Mar 16 (Mon)
13:00 MCS2068 StatMengchu Li (Birmingham): Segmenting Human–LLM Co-authored Text via Change Point Detection
The rise of large language models (LLMs) has created an urgent need to distinguish between human-written and machine-generated text to ensure authenticity and societal trust. Existing detectors typically provide a binary classification for an entire passage; however, this is insufficient for human-LLM co-authored text, where the objective is to localize specific segments authored by each. To bridge this gap, we propose algorithms to segment text into human- and machine-authored pieces. Our key observation is that such a segmentation task is conceptually similar to classical change point detection in time series analysis. Leveraging this analogy, we adapt change point detection to LLM-generated text detection, develop a weighted algorithm and a generalized algorithm to accommodate heterogeneous sentence lengths, and establish the minimax optimality of our procedure. Empirically, our approach substantially outperforms existing baseline algorithms, reducing localization errors by up to 50%.
Venue: MCS2068
14:00 MCS2068 PureNoema Nicolussi (Innsbruck): The Arakelov--Bergman metric on degenerating Riemann surfaces and graphs
Next to the hyperbolic metric, the Arakelov-Bergman metric provides an interesting choice of metric on a compact Riemann surface. Its importance stems from its connections to complex geometry and appearance in arithmetic geometry. Since the early 90s, there has been great interest in understanding the behavior of the metric and related objects when the underlying Riemann surface degenerates to a singular Riemann surface.
In this talk, we discuss a recent approach which explains the degeneration behavior of the metric and some related objects using analogous objects on graphs.
Based on joint work with Omid Amini (Orsay).
Venue: MCS2068
14:00 MCS3070 HEPJEnrico Andriolo (Durham): Entropic Order
It is commonly expected that increasing temperature drives physical systems towards disorder. Surprisingly, certain models are conjectured to exhibit the opposite behaviour: at extremely high temperatures they enter an ordered phase, stabilized by entropy. After a gentle introduction to this counterintuitive phenomenon, I will outline the main ideas behind a rigorous proof showing that such entropically driven order can indeed occur. No prior familiarity with the topic will be assumed.
Venue: MCS3070
Mar 17 (Tue)
13:00 MCS2068 APDEElisa Continelli (University of Padova): Multiagent systems: time delay effects and communication failures
In recent years, multiagent systems have attracted the attention of many researchers in several scientifice fields. Among them, there are the celebrated Hegselmann-Krause model for opinion formation and its second-order version, the Cucker-Smale model, introduced for the description of flocking phenomena. In such models it is natural to introduce time delays effects since time lags unavoidably appear in the applications as reaction times or times needed to receive some information. In this talk, we will focus on first- and second-order Cucker-Smale type models in presence of time delay effects, discussing the stability properties of their solutions. Communication failures among the agents will be also considered. Joint works with Chiara Cicolani and Cristina Pignotti.
Venue: MCS2068
Mar 18 (Wed)
13:00 MCS3055 E&PChristian Lawson-Perfect (Newcastle): Accessibility of Maths E-assessment
13:00 zoom A&CZhongjie Huang (University of Chinese Academy of Sciences): Spinning Mellin Amplitudes
In this talk, I will show how to define Mellin amplitudes for conformal correlators involving arbitrary spinning bosonic operators. The strategy is to perform a discrete Mellin transformation on all scalar products containing polarization vectors, such that each polarization vector can be interpreted as the position of a fictitious scalar operator. I will also establish the general pole structures and factorization properties of these spinning Mellin amplitudes.
Venue: zoom
Online: https://teams.microsoft.com/meet/36466301429317?p=TErTcWVJUdglpu8Uss
Mar 19 (Thu)
13:00 MCS2068 G&TAndy Wand (Glasgow): Non-positive open books of Stein fillable contact 3-manifolds
We will discuss motivation for and approaches to the
question of when the monoid in the mapping class group of a surface with
boundary corresponding to monodromies of open book decompositions of
Stein fillable contact 3-manifolds differs from the monoid of mapping
classes which admit factorizations into positive Dehn twists. In
particular, combining new(ish) results with previous work of several
people, we give a complete solution to this problem, showing that the
monoids coincide only for planar surfaces. This is joint work with
Vitalijs Brejevs.
