Central Michigan University Mathematics Colloquium

Organizer

Colloquium Coordinator: C-Y. Jean Chan
Because there might be a time delay in updating the webpage, please always check with the Coordinator for the available dates.

Meeting Times and Platforms

Typical Colloquium Talks are Thursday, 4:00–4:50pm, in person in Room 227 of Pearce Hall.
Special media arrangement such as virtual, or HyFlex format, if available, is indicated under Remark.
The following table gives the information for all colloquium activities (on any day), and each Thursday event that is open to the public.
For Graduate Student Seminar (GSS) schedule on Tuesdays, please click here.

SCHEDULE 2024–2025

Abstracts

Speaker: Faculty of Mathematics (October 10, 2024)
Title: Year 2025–2026 Graduate Courses Exhibition
Abstract: Come join graduate students and faculty at the third annual Graduate Courses Exhibition. In this exhibition, there will be free pizza, and some of the faculty members who plan to teach elective graduate courses ​in the 2025-26 year (MTH 543, 545, 633, 643, 725, and 734) will give a short presentation about the topics to be covered in the course. It is an opportunity for students to sample the course materials and ask questions to the instructors before they submit the Graduate Student Survey Form on Friday, October 25, 2024. All graduate students and faculty are welcome!

Speaker: G.V. Ravindra (October 17, 2024)
Title: Matrix Factorizations of Polynomials
Abstract: A matrix factorization of a polynomial F is a pair of (square) matrices (A, B) such that their product is F times the identity matrix. After spending some time on preliminaries, I will explain what is known about this question, and what its relevance is to the geometry of the set of zeroes of the polynomial F. I will also talk about its connection to the problem of determining the minimum number of polynomials required to define curves in three dimensional space and analogous questions. These questions have been found to be of interest in fields as disparate as theoretical physics to computer vision.
This talk will be aimed at a general audience including undergraduate students with some mathematical maturity.

Speaker: Jiří Lehl (November 7, 2024)
Title: Normal forms for rational sphere maps
Abstract: Classification of rational sphere maps in complex analysis is a well-studied open problem related to several other fields. It is the complex (hermitian) analogue of the same problem (rational sphere maps) in the real domain (a well-known open problem in real algebraic geometry), which is itself closely related to the still open question of homotopy groups of spheres (topology). Both problems are related to positivity of polynomials and versions of Hilbert's 17th problem, that is, writing positive polynomials as sums of squares, either real or hermitian. Sums of squares find use even in applied fields such as engineering. The real and the complex problems are very different despite sounding very similar at first. I will go over some of the known results for the complex case of rational sphere maps including my most recent work on normal forms. The talk should hopefully be accessible to a general mathematical audience.

Speaker: Rachel Rupnow (Novermber 21, 2024)
Title: TBA
Abstract: TBA

Speaker: Steven Bell, Fleming Lecture Series Speaker (April 17, 2025)
Title: TBA
Abstract: TBA

Speaker: Steven Bell, Fleming Lecture Series Speaker (April 18, 2025)
Title: TBA
Abstract: TBA

Past Department Colloquia: Spring 2024/Fall 2023, Spring 2023/Fall 2022, Spring 2022/Fall 2021, Spring 2020/Fall 2019, Spring 2019, Fall 2018, Spring 2018, Fall 2017