PhD students

Wednesday 20/05 – MSA 2.240 :

• • 12:30 – 14:00 : Lunch + Poster Session

• • 14:00 – 14:45 : Javier Fernandez Piriz – University of Luxembourg
    
    Grassmannians and representations of Lie groups

    Grassmannians are objects endowed with rich geometrical structures that have been studied in algebraic geometry since the 19th century. A useful way to understand these spaces is through the seemingly unrelated theory of representations of Lie groups. The goal of this talk is to present a brief overview of the interplay between these fields and to motivate how computers are useful in answering many related questions.

• • 14:45 – 15:30 : Rodolphe Abou Assali – IECL
    
    Steklov problems and spectral inequalities in planar domains

    Classical spectral problems, such as the Dirichlet and Neumann problems, focus on the analysis of eigenvalues and eigenfunctions with applications to heat conduction, sound propagation, and vibrational modes in domains with boundaries. Other well-known problems are the Steklov and biharmonic Steklov problems with various boundary conditions. Kuttler and Sigillito established fundamental inequalities relating the eigenvalues of these problems in planar domains. These results were later extended to the scalar case on Riemannian manifolds by Hassannezhad and Siffert. We recently generalized these inequalities to the setting of differential forms. In this talk, we present these spectral problems and the Kuttler-Sigillito inequalities in planar domains, and briefly discuss their generalization.

• • 15:30 – 16:00 : Break

• • 16:00 – 16:45 : Quirijn Boeren – University of Luxembourg
    
    Cusps in the AdS/CFT correspondence

    The AdS/CFT correspondence is a powerful tool in theoretical physics, relating string theories on hyperbolic (Anti-de Sitter) manifolds to a conformal field theory on a boundary manifold. It provides some of the most promising models of quantum gravity. As often in theoretical physics the theory struggles with divergences. I will walk you through one such divergence, caused by a construction from hyperbolic geometry: a manifold with cusp—a puncture at infinite distance—can generate infinite summands to the relation, producing a divergence.

• • 16:45 – 17:30 : Valentin Clarisse – IECL
    
    General relativity and Gregory-Laflamme instability

    The Einstein equations are central to general relativity. They relate the geometry of spacetime to the distribution of matter within it. As we will see later, they form a particularly challenging system of partial differential equations to study. The first major breakthrough in mathematical relativity was achieved by Y. Choquet-Bruhat, who proved in 1952 the local-in-time existence of solutions to the Einstein equations viewed as an evolution problem. More recently, in 1993 and 1994, R. Gregory and R. Laflamme numerically demonstrated the instability of certain types of black string extensions in dimensions greater than or equal to $5$. In 2012, R.M. Wald and S. Hollands developed a fairly general method and criterion for studying the linear stability of black holes, which can be applied to establish Gregory–Laflamme-type instabilities. The article we will focus on, which is more accessible, comes from the doctoral thesis of Sam C. Collingbourne. It was submitted in 2020 and is entitled The Gregory-Laflamme Instability of the Schwarzschild Black String Exterior. It provides a direct mathematical proof of the Gregory–Laflamme linear instability in dimension $5$.

Thursday 21/05 – MSA 2.240 :

• • 9:00 – 9:45 : Katarzyna Szczerba – University of Luxembourg
    
    AI-informed Non-linear Cox Regression for Time-to-event Analysis

    The Cox proportional hazards model is the most commonly used method for multivariate survival analysis. Despite its many advantages, such as simplicity and interpretability, it has a serious drawback: it fails to capture non-linear relationships. In this study, we propose AI-informed Non-linear Cox Model, a method that uses insights from a highly predictive machine learning model, extracted with an interpretable machine learning tool, to integrate non-linear relationships into the traditional Cox model via means of splines. On simulated data with a deliberately introduced non-monotonic relationship between the predictor and the outcome variable, the AI-informed Cox model outperformed the traditional proportional hazards (PH) Cox model. Its concordance index (C-index) was also comparable to that of the best-performing machine learning model – gradient boosted Cox model. Similar results were observed when the models were applied to a prospective dataset in running.

• • 9:45 – 10:30 : Yingtong Hou – IECL
    
    Butcher series: from ordinary differential equations to Rough Path Theory and Regularity Structures

    In this talk, I will give a gentle introduction to Butcher series (B-series), Rough Path Theory, Regularity Structures, and their underlying Hopf algebras. Rough Path Theory and Regularity Structures provide pathwise frameworks for solving rough differential equations (RDEs) and singular stochastic partial differential equations (SPDEs), respectively. We will see that all these pathwise solution ansatz are obtained from iterating Taylor expansions. Therefore, Rough Path Theory and Regularity Structures can be viewed as generalisations of B-series designed for solving ordinary differential equations (ODEs). I will present the derivation of B-series-type solution ansatz for ODEs, RDEs, and SPDEs. Rooted trees and Hopf algebras appear naturally in encoding the expansions of solution ansatz. No prior background knowledge in rough analysis is required. Familiarity with Taylor expansions will be sufficient.

