# Calendar

Nov
29
Thu
Master defense Greg Dziadurski @ Keller Hall 403
Nov 29 @ 9:00 am – 10:30 am

Title: TBA

Dec
6
Thu
Masters defense: Nathaniel Warner @ Keller 401
Dec 6 @ 4:00 pm – 5:30 pm

Title: Computing the Witten-Reshetikhin-Turaev Invariant of 3-Manifolds

Dec
7
Fri
Colloquium: Pamela Harris (Williams)
Dec 7 @ 3:30 pm – 4:30 pm
Jan
4
Fri
Colloquium: Pamela Harris (Williams)
Jan 4 @ 3:30 pm – 4:30 pm
Jan
17
Thu
Undergrad Seminar: Gideon Zamba @ 402
Jan 17 @ 3:00 pm – 4:00 pm

Applied Mathematics in Action through Biostatistics

Gideon K. D. Zamba, PhD.
Professor of Biostatistics

Professor of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine

The University of Iowa

Applied mathematics is a field of constant adaptability to the world’s contingencies. Such
adaptability requires a solid training and a keen understanding of theoretical and pure
mathematical thinking—as the activity of applied thinking is vitally connected to research
in pure mathematics. One such applied mathematical field is the field of statistics. As the
world continues to rely more on data for inference and decision making, statistics and
associated data-driven fields have gained an increased recognition. The purpose of this talk
is to educate the audience about the field of statistics, about statistical involvements, and
provide examples of settings where statistical theory finds an application and where real-
world applications call for new statistical developments. The presentation further provides
some general guidance on the mathematical and computational skills needed for a
successful graduate work in Statistics or Biostatistics.

Jan
18
Fri
Colloquium: Ian Marquette (U. of Queensland)
Jan 18 @ 3:30 pm – 4:30 pm

Title: Higher order superintegrability, Painlevé transcendents and representations of polynomial algebras

Abstract: I will review results on classiﬁcation of quantum superintegrable systems on two-dimensional Euclidean space allowing separation of variables in Cartesian coordinates and possessing an extra integral of third or fourth order. The exotic quantum potential satisfy a nonlinear ODE and have been shown to exhibit the Painlevé property. I will also present diﬀerent constructions of higher order superintegrable Hamiltonians involving Painlev´e transcendents using four types of building blocks which consist of 1D Hamiltonians allowing operators of the type Abelian, Heisenberg, Conformal or Ladder. Their integrals generate ﬁnitely generated polynomial algebras and representations can be exploited to calculate the energy spectrum. I will point out that for certain cases associated with exceptional orthogonal polynomials, these algebraic structures do not allow to calculate the full spectrum and degeneracies. I will describe how other sets of integrals can be build and used to provide a complete solution.

Jan
25
Fri
Colloquium: Phillip Wesolek (Wesleyan U. )
Jan 25 @ 3:30 pm – 4:30 pm

Speaker: Phillip Wesolek (Weslyan U.)
Title: An invitation to totally disconnected locally compact groups

Abstract: Locally compact groups appear across mathematics; they arise as Galois groups in algebra, isometry groups in geometry, and full groups in dynamics. The study of locally compact groups splits into two cases: the connected groups and the totally disconnected groups. There is a rich and deep theory for the connected groups, which was developed over the last century. On the other hand, the study of the totally disconnected groups only seriously began in the last 30 years, and moreover, these groups today appear to admit an equally rich and deep theory. In this talk, we will begin by motivating the study of totally disconnected locally compact groups and presenting several examples. We will then discuss a natural dividing line in the theory and a fundamental decomposition theorem.

Jan
31
Thu
Number Theory Seminar @ Keller 301
Jan 31 @ 3:00 pm – 3:50 pm

Speaker: Amita Malik
Title: Zeros of the derivatives of the completed Riemann zeta function

Abstract:
For the completed Riemann zeta function $xi(s)$, it is known that the Riemann Hypothesis for $xi(s)$ implies the Riemann hypothesis for higher order derivatives $xi^{(m)}(s)$ where $m$ is any positive integer. In this talk, we discuss the distribution of the fractional parts of the sequence $(alpha gamma_m)$ where $alpha$ is any fixed non-zero real number and $gamma_m$ runs over imaginary parts of zeros of $xi^{(m)}(s)$. This involves obtaining horizontal distribution of zeros such as zero density estimate and explicit formula type results for the zeros of $xi^{(m)}(s)$.