Workshop: Random Structures Arising in Physics and Analysis
Lead Research Organisation:
Lancaster University
Department Name: Mathematics and Statistics
Abstract
This is an application for partial funding for a 5-day research workshop in probability theory entitled Random Structures Arising in Physics and Analysis, to be held at Lancaster University in April 2016. The meeting will benefit UK mathematics and reinforce the UK's position as a leading centre for probability research globally by providing a stimulating forum for learning about the latest research advances and identifying future research directions. There is particular emphasis on the representation of female academics. We will also be ensuring that there will be plenty of opportunities for research students to interact with senior colleagues and present their own work.
The British probability community has leading researchers in many areas of probability theory, but there is a constant need to keep abreast of developments in this expanding field. One area of recent rapid growth concerns random structures arising in physics and analysis. It is striking how probabilistic objects that emerged through applications in physics are being shown to play a fundamental role in describing analytical phenomena, and conversely, how analytic frameworks are being used to provide rigorous constructions of models used in statistical physics.
In this meeting we have structured the theme around random matrices and free probability, concentration of measure, random geometry, and random walks in random environment. We have invited leading researchers to present mini-courses in these areas, and these mini-courses will be complemented by a series of individual talks. Additionally, there will be time for shorter talks by research students, and early career researchers will be encouraged to present their work at a poster session. In order to facilitate interactions and collaborations between researchers, ample time will be set aside each day for discussions and break-out groups working on new problems.
The British probability community has leading researchers in many areas of probability theory, but there is a constant need to keep abreast of developments in this expanding field. One area of recent rapid growth concerns random structures arising in physics and analysis. It is striking how probabilistic objects that emerged through applications in physics are being shown to play a fundamental role in describing analytical phenomena, and conversely, how analytic frameworks are being used to provide rigorous constructions of models used in statistical physics.
In this meeting we have structured the theme around random matrices and free probability, concentration of measure, random geometry, and random walks in random environment. We have invited leading researchers to present mini-courses in these areas, and these mini-courses will be complemented by a series of individual talks. Additionally, there will be time for shorter talks by research students, and early career researchers will be encouraged to present their work at a poster session. In order to facilitate interactions and collaborations between researchers, ample time will be set aside each day for discussions and break-out groups working on new problems.
Planned Impact
The impacts of a workshop such as this are numerous and diverse, and many extend beyond the control of the applicants. A key feature of the conference is the bringing together of the UK probability community with internationally renowned researchers to instigate new collaborative research projects in the hottest current topics. Our themes have been chosen to be both inter-disciplinary, with close links to Physics and Computer Science, and of interest to Data Science researchers in industry. Particular emphasis is also placed on the development of young researchers in probability. This will inevitably both invigorate the UK research community, and result in impactful probabilistic research being carried out for many years into the future. We do not presume to have direct influence over how this future impact will occur, but have designed the conference with impact in mind.
Organisations
| Description | The British probability community has leading researchers in many areas of probability theory, but there is a constant need to keep abreast of developments in this expanding field. One area of recent rapid growth concerns random structures arising in physics and analysis, so the purpose of this meeting was to bring to the attention of the British probability community exciting recent progress, as well as to enable them to interact with leading and up-coming researchers in four areas of modern probability, namely concentration of measure, random matrices and free probability, random geometry and random walks in random environment. These areas have been developing rapidly and in interlinked ways over the last few years and they should have a major impact on wide ranges of applied probability in the nearest future. The workshop was conceived with the following scientific aims: 1. Dissemination of recent advances in probability, specifically those with connections to analysis and physics. 2. Bringing together UK and international experts, as well as research students, in the area of probability. 3. Identifying future research directions and promoting new collaborative activities, particularly those lying at the interface of the four areas on which mini-courses will be presented. 4. Raising awareness and interest in probability among the wider UK mathematical community. 5. Training researchers in early stages of their career, in particular PhD students; thus contributing to the development of the next generation of UK-based mathematicians. The popularity of the meeting exceeded our expectations and it was attended by 82 participants. These comprised 22 overseas participants (5 non-European, 17 European), and 60 UK participants (45 from UK non-Lancaster, 15 from Lancaster), of whom 28 were PhD students, 9 were postdoctoral researchers and 43 were academic staff. A feedback questionnaire was completed by participants at the end of the workshop and the following responses were received: • 80% rated the scientific content as excellent, with the remaining 20% rating it as good. • 70% said that they formed new collaborations or made contacts likely to result in new research as a consequence participating in the workshop. • 75% said that they identified new research directions or obtained results as a direct or indirect consequence of participating in this workshop. Feedback comments included: "I liked the fact there were both longer courses and talks on recent results. It was also nice to hear the student's talks 15(min) so I think the overall concept is very nice." "There were many talks with esteemed speakers from around the world. I really benefitted from that. The short course and break-out sessions were a great setup, allowing more interaction with the topics. I would have liked a few more talks on applied probability. Besides this, the content was very good." "Many people were interested in my poster and I've made connections talking to them." "The workshop gave me the opportunity to meet several people in my research field, and I believe some of the conversations that we had will result in future collaborations." "I got to know many open problems, both from the talks and from the break-out group sessions." Overall, the meeting ran very successfully and smoothly. All of the intended aims were met, and the meeting has been of great benefit to the probability and wider mathematical community. We are very grateful to the EPSRC, London Mathematical Society (and all our other sponsors) for their support. |