• • 10:30 – 11:00 : Break

• • 11:00 – 11:45 : Luís Maia – University of Luxembourg
    
    Fractional Brownian Fields at H=0: Constructions and Limit Theorems

    Fractional Brownian motion and fractional Brownian fields become singular at the endpoint H=0: the usual covariance degenerates. In this talk, I will explain two normalization that recover a meaningful object when $H=0$. The first, due to Neuman and Rosenbaum, treats one-dimensional fractional Brownian motion by subtracting a local average and rescaling. The second, due to Hager and Neuman, extends this idea to higher-dimensional fractional Brownian fields. In both cases, the normalized fields converge to log-correlated Gaussian distributions. I will then discuss results on Hermite functionals of these fields, both on fixed domains and on growing domains.

• • 11:45 – 12:30 : Juan Mardomingo-Sanz – IECL
    
    Slow-fast limits of stochastic particle systems arising in telomere biology

    The ends of linear chromosomes, called telomeres, shorten at each cell replication, eventually driving the cells to a senescent state when they become too short. The enzyme telomerase, present in cancerous cells and some unicellular organisms, elongates the telomeres and allows cells to continue replicating. Recent experiments show that if this enzyme is inactivated some rare survivors (ALT), which elongate their telomeres without telomerase, will appear and will eventually invade the cultures. I will present a simple stochastic particle system which accounts for the emergence and invasion of these ALT cells under an appropriate scaling with different speeds for each cell type.

• • 12:30 – 14:00 : Lunch

• • 14:00 – 14:45 : Szabolcs Buzogany – University of Luxembourg
    
    Galois and torsion-Kummer representations of elliptic curves

    The absolute Galois group $G_Q$ is the group of all isomorphisms from the field of all algebraic numbers to itself and remains a central object in contemporary number theory.
    A common way of studying $G_Q$ is to study its quotients, by the means of defining a group homomorphism between $G_Q$ and a well-studied group. Examples of these maps are Galois (respectively torsion-Kummer) representations, where the codomain is associated with n-torsion (respectively n-division points) of an elliptic curve. In this talk I will provide a gentle introduction to these representations.

• • 15:00 – 17:30 : Scavenger Hunt in the city (Luxembourg)

• • 19:00 : Social Dinner at Brasserie du Cercle (Luxembourg City)

Friday 22/05 – MSA 3.500 :

• • 9:00 – 9:45 : Gautier Schanzenbacher – IECL
    
    An Introduction to Hyperbolic Geometry: Surfaces, Geodesics, and Entropy

    For centuries, mathematicians tried to prove Euclid’s fifth axiom (the parallel postulate) using only the first four. In the 19th century, Gauss showed that replacing this axiom leads to a new, consistent geometry: non-Euclidean geometry. In particular, if we suppose that there are infinitely many lines parallel to a given line passing through a single point, we obtain Hyperbolic Geometry. In this talk, I will start from these foundations to define hyperbolic surfaces. We will then explore the world of curves, geodesics, and homotopy classes to understand the concept of entropy of the geodesic flow of a hyperbolic surface in the simplest way possible.

• • 9:45 – 10:30 : Francesco Tognetti – University of Luxembourg
    
    Who cares about coinduction?

    Everyone is familiar with the concept of (proof by) induction, though not as many are familiar with its dual. In this talk you will get an overview of what coinduction is, when it arises naturally and how it’s used throughout various areas of mathematics.

• • 10:30 – 11:00 : Break

• • 11:00 – 11:45 : Musbahu Idris – IECL
    
    Algorithmic Aspects of Newman Polynomials and Their Divisors

    A Newman polynomial is a polynomial with coefficients in ${0,1}$ and constant term $1$. We investigate which integer-coefficient polynomials divide a Newman polynomial, focusing on those with small Mahler measure. Using mixed-integer linear programming, we determine the divisibility status of all $8,438$ known polynomials with Mahler measure less than $1.3$. We further exhibit new polynomials that divide no Newman polynomial, improving the best known upper bound on a conjectural universal constant $\sigma$ to approximately $1.419$.

• • 11:45 – 12:30 : Francisco Pina – University of Luxembourg
    
    Statistics of Interacting Particle Systems

    Interacting particle systems can be seen as a system of N SDEs describing the evolution of a collection of agents whose behaviour depends not only on their own dynamics, but also on their interactions with the rest of the system. Such models arise in many different contexts, and a typical example is opinion dynamics, where the evolution of an individual’s opinion is influenced by the opinions of others.
    In this talk, we present the mathematical framework of interacting particle systems and discuss how statistical methods can be used to estimate the interaction law governing the system from observed particle trajectories. In particular, we introduce a nonparametric approach for estimating the underlying interaction function.

