Mathematics Commons^™

Bootstrap Percolation On Random Geometric Graphs, Alyssa Whittemore

Department of Mathematics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Bootstrap Percolation is a discrete-time process that models the spread of information or disease across the vertex set of a graph. We consider the following version of this process:

Initially, each vertex of the graph is set active with probability p or inactive otherwise. Then, at each time step, every inactive vertex with at least k active neighbors becomes active. Active vertices will always remain active. The process ends when it reaches a stationary state. If all the vertices eventually become active, then we say we achieve percolation.

This process has been widely studied on many families of graphs, deterministic …

Free Complexes Over The Exterior Algebra With Small Homology, Erica Hopkins

Department of Mathematics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Let M be a graded module over a standard graded polynomial ring S. The Total Rank Conjecture by Avramov-Buchweitz predicts the total Betti number of M should be at least the total Betti number of the residue field. Walker proved this is indeed true in a large number of cases. One could then try to push this result further by generalizing this conjecture to finite free complexes which is known as the Generalized Total Rank Conjecture. However, Iyengar and Walker constructed examples to show this generalized conjecture is not always true.

In this thesis, we investigate other counterexamples of …

Results On Nonorientable Surfaces For Knots And 2-Knots, Vincent Longo

Department of Mathematics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

A classical knot is a smooth embedding of the circle into the 3-sphere. We can also consider embeddings of arbitrary surfaces (possibly nonorientable) into a 4-manifold, called knotted surfaces. In this thesis, we give an introduction to some of the basics of the studies of classical knots and knotted surfaces, then present some results about nonorientable surfaces bounded by classical knots and embeddings of nonorientable knotted surfaces. First, we generalize a result of Satoh about connected sums of projective planes and twist spun knots. Specifically, we will show that for any odd natural n, the connected sum of the n-twist …

A Combinatorial Formula For Kazhdan-Lusztig Polynomials Of Sparse Paving Matroids, George Nasr

Department of Mathematics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

We present a combinatorial formula using skew Young tableaux for the coefficients of Kazhdan-Lusztig polynomials for sparse paving matroids. These matroids are known to be logarithmically almost all matroids, but are conjectured to be almost all matroids. We also show the positivity of these coefficients using our formula. In special cases, such as for uniform matroids, our formula has a nice combinatorial interpretation.

Advisers: Kyungyong Lee and Jamie Radclie

N-Fold Matrix Factorizations, Eric Hopkins

Department of Mathematics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The study of matrix factorizations began when they were introduced by Eisenbud; they have since been an important topic in commutative algebra. Results by Eisenbud, Buchweitz, and Yoshino relate matrix factorizations to maximal Cohen-Macaulay modules over hypersurface rings. There are many important properties of the category of matrix factorizations, as well as tensor product and hom constructions. More recently, Backelin, Herzog, Sanders, and Ulrich used a generalization of matrix factorizations -- so called N-fold matrix factorizations -- to construct Ulrich modules over arbitrary hypersurface rings. In this dissertation we build up the theory of N-fold matrix factorizations, proving analogues of …

Frobenius And Homological Dimensions Of Complexes, Taran Funk

Department of Mathematics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Much work has been done showing how one can use a commutative Noetherian local ring R of prime characteristic, viewed as algebra over itself via the Frobenius endomorphism, as a test for flatness or projectivity of a finitely generated module M over R. Work on this dates back to the famous results of Peskine and Szpiro and also that of Kunz. Here I discuss what work has been done to push this theory into modules which are not necessarily finitely generated, and display my work done to weaken the assumptions needed to obtain these results.

Adviser: Tom Marley

Free Semigroupoid Algebras From Categories Of Paths, Juliana Bukoski

Department of Mathematics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Given a directed graph G, we can define a Hilbert space H_G with basis indexed by the path space of the graph, then represent the vertices of the graph as projections on H_G and the edges of the graph as partial isometries on H_G. The weak operator topology closed algebra generated by these projections and partial isometries is called the free semigroupoid algebra for G. Kribs and Power showed that these algebras are reflexive, and that they are semisimple if and only if each path in the graph lies on a cycle. We extend …

Gauge-Invariant Uniqueness And Reductions Of Ordered Groups, Robert Huben

Department of Mathematics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

A reduction φ of an ordered group (G,P) to another ordered group is an order homomorphism which maps each interval [1, p] bijectively onto [1, φ(p)]. We show that if (G,P) is weakly quasi-lattice ordered and reduces to an amenable ordered group, then there is a gauge-invariant uniqueness theorem for P -graph algebras. We also consider the class of ordered groups which reduce to an amenable ordered group, and show this class contains all amenable ordered groups and is closed under direct products, free products, and hereditary subgroups.

Adviser: Mark Brittenham and David Pitts