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[[Probability | Back to Probability Group]]
[[Probability | Back to Probability Group]]


= Fall 2022 =
* '''When''': Thursdays at 2:30 pm
* '''Where''': 901 Van Vleck Hall
* '''Organizers''': Hanbaek Lyu, Tatyana Shcherbyna, David Clancy
* '''To join the probability seminar mailing list:''' email probsem+subscribe@g-groups.wisc.edu.
* '''To subscribe seminar lunch announcements:''' email lunchwithprobsemspeaker+subscribe@g-groups.wisc.edu


<b>Thursdays at 2:30 PM either in 901 Van Vleck Hall or on Zoom</b>
[[Past Seminars]]


We usually end for questions at 3:20 PM.


[https://uwmadison.zoom.us/j/91828707031?pwd=YUJXMUJkMDlPR0VRdkRCQVJtVndIdz09 ZOOM LINK. Valid only for online seminars.]


If you would like to sign up for the email list to receive seminar announcements then please join [https://groups.google.com/a/g-groups.wisc.edu/forum/#!forum/probsem our group].
= Spring 2025 =
<b>Thursdays at 2:30 PM either in 901 Van Vleck Hall or on Zoom</b>


We usually end for questions at 3:20 PM.


== September 22, 2022, in person: [https://sites.google.com/site/pierreyvesgl/home Pierre Yves Gaudreau Lamarre] (University of Chicago)    ==
== January 23, 2025: ==
 
No seminar  
'''Moments of the Parabolic Anderson Model with Asymptotically Singular Noise'''
The Parabolic Anderson Model (PAM) is a stochastic partial differential equation that describes the time-evolution of particle system with the following dynamics: Each particle in the system undergoes a diffusion in space, and as they are moving through space, the particles can either multiply or get killed at a rate that depends on a random environment.
One of the fundamental problems in the theory of the PAM is to understand its behavior at large times. More specifically, the solution of the PAM at large times tends to be intermittent, meaning that most of the particles concentrate in small regions where the environment is most favorable for particle multiplication.
In this talk, we discuss a new technique to study intermittency in the PAM with a singular random environment. In short, the technique consists of approximating the singular PAM with a regularized version that becomes increasingly singular as time goes to infinity.
   
This talk is based on a joint work with Promit Ghosal and Yuchen Liao.
 
== September 29, 2022, in person: Christian Gorski (Northwestern University)    ==


'''Strict monotonicity for first passage percolation on graphs of polynomial growth and quasi-trees'''
== January 30, 2025: Promit Ghosal (UChicago) ==
'''Bridging Theory and Practice in Stein Variational Gradient Descent: Gaussian Approximations, Finite-Particle Rates, and Beyond'''


I'll present strict monotonicity results for first passage percolation (FPP) on bounded degree graphs which either have strict polynomial growth (uniform upper and lower volume growth bounds of the same polynomial degree) or are quasi-isometric to a tree; the case of the standard Cayley graph of Z^d is due to van den Berg and Kesten (1993). Roughly speaking, if we use two different weight distributions to perform FPP on a fixed graph, and one of the distributions is "larger" than the other and "subcritical" in some appropriate sense, then the expected passage times with respect to that distribution exceed those of the other distribution by an amount proportional to the graph distance.
Stein Variational Gradient Descent (SVGD) has emerged as a powerful interacting particle-based algorithm for nonparametric sampling, yet its theoretical properties remain challenging to unravel. This talk delves into two complementary perspectives about SVGD. First, we explore Gaussian-SVGD, a framework that projects SVGD onto the family of Gaussian distributions via a bilinear kernel. We establish rigorous convergence results for both mean-field dynamics and finite-particle systems, demonstrating linear convergence to equilibrium in strongly log-concave settings and unifying recent algorithms for Gaussian variational inference (GVI) under a single framework. Second, we analyze the finite-particle convergence rates of SVGD in Kernelized Stein Discrepancy (KSD) and Wasserstein-2 metrics. Leveraging a novel decomposition of the relative entropy time derivative, we achieve near-optimal rates with polynomial dimensional dependence and extend these results to bilinear-enhanced kernels.  
If "larger" here refers to stochastic domination of measures, this result is closely related to "absolute continuity with respect to the expected empirical measure," that is, the fact that long geodesics "use all possible weights". If "larger" here refers to variability (another ordering on measures), then a strict monotonicity theorem holds if and only if the graph also satisfies a condition we call "admitting detours". I intend to sketch the proof of absolute continuity, and, if time allows, give some indication of the difficulties that arise when proving strict monotonicity with respect to variability.


