The Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences is pleased to announce the following network-wide graduate courses in mathematical sciences. These courses are available online and provide access to experts from throughout the PIMS network.
Students at Canadian PIMS member universities may apply for graduate credit via the Western Deans’ Agreement (WDA). Please be advised, in some cases students must enroll 6 weeks in advance of the term start date and will typically be required to pay ancillary fees to the host institution (as much as $270) or explicitly request exemptions. Please see the WDA section for details of fees at specific sites, and check the individual courses below for registration details. Courses hosted at UW must nominate a co-instructor at a Canadian PIMS site. That site will be used to process WDA student applications.
Students at universities not covered by the WDA but which are part of the Canadian Association for Graduate Studies (CAGS) may still be eligible to register for this course under the Canadian University Graduate Transfer Agreement (CUGTA). Details of this program vary by university and are also typically subject to ancillary fees. Please contact your local Graduate Student Advisor for more information.
The courses in this section are currently open for registration. Expand each item to see the course details.
Jonathan Noel : noelj@uvic.ca
University of Victoria
An undergraduate course on discrete mathematics, combinatorics or graph theory. It is recommended that students have taken at least two such courses.
This course is available for registration under the Western Dean's Agreement but registrations must be approved by the course instructor. Please contact the instructor (using the email link to the left) including details of how you meet the course prerequisites. Next, you must complete the Western Deans' Agreement form , with the following course details:
Completed forms should be returned to your graduate advisor who will sign it and take the required steps. For students at PIMS sites, please see this list to find your graduate advisor, for other sites, contacts can be found on the Western Deans' Agreement contact page .
The Western Deans' Agreement provides an automatic tuition fee waiver for visiting students. Graduate students paying normal required tuition fees at their home institution will not pay tuition fees to the host institution. However, students will typically be be required to pay other ancillary fees to the host institution, or explicitly request exemptions (e.g. Insurance or travel fees). Details vary by university, so please contact the graduate student advisor at your institution for help completing the form. Links to fee information and contact information for PIMS member universities is available below in the WDA section.
Students at universities not covered by the WDA but which are part of the Canadian Association for Graduate Studies (CAGS) may still be eligible to register for some courses under the terms of the Canadian University Graduate Transfer Agreement (CUGTA). Details of this program vary by university and registration is also typically subject to ancillary fees. Both your local and the hosting university must participate in the agreement (e.g. UBC does not participate in CAGS). Please contact the relevant graduate student advisors for more information.
This course covers classical problems and modern techniques in extremal combinatorics. The first part of the course is on extremal properties of families of sets: e.g.
Other topics may include VC dimension, Kneser’s Conjecture, the Kruskal-Katona Theorem and the Littlewood Offord Problem. The rest of the course is on extremal graph theory: e.g.
Other topics may include the Szemerédi Regularity Lemma, Shannon Capacity, the Entropy Method, the Container Method and Stability. The course webpage, which includes a link to a preliminary version of the course notes, can be found here.
This course will run Sept. 4th-Dec. 4th, 2024. Lectures will take place every Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday from 10:30am-11:20am (Pacific Time). See the UVic course catalog entry for more details.
Lectures will be livestreamed via Zoom. The lecturer will write on chalkboards which will be shared via Zoom. Recordings of the lectures will be available for asynchronous viewing. Preliminary lecture notes are available on the course website and assignments will be distributed electronically.
Manish Patnaik : patnaik@ualberta.ca
University of Alberta
We will aim to make this course accessible to students with a basic background in algebra and analysis (at the level of introductory graduate courses) and basic topology (having seen cohomology before would be useful, but is not absolutely essential). Although no specific knowledge from differential geometry, Lie theory, or number theory are required, additional familiarity or interest in these fields will be useful, especially in the latter parts of the course.
This course is available for registration under the Western Dean's Agreement but registrations must be approved by the course instructor. Please contact the instructor (using the email link to the left) including details of how you meet the course prerequisites. Next, you must complete the Western Deans' Agreement form , with the following course details:
Completed forms should be returned to your graduate advisor who will sign it and take the required steps. For students at PIMS sites, please see this list to find your graduate advisor, for other sites, contacts can be found on the Western Deans' Agreement contact page .