• • 12:30 – 14:00 : Lunch

La méthode usuelle que nous utilisons pour écrire les nombres réels est le développement en base entière, qui consiste à exprimer un nombre réel $x$ selon les puissances négatives d’un entier $b>1$. Une question naturelle pour étendre ce procédé est la suivante : Que se passe-t-il si dans ce procédé on remplace l’entier $b$ par un réel $\beta>1$ ?

Nous verrons dans cet exposé les différences de fonctionnement des bases $\beta$ par rapport aux bases entières et parlerons de l’intérêt de considérer certaines classes de nombres comme les nombres de Pisot en tant que bases.

Dans cet exposé, nous discuterons autour de l’équation du plus bas niveau de Landau, qui apparaît dans de nombreuses situations de la mécanique quantique, telles que la supraconductivité ou les condensats de Bose-Einstein. Nous commencerons par l’étude des propriétés basiques de l’équation : symétries, quantités conservées, existence et unicité d’une solution. Dans le but de mieux comprendre cette équation, nous regarderons de plus près une classe de solutions particulières appelées ‘ondes stationnaires’. Si le temps nous le permet, nous étudierons une conjecture concernant le réseau d’Abrikosov.

Au travers de deux grands problèmes de la Physique et plus généralement de l’Histoire des mathématiques, cet exposé vise à motiver l’étude des opérateurs différentiels. Nous discuterons dans un premier temps de géométrie spectrale en dimension 1 et 2. Il existe en effet un lien entre le nombre de valeurs propres du laplacien et la géométrie du domaine associée à l’équation acoustique d’Helmholtz.

Dans un second temps, nous explorerons la naissance du concept de solution fondamentale d’un opérateur différentiel. Celui-ci suggère deux notions aujourd’hui fondamentales : l’ellipticité et l’hypo-ellipticité.

Enfin, si le temps nous est favorable, nous parlerons du théorème original de Rockland de 1978, lequel dresse un parallèle entre hypo-ellipticité et théories des représentations du groupe d’Heisenberg.

Dans cet exposé je parlerai de percolation, qui est un domaine relativement récent des probabilités discrètes (1957). Étant donné un graphe $G=(V,E)$, une configuration de percolation $\omega$ sur $G$ est un élément de $\{0,1\}^E$, où la valeur $1$ pour une arête $e\in E$ code le fait qu’on considère que cette arête est “ouverte”, et la valeur $0$ qu’elle est “fermée”. On peut voir cette configuration comme un sous-graphe de $G$, en conservant les sommets de $G$ et où l’ensemble des arêtes est $\{e\in E~:~ \omega(e)=1\}$. Le choix d’une mesure de probabilité sur l’ensemble des configurations de percolation de $G$ définit un modèle de percolation sur $G$.

La percolation de Bernoulli, modèle qu’on appellera “sans contraintes”, sera le premier modèle étudié. Je parlerai de grands résultats qui ont été obtenus, mais également de certaines conjectures qui demeurent sur des graphes relativement simples.

Enfin j’aborderai le cas des modèles dits “avec contraintes”, qui constituent le sujet de ma thèse. Mon but sera de faire ressortir les difficultés que peuvent apporter ces contraintes, et de montrer des exemples de façons de les contourner.

La méthode de la signature a été largement utilisée pour l’analyse des séries temporelles multivariées. Cette approche a prouvé son efficacité pour de nombreuses applications  en apprentissage statistique. La définition d’une notion de barycentre dans l’espace des signatures est un premier pas prometteur permettant de développer de nouvelles extensions de l’analyse en composantes principales (ACP) ou de l’algorithme des k-moyennes aux séries temporelles.

Le but de cet exposé est de présenter les différents concepts de base de la géométrie, en particulier de la géométrie complexe. L’objet de base de toute géométrie est la variété (différentielle, algébrique, complexe) qui généralise la notion d’ouvert d’un espace vectoriel. Par exemple, la surface terrestre ressemble localement au plan réel, mais pas dans sa globalité, et la théorie des variétés différentielles va permettre de comprendre cet objet. La géométrie complexe est plus restrictive par ses fonctions sont beaucoup moins nombreuses, mais un exemple qui apparait naturellement l’espace projectif, car il est possible de mettre une structure géométrique sur un ensemble de droites vectorielles. Enfin, les géométries algébrique et analytique complexes entretiennent des liens proches, tout polynôme étant une fonction holomorphe, toute variété algébrique peut-être vue comme une variété complexe. Cependant, les fonctions holomorphes se comportent presque comme des polynômes, il est donc naturel de s’interroger sur une éventuelle réciproque : Dans le cas projectif, la réponse a été donnée par W.L. Chow en 1949.