Master of Science / Department of Mathematics / Nathan Albin / The term stochastic is defined as having a random probability distribution or pattern that may be analyzed statistically but may not be predicted precisely. A stochastic model attempts to estimate outcomes while allowing a random variation in one or more inputs over time. These models are used across a number of fields from gene expression in biology, to stock, asset, and insurance analysis in finance. In this thesis, we will build up the basic probability theory required to make an ``optimal estimate", as well as construct the stochastic integral. This information will then allow us to introduce stochastic differential equations, along with our overall model. We will conclude with the "optimal estimator", the Kalman Filter, along with an example of its application.

Master of Science / Department of Mathematics / Andrew Bennett / In recent years, technology has improved and become a significant aspect in the classroom. Using technology has become a popular method of note-taking. This study investigates the effects of technology on note-taking by looking at the changes that can be shown between the traditional note-taking and taking notes by using different devices, such as the iPad and a smart pen. Modern technology, such as the smart pen which provides an automatic audio recording might improve student focus on important details. In addition, providing a standard note set along with note-taking tools such as an iPad might help student organize and access their notes. The result of this study showed that for all but one of the students, using technology did not affect their note-taking style or the amount of information in their notes. However, students were not satisfied with their notes when taken on the iPad.

In this thesis we extend Lerman’s cutting construction to spin-c structures. Every spin-c structure on an even-dimensional Riemannian manifold gives rise to a Dirac operator D+ acting on sections of the associated spinor bundle. The spin-c quantization of a spin-c manifold is defined to be ker(D+)−coker(D+). It is a virtual vector space, and in the presence of a Lie group action, it is a virtual representation. In 2004, Guillemin et al defined signature quantization and showed that it is additive under cutting. We prove that the spin-c quantization of an S^1-manifold is also additive under cutting. Our proof uses the method of localization, i.e., we express the spin-c quantization of a manifold in terms of local data near connected components of the fixed point set. For a symplectic manifold (M,ω), a spin-c prequantization is a spin-c structure together with a connection compatible with ω. We explain how one can cut a spin-c prequantization and show that the choice of a spin-c structure on the complex plane (which is part of the cutting process) must be compatible with the moment level set along which the cutting is performed. Finally, we prove that the spin-c and metaplectic-c groups satisfy a universal property: Every structure that makes the construction of a spinor bundle possible must factor uniquely through a spin-c structure in the Riemannian case, or through a metaplectic-c structure in the symplectic case.

This thesis is devoted to subriemannian optimal transportation problems. In the first part of the thesis, we consider cost functions arising from very general optimal control costs. We prove the existence and uniqueness of an optimal map between two given measures under certain regularity and growth assumptions on the Lagrangian, absolute continuity of the measures with respect to the Lebesgue class, and, most importantly, the absence of sharp abnormal minimizers. In particular, this result is applicable in the case where the cost function is square of the subriemannian distance on a subriemannian manifold with a 2-generating distribution. This unifies and generalizes the corresponding Riemannian and subriemannian results of Brenier, McCann, Ambrosio-Rigot and Bernard-Buffoni. We also establish various properties of the optimal plan when abnormal minimizers are present. The second part of the thesis is devoted to the infinite-dimensional geometry of optimal transportation on a subriemannian manifold. We start by proving the following nonholonomic version of the classical Moser theorem: given a bracket-generating distribution on a connected compact manifold (possibly with boundary), two volume forms of equal total volume can be isotoped by the flow of a vector field tangent to this distribution. Next, we describe formal solutions of the corresponding subriemannian optimal transportation problem and present the Hamiltonian framework for both the Otto calculus and its subriemannian counterpart as infinite-dimensional Hamiltonian reductions on diffeomorphism groups. Finally, we define a subriemannian analog of the Wasserstein metric on the space of densities and prove that the subriemannian heat equation defines a gradient flow on the subriemannian Wasserstein space with the potential given by the Boltzmann relative entropy functional. Measure contraction property is one of the possible generalizations of Ricci curvature bound to more general metric measure spaces. In the third part of the thesis, we discuss when a three dimensional contact subriemannian manifold satisfies such property.

In this dissertation, we employ variational methods to obtain a new existence result for solutions of a Ginzburg-Landau type equation on a Riemannian manifold. We prove that if $N$ is a compact, orientable 3-dimensional Riemannian manifold without boundary and $\gamma$ is a simple, smooth, connected, closed geodesic in $N$ satisfying a natural nondegeneracy condition, then for every $\ep>0$ sufficiently small, $\exists$ a critical point $u^\ep\in H^1(N;\mathbb{C})$ of the Ginzburg-Landau functional \bd\ds E^\ep(u):=\frac{1}{2\pi |\ln\ep|}\int_N |\nabla u|^2+\frac{(|u|^2-1)^2}{2\ep^2}\ed and these critical points have the property that $E^\ep(u^\ep)\rightarrow\tx{length}(\gamma)$ as $\ep\rightarrow 0$. To accomplish this, we appeal to a recent general asymptotic minmax theorem which basically says that if $E^\ep$ $\Gamma$-converges to $E$ (not necessarily defined on the same Banach space as $E^\ep$), $v$ is a saddle point of $E$ and some additional mild hypotheses are met, then there exists $\ep_0>0$ such that for every $\ep\in(0,\ep_0),E^\ep$ possesses a critical point $u^\ep$ and $\lim_{\ep\rightarrow 0}E^\ep(u^\ep)=E(v)$. Typically, $E$ is only lower semicontinuous, therefore a suitable notion of saddle point is needed. Using known results on $\mathbb{R}^3$, we show the Ginzburg-Landau functional $E^\ep$ defined above $\Gamma$-converges to a functional $E$ which can be thought of as measuring the arclength of a limiting singular set. Also, we verify using regularity theory for almost-minimal currents that $\gamma$ is a saddle point of $E$ in an appropriate sense.