== October 6, 2022, in person: [https://danielslonim.github.io/ Daniel Slonim] (University of Virginia)   ==  
== February 6, 2025: Subhabrata Sen (Harvard) ==
'''Community detection on multi-view networks''' 


'''Random Walks in (Dirichlet) Random Environments with Jumps on Z'''
The community detection problem seeks to recover a latent clustering of vertices from an observed random graph. This problem has attracted significant attention across probability, statistics and computer science, and the fundamental thresholds for community recovery have been characterized in the last decade. Modern applications typically collect more fine-grained information on the units under study. For example, one might measure relations of multiple types among the units, or observe an evolving network over time. In this talk, we will discuss the community detection problem on such ‘multi-view’ networks. We will present some new results on the fundamental thresholds for community detection in these models. Finally, we will introduce algorithms for community detection based on Approximate Message Passing. 


We introduce the model of random walks in random environments (RWRE), which are random Markov chains on the integer lattice. These random walks are well understood in the nearest-neighbor, one-dimensional case due to reversibility of almost every Markov chain. For example, directional transience and limiting speed can be characterized in terms of simple expectations involving the transition probabilities at a single site. The reversibility is lost, however, if we go up to higher dimensions or relax the nearest-neighbor assumption by allowing jumps, and therefore much less is known in these models. Despite this non-reversibility, certain special cases have proven to be more tractable. Random Walks in Dirichlet environments (RWDE), where the transition probability vectors are drawn according to a Dirichlet distribution, have been fruitfully studied in the nearest-neighbor, higher dimensional setting. We look at RWDE in one dimension with jumps and characterize when the walk is ballistic: that is, when it has non-zero limiting velocity. It turns out that in this model, there are two factors which can cause a directionally transient walk to have zero limiting speed: finite trapping and large-scale backtracking. Finite trapping involves finite subsets of the graph where the walk is liable to get trapped for a long time. It is a highly local phenomenon that depends heavily on the structure of the underlying graph. Large-scale backtracking is a more global and one-dimensional phenomenon. The two operate "independently" in the sense that either can occur with or without the other. Moreover, if neither factor on its own is enough to cause zero speed, then the walk is ballistic, so the two factors cannot conspire together to slow a walk down to zero speed if neither is sufficient to do so on its own. This appearance of two independent factors affecting ballisticity is a new feature not seen in any previously studied RWRE models.  
This is based on joint work with Xiaodong Yang and Buyu Lin (Harvard University).


== October 13, 2022, [https://uwmadison.zoom.us/j/91828707031?pwd=YUJXMUJkMDlPR0VRdkRCQVJtVndIdz09 ZOOM]: [https://www.maths.univ-evry.fr/pages_perso/loukianova/ Dasha Loukianova] (Université d'Évry Val d'Essonne)   ==
== February 13, 2025: Hanbaek Lyu (UW-Madison) ==
'''Large random matrices with given margins''' 


