Department of

# Mathematics

Seminar Calendar
for events the day of Thursday, December 2, 2004.

.
events for the
events containing

Questions regarding events or the calendar should be directed to Tori Corkery.
    November 2004          December 2004           January 2005
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  5  6             1  2  3  4                      1
7  8  9 10 11 12 13    5  6  7  8  9 10 11    2  3  4  5  6  7  8
14 15 16 17 18 19 20   12 13 14 15 16 17 18    9 10 11 12 13 14 15
21 22 23 24 25 26 27   19 20 21 22 23 24 25   16 17 18 19 20 21 22
28 29 30               26 27 28 29 30 31      23 24 25 26 27 28 29
30 31


Thursday, December 2, 2004

1:00 pm in 347 Altgeld Hall,Thursday, December 2, 2004

#### Symmetric join and geodesic flow for metric spaces

###### Igor Mineyev (Department of Mathematics, UIUC)

Abstract: I will describe a construction of symmetric join that is canonically (i.e. functorially) associated to a metric space X. When X is a hyperbolic space, e.g. hyperbolic group, this gives rise to the geodesic flow space, which is an analog of the unit tangent bundle for manifolds.

1:00 pm in 241 Altgeld Hall,Thursday, December 2, 2004

#### Discriminants of cubic polynomials, remarkable q-analogues of Ismail, and a related nonlinear recurrence.

###### Kenneth Stolarsky (UIUC)

Abstract: Mourad Ismail has remarkable results on a q-analogue of the discriminant for q-analogues of Jacobi polynomials. We develop one of his ideas in a different direction and obtain a nonlinear recurrence that is conjecturally remarkable both for its algebraic and analytic (i.e. asymptotic) properties. In particular a new absolute constant (probably transcendental) emerges.

2:00 pm in 243 Altgeld Hall,Thursday, December 2, 2004

#### The dimension of p harmonic measure

###### Bjorn Bennewitz (University of Kentucky)

Abstract: Carleson showed that the dimension of harmonic measure on the van Koch snowflake is less than or equal to 1. In joint work with John Lewis, I have extended his methods to get estimates on the dimension of measures associated with p harmonic functions on domains with self similar boundaries.

2:00 pm in Everett 168,Thursday, December 2, 2004

#### Henn's paper on Cohomology of Profinite groups

###### Nora Ganter (UIUC)

2:00 pm in 241 Altgeld Hall,Thursday, December 2, 2004

#### Differential arc spaces and regular types.

###### Anand Pillay (UIUC)

Abstract: Continuation of the talk given in the logic seminar on tuesday. Anand will hopefully give a proof of the theorem.

3:00 pm in 241 Altgeld Hall,Thursday, December 2, 2004

#### Differential arc spaces and regular types (continuation).

###### Anand Pillay (UIUC)

Abstract: Continuation of the talk given in the logic seminar on tuesday. Anand will hopefully give a proof of the theorem.

3:00 pm in 243 Altgeld Hall,Thursday, December 2, 2004

#### Peskine and Szpiro's proof of the Intersection Theorem

###### Bart Snapp   [email] (UIUC MATH)

Abstract: In this talk I will present Peskine and Szpiro's proof of the Intersection Theorem. An attempt will be made to make this talk accessible to anyone who has taken a course in Commutative Algebra

4:00 pm in 245 Altgeld Hall,Thursday, December 2, 2004

#### Double scaling limit in random matrix models and a nonlinear hierarchy of differential equations

###### Pavel Bleher (Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis)

Abstract: Partition functions of random matrix models provide generating functions for a number of combinatorial and physical problems: enumeration of graphs on Riemannian surfaces and quantum gravity, spin models of statistical mechanics on random surfaces, enumeration of knots and links, meanders, and others. Critical points and double scaling limits of random matrix models determine in this context the large N asymptotics of the quantities under consideration. In the talk we will discuss critical phenomena for random matrix models and relate the double scaling limit at critical points to the Painleve II nonlinear hierarchy of differential equations. Hosts: F. Boca and A. Zaharescu