Drugs of abuse, such as opiates, have been widely associated with enhancing susceptibility to HIV infection, intensifying HIV replication, accelerating disease progression, diminishing host-immune responses, and expediting neuropathogenesis. In this talk, I will present a variety of mathematical models to study the effects of the drugs of abuse on several aspects of HIV infection and replication dynamics. The models are parameterized using data collected from simian immunodeficiency virus infection in morphine-addicted macaques. I will demonstrate how mathematical modeling can help answer critical questions related to the HIV infection altered due to the presence of drugs of abuse. Our models, related theories, and simulation results provide new insights into the HIV dynamics under drugs of abuse. These results help develop strategies to prevent and control HIV infections in drug abusers.

Many data-driven problems in the modern world involve solving nonconvex optimization problems. The large-scale nature of many of these problems also necessitates the use of first-order optimization methods, i.e., methods that rely only on the gradient information, for computational purposes. But the first-order optimization methods, which include the prototypical gradient descent algorithm, face a major hurdle for nonconvex optimization: since the gradient of a function vanishes at a saddle point, first-order methods can potentially get stuck at the saddle points of the objective function. And while recent works have established that the gradient descent algorithm almost surely escapes the saddle points under some mild conditions, there remains a concern that first-order methods can spend an inordinate amount of time in the saddle neighborhoods. It is in this regard that we revisit the behavior of the gradient descent trajectories within the saddle neighborhoods and ask whether it is possible to provide necessary and sufficient conditions under which these trajectories escape the saddle neighborhoods in linear time. The ensuing analysis relies on precise approximations of the discrete gradient descent trajectories in terms of the spectrum of the Hessian at the saddle point, and it leads to a simple boundary condition that can be readily checked to ensure the gradient descent method escapes the saddle neighborhoods of a class of nonconvex functions in linear time. The boundary condition check also leads to the development of a simple variant of the vanilla gradient descent method, termed Curvature Conditioned Regularized Gradient Descent (CCRGD). The talk concludes with a convergence analysis of the CCRGD algorithm, which includes its rate of convergence to a local minimum of a class of nonconvex optimization problems.

As we know, Kaehler-Ricci flow can be reduced to solve a class of  parabolic   complex Monge-Amp\`ere equations for Kaehler potentials and  the solutions usually depend on the Kaehler class of initial metric.   Thus there  gives a  degeneration of Kaehler metrics arising from the Kaehler-Ricci flow.  For a class of $G$-spherical manifolds,   we can  use  the local estimate  of  Monge-Amp\`ere equations as well as  the H-invariant for $C^*$-degeneration  to determine the limit of  Kaehler-Ricci flow after resales.  In particular,  on such manifolds,  the flow will develop the singularities of  type II.  

We present a highly effective algorithmic approach, PMM, for generating differentially private synthetic data in a bounded metric space with near-optimal utility guarantees under the 1-Wasserstein distance. In particular, for a dataset in the hypercube [0,1]^d, our algorithm generates synthetic dataset such that the expected 1-Wasserstein distance between the empirical measure of true and synthetic dataset is O(n^{-1/d}) for d>1. Our accuracy guarantee is optimal up to a constant factor for d>1, and up to a logarithmic factor for d=1. Also, PMM is time-efficient with a fast running time of O(\epsilon d n). Derived from the PMM algorithm, more variations of synthetic data publishing problems can be studied under different settings.

Riemannian geometry, the study of smooth manifolds and how to define distances and angles on them, can be viewed either intrinsically or extrinsically. In this talk, we discuss how Nash unified these views starting with his 1954 paper “C1 Isometric Imbeddings,” where the isometric embedding and the solution to the corresponding system of partial differential equations is constructed as the limit of iteratively defined subsolutions. This technique is cited as one of the first instances of what is now known as convex integration, and is used to construct solutions to many problems in geometry and PDE.

In this talk we will discuss extensions of the 4 fundamental products of graphs (cartesian, categorical, lexicographical, and strong products) to quantum graphs, and provide bounds on the resulting graphs akin to those for products of classical graphs. We will pay particular attention to the lexicographical product, discussing our notion of a quantum b-fold chromatic number as a tool for computing the quantum chromatic number of the lexicographical products.

This is joint work with A. Meenakshi McNamara.

We make explicit the relationship between Hilbert modular forms and orthogonal modular forms arising from positive definite quaternary lattices over the ring of integers of a totally real number field.  Our work uses the Clifford algebra, and it generalizes that of Ponomarev, Bocherer--Schulze-Pillot, and others by allowing for general discriminant, weight, and class group of the base ring.  This is joint work with Eran Assaf, Dan Fretwell, Colin Ingalls, Adam Logan, and Spencer Secord.

[pre-talk at 3:00PM]

The widely-used k-means procedure returns k clusters that have arbitrary convex shapes. In high dimension, such a clustering might not be easy to understand. A more interpretable alternative is to constraint the clusters to be the leaves of a decision tree with axis-parallel splits; then each cluster is a hyperrectangle given by a small number of features.

Is it always possible to find clusterings that are intepretable in this sense and yet have k-means cost that is close to the unconstrained optimum? A recent line of work has answered this in the affirmative and moreover shown that these interpretable clusterings are easy to construct.

I will give a survey of these results: algorithms, methods of analysis, and open problems.

We discuss an analogue of the Goldbach conjecture for polynomials with coefficients in semidomains (i.e., subsemirings of an integral domain).

The q-circular system is a tuple of non-commutative random variables (operators with some state) which interpolate independent standard complex Gaussian random variables (q=1) in classical probability and freely independent circular random variables (q=0) in free probability. One of the interesting results on q-deformed probability is that -1<q<1 case has similar properties to free case (q=0). Haagerup inequality is one of such properties, which was originally proved for generators of free groups with respect to the left regular representation.    

 In this talk, I will explain the strong version of Haagerup inequality for the q-circular system, which was originally proved by Kemp and Speicher for q=0. This talk is based on a joint project with T. Kemp.

Quantum interaction models discussed here are the (asymmetric) quantum Rabi model (QRM) and non-commutative harmonic oscillator (NCHO). The QRM is the most fundamental model describing the interaction between a photon and two-level atoms. The NCHO can be considered as a covering model of the QRM, and recently, the eigenvalue problems of NCHO and two-photon QRM (2pQRM) are shown to be equivalent. Spectral degeneracy can occur in models, but correspondingly there is a hidden symmetry relates geometrical nature described by hyperelliptic curves. In addition, the analytical formula for the heat kernel (propagator)/partition function of the QRM is described as a discrete path integral and gives the meromorphic continuation of its spectral zeta function (SZF). This discrete path integral can be interpreted to the irreducible decomposition of the infinite symmetric group $\mathfrak{S}_\infty$ naturally acting on $\mathbb{F}_2^\infty$, $\mathbb{F}_2$ being the binary field. Moreover, from the special values of the SZF of NCHO, an analogue of the Apéry numbers is naturally appearing, and their generating functions are, e.g., given by modular forms, Eichler integrals of a congruence subgroup. The talk overviews those above and present questions which are open.

[pre-talk at 3:00PM]