Venue: MCS2068
Mar 20 (Fri)
13:00 MCS0001 HEPMDonal O'Connell (Edinburgh University): Supertranslations are Soft Dressings
In quantum field theories, the definition of a single particle state is ambiguous when there is no mass gap. I will discuss how this ambiguity for a single massive particle, in the regime of validity of the classical approximation, is intimately connected to large gauge transformations of classical theories. I will in particular discuss general BMS supertranslations from this point of view, as well as implications for classical observables such as impulses and waveforms.
Venue: MCS0001
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Contact: arthur.lipstein@durham.ac.uk
Mar 18 13:00 Zhongjie Huang (University of Chinese Academy of Sciences): Spinning Mellin Amplitudes
In this talk, I will show how to define Mellin amplitudes for conformal correlators involving arbitrary spinning bosonic operators. The strategy is to perform a discrete Mellin transformation on all scalar products containing polarization vectors, such that each polarization vector can be interpreted as the position of a fictitious scalar operator. I will also establish the general pole structures and factorization properties of these spinning Mellin amplitudes.
Venue: zoom
Usual Venue: MCS2068
Contact: yohance.a.osborne@durham.ac.uk
Mar 17 13:00 Elisa Continelli (University of Padova): Multiagent systems: time delay effects and communication failures
In recent years, multiagent systems have attracted the attention of many researchers in several scientifice fields. Among them, there are the celebrated Hegselmann-Krause model for opinion formation and its second-order version, the Cucker-Smale model, introduced for the description of flocking phenomena. In such models it is natural to introduce time delays effects since time lags unavoidably appear in the applications as reaction times or times needed to receive some information. In this talk, we will focus on first- and second-order Cucker-Smale type models in presence of time delay effects, discussing the stability properties of their solutions. Communication failures among the agents will be also considered. Joint works with Chiara Cicolani and Cristina Pignotti.
Venue: MCS2068
Usual Venue: MCS3070
Contact: andrew.krause@durham.ac.uk
No upcoming seminars have been scheduled (not unusual outside term time).
Usual Venue: MCS2068
Contact: herbert.gangl@durham.ac.uk
No upcoming seminars have been scheduled (not unusual outside term time).
Usual Venue: OC218
Contact: mohamed.anber@durham.ac.uk
For more information, see HERE.
No upcoming seminars have been scheduled (not unusual outside term time).
Usual Venue: MCS3052
Contact: andrew.krause@durham.ac.uk
Mar 18 13:00 Christian Lawson-Perfect (Newcastle): Accessibility of Maths E-assessment
Ill give a brief introduction to the topic of accessibility, then talk about particular access considerations for mathematical e-assessment, based on years of experience developing and supporting mathematical e-assessment. Seminar slides: https://numbas.org.uk/talks/durham-2026-03-18/
Venue: MCS3055
Usual Venue: MCS2068
Contact: fernando.galaz-garcia@durham.ac.uk
Mar 19 13:00 Andy Wand (Glasgow): Non-positive open books of Stein fillable contact 3-manifolds
We will discuss motivation for and approaches to the
question of when the monoid in the mapping class group of a surface with
boundary corresponding to monodromies of open book decompositions of
Stein fillable contact 3-manifolds differs from the monoid of mapping
classes which admit factorizations into positive Dehn twists. In
particular, combining new(ish) results with previous work of several
people, we give a complete solution to this problem, showing that the
monoids coincide only for planar surfaces. This is joint work with
Vitalijs Brejevs.
Venue: MCS2068
Apr 02 13:00 Thiago de Paiva (Peking University): A simpler braid description for all links in the 3-sphere
By Alexander's theorem, every link in the 3-sphere can be
represented as the closure of a braid. Lorenz links and twisted torus
links are two families that have been extensively studied and are well
described in terms of braids. In this talk, we present a natural
generalization of Lorenz links and twisted torus links that produces all
links in the 3-sphere, providing a simpler braid description for every
link in the 3-sphere.