The Western Deans' Agreement provides an automatic tuition fee waiver for visiting students. Graduate students paying normal required tuition fees at their home institution will not pay tuition fees to the host institution. However, students will typically be be required to pay other ancillary fees to the host institution, or explicitly request exemptions (e.g. Insurance or travel fees). Details vary by university, so please contact the graduate student advisor at your institution for help completing the form. Links to fee information and contact information for PIMS member universities is available below in the WDA section.
Students at universities not covered by the WDA but which are part of the Canadian Association for Graduate Studies (CAGS) may still be eligible to register for some courses under the terms of the Canadian University Graduate Transfer Agreement (CUGTA). Details of this program vary by university and registration is also typically subject to ancillary fees. Both your local and the hosting university must participate in the agreement (e.g. UBC does not participate in CAGS). Please contact the relevant graduate student advisors for more information.
The most basic example of an arithmetic group is $\Gamma=SL_n(Z),$ and understanding the cohomology of this group (and its close relatives) will be the basic theme of this course. The cohomology we are interested in can also be identified with that of the locally symmetric space $\Gamma \setminus X$ where, in this case, $X= SL_n(R)/ SO(n)$ is a generalization of the (complex) upper half plane. As such, a diverse set of techniques, stemming from geometry, topology, harmonic analysis, and number theory can be used to analyze the situation. After carefully developing the basics of the subject, we will present some of the major developments in this area (mostly from the 1960s-1970s), and then end with an overview of modern directions.
The lecturer will use a tablet connected to zoom/camera to live stream lectures and notes. Hand written (from table) and typed lecture notes will be distributed.
Khanh Dao Duc : kdd@math.ubc.ca
University of British Columbia
This course is available for registration under the Western Dean's Agreement but registrations must be approved by the course instructor. Please contact the instructor (using the email link to the left) including details of how you meet the course prerequisites. Next, you must complete the Western Deans' Agreement form , with the following course details:
Completed forms should be returned to your graduate advisor who will sign it and take the required steps. For students at PIMS sites, please see this list to find your graduate advisor, for other sites, contacts can be found on the Western Deans' Agreement contact page .
The Western Deans' Agreement provides an automatic tuition fee waiver for visiting students. Graduate students paying normal required tuition fees at their home institution will not pay tuition fees to the host institution. However, students will typically be be required to pay other ancillary fees to the host institution, or explicitly request exemptions (e.g. Insurance or travel fees). Details vary by university, so please contact the graduate student advisor at your institution for help completing the form. Links to fee information and contact information for PIMS member universities is available below in the WDA section.
Students at universities not covered by the WDA but which are part of the Canadian Association for Graduate Studies (CAGS) may still be eligible to register for some courses under the terms of the Canadian University Graduate Transfer Agreement (CUGTA). Details of this program vary by university and registration is also typically subject to ancillary fees. Both your local and the hosting university must participate in the agreement (e.g. UBC does not participate in CAGS). Please contact the relevant graduate student advisors for more information.
Advances in imaging techniques have enabled the access to 3D shapes present in a variety of biological structures: organs, cells, organelles, and proteins. Since biological shapes are related to physiological functions, biological studies are poised to leverage such data, asking a common statistical question: how can we build mathematical and statistical descriptions of biological morphologies and their variations? In this course, we will review recent attempts to use advanced mathematical concepts to formalize and study shape heterogeneity, covering a wide range of imaging methods and applications. The main mathematical focus will be on basics of image processing (segmentation, skeletonization, meshing), Diffeomorphisms and metrics over shape space, optimal transport theory with application for image analysis, manifold learning, with some other concepts covered in specific applications (e.g. quasiconformal mapping theory for shape representation, 3D reconstruction in Fourier space…). Students will be encourage to work in groups to present research papers and do a small project to pass the course. This course will also build on the recent BIRS workshop, Joint Mathematics Meetings, and the upcoming SIAM workshops (LSI 2024, SIMODS 2024) on this topic, with some participants to these events invited to contribute to this course and present their research.
