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Combinatorics Seminar - Wai Tong Fan

Combinatorics Seminar
February 20, 2020
10:20AM - 11:15AM
Math Tower 154

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Add to Calendar 2020-02-20 10:20:00 2020-02-20 11:15:00 Combinatorics Seminar - Wai Tong Fan Title: Stochastic and deterministic spatial models for complex systems   Speaker: Wai Tong Fan - Indiana University   Abstract: Interacting particle models are often employed to gain understanding of the emergence of macroscopic phenomena from microscopic laws of nature. These individual-based models capture fine details, including randomness and discreteness of individuals, that are not considered in continuum models such as partial differential equations (PDE) and integral-differential equations. The challenge, which is fundamental in any multi-scale modeling approach for complex systems, is how to simultaneously retain key information in microscopic models as well as efficiency and robustness of macroscopic models.    In this talk, I will discuss how this challenge can be overcome by elucidating the probabilistic connections between particle models and PDE, in particular, why naively adding diffusion terms to ordinary differential equations might fail to account for spatial dynamics in population models. These connections also explain how stochastic partial differential equations (SPDE) arise naturally under a suitable choice of level of detail in modeling complex systems. I will also present some novel scaling limits including SPDE on graphs and coupled SPDE. These SPDE not only interpolate between particle models and PDE, but also quantify the source and the order of magnitude of stochasticity. Scaling limit theorems and new duality formulas are obtained for these SPDE, which connect phenomena across scales and offer insights about the genealogies and the time-asymptotic properties of certain population dynamics. Math Tower 154 Department of Mathematics math@osu.edu America/New_York public
Title: Stochastic and deterministic spatial models for complex systems
 
Speaker: Wai Tong Fan - Indiana University
 
Abstract: Interacting particle models are often employed to gain understanding of the emergence of macroscopic phenomena from microscopic laws of nature. These individual-based models capture fine details, including randomness and discreteness of individuals, that are not considered in continuum models such as partial differential equations (PDE) and integral-differential equations. The challenge, which is fundamental in any multi-scale modeling approach for complex systems, is how to simultaneously retain key information in microscopic models as well as efficiency and robustness of macroscopic models.
 
 In this talk, I will discuss how this challenge can be overcome by elucidating the probabilistic connections between particle models and PDE, in particular, why naively adding diffusion terms to ordinary differential equations might fail to account for spatial dynamics in population models. These connections also explain how stochastic partial differential equations (SPDE) arise naturally under a suitable choice of level of detail in modeling complex systems. I will also present some novel scaling limits including SPDE on graphs and coupled SPDE. These SPDE not only interpolate between particle models and PDE, but also quantify the source and the order of magnitude of stochasticity. Scaling limit theorems and new duality formulas are obtained for these SPDE, which connect phenomena across scales and offer insights about the genealogies and the time-asymptotic properties of certain population dynamics.

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