Mathematics

 

Effective Biological Science through Mathematics

The Effective Biological Science Through Mathematics (EBSM) project is an interdisciplinary effort involving faculty from the departments of Mathematics and Microbiology and Molecular Genetics. The goal is to contribute directly to student success in selected coursework areas in the biological sciences and to student retention in the biological sciences. The primary development activities include the development of an instructor- and student-friendly supplement on enzyme kinetics including simple enzyme kinetics, various forms of inhibition, and the effect of gating on Michaelis enzyme kinetics.

Sponsor: Howard Hughes Medical Institute

PIs: Douglas Aichele, Alan Noell

Microbiology and Molecular Genetics: James Blankemeyer

 

Cohomology of Exponential Sums

Exponential sums originally arose in basic problems in number theory, such as trying to estimate the number of integer solutions to an equation. This project will attempt to extend some of the classical results in the subject to new classes of exponential sums.

Sponsor: National Science Foundation

PI: Alan Adolphson

 

Power: Complex Analysis and Representation Theory

This study addresses questions on analytic and geometric aspects of Representation Theory and its application. The classification and geometric description of representations “attached” to nilpotent orbits are important problems in Representation Theory. So such classification is available and even for the “known” examples there is no unified geometrical description of such representations. This study uses techniques introduced by Goro Shimura in a different setting in order to obtain analytic-geometric descriptions of a certain family of small representations. The goal is to obtain Hilbert spaces and natural descriptions of the group actions on them. The understanding of the unitary structure is of particular interest.

Sponsor: National Science Foundation

PI: Letticia Barchini

 

Algebra for All

The “Algebra for All” project is a five-year program to develop Internet-based professional development training for middle-math teachers in algebra content and pedagogy. The training will be delivered through exemplar inquiry-based algebra-for-all lessons with an embedded instructional design that will serve to train teachers in content and in effective ways to engage all students in learning algebra.

Sponsor: United States Department of Education

Pi: James R. Choike

 

Oklahoma State University AP Calculus Institute

This project conducts a week-long Summer Institute for Oklahoma Mathematics teachers on the content, pedagogy, and assessment of Advanced placement Calculus AB and BC.

Sponsor: Oklahoma State Department of Education, Office of AP Initiative

PI: James R. Choike

 

Analytic Properties of Automorphic L-functions and the Converse Theorem

This research will continue investigation of the local and global properties of L-functions of automorphic representations and the application of these L-functions to the problem of lifting of automorphic representations from classical groups to general linear groups via the Converse Theorem.

Sponsor: National Science Administration

PI: James Cogdell

 

Converse Theorems and L-Functions of Automorphic Forms

This project investigated L-functions of automorphic representations and their applications in the following three contexts: 1) The Converse Theorem for GL(n) and Functoriality; 2) Number Theoretic Applications of L-functions for GL(3); 3) A exposition of the theory of L-functions for GL(n).

Sponsor: National Security Agency

PI: James Cogdell

 

Efficient Triangulations and Normal Surface Theory

This project involves the development and use of efficient triangulations and normal surfaces in the study and understanding of 3-manifolds. The guiding principle of efficient triangulations is reducing unnecessary normal surfaces and improving the efficiency of computations for trangulation based algorithms. The project proposes further investigation of efficient trangulations and their relationship to one-vertex and ideal trangulations of 3-manifolds. Connections between efficient triangulations and the topology of 3-manifolds and “blow-ups” of ideal points suggest new approaches to Dehn fillings, the Homeomorphism Problem, the Word Problem for 3-manifolds, and many new and more efficient algorithms from normal surface theory.

Sponsor: National Science Foundation

PI: William Jaco

 

Essential Surfaces in 3-manifolds: The Lopez Conjecture

This project provides for a special semester at Stanford University to bring together specialists in the area for an intense collaborative study of essential surfaces in knot complements.

Sponsor: National Science Foundation, AIM

PI: William Jaco

 

Topics in Number Theory and Representation Theory

This project has two components. The first concerns the arithmetical theory of prehomogenous vector spaces and the second concerns L-functions and the representation theory of p-adic groups.

Sponsor: National Science Foundation

PI: Anthony Kable

 

Essential Laminations and Essential Surfaces in 3-Manifolds

The goal of this project is to explore the topology of 3-manifolds using essential laminations and essential surfaces. The techniques used in this project could have great impact on some fundamental problems in knot theory, e.g. Property P for knots and the cabling conjecture.

Sponsor: National Science Foundation

PI: Tao Li

 

3-Manifolds and Floer Homologies

The problems addressed in the research are in the area of the instanton/monopole Floer theory of 3-manifold and infinite-dimentional symplectic manifolds. The main theme in this study is the fundamental and important properties of the guage-theoretic/symplecitic Floer homology, and to study the interactive relation between the Floer cohomology and the semi-infinite cohomology, and the Seilberg