Remote access will be via zoom. A combination of pre-pared slides and hand written notes will be used. The hand written notes will be on a blackboard or tablet depending on room availability. The lecturer will distribute lecture notes online.
The courses in this section are not yet accepting registrations.
Stanley Yao Xiao : stanleyyao.xiao@unbc.ca
University of Northern British Columbia
Group and ring theory
linear algebra
real analysis
Registration for this course is not currently available.
In the past 25 years or so, the subject of “Arithmetic Statistics”, beginning with the work of Bhargava’s success in enumerating rings and fields of low degree and rank, and Bhargava and Shankar’s proof of the boundedness of algebraic rank of elliptic curves, is an enormously exciting subject. We will give an introduction to the subject centred on the work of Bhargava and his coworkers.
Lectures will be conducted via zoom, using electronic slides. Slides, assignments and exams will be distributed electronically. Lectures will be recorded and made available to registered students.
Anotida Madzvamuse : am823@math.ubc.ca
University of British Columbia
Ordinary differential equations
Numerical methods (Numerical Analysis I and II)
Partial differential equations
Matrix theory
Linear systems
Registration for this course is not currently available.
The purpose of this graduate course is to equip graduate students with cutting-edge techniques in data-driven mathematical and computational modelling, analysis and simulations of semi-linear parabolic partial differential equations (PDEs) of reaction-diffusion type. It will cover diverse areas in data-driven modelling using PDEs in biology. I will cover approaches on formulating models from data using first principles, mathematical analysis of reaction-diffusion systems such as linear stability analysis, basic concepts on bifurcation analysis and numerical bifurcation analysis. The second part will focus on numerical methods for PDEs including finite difference methods, and finite elements. This part will also deal with time-stepping schemes and nonlinear solvers for nonlinear PDEs. If time allows, we will look at applications of reaction diffusion theory to cell motility and pattern formation. To support theoretical modelling and numerical analysis, numerical algorithms will be developed and implemented in MATLAB as well as in open finite element source software packages such as FeNiCs, deal.ii and others. Students will be allowed to use packages of their choice as appropriate. Expertise and skills sets to be acquired through this course
We will use zoom for each lecture. Course notes will be distributed in advance and lecture notes will be distributed after each lecture.
Martin Frankland : Martin.Frankland@uregina.ca
University of Regina
A course in general topology or metric space topology (required)
A course in group theory (strongly recommended)
Registration for this course is not currently available.
The course is a first semester of algebraic topology. Broadly speaking, algebraic topology studies spaces and shapes by assigning algebraic invariants to them. Topics will include the fundamental group, covering spaces, CW complexes, homology (simplicial, singular, cellular), cohomology, and some applications.
The class will be in a hybrid format hosted in a classroom equipped with hyflex technology.
Lecture notes will be projected on the screen, shared simultaneously on Zoom, and posted afterwards on the course website.
Nils Bruin : nbruin@sfu.ca
Simon Fraser University
Registration for this course is not currently available.
This course provides an introduction into analytic number theoretic methods with applications to arithmetic geometry. We will study Dirichlet series with applications to distributions of prime numbers and as examples of L-series. We will also look at modular forms and their applications to the arithmetic of elliptic curves and their moduli spaces. We will also consider results in diophantine approximation, such as lower bounds on linear combinations of logs of algebraic numbers, with as application Siegel’s theorem on finiteness of integral points on elliptic curves.
The class will be held in a room equipped with controllable cameras. The instructor will write on whiteboards in this room and the camera controls used to provide clear views of the boards.
David Goluskin : goluskin@uvic.ca
University of Victoria
Introductory PDEs
Introductory analysis
Registration for this course is not currently available.
The course will be an introduction to the behaviour of fluids (liquids and gases) from an applied math perspective, starting with an introduction to the Navier-Stokes equations and other PDEs used to model fluids. The emphasis will be on physically relevant properties of solutions that can be deduced mathematically. The course will have more mathematics than a typical physics or engineering fluids course, including basic functional analysis and variational methods, and it will have more physics than a pure PDE analysis course. Through detailed study of several fundamental model systems, we will see PDE examples of topics that may be more familiar in the context of ODE dynamical systems, such as linear stability, nonlinear stability, bifurcations and chaos. Undergraduate knowledge of PDEs and real analysis are assumed.
