algebra bundles
13:10 Fri 11 Sep 09 :: School Board Room :: Prof Keith Hannabuss :: University of Oxford

Bundles of C*-algebras over a topological space M can be classified by a Dixmier-Douady obstruction in H^3(M,Z). This talk will describe some recent work with Mathai investigating the relationship between algebra bundles on M and on its covering space, where there can be no obstruction, particularly when there is a group acting on M.
Curved pipe flow and its stability
15:10 Fri 11 Sep 09 :: Badger labs G13 Macbeth Lecture Theatre :: Dr Richard Clarke :: University of Auckland

The unsteady flow of a viscous fluid through a curved pipe is a widely occuring and well studied problem. The stability of such flows, however, has largely been overlooked; this is in marked contrast to flow through a straight-pipe, examination of which forms a cornerstone of hydrodynamic stability theory. Importantly, however, flow through a curved pipe exhibits an array of flow structures that are simply not present in the zero curvature limit, and it is natural to expect these to substantially impact upon the flow's stability. By considering two very different kinds of flows through a curved pipe, we illustrate that this can indeed be the case.
Stability of rotating boundary-layers
15:10 Wed 16 Sep 09 :: Napier LG29 :: Dr Christian Thomas :: University of Western Australia

Statistical analysis for harmonized development of systemic organs in human fetuses
11:00 Thu 17 Sep 09 :: School Board Room :: Prof Kanta Naito :: Shimane University

The growth processes of human babies have been studied sufficiently in scientific fields, but there have still been many issues about the developments of human fetus which are not clarified. The aim of this research is to investigate the developing process of systemic organs of human fetuses based on the data set of measurements of fetus's bodies and organs. Specifically, this talk is concerned with giving a mathematical understanding for the harmonized developments of the organs of human fetuses. The method to evaluate such harmonies is proposed by the use of the maximal dilatation appeared in the theory of quasi-conformal mapping.
Understanding hypersurfaces through tropical geometry
12:10 Fri 25 Sep 09 :: Napier 102 :: Dr Mohammed Abouzaid :: Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Given a polynomial in two or more variables, one may study the zero locus from the point of view of different mathematical subjects (number theory, algebraic geometry, ...). I will explain how tropical geometry allows to encode all topological aspects by elementary combinatorial objects called "tropical varieties." Mohammed Abouzaid received a B.S. in 2002 from the University of Richmond, and a Ph.D. in 2007 from the University of Chicago under the supervision of Paul Seidel. He is interested in symplectic topology and its interactions with algebraic geometry and differential topology, in particular the homological mirror symmetry conjecture. Since 2007 he has been a postdoctoral fellow at MIT, and a Clay Mathematics Institute Research Fellow.
Stable commutator length
13:40 Fri 25 Sep 09 :: Napier 102 :: Prof Danny Calegari :: California Institute of Technology

Stable commutator length answers the question: "what is the simplest surface in a given space with prescribed boundary?" where "simplest" is interpreted in topological terms. This topological definition is complemented by several equivalent definitions - in group theory, as a measure of non-commutativity of a group; and in linear programming, as the solution of a certain linear optimization problem. On the topological side, scl is concerned with questions such as computing the genus of a knot, or finding the simplest 4-manifold that bounds a given 3-manifold. On the linear programming side, scl is measured in terms of certain functions called quasimorphisms, which arise from hyperbolic geometry (negative curvature) and symplectic geometry (causal structures). In these talks we will discuss how scl in free and surface groups is connected to such diverse phenomena as the existence of closed surface subgroups in graphs of groups, rigidity and discreteness of symplectic representations, bounding immersed curves on a surface by immersed subsurfaces, and the theory of multi- dimensional continued fractions and Klein polyhedra. Danny Calegari is the Richard Merkin Professor of Mathematics at the California Institute of Technology, and is one of the recipients of the 2009 Clay Research Award for his work in geometric topology and geometric group theory. He received a B.A. in 1994 from the University of Melbourne, and a Ph.D. in 2000 from the University of California, Berkeley under the joint supervision of Andrew Casson and William Thurston. From 2000 to 2002 he was Benjamin Peirce Assistant Professor at Harvard University, after which he joined the Caltech faculty; he became Richard Merkin Professor in 2007.
The proof of the Poincare conjecture
15:10 Fri 25 Sep 09 :: Napier 102 :: Prof Terrence Tao :: UCLA

In a series of three papers from 2002-2003, Grigori Perelman gave a spectacular proof of the Poincare Conjecture (every smooth compact simply connected three-dimensional manifold is topologically isomorphic to a sphere), one of the most famous open problems in mathematics (and one of the seven Clay Millennium Prize Problems worth a million dollars each), by developing several new groundbreaking advances in Hamilton's theory of Ricci flow on manifolds. In this talk I describe in broad detail how the proof proceeds, and briefly discuss some of the key turning points in the argument. About the speaker: Terence Tao was born in Adelaide, Australia, in 1975. He has been a professor of mathematics at UCLA since 1999, having completed his PhD under Elias Stein at Princeton in 1996. Tao's areas of research include harmonic analysis, PDE, combinatorics, and number theory. He has received a number of awards, including the Salem Prize in 2000, the Bochner Prize in 2002, the Fields Medal and SASTRA Ramanujan Prize in 2006, and the MacArthur Fellowship and Ostrowski Prize in 2007. Terence Tao also currently holds the James and Carol Collins chair in mathematics at UCLA, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society and the Australian Academy of Sciences (Corresponding Member).
Contemporary frontiers in statistics
15:10 Mon 28 Sep 09 :: Badger Labs G31 Macbeth Lectrue :: Prof. Peter Hall :: University of Melbourne

The availability of powerful computing equipment has had a dramatic impact on statistical methods and thinking, changing forever the way data are analysed. New data types, larger quantities of data, and new classes of research problem are all motivating new statistical methods. We shall give examples of each of these issues, and discuss the current and future directions of frontier problems in statistics.
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Recent news
Two contract positions are available
As a result of the School's success in securing two prestigious Australian Research Council Future Fellowships, we now have two limited term positions available, one in Pure Mathematics and one in Statistics.