| Exploitation Route | The impacts of a workshop such as this are numerous and diverse, and many extend beyond the control of the organisers. The themes were chosen to be both inter-disciplinary, with close links to physics and computer science, and of interest to Data Science researchers in industry. This has both invigorated the UK research community, and will result in impactful probabilistic research being carried out for many years into the future. However, we do not have direct influence over how this future impact will occur. |
| Sectors | Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software) |
| URL | http://www.lancaster.ac.uk/maths/easter-probability-meeting/ |
| Description | Workshop on Random Structures Arising in Physics and Analysis |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | The Random Structures Arising in Physics and Analysis workshop took place from 4-8 April 2016 at Lancaster University.The purpose of this workshops was to provide opportunities for UK researchers to learn from and to collaborate with experts in four related areas of modern probability. The popularity of the meeting exceeded our expectations and it was attended by 82 participants. These comprised 22 overseas participants (5 non-European, 17 European), and 60 UK participants (45 from UK non-Lancaster, 15 from Lancaster), of whom 28 were PhD students, 9 were postdoctoral researchers and 43 were academic staff. The main themes of the workshop were "random matrices and free probability", "concentration of measure", "random geometry" and "random walks in random environments", and mini-courses on these topics were given by Alice Guionnet (MIT, US), Michel Ledoux (Toulouse, France), Jason Miller (Cambridge, UK) and Vladas Sidoravicius (VS - Courant Institute, New York and NYU-Shanghai, China). These themes were chosen as being both interdisciplinary, with close links to physics and computer science, and of interest to data-science researchers in industry. Recent examples of impact in data science, directly connected with themes of this conference, include random-matrix models being crucial to current attempts to analyse high-dimensional data, and concentration-of-measure phenomena being used to provide theoretical foundations for machine-learning algorithms. A major benefit of this meeting was therefore to strengthen the UK community across the spectrum from theoretical to applied probability. In addition to the mini-courses, there were twelve 45-minute research talks on associated topics, and six 15-minute talks by research students. The research talks were given by Vincent Beffara (Institut Fourier, Grenoble, France), Dmitry Belyaev (University of Oxford, UK), Noam Berger (TUM, Munich, Germany), Natasha Blitvic (Lancaster University, UK), Erwin Bolthausen (Universität Zürich, Swizerland), Dimitris Cheliotis (University of Athens, Greece), Ivan Gentil (Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, France), Jon Keating (University of Bristol, UK), Elizabeth Meckes (Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, USA), Daniil Ryabko (INRIA Lille, France), Anatoly Vershik (St. Petersburg State University, Russia), and Fredrik Viklund (KTH, Stockholm, Sweden). The six PhD student talks were given by Adam Bowditch (University of Warwick, UK), Steven Pagett (University of Bath, UK), Ellen Powell (University of Cambridge, UK), Timofei Prasolov (Heriot-Watt University, UK), Vittoria Silvestri (University of Cambridge, UK), and Dominic Yeo (University of Oxford, UK). The quality of the PhD student talks was extremely high, and the student involvement was one of the most gratifying aspects of the meeting. In particular, the proportion of female research students, of over 30%, bodes well for the future in this area. There was also a poster session at which 14 early career researchers and PhD students displayed their work. CRC Press donated book voucher prizes for the best three posters and these were awarded to Felizitas Weidner (TUM, Munich, Germany), Mikolaj Kasprzak (University of Oxford, UK), and Vlad Magarint (University of Oxford, UK). The programme was structured in such a way to ensure plenty of time for members of the UK probability community to interact with each other and the speakers. In addition to the formal talks, two discussion sessions were scheduled each day. The first was an informal discussion session over an extended lunch-break; the second was a break-out session after the last talk of each day during which participants were encouraged to discuss open problems posed by the mini-course speakers. To provide participants with the opportunity to interact in a more informal setting, there was a welcome reception, sponsored by the Bank of England, and an excursion to Windermere in the Lake District. The meeting has a website at http://www.lancaster.ac.uk/maths/easter-probability-meeting/. This contains a list of participants, titles and abstracts, photos from the meeting, and slides of the talks, so that members of the community can continue to access the content of the talks as a useful resource. A feedback questionnaire was completed by participants at the end of the workshop and the following responses were received: • 80% rated the scientific content as excellent, with the remaining 20% rating it as good. • 70% said that they formed new collaborations or made contacts likely to result in new research as a consequence participating in the workshop. • 75% said that they identified new research directions or obtained results as a direct or indirect consequence of participating in this workshop. Feedback comments included: "I liked the fact there were both longer courses and talks on recent results. It was also nice to hear the student's talks 15(min) so I think the overall concept is very nice." "There were many talks with esteemed speakers from around the world. I really benefitted from that. The short course and break-out sessions were a great setup, allowing more interaction with the topics. I would have liked a few more talks on applied probability. Besides this, the content was very good." "Many people were interested in my poster and I've made connections talking to them." "The workshop gave me the opportunity to meet several people in my research field, and I believe some of the conversations that we had will result in future collaborations." "I got to know many open problems, both from the talks and from the break-out group sessions." "Doing [the conference dinner] on a crammed boat with no WiFi was an excellent idea. I had lots of nice discussions." The workshop was conceived with the following scientific aims: • Dissemination of recent advances in probability, specifically those with connections to analysis and physics. • Bringing together UK and international experts, as well as research students, in the area of probability. • Identifying future research directions and promoting new collaborative activities, particularly those lying at the interface of the four areas on which mini-courses will be presented. • Raising awareness and interest in probability among the wider UK mathematical community. • Training researchers in early stages of their career, in particular PhD students; thus contributing to the development of the next generation of UK-based mathematicians. Overall, the meeting ran very successfully and smoothly. From the above report, it can be seen that all of the intended aims were met, and the meeting has been of great benefit to the probability and wider mathematical community. We are very grateful to the EPSRC, LMS, Bank of England (and all our other sponsors) for their support. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | http://www.lancaster.ac.uk/maths/easter-probability-meeting/ |