Seminar in Spectral Theory, 2011-2012


ORGANIZERS:
  • D. Jakobson
    E-mail: jakobson math.mcgill.ca
  • Iosif Polterovich
    E-mail: iossif dms.umontreal.ca
  • Winter 2012:
  • Most of the time the lectures will be held at Universite de Montreal on Thursday, 13:00-14:00, Pav. Andre Aisenstadt, Room 5448; or at McGill, 13:00-14:00, Burnside hall, Room 1205.
  • January 12, McGill.
    Speaker: Alexander Girouard (Neuchatel)
    Title: The Korevaar method : metric measured spaces in spectral geometry
    Abstract: In 1993, Korevaar devised a complicated construction allowing to detect concentration of measures on a Riemannian manifold. This method was simplified, and further developed, by Grigor'yan, Netrusov and Yau. The goal of this talk will be to survey this construction as well as its applications. This includes upper bounds for Steklov eigenvalues, as well as upper bounds for conformal eigenvalues.
  • January 19, UdeM.
    Speaker: Guillaume Roy-Fortin (UdeM)
    Title: The fundamental gap conjecture for Schrodinger operators in R^n
  • January 26, UdeM.
    Time: 12:10-13:10; Room: 5448
    Speaker: Dmitry Jakobson (McGill)
    Title: Quantum unique ergodicity for Eisenstein series on the modular surface
    Abstract: We review some old results due to W. Luo and P. Sarnak on quantum unique ergodicity for Eisenstein series on the modular surface, and if time permits the results of the speaker on QUE for Eisenstein series on PSL(2,R)/PSL(2,Z).
  • February 2, McGill.
    Time: 13:00-14:00; Room: Burnside 1205
    Speaker: Dmitry Jakobson (McGill)
    Title: Quantum unique ergodicity for Eisenstein series on the modular surface, continued
  • February 9, McGill.
    Time: 13:00-14:00; Room: Burnside 1205
    Speaker: Dmitry Jakobson (McGill)
    Title: Quantum unique ergodicity for Eisenstein series on the modular surface, conclusion
  • February 16, U. de Montreal, 13:30-14:30
    Speaker: Elena Lavrova (U. de Montreal)
    Title: Nodal lines of a two-dimensional sloshing problem
  • March 1, McGill, 13:00-14:00
    Speaker: Yaiza Canzani (McGill)
    Title: Multiplicity of eigenvalues of conformally covariant operators
  • March 22, U. Montreal, 13:00-14:00
    Speaker: Tayeb Aissiou (Concordia)
    Determinants of pseudo-laplacians
  • April 5, U. Montreal, 13:00-14:00
    Speaker: Tayeb Aissiou (Concordia)
    Determinants of pseudo-laplacians, part 2.


  • Fall 2011, Offered as a course, Math 667:
  • Most of the time the lectures will be held at Universite de Montreal on Thursday, 13:00-14:00, Pav. Andre Aisenstadt, 4186.
  • Starting from September 22, lectures at Universite de Montreal will be held in the room 5183.
  • Occasionally, the lectures will be held on Thursdays at McGill, 13:30-14:30, Burnside 708.
  • August 25, UdeM.
    Speaker: Leonid Parnovski (University College, London)
    Title: Integrated density of states for periodic and almost-periodic Schrodinger operators.
  • September 8, UdeM.
    Speaker: Fedor Nazarov (University of Wisconsin-Madison and Kent State University)
    Title: TBA
  • September 22, room 5183.
    Speaker: Guillaume Poliquin
    Yau's conjecture: approaches of Mangoubi and Colding-Minicozzi
  • September 29, room 5183.
    Speaker: Yaiza Canzani
    Yau's conjecture: approach of Sogge-Zelditch
  • October 6, Room 5183
    Speaker: Suresh Eswarathasan
    Inverse scattering theory for the wave equation.
  • October 13, Room 5183
    Speaker: Tayeb Aissiou
    Quasi-symmetry of L^p norms of eigenfunctions.
  • October 20, Room 5183
    Speaker: Janine Bachrachas
    Generic properties of eigenfunctions.
  • October 27,
    No lecture.
  • November 3, Room 5183
    Michael Morin
    The Dirac operator and zero-energy modes in graphene
    Abstract: Theoretical and experimental study of graphene has been one of the central topics of research in solid state physics since the ground-breaking experiments due to A. Geim and K. Novoselov (2004) that have earned them a Nobel Prize in 2010. It is well understood that electrons dynamics in graphene is governed by Dirac equation. We discuss Diracs original motivation (that had nothing to do with solid state physics) to postulate his famous equation, which turned out to be one of the greatest achievements in theoretical physics. We explain how it relates to graphene and investigate a question of particular interest, namely the existence of confined zero-energy modes for a given electrostatic potential.
  • November 10, Room 5183
    Patrick Munroe
    On the Asymptotic Distribution of Zeros of Modular Forms.
  • November 10, Room 5183
    Michael Levitin (University of Reading)
    Commutator trave identities for operators and pencils
  • Nov. 24, 13:30-14:30, Burnside 708
    Speaker: L. Nirenberg (New York)
    Some historical and general remarks about partial differential equations.
    Abstract: This will not be a technical talk or about current research. It will be a bit historical, with some acnedotes, and remarks on PDE.
  • The lectures will resume in January 2012.

  • COURSE DESCRIPTION:
    Topics discussed in this course will include nodal geometry of eigenfunctions of elliptic operators, eigenvalue inequalities, spectral asymptotics.
    Presentations, Grading
    The students registered for the course will be expected to make one or two oral presentations (40-50 minutes) on one of the topics suggested by the instructors. The grades will be based on these presentations.


    Math 667, Fall 2010
    Seminar in Spectral Theory, Fall 2010
    Math 667, Spring 2011
    Seminar in Spectral Theory, Spring 2011
    NOTICE: McGill University values academic integrity. Therefore, all students must understand the meaning and consequences of cheating, plagiarism and other academic offences under the Code of Student Conduct and Disciplinary Procedures (see McGill web page on Academic Integrity for more information).
    NOTICE: In the event of extraordinary circumstances beyond the University's control, the content and/or evaluation scheme in this course is subject to change.
    NOTICE: In accord with McGill University's Charter of Students' Rights, students in this course have the right to submit in English or i n French any written work that is to be graded.