Past Events
Scientific, Seminar
Algebraic Geometry Seminar: Duistermaat-Heckmann measure for reductive group actions
December 21, 2009
University of British Columbia
In his influential works, A. Okounkov showed how to associate a convex body to a very ample G-line bundle L on a projective G-variety X such that it projects to the moment polytope of X and the push-forward of the Lebesgue measure on it gives the...
Scientific, Seminar
PIMS PDF Colloquium: Counting Sheep -- Bayesian Methods to Account for Time-Dependent Covariates in Open-Population Capture
December 10, 2009
University of British Columbia
Scientific, Seminar
Mathematical Biology Seminar: Infectious Diseases and Cancer
December 8, 2009
University of British Columbia
Scientific, Seminar
Topology Seminar: Fully irreducible outer automorphisms of a free group
December 8, 2009
University of British Columbia
Abstract: Fully irreducible outer automorphisms of a free group are analogous to loxodromic isometries of hyperbolic space, or to pseudo-Anosov elements of the mapping class group of a surface. We develop methods for constructing customized fully...
Scientific, Seminar
IAM-PIMS-MITACS Distinguished Colloquium -Bayesian Statistical Reasoning
December 7, 2009
University of British Columbia
In this talk I'll (a) provide an overview of the history of probability and statistics, shedding some light on a 19th- and 20th-century dispute between two probabilistic schools (frequentist and Bayesian), (b) explain why a fusion between the two...
Scientific, Seminar
Algebraic Geometry Seminar: Self rational maps of K3 surfaces
December 7, 2009
University of British Columbia
It is expected that a general K3 surface does not admit self rational maps of degree > 1. I'll give a proof of this conjecture for K3 surfaces of genus at least 4.
Scientific, Seminar
Mathematical Biology Seminar: A 3D computational model of the Mammalian Cochlea with Asymptotics
December 3, 2009
University of British Columbia
We seek to build a computational model for the simplified Mammalian Cochlea with the standard coupled fluid-plate equations as our base. Physiological data shows a clear wave nature in the response of the basilar membrane to stimulus. We seek to...
Scientific, Seminar
Probability Seminar: Deterministic Poisson thinning on finite and infinite volumes
December 2, 2009
University of British Columbia
Given a homogeneous Poisson point process it is well known that selecting each point independently with some fixed probability gives a homogeneous Poisson process of lower intensity. This is often referred to as thinning. Can thinning be achieved...
Scientific, Seminar
A Hybrid Approach For Solving Sparse Linear Least Squares Problems
December 2, 2009
University of British Columbia
We propose a hybrid method for solving large sparse linear least squares problems. The method is iterative in nature, as it is based on preconditioned LSQR. However, the preconditioner comes from an orthogonal factorization of a submatrix of the...
Scientific, Seminar
Small solutions of Nonlinear Schrodinger Equations with Many Bound States
December 2, 2009
University of British Columbia
Consider a nonlinear Schr\"{o}dinger equation in $\mathbb{R}^3$ with a short-range potential. The linear Hamiltonian is assumed to have three or more eigenvalues satisfying some resonance conditions. We study the asymptotic behavior at time infinity...