There will be no exams, only assignments access and submitted online via Crowdmark.
The lecturer will use zoom for each lecture, and lectures will be recorded. Typed lecture notes will be distributed electronically.
Lior Silberman : lior@math.ubc.ca
University of British Columbia
Registration for this course is not currently available.
This course presents classical mechanics to a mixed audience of mathematics and physics undergraduate and graduate students. It is complementary to regular phsyics courses in that while the physics background will be developed the emphasis will be on the resulting mathematical analysis. Physics topics may include Newtonian mechanics and Galilean symmetry, Lagrangian mechanics, conservation laws and Noether’s Theorem, rigid body motion, Hamiltonian mechanics. Mathematical topics may include existence and uniqueness of solutions to ODE, calculus of variations, convexity and Legendre transformations, manifolds, tangent and cotangent vectors, rotations and the orthogonal group.
Topics to be discussed may include:
Lectures will be held in-person on the UBC campus and on Zoom. Lectures will be recorded and the videos posted to an unlisted but openly accessible YouTube playlist. There will be Zoom office hours and a Piazza discussion board.
Rebecca Tyson : rebecca.tyson@ubc.ca
University of British Columbia
Registration for this course is not currently available.
Mathematical modelling in ecology, including population dynamics, epidemiology, and pattern formation. Theory of such models formulated as difference equations, ordinary differential equations, and partial differential equations.
Lectures will be livestreamed via zoom. The lecturer will be writing on a whiteboard.
Shaun Lui : Shaun.Lui@umanitoba.ca
University of Manitoba
Mikael Slevinsky : Richard.Slevinsky@umanitoba.ca
University of Manitoba
Undergraduate analysis and PDEs
Some exposure to numerical analysis desirable, but not necessary
Some homework questions will require computer programming (MATLAB or Julia, etc.)
Registration for this course is not currently available.
Spectral methods are numerical methods for solving PDEs. When the solution is analytic, the convergence rate is exponential. The first part of this course gives an introduction to spectral methods. The emphasis is on the analysis of these methods including truncation and interpolation error estimates, and convergence and condition number estimates. The second part of the course focuses on fast algorithms for orthogonal polynomials. These algorithms leverage data-sparsities that are present in many of the problems when solved by orthogonal polynomial expansions.
Lectures will be delivered via Zoom using iPad with GoodNotes.
Yaozhong Hu : y.hu@ualberta.ca
University of Alberta
Some knowledge on Differential equations and Probability Theory
Registration for this course is not currently available.
This is a one semester three credit hour course. We shall first briefly introduce some basic concepts and results on stochastic processes, in particular the Brownian motions. Then we will discuss stochastic integrals, Ito formula, the existence and uniqueness of stochastic differential equations, some fundamental properties of the solution. We will concern with the Markov property, Kolmogorov backward and forward equations, Feynman-Kac formula, Girsanov formula. We will also concern with the ergodic theory and other stability problems. We may also mention some results on numerical simulations, Malliavin calculus and so on.
We will use zoom for each lecture. The eclass website will be used to post lecture slides, homework collections, monitor midterm and final examinations
Jayadev Athreya : jathreya@uwa.edu
University of Washington
Ozgur Yilmaz : oyilmaz@math.ubc.ca
University of British Columbia
Complex Analysis
Manifolds
Registration for this course is not currently available.
Translation surfaces and their moduli spaces have been the objects of extensive recent study and interest, with connections to widely varied fields including (but not limited to) geometry and topology; Teichmüller theory; low-dimensional dynamical systems; homogeneous dynamics and Diophantine approximation; and algebraic and complex geometry. This course will serve as an introduction to some of the big ideas in the field, centered on the ergodic properties of translation flows and counting problems for saddle connections, and associated renormalization techniques, without attempting to reach the full state of the art (an aim that is in any case impossible given the speed at which the field is evolving).