'''"In law" ergodic theorem for the environment viewed from Sinaï's walk'''
We study large random matrices with i.i.d. entries conditioned to have prescribed row and column sums (margin). This problem has rich connections to relative entropy minimization,  Schr\"{o}dinger bridge, the enumeration of contingency tables, and random graphs with given degree sequences. We show that such a margin-constrained random matrix is sharply concentrated around a certain deterministic matrix, which we call the ''typical table''. Typical tables have dual characterizations: (1) the expectation of the random matrix ensemble with minimum relative entropy from the base model constrained to have the expected target margin, and (2) the expectation of the maximum likelihood model obtained by rank-one exponential tilting of the base model. The structure of the typical table is dictated by two potential functions, which give the maximum likelihood estimates of the tilting parameters. Based on these results, for a sequence of "tame" margins that converges in $L^{1}$ to a limiting continuum margin as the size of the matrix diverges, we show that the sequence of margin-constrained random matrices converges in cut norm to a limiting kernel, which is the $L^{2}$-limit of the corresponding rescaled typical tables. The rate of convergence is controlled by how fast the margins converge in $L^{1}$.  We also propose a generalized Sinkhorn algorithm for computing typical tables and establish its linear convergence. We derive several new results for random contingency tables from our general framework. 


For Sinaï's walk <math>\scriptsize(X_k)</math> we show that the empirical measure of the environment seen from the particle converges in law to some random measure. This limit measure is explicitly given in terms of the infinite valley, which construction goes back to Golosov.  As a consequence an "in law" ergodic theorem holds for additive functionals of the environment's chain. When the limit in this theorem is deterministic, it holds in probability. This allows some extensions to the recurrent case of the ballistic "environment's method" dating back to Kozlov and Molchanov. In particular, we show an LLN and a mixed CLT for the sums <math>\scriptsize\sum_{k=1}^nf(\Delta X_k)</math> where <math>\scriptsize f</math> is bounded and
Based on a joint work with Sumit Mukherjee (Columbia)   
depending on the steps <math>\scriptsize\Delta X_k:=X_{k+1}-X_k</math>.


== October 20, 2022, '''4pm, VV911''', in person: [https://tavarelab.cancerdynamics.columbia.edu/ Simon Tavaré] (Columbia University) ==
== February 20, 2025: Mustafa Alper Gunes (Princeton) ==
''Note the unusual time and room!''
'''Characteristic Polynomials of Random Matrices, Exchangeable Arrays & Painlevé Equations'''


'''An introduction to counts-of-counts data'''
Joint moments of characteristic polynomials of unitary random matrices and their derivatives have gained attention over the last 25 years, partly due to their conjectured relation to the Riemann zeta function. In this talk, we will consider the asymptotics of these moments in the most general setting allowing for derivatives of arbitrary order, generalising previous work that considered only the first derivative. Along the way, we will examine how exchangeable arrays and integrable systems play a crucial role in understanding the statistics of a class of infinite Hermitian random matrices. Based on joint work with Assiotis, Keating and Wei.


Counts-of-counts data arise in many areas of biology and medicine, and have been studied by statisticians since the 1940s. One of the first examples, discussed by R. A. Fisher and collaborators in 1943 [1], concerns estimation of the number of unobserved species based on summary counts of the number of species observed once, twice, … in a sample of specimens. The data are summarized by the numbers ''C<sub>1</sub>, C<sub>2</sub>, …'' of species represented once, twice, … in a sample of size
== February 27, 2025: Souvik Dhara (Purdue) ==
'''Propagation of Shocks on Networks: Can Local Information Predict Survival?'''  


''N = C<sub>1</sub> + 2 C<sub>2</sub> + 3 C<sub>3</sub> + <sup>….</sup>''  containing ''S = C<sub>1</sub> + C<sub>2</sub> + <sup>…</sup>'' species; the vector ''C ='' ''(C<sub>1</sub>, C<sub>2</sub>, …)'' gives the counts-of-counts. Other examples include the frequencies of the distinct alleles in a human genetics sample, the counts of distinct variants of the SARS-CoV-2 S protein obtained from consensus sequencing experiments, counts of sizes of components in certain combinatorial structures [2], and counts of the numbers of SNVs arising in one cell, two cells, … in a cancer sequencing experiment.
Abstract: Complex systems are often fragile, where minor disruptions can cascade into dramatic collapses. Epidemics serve as a prime example of this phenomenon, while the 2008 financial crisis highlights how a domino effect, originating from the small subprime mortgage sector, can trigger global repercussions. The mathematical theory underlying these phenomena is both elegant and foundational, profoundly shaping the field of Network Science since its inception. In this talk, I will present a unifying mathematical model for network fragility and cascading dynamics, and explore its deep connections to the theory of local-weak convergence, pioneered by Benjamini-Schramm and Aldous-Steele.