Venue: MCS2068
Apr 30 13:00 Anthea Monod (Imperial): TBA
Usual Venue: MCS3070
Contact: mendel.t.nguyen@durham.ac.uk
Mar 16 14:00 Enrico Andriolo (Durham): Entropic Order
It is commonly expected that increasing temperature drives physical systems towards disorder. Surprisingly, certain models are conjectured to exhibit the opposite behaviour: at extremely high temperatures they enter an ordered phase, stabilized by entropy. After a gentle introduction to this counterintuitive phenomenon, I will outline the main ideas behind a rigorous proof showing that such entropically driven order can indeed occur. No prior familiarity with the topic will be assumed.
Venue: MCS3070
Usual Venue: MCS0001
Contact: p.e.dorey@durham.ac.uk,enrico.andriolo@durham.ac.uk,tobias.p.hansen@durham.ac.uk
Mar 20 13:00 Donal O'Connell (Edinburgh University): Supertranslations are Soft Dressings
In quantum field theories, the definition of a single particle state is ambiguous when there is no mass gap. I will discuss how this ambiguity for a single massive particle, in the regime of validity of the classical approximation, is intimately connected to large gauge transformations of classical theories. I will in particular discuss general BMS supertranslations from this point of view, as well as implications for classical observables such as impulses and waveforms.
Venue: MCS0001
Mar 27 13:00 Sean Hartnoll (Cambridge University): TBA
Usual Venue: MCS2068
Contact: michael.r.magee@durham.ac.uk
Mar 16 14:00 Noema Nicolussi (Innsbruck): The Arakelov--Bergman metric on degenerating Riemann surfaces and graphs
Next to the hyperbolic metric, the Arakelov-Bergman metric provides an interesting choice of metric on a compact Riemann surface. Its importance stems from its connections to complex geometry and appearance in arithmetic geometry. Since the early 90s, there has been great interest in understanding the behavior of the metric and related objects when the underlying Riemann surface degenerates to a singular Riemann surface.
In this talk, we discuss a recent approach which explains the degeneration behavior of the metric and some related objects using analogous objects on graphs.
Based on joint work with Omid Amini (Orsay).
Venue: MCS2068
Usual Venue: MCS3070
Contact: joe.thomas@durham.ac.uk
No upcoming seminars have been scheduled (not unusual outside term time).
Usual Venue: MCS2068
Contact: hyeyoung.maeng@durham.ac.uk,andrew.iskauskas@durham.ac.uk
Mar 16 13:00 Mengchu Li (Birmingham): Segmenting Human–LLM Co-authored Text via Change Point Detection
The rise of large language models (LLMs) has created an urgent need to distinguish between human-written and machine-generated text to ensure authenticity and societal trust. Existing detectors typically provide a binary classification for an entire passage; however, this is insufficient for human-LLM co-authored text, where the objective is to localize specific segments authored by each. To bridge this gap, we propose algorithms to segment text into human- and machine-authored pieces. Our key observation is that such a segmentation task is conceptually similar to classical change point detection in time series analysis. Leveraging this analogy, we adapt change point detection to LLM-generated text detection, develop a weighted algorithm and a generalized algorithm to accommodate heterogeneous sentence lengths, and establish the minimax optimality of our procedure. Empirically, our approach substantially outperforms existing baseline algorithms, reducing localization errors by up to 50%.
Venue: MCS2068
Mar 23 13:00 Rasa Remenyte-Prescott (Nottingham): Reliability and Efficiency Modelling in Healthcare
The talk will give an overview of current research needs in reliability and efficiency modelling in healthcare, with a focus on using approaches of engineering risk and system reliability analysis. It will then focus on some current projects at the University of Nottingham and their outcomes, with a focus on Newborn Life Support (NLS) procedure, and will discuss future avenues for research in the areas of healthcare applications. The talk will also give a brief overview of activities in the Resilience Engineering Research Group and open a discussion for potential future collaboration opportunities.
Venue: MCS2068