We will start by introducing the important motivating example of the flat torus, exploring its geometry, and its associated dynamical and counting problems. The linear flow on the torus and its associated first return map, a rotation of a circle, are amongst the first dynamical systems ever studied. The counting of closed orbits is intricately tied to number theory. We discuss, as motivation, the moduli space of translation surfaces on a torus, a bundle over the well-known modular curve and the action of $GL^+(2,\mathbb R)$ on this space of translation surfaces. Translation surfaces are higher-genus generalizations of flat tori. We will define translation surfaces from three perspectives (Euclidean geometry, complex analysis, and geometric structures), and show how some translation surfaces arise from unfolding billiards in rational polygons. We will give a short introduction to Teichmüller theory and its relation to the study of translation surfaces, and discuss the natural dynamical systems associated to translation surfaces, namely, linear flows and their first return maps, interval exchange transformations. We will explore their ergodicity and mixing properties, and will study an important example of a translation surface flow for which every orbit is dense but not every orbit is equidistributed with respect to Lebesgue measure, a phenomenon that does not occur in the case of linear flows on the torus. We will show how information about the recurrence properties of an orbit of a translation surface under the positive diagonal subgroup of $SL(2, \mathbb R)$ (the Teichmüller geodesic flow) can be used to get information about the ergodic properties of the associated linear flow on an individual translation surface. As another example of the strength of renormalization ideas, we will show how the ergodic properties of the $SL(2, \mathbb R)$-action can be used to obtain counting results for saddle connections and, subsequently. Finally we will discuss examples, characterizations, and properties of surfaces with large affine symmetry groups, known as lattice or Veech surfaces.
The instructor will use a tablet and Zoom. The tablet will be displayed locally in the classroom and via zoom. Lecture notes will be distributed in PDF format.
The courses in this section ran in a previous term.
Bojan Mohar : mohar@sfu.ca
Simon Fraser University
Undergraduate course in graph theory
Undergraduate course on (discrete) probability
Linear algebra
Registration for this course is not currently available.
The course will provide an introduction to algebraic and probabilistic techniques in combinatorics and graph theory. The main topics included will be: Eigenvalues of graphs and their applications, probabilistic methods (first order, second order, Lovasz local lemma), Szemeredi regularity lemma. Recent discoveries like the proof of the Sensitivity conjecture, the use of eigenvalues for equiangular lines, etc., will be part of the course. '
Note: This course is also offered through PIMS and WDA (Western Dean’s Agreement) as an online course. A Zoom link will be shared with registered students.
Lior Silberman : lior@math.ubc.ca
University of British Columbia
Galois Theory
Basic number theory
Introductory algebra (groups, rings, modules, polynomial rings, UFD and PID).
Commutative algebra is useful but not required.
Registration for this course is not currently available.
This will be a standard graduate number theory course. Topics will include:
The main pre-requisites are basic algebra (rings and fields, rings of polynomials, unique factorization in Euclidean\ndomains), basic number theory (modular arithemtic, factorization into primes) and Galois Theory, but no specific courses are required.
https://personal.math.ubc.ca/~lior/teaching/2324/538_W24/
Lectures will take place every Wednesday and Friday from 10:00am-11:30am (Pacific Time).
Lectures will be shared via zoom. Students will need to have installed the zoom app on their desktop/laptop.
Michael Monagan : mmonagan@sfu.ca
Simon Fraser University
An undergraduate degree in mathematics and basic programming skills (you are comfortable programming with arrays and loops and writing subroutines). Or an undergraduate degree in computer science and an algebra course (in groups or rings and fields, or number theory).
Registration for this course is not currently available.
A course on algorithms for algebraic computation and tools for computing with multivariate polynomials, polynomial ideals, exact linear algebra, and algebraic numbers. Tools include the Fast Fourier Transform, Groebner bases, and the Schwartz-Zippel Lemma. We will use Maple as a calculator and as a programming language to implement algorithms. Instruction in Maple usage and programming will be provided.
Lectures are on Tuesdays and Thursdays 9:30am to 11:20am (Pacific Time) .
