I will discuss joint work with Jim Hoste, where we prove that a unique folded strip of paper can follow any polygonal knot with odd stick number. In the even stick number case there are either infinitely many, or none.
In 2007, Dr. Maria D'Orsogna learned of proposed oil activities in her home region of Abruzzo, Italy. Century-old wineries were to be uprooted to build clusters of oil wells, refineries and pipelines, turning scenic Abruzzo into an oil district. Although based in California, 6,000 miles away, Dr. D'Orsogna took it upon herself to raise awareness […]
Clustering in image analysis is a central technique that allows to classify elements of an image. We describe a simple clustering technique that uses the method of similarity matrices, and an algorithm in which a collection of image elements is treated as a dynamical system. Efficient clustering in this framework is achieved if the dynamical system admits […]
Mathematicians like to count things. Often in very complicated and fancy ways. In this talk I will explain how we can use quantum Airy structures -- an abstract formalism recently proposed by Kontsevich and Soibelman, underlying the Eynard-Orantin topological recursion -- to count various interesting geometric structures. Quantum Airy structures can be seen as a […]
This triple-header of topology talks will include three speakers: First, Hyeran Cho from The Ohio State University will speak about Derivation of Schubert normal forms of 2-bridge knots from (1,1)-diagrams. In this talk, we show that the dual (1, 1)-diagram of a (1, 1)-diagram (a.k.a. a two pointed genus one Heegaard diagram) D(a, 0, 1, […]
A fascinating fact on mathematics is that there are many interesting connections between seemingly different mathematical disciplines. In this talk, I will present a surprising formula counting integral points on polygons and sketch its proof. We will see a delightful interaction between algebra, combinatorics, and geometry. This talk aims primarily for undergraduate students. No prerequisite […]
We review some recent developments in the study of biquandle brackets and other quantum enhancements.
The bridge distance and the topological index are measures of the complexity of the bridge splitting of a knot. In 2016, Johnson and Moriah gave a formula for the bridge distance of the canonical bridge sphere of a knot in a highly twisted plat projection in terms of the height and the width of the […]
Silica-based glasses are increasingly becoming vital components in our current technology, from optical data transmission lines, to electronics, to optical lenses, to smartphone screens. These materials are inherently brittle and subject to failure under shock, non-equilibrium stress states, or corrosive environments. Identifying new compositions and processing conditions that result in improved fracture resistance (i.e. a […]
Joan Ponce Purdue University Abstract: One of the main challenges of mathematical modeling is the balance between simplifying assumptions and incorporating sufficient complexity for the model to provide more accurate and reliable outcomes. For mathematical simplicity, many commonly used epidemiological models make restrictive modeling assumptions. Although models under such assumptions are capable of producing useful insights into […]
At the turn of the twentieth century, physicist Henri Bénard heated a shallow plate of fluid from below. For temperatures above a critical value, the fluid’s evenly heated state became unstable as thermal convection took hold; heated fluid rose in localized areas while cooler fluid fell nearby. The rising and falling fluid created hexagonal convection cells, […]
Domination in graphs has been an important and active topic in graph theory for over 40 years. It has immediate applications in visibility and controllability. In this talk we will discuss a generalization of domination called exponential domination. A vertex $v$ in an exponential dominating set assigns weight $2^{1−dist(v,u)}$ to vertex $u$. An exponential dominating […]
