* Dates within the next 7 days are marked by a star.
Andrew Swan (EPFL)
How I tried and failed to prove the Polyakov conjecture
* Tuesday 17 November 2026, 10:15, M3 (M234)
In 1975, Polyakov conjectured that the classical $O(n)$ model in two dimensions should have exponentially decaying correlations at every positive temperature, so long as $n \ge 3$. In this talk, I will describe an isomorphism theorem connecting the $O(n)$ model to a self-interacting random walk, called the Ising--Vertex Diminished Jump Process (Ising--VDJP). The walker is given an initial local-time budget at each vertex, which it consumes while waiting there. Smaller remaining budgets discourage revisits, and the walk stops when a budget is exhausted. Its jump rates are also influenced by an auxiliary Ising model coupled to the remaining budgets. The utility of the isomorphism is that it turns the spatial decay of correlations into a question about how far the walker travels before it dies.
Sadly, I was not able to prove the conjecture. But if we add a uniformly positive external field, favouring alignment in a fixed direction, a simple argument which I will explain gives exponential decay of transverse correlations for all $O(n)$ models, for all positive temperatures, on every finite or infinite graph with uniformly bounded total incident edge weight, $sup_i \sum_j W_{ij}<\infty$
mathematical physics seminar
BSc Janette Setälä (Aalto University)
The Impact of Incorporating Individual-Level Uncertainty in Genetic Scores into Disease Risk Prediction (MSc Presentation)
* Thursday 19 November 2026, 11:15, M2 (M233)
Veera Wilkki (Aalto University)
On Intent Recognition of Finnish Medical Search Queries Using Large Language Models (MSc Presentation)
* Thursday 19 November 2026, 16:30, M3 (M234)
Diplomityöesitelmä / Hakula
David Radnell (Aalto)
TBA
Monday 23 November 2026, 14:15, M3 (M234)
TBA
AGC Seminar
Chuhan Sun (孙楚涵) (ICMAT, Madrid)
TBA
Wednesday 25 November 2026, 10:15, M3 (M234)
Analysis seminar / Hytönen
Dr. Allyson Robert (Aalto Applied Physics)
Measuring the colour of solar panels: common sources of error and how to estimate them
Thursday 26 November 2026, 14:15, M3 (M234)
Research on solar energy conversion devices has expanded beyond efficiency alone. An emerging trend is to integrate coloured photovoltaic modules into the built environment. To achieve this, modulesusually black or dark blue to maximise absorptionmust match the colours of other building materials. Measuring colour, however, is not as straightforward as measuring energy-conversion efficiency: results depend on human visual perception and on illumination conditions.
In this talk I will discuss how colour can be represented numerically and mathematically, and how it can be measured reproducibly. I will then focus on the approach pursued at Aalto: a camera-based system developed in the Energy Materials & Interfaces group for quantitative colourimetry of PV modules. I will outline its numerical calibration, implemented as a 3D look‑up table mapping camera RGB to standard colour coordinates, and highlight common sources of error and how we quantify them. No prior knowledge of colourimetry is assumed.
ANTA Seminar / Hollanti et al.
Prof. Marcus Greferath (University College Dublin/Aalto)
On my recent work on noiseless and noisy group testing (Part III)
Thursday 03 December 2026, 14:15, M3 (M234)
Group testing is a branch of the mathematics of communications and coding theory that is almost as old as Shannon's information theory itself. It arose from the need to screen populations of potentially infected individuals for an infectious disease with as few tests as possible, since testing was expensive or otherwise cumbersome. Current developments in the field assume that tests may be considerably cheaper but are often affected by false positives and false negatives. This reopens the line of research known as error-correcting group testing. In this talk, we revisit several old and new ideas in the language of residuation theory and show how this framework mitigates some of the awkwardness of earlier approaches to modelling the problem. We conclude the presentation with results on the error tolerance and test efficiency of various examples of error-correcting group testing schemes based on finite geometries, partial linear spaces, and other appealing combinatorial designs.
Remark: This talk is dedicated to my late wife, Cornelia Roessing, who encouraged me to take up this awarding field within the mathematics of communications. It includes joint work with Oliver Gnilke (Aalborg), Johan Dinesen (Aalto), and David Forbes (UCD).
ANTA Seminar / Hollanti et al.
Antti Hannukainen (Aalto)
TBA
Tuesday 08 December 2026, 15:15, M1 (M232)
Further information
Eveliina Peltola (Aalto)
TBA
Tuesday 12 January 2027, 15:15, U6
Further information
TBA
Bernd Sturmfels (UC Berkeley and Max Planck Leipzig)
TBA
Tuesday 09 February 2027, 15:15, U6
Further information
Marie Schmidt (Univerität Würzburg)
TBA
Tuesday 09 March 2027, 15:15, U6
Further information
Eric Schippers (University of Manitoba)
TBA
Tuesday 13 April 2027, 15:15, U6
Further information
Des Higham (University of Edinburgh)
TBA
Tuesday 11 May 2027, 15:15, M1 (M232)
Further information
TBA
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