Lectures will be shared via zoom. Students will need to have installed the zoom app on their desktop/laptop.
Anthony Quas : aquas@uvic.ca
University of Victoria
A course on measure theory.
Registration for this course is not currently available.
Ergodic theory is the study of measure-preserving transformations. These occur naturally in an array of areas of mathematics (e.g. probability, number theory, geometry, information theory). The course will introduce measure-preserving transformations, give a range of basic examples, prove a number of general theorems (including the Poincare recurrence theorem, the Birkhoff ergodic theorem and sub-additive ergodic theorem). Entropy, one of the principal invariants of ergodic theory will be introduced. From there, the course will focus on applications to other areas.
Lectures will take place every Monday and Thursday from from 8:30-9:50 (Pacific time).
Lectures will be shared via zoom. Students will need to have installed the zoom app on their desktop/laptop.
Adam Topaz : topaz@ualberta.ca
University of Alberta
There are no strict mathematical prerequisites, but a certain level of mathematical maturity will be assumed (see the syllabus for more details). Although not strictly required, it would be useful for students to have some minor level of familiarity with interactive theorem proving, for example at the level of the natural number game
Registration for this course is not currently available.
The last few years have seen amazing advances in interactive proof assistants and their use in mathematics. For example, Lean’s mathematics library mathlib now has over one million lines of code and is still growing in a significant rate. Furthermore, recent highly celebrated successes in the subject, such as the completion of the sphere eversion project and the liquid tensor experiment, suggest that we are approaching a paradigm shift in mathematics, where cutting edge research can be formally verified in a relatively short amount of time. This course will serve as an introduction to the formalization of mathematics, using the Lean4 interactive proof assistant and its mathematics library Mathlib4. See the attached syllabus for an outline of the topics we expect to cover.
Lectures are Tuesdays and Thursdays, 11am to 12:20pm, Mountain time. All lectures will take place electronically using zoom (or similar software).
James D. Lewis : lewisjd@ualberta.ca
University of Alberta
Students should have taken a course on algebraic geometry. It is helpful to know some differential geometry, particularly how it applies to complex manifolds, de Rham and Betti (singular) cohomology. Some exposure to homological algebra will be useful.
Registration for this course is not currently available.
Students taking this course will be exposed to the latest developments in the field of regulators algebraic cycles. This course was taught to advanced graduate students and experts alike at the University of Alberta in 2013. It was later taught at the University of Science and Technology in China, in 2014. A detailed syllabus can be extracted from the table of contents of the uploaded pdf file.
Lectures will take place on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 13:00-13:50 (Mountain Time)
These lectures will take place via zoom. Students should have zoom installed on their laptop or other device.
Thomas Hillen : thillen@ualberta.ca
University of Alberta
Some basic knowledge on partial differential equations.
Registration for this course is not currently available.
In this course we will study the theory of hyperbolic systems of conservation laws.
Hyperbolic systems arise in many areas of applied mathematics, including gas dynamics, thermodynamics, population dynamics, or traffic flow. In contrast to dissipative systems (like reaction-diffusion equations), solutions of hyperbolic systems with smooth initial data can generate “shocks” in finite time. The solution is no longer differentiable and weak solutions have to be studied.
We will develop the existence and uniqueness theory for solutions of conservation laws in spaces of functions of “bounded variation" (BV-spaces). At the beginning we will recall distributions and weak limits of measures. Then we study “broad” solutions (solutions which do not form shocks). After that we investigate discontinuous solutions in detail, we will derive the Rankine-Hugoniot conditions, the entropy conditions, the Lax-condition and we will discuss the vanishing viscosity method. We will classify strictly hyperbolic systems into genuinely nonlinear or linear degenerate systems. Then we use solutions to the Riemann problem to define a front tracking algorithm. This method is merely an\ analytical tool to obtain results on local and global existence and on uniqueness.
Lectures will take place Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 13:00-13:50 (Mountain Time).
Lectures are online on zoom.
Julien Arino : Julien.Arino@umanitoba.ca
University of Manitoba
Permission of the department. The course is dual listed, the undergraduate version requires a second year linear algebra course. While the prerequisites are low, you should be comfortable with the content of a solid second year linear algebra course, as the course is fast paced.
