In the framework of the research project "Mathematical models and computational methods for complex networks" by the University of Pisa, Paola Boito (Faculté des Sciences et Techniques Université de Limoges) will give three seminars on
"Complex networks, functions of matrices and quadrature rules".
The abstract is provided below. The seminars will take place in June at the Department of Computer Science of the University of Pisa:
-- June 8th, 15:00-16:00, sala seminari est (room 351);
-- June 10th, 10:00-11:00, sala seminari est (room 351);
-- June 11th, 15:00-16:00, sala seminari est (room 351).
Abstract. One cornerstone of our modern society is the use of different kinds of networks. Our cities are connected by a network of streets and railways, telecommunication networks including their wireless, mobile components, the internet, and the World Wide Web build the most important infrastructure for communication and information worldwide. Designing and managing such networks pose challenging algorithmic and numerical problems. These three talks are concerned with the development, analysis and application of numerical linear algebra tools for the quantitative study of important properties of large-scale complex networks, such as centrality, betweenness and communicability measures. Specifically, we design efficient algorithms for the fast approximation of the entries of matrix functions such as the exponential and the resolvent of adjacency matrices and graph Laplacians, as well as their traces. While these matrices are quite sparse, in the case of complex networks they behave very differently from the matrices associated with regular lattices (grids), such as those arising from discretizations of partial differential equations. Hence, there is a need to develop new methods, both computational and analytical, to deal with these very large-scale problems. Potential applications include the analysis of social networks, the study of biological and neurological networks, applications in physics and operations research, and so forth.