Rice University Math Department Calendar

    February 2017            March 2017             April 2017     
 Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa   Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa   Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa
           1  2  3  4             1  2  3  4                      1
  5  6  7  8  9 10 11    5  6  7  8  9 10 11    2  3  4  5  6  7  8
 12 13 14 15 16 17 18   12 13 14 15 16 17 18    9 10 11 12 13 14 15
 19 20 21 22 23 24 25   19 20 21 22 23 24 25   16 17 18 19 20 21 22
 26 27 28               26 27 28 29 30 31      23 24 25 26 27 28 29
                                               30

10:00 am Monday, March 27, 2017
Thesis Defense: Global Regularity and Finite-time Blow-up in Model Fluid Equations
by Tam Do, Ph.D. Candidate (Rice University) in Sewall Hall, Rm. 462

Determining the long time behavior of many partial differential equations modeling fluids has been a challenge for many years. In particular, for many of these equations, the question of whether solutions exist for all time or form singularities is still open. The structure of the nonlinearity and non-locality in these equations makes their analysis difficult using classical methods. In recent years, many models have been proposed to study fluid equations. In this thesis, we will review some new results in regards to these models as well as give insight into the relation between these models and the true equations.Host Department: Rice University-Mathematics
Submitted by lpl1@rice.edu

4:00 pm Monday, March 27, 2017
Topology Seminar: Knot traces and concordance
by Lisa Piccirillo (UT Austin) in HBH 427

A classical conjecture of Akbulut and Kirby asserted that if a pair of knots $K_0$ and $K_1$ had homeomorphic zero surgeries then the knots should be (smoothly) concordant. Yasui disproved this in 2015 but the counterexamples he provided prompted Abe assert a corrected conjecture; If the 4-manifolds obtained by attaching a 2-handle to $B^4$ along $K_i$ with framing zero are diffeomorphic then the knots should be concordant. We disprove this by first giving a new method for constructing pairs of $K_i$ so that the associated four manifolds are diffeomorphic, then using the d-invariants of Heegaard Floer homology to obstruct some such $K_0$ and $K_1$ from being concordant. As a consequence we show that there exist invertible maps on the smooth concordance group which are induced via the satellite construction and with the property that $P(K)$ is not always concordant to $P(U)\# K$. This work is joint with Allison Miller.Host Department: Rice University-Mathematics
Submitted by dk27@rice.edu

4:00 pm Thursday, March 30, 2017
Colloquium: Dynamics, geometry, and the moduli space of Riemann surfaces
by Alex Wright [mail] (Stanford University) in HBH 227

The moduli space of Riemann surfaces of fixed genus is one of the hubs of modern mathematics and physics. We will tell the story of how simple sounding problems about polygons, some of which arose as toy models in physics, became intertwined with problems about the geometry of moduli space, and how the study of these problems in Teichmuller dynamics lead to connections with homogeneous spaces, algebraic geometry, dynamics, and other areas. The talk will mention joint works with Alex Eskin, Simion Filip, Curtis McMullen, Maryam Mirzakhani, and Ronen Mukamel. Host Department: Rice University-Mathematics
Submitted by ae22@rice.edu