Registration for this course is not currently available.
Matrices are ubiquitous in many aspects of mathematics. They show up, for instance, when considering the local asymptotic stability of equilibria of systems of ordinary differential equations, the long term behaviour of Markov chains, the study of graphs and the discretization of reaction-diffusion equations.
https://julien-arino.github.io/math-4370-7370/
For more information about this course, including a detailed syllabus, please see the course website.
Alia Hamieh : alia.hamieh@unbc.ca
University of Northern British Columbia
A graduate course in analytic number theory that includes Dirichlet series and a complex-analytic proof of the prime number theorem (preferably Analytic Number Theory I taught by Kadiri in Fall 2022)
Registration for this course is not currently available.
This course is an advanced graduate course in number theory, designed to follow Analytic Number Theory I taught by Prof. Habiba Kadiri (University of Lethbridge) in Fall 2022 and Analytic Number Theory II taught by Prof. Greg Martin (UBC) in Winter 2023. All three of these courses are part of the current PIMS CRG “L-functions in Analytic Number Theory”. In this course, we will establish estimates for moments of L-functions and explore the tools needed to study them including approximate functional equations, zero density estimates, zero free regions, mean value estimates for Dirichlet polynomials, large sieve inequalities, Poisson and Voronoi summation formulae, shifted convolution sums, holomorphic modular forms and associated L-functions, trace formulae, and the spectral theory of automorphic forms.
Soumik Pal : soumikpal@gmail.com
University of Washington
Young-Heon Kim : yhkim@math.ubc.ca
University of British Columbia
First year graduate course in real analysis and/or probability.
Some knowledge in PDE and differential geometry at a graduate level will be very helpful.
Registration for this course is not currently available.
The space of probability distributions with finite second moments can be made into a natural metric space, called the Wasserstein space, whose metric is defined by using the optimal transportation between probability distributions. On this metric space one can draw curves that represent motion along the steepest descent (AKA gradient flow) of functionals of probability measures. This is a very fruitful way to view many important families of probability measures that arise from PDEs and stochastic processes. For example, using this geometric framework, one may derive functional inequalities and infer rates of convergence of Markov processes. A striking example is that of the heat equation, whose solution can be interpreted as the family of marginal distributions of Brownian motion. In the Wasserstein space, this curve of probability laws is the gradient flow of the Shannon entropy.
We will discuss the theory of Wasserstein gradient flows, including the formal Riemannian calculus due to Otto, and the modern techniques of metric measures spaces. Apart from the classical examples, we will also discuss many modern variations such as Wasserstein mirror gradient flows that come up in statistical applications. A fruitful interaction between probability, geometry, and PDE theory will be developed simultaneously. This is a continuation of the sequence of OT+X courses under the Kantorovich Initiative.
The course is being offered simultaneously at Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) and the PIMS network, including the University of Washington, Seattle. Due to different time schedules for individual campuses and the time zones, the course has an unusual structure. Please read the details below carefully.
Lecture hours 6:30pm - 8pm Pacific on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Thus we will have two classes per week, each for 90 mins.
Lectures will be taught over Zoom and videos and notes will be made available to everyone afterwards.
A Slack channel will be used to communicate with students and distribute teaching material.
There will be no exams in this course. Occasional homework problems will be provided.
Students at Canadian PIMS Member Universities may register through the Western Deans Agreement. Students at UW may register directly for the UW course. Course codes and other registration details for students in either of these cases are listed in the registration section above. Students at other institutions should contact one of the instructors to attend the course as a non-registered student.
Part I is a recap of the basics of Monge-Kantorovich optimal transport theory. You do NOT need to take this part if you are already familiar with the basics. This will be covered between AUG 28 and SEP 26. Topics covered during this period are:
This will start on SEP 27 and continue through DEC 7. A rough syllabus of topics covered are presented below in the order they will be covered. There might be some changes depending on our progress.