In this talk I will outline some of the stochastic models used to model the distribution of ''C,'' and some of the inferential issues that come from estimating the parameters of these models. I will touch on the celebrated Ewens Sampling Formula [3] and Fisher’s multiple sampling problem concerning the variance expected between values of ''S'' in samples taken from the same population [3]. Variants of birth-death-immigration processes can be used, for example when different variants grow at different rates. Some of these models are mechanistic in spirit, others more statistical. For example, a non-mechanistic model is useful for describing the arrival of covid sequences at a database. Sequences arrive one at a time, and are either a new variant, or a copy of a variant that has appeared before. The classical Yule process with immigration provides a starting point to model this process, as I will illustrate.
== March 6, 2025: Alexander Meehan (UW-Madison, Department of Philosophy) ==
'''What conditional probability could (probably) be'''  


According to orthodox probability theory, when B has probability zero, the conditional probability of A given B can depend on the partition or sub-sigma-field that B is relativized to. This relativization to sub-sigma-fields, a hallmark of Kolmogorov's theory of conditional expectation, is traditionally seen as appropriate in a treatment of conditioning with continuous variables, and it is what allows the theory to preserve Total Disintegrability, a generalization of the Law of Total Probability to uncountable partitions. In this talk, I will argue that although the relativization of conditional probability to sub-sigma-fields has advantages, it also has an underrecognized cost: it leads to puzzles for the treatment of ''iterated conditioning''. I will discuss these puzzles and some possible implications for the foundations of conditional probability.


''References''
This talk is based on joint work with Snow Zhang (UC Berkeley).


[1] Fisher RA, Corbet AS & Williams CB. J Animal Ecology, 12, 1943
== March 13, 2025: Klara Courteaut (Courant) ==
TBD 


[2] Arratia R, Barbour AD & Tavaré S. ''Logarithmic Combinatorial Structures,'' EMS, 2002
== March 20, 2025: Ewain Gwynne (UChicago) ==
TBD 


[3] Ewens WJ. Theoret Popul Biol, 3, 1972
== March 27, 2025: SPRING BREAK ==
No seminar 


[4] Da Silva P, Jamshidpey A, McCullagh P & Tavaré S. Bernoulli Journal, in press, 2022 (online)  
== April 3, 2025: Jimme He (OSU) ==
TBD 


== October 27, 2022, [https://uwmadison.zoom.us/j/91828707031?pwd=YUJXMUJkMDlPR0VRdkRCQVJtVndIdz09 ZOOM]: [https://www-users.cse.umn.edu/~arnab/ Arnab Sen] (University of Minnesota, Twin Cities) ==  
== April 10, 2025: Evan Sorensen (Columbia) ==
TBD 


'''Maximum weight matching on sparse graphs'''
== April 17, 2025: ==
TBD 


We consider the maximum weight matching of a finite bounded degree graph whose edges have i.i.d. random weights. It is natural to ask whether the weight of the maximum weight matching follows a central limit theorem. We obtain an affirmative answer to the above question in the case when the weight distribution is exponential and the graphs are locally tree-like. The key component of the proof involves a cavity analysis on arbitrary bounded degree trees which yields a correlation decay for the maximum weight matching. The central limit theorem holds if we take the underlying graph to be also random with i.i.d. degree distribution (configuration model).
== April 24, 2025: William Leep (University of Minnesota, Twin Cities) ==
TBD 