If a partially hyperbolic diffeomorphism on a torus of dimension d greater than 3 has stable and unstable foliations which are quasi-isometric on the universal cover, and its center direction is one-dimensional, then the diffeomorphism is leaf conjugate to a linear toral automorphism. In other words, the hyperbolic structure of the diffeomorphism is exactly that of a linear, and thus simple to understand, example. In particular, every partially hyperbolic diffeomorphism on the 3-torus is leaf conjugate to a linear toral automorphism.

The multivariable Alexander polynomial (MVA) is a classical invariant of knots and links. We give an extension to regular virtual knots which has simple versions of many of the relations known to hold for the classical invariant. By following the previous proofs that the MVA is of finite type we give a new definition for its weight system which can be computed as the determinant of a matrix created from local information. This is an improvement on previous definitions as it is directly computable (not defined recursively) and is computable in polynomial time. We also show that our extension to virtual knots is a finite type invariant of virtual knots. We further explore how the multivariable Alexander polynomial takes local information and packages it together to form a global knot invariant, which leads us to an extension to tangles. To define this invariant we use so-called circuit algebras, an extension of planar algebras which are the `right' setting to discuss virtual knots. Our tangle invariant is a circuit algebra morphism, and so behaves well under tangle operations and gives yet another definition for the Alexander polynomial. The MVA and the single variable Alexander polynomial are known to satisfy a number of relations, each of which has a proof relying on different approaches and techniques. Using our invariant we can give simple computational proofs of many of these relations, as well as an alternate proof that the MVA and our virtual extension are of finite type.

The notion of finite type invariants of virtual knots, introduced by Goussarov, Polyak and Viro, leads to the study of the space of diagrams with directed chords mod 6T (also known as the space of arrow diagrams), and weight systems on it. It is well known that given a Manin triple together with a representation we can construct a weight system. In the first part of this thesis we develop combinatorial formulae for weight systems coming from standard Manin triple structures on the classical Lie algebras and these structures' defining representations. These formulae reduce the problem of finding weight systems in the defining representations to certain counting problems. We then use these formulae to verify that such weight systems, composed with the averaging map, give us the weight systems found by Bar-Natan on (undirected) chord diagrams mod 4T. In the second half of the thesis we present results from computations done jointly with Bar-Natan. We compute, up to degree 4, the dimensions of the spaces of arrow diagrams whose skeleton is a line, and the ranks of all classical Lie algebra weight systems in all representations. The computations give us a measure of how well classical Lie algebras capture the spaces of arrow diagrams up to degree 4, and our results suggest that in degree 4 there are already weight systems which do not come from the standard Manin triple structures on classical Lie algebras.

Pars 1 and 2 are devoted to study of solutions of certain differential inequalities. Namely, in Part 1 we show that a germ of an analytic set (real or complex) admits a Gagliardo-Nirenberg type inequality with a certain exponent s>=1. At a regular point s=1, and the inequality becomes classical. As our examples show, s can be strictly greater than 1 even for an isolated singularity. In Part 2 we prove the property of unique continuation for solutions of differential inequality |\Delta u|<=|Vu| for a large class of potentials V. This result can be applied to the problem of absence of positive eigenvalues for self-adjoint Schroedinger operator -\Delta+V defined in the sense of the form sum. The results of Part 2 are joint with Leonid Shartser. In Parts 3 and 4 we derive the basic elements of complex function theory within some subalgebras of holomorphic functions (including extension from submanifolds, corona type theorem, properties of divisors, approximation property). Our key instruments and results are the analogues of Cartan theorems A and B for the `coherent sheaves' on the maximal ideal spaces of these subalgebras, and of Oka-Cartan theorem on coherence of the sheaves of ideals of the corresponding complex analytic subsets. More precisely, in Part 3 we consider the algebras of holomorphic functions on regular coverings of complex manifolds whose restrictions to each fiber belong to a translation-invariant Banach subalgebra of bounded functions endowed with sup-norm. The model examples of such subalgebras are Bohr's holomorphic almost periodic functions on tube domains, and all fibrewise bounded holomorphic functions on regular coverings of complex manifolds. In Part 4 the primary object of study is the subalgebra of bounded holomorphic functions on the unit disk whose moduli can have only boundary discontinuities of the first kind. The results of Parts 3 and 4 are joint with Alexander Brudnyi.

The thesis consists of two main results. The first main result is a proof that C^1 rigidity holds for circle maps with a break point for almost all rotation numbers. The second main result is a proof that C^1 robust rigidity holds for circle maps in the fractional linear transformation (FLT) pair family. That is, for this family, C^1 rigidity holds for all irrational rotation numbers. The approach taken here of proving a more general theorem that C^1 rigidity holds for circle maps with a break point satisfying a `derivatives close condition', allows us to obtain both of our main results as corollaries of this more general theorem.