Shaun Lui & Mikael Slevinsky : Shaun.Lui@umanitoba.ca
University of Manitoba
Undergraduate analysis and PDEs
Some exposure to numerical analysis is desirable but not necessary
Some homework questions will require computer programming (MATLAB, Julia or similar)
Permission of Instructor
Registration for this course is not currently available.
Spectral methods are numerical methods for solving PDEs. When the solution is analytic, the convergence rate is exponential. The first part of this course gives an introduction to spectral methods. The emphasis is on the analysis of these methods including truncation and interpolation error estimates, and condition number estimates. The second part of the course focuses on fast algorithms for orthogonal polynomials. These algorithms leverage data-sparsities that are present in many of the problems when solved by orthogonal polynomial expansions.
There are 4 Homeworks (each contributing 17% toward the grade) and a project (32%).
The Department of Mathematics, the Faculty of Science and the University of Manitoba regard acts of academic dishonesty in quizzes, tests, examinations or assignments as serious offenses and may assess a variety of penalties depending on the nature of the offense. Acts of academic dishonesty include bringing unauthorized materials into a test or exam, copying from another student, plagiarism and examination personation. Students are advised to read section 7 (Academic Integrity) and section 4.2.8 (Examinations: Personations) in the “General Academic Regulations and Requirement” of the current Undergraduate Calendar. Note, in particular that cell phones and pagers are explicitly listed as unauthorized materials, and hence may not be present during tests or examinations. Penalties for violation include being assigned a grade of zero on a test or assignment, being assigned a grade of “F” in a course, compulsory withdrawal from a course or program, suspension from a course/program/faculty or even expulsion from the University. For specific details about the nature of penalties that may be assessed upon conviction of an act of academic dishonesty, students are referred to University Policy 1202 (Student Discipline Bylaw) and to the Department of Mathematics policy concerning minimum penalties for acts of academic dishonesty. The Student Discipline Bylaw is printed in its entirety in the Student Guide, and is also available on-line or through the Office of the University Secretary. Minimum penalties assessed by the Department of Mathematics for acts of academic dishonesty are available on the Department of Mathematics web-page. All Faculty members (and their teaching assistants) have been instructed to be vigilant and report incidents of academic dishonesty to the Head of the Department.
Li Xing : lix491@usask.ca
University of Saskatchewan
Students have taken undergraduate courses in linear regression and have basic R skills.
Registration for this course is not currently available.
Based on a mathematical and statistical theory foundation, the course introduces statistical methods for supervised and unsupervised learning, focusing on hands-on skills with statistical software, R, and applications to real data. The course covers resampling methods, regression and classification, tree-based methods, dimension reduction and clustering. It embeds R training throughout the entire class.
Please see the syllabus document for more details, including required reading, learning objective and evaluation components.
Clifton Cunningham : ccunning@ucalgary.ca
University of Calgary
Undergraduate linear algebra, abstract algebra (groups, rings, fields)
multivariable calculus and algebraic number theory
A course in modules would be helpful, but not necessary
A course in classical commutative algebra is not required
Registration for this course is not currently available.
The objective of this course is to provide an introduction to modern algebraic geometry in the language of schemes, with an emphasis on arithmetic schemes, integral models and applications to L-functions, and resolutions of singularities. The course also introduces the etale site on varieties, and sheaves on this site.
Joshua Zahl : jzahl@math.ubc.ca
University of British Columbia
This course assumes graduate-level background in measure theory, real analysis, and harmonic analysis (i.e. at the level of Math 420/507 and Math 404/541 at UBC).
Registration for this course is not currently available.
We will cover the advances in decoupling theory beginning with Bourgain and Demeter’s 2014 proof of the $l^2$ decoupling conjecture. We will also cover Fourier restriction theory, and in particular the recent use of tools such as the polynomial method.
Lectures will take place every Monday, Wednesday and Friday 11:00am-12:00pm (Pacific Time)
Lectures will be shared via zoom. Students will need to have installed the zoom app on their desktop/laptop.
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From time to time online or hybrid courses which are not part of the PIMS Network Wide Courses program are sent to us. These courses are not officially supported by PIMS, but may be of interest to students within our network. Please see the External Courses page to see courses or to submit one for inclusion.