This is joint work with Wai-Kit Lam.
== May 1, 2025: ==
 
No seminar
== November 3, 2022, in person: [https://www.ias.edu/scholars/sky-yang-cao Sky Cao] (Institute for Advanced Study)  ==
 
'''Exponential decay of correlations in finite gauge group lattice gauge theories'''
 
Lattice gauge theories with finite gauge groups are statistical mechanical models, very much akin to the Ising model, but with some twists. In this talk, I will describe how to show exponential decay of correlations for these models at low temperatures. This is based on joint work with Arka Adhikari.
 
== November 10, 2022, in person: TBD  ==
 
 
== November 17, 2022, [https://uwmadison.zoom.us/j/91828707031?pwd=YUJXMUJkMDlPR0VRdkRCQVJtVndIdz09 ZOOM]: [https://sites.google.com/site/leandroprpimentel/ Leandro Pimentel] (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro)  ==
 
 
== December 1, in person: [https://cims.nyu.edu/~ajd594/ Alex Dunlap] (Courant Institute)  ==
 
 
== December 8, 2022, in person: [https://sites.northwestern.edu/juliagaudio/ Julia Gaudio] (Northwestern University)  ==  
 
 
[[Past Seminars]]

Latest revision as of 19:17, 5 February 2025

Back to Probability Group

  • When: Thursdays at 2:30 pm
  • Where: 901 Van Vleck Hall
  • Organizers: Hanbaek Lyu, Tatyana Shcherbyna, David Clancy
  • To join the probability seminar mailing list: email probsem+subscribe@g-groups.wisc.edu.
  • To subscribe seminar lunch announcements: email lunchwithprobsemspeaker+subscribe@g-groups.wisc.edu

Past Seminars


Spring 2025

Thursdays at 2:30 PM either in 901 Van Vleck Hall or on Zoom

We usually end for questions at 3:20 PM.

January 23, 2025:

No seminar

January 30, 2025: Promit Ghosal (UChicago)

Bridging Theory and Practice in Stein Variational Gradient Descent: Gaussian Approximations, Finite-Particle Rates, and Beyond

Stein Variational Gradient Descent (SVGD) has emerged as a powerful interacting particle-based algorithm for nonparametric sampling, yet its theoretical properties remain challenging to unravel. This talk delves into two complementary perspectives about SVGD. First, we explore Gaussian-SVGD, a framework that projects SVGD onto the family of Gaussian distributions via a bilinear kernel. We establish rigorous convergence results for both mean-field dynamics and finite-particle systems, demonstrating linear convergence to equilibrium in strongly log-concave settings and unifying recent algorithms for Gaussian variational inference (GVI) under a single framework. Second, we analyze the finite-particle convergence rates of SVGD in Kernelized Stein Discrepancy (KSD) and Wasserstein-2 metrics. Leveraging a novel decomposition of the relative entropy time derivative, we achieve near-optimal rates with polynomial dimensional dependence and extend these results to bilinear-enhanced kernels.

February 6, 2025: Subhabrata Sen (Harvard)

Community detection on multi-view networks

The community detection problem seeks to recover a latent clustering of vertices from an observed random graph. This problem has attracted significant attention across probability, statistics and computer science, and the fundamental thresholds for community recovery have been characterized in the last decade. Modern applications typically collect more fine-grained information on the units under study. For example, one might measure relations of multiple types among the units, or observe an evolving network over time. In this talk, we will discuss the community detection problem on such ‘multi-view’ networks. We will present some new results on the fundamental thresholds for community detection in these models. Finally, we will introduce algorithms for community detection based on Approximate Message Passing.

This is based on joint work with Xiaodong Yang and Buyu Lin (Harvard University).

February 13, 2025: Hanbaek Lyu (UW-Madison)

Large random matrices with given margins

We study large random matrices with i.i.d. entries conditioned to have prescribed row and column sums (margin). This problem has rich connections to relative entropy minimization,  Schr\"{o}dinger bridge, the enumeration of contingency tables, and random graphs with given degree sequences. We show that such a margin-constrained random matrix is sharply concentrated around a certain deterministic matrix, which we call the typical table. Typical tables have dual characterizations: (1) the expectation of the random matrix ensemble with minimum relative entropy from the base model constrained to have the expected target margin, and (2) the expectation of the maximum likelihood model obtained by rank-one exponential tilting of the base model. The structure of the typical table is dictated by two potential functions, which give the maximum likelihood estimates of the tilting parameters. Based on these results, for a sequence of "tame" margins that converges in $L^{1}$ to a limiting continuum margin as the size of the matrix diverges, we show that the sequence of margin-constrained random matrices converges in cut norm to a limiting kernel, which is the $L^{2}$-limit of the corresponding rescaled typical tables. The rate of convergence is controlled by how fast the margins converge in $L^{1}$.  We also propose a generalized Sinkhorn algorithm for computing typical tables and establish its linear convergence. We derive several new results for random contingency tables from our general framework.

Based on a joint work with Sumit Mukherjee (Columbia)

February 20, 2025: Mustafa Alper Gunes (Princeton)

Characteristic Polynomials of Random Matrices, Exchangeable Arrays & Painlevé Equations

Joint moments of characteristic polynomials of unitary random matrices and their derivatives have gained attention over the last 25 years, partly due to their conjectured relation to the Riemann zeta function. In this talk, we will consider the asymptotics of these moments in the most general setting allowing for derivatives of arbitrary order, generalising previous work that considered only the first derivative. Along the way, we will examine how exchangeable arrays and integrable systems play a crucial role in understanding the statistics of a class of infinite Hermitian random matrices. Based on joint work with Assiotis, Keating and Wei.

February 27, 2025: Souvik Dhara (Purdue)

Propagation of Shocks on Networks: Can Local Information Predict Survival?

Abstract: Complex systems are often fragile, where minor disruptions can cascade into dramatic collapses. Epidemics serve as a prime example of this phenomenon, while the 2008 financial crisis highlights how a domino effect, originating from the small subprime mortgage sector, can trigger global repercussions. The mathematical theory underlying these phenomena is both elegant and foundational, profoundly shaping the field of Network Science since its inception. In this talk, I will present a unifying mathematical model for network fragility and cascading dynamics, and explore its deep connections to the theory of local-weak convergence, pioneered by Benjamini-Schramm and Aldous-Steele.

March 6, 2025: Alexander Meehan (UW-Madison, Department of Philosophy)

What conditional probability could (probably) be

According to orthodox probability theory, when B has probability zero, the conditional probability of A given B can depend on the partition or sub-sigma-field that B is relativized to. This relativization to sub-sigma-fields, a hallmark of Kolmogorov's theory of conditional expectation, is traditionally seen as appropriate in a treatment of conditioning with continuous variables, and it is what allows the theory to preserve Total Disintegrability, a generalization of the Law of Total Probability to uncountable partitions. In this talk, I will argue that although the relativization of conditional probability to sub-sigma-fields has advantages, it also has an underrecognized cost: it leads to puzzles for the treatment of iterated conditioning. I will discuss these puzzles and some possible implications for the foundations of conditional probability.

This talk is based on joint work with Snow Zhang (UC Berkeley).

March 13, 2025: Klara Courteaut (Courant)

TBD

March 20, 2025: Ewain Gwynne (UChicago)

TBD

March 27, 2025: SPRING BREAK

No seminar

April 3, 2025: Jimme He (OSU)

TBD

April 10, 2025: Evan Sorensen (Columbia)

TBD

April 17, 2025:

TBD

April 24, 2025: William Leep (University of Minnesota, Twin Cities)

TBD

May 1, 2025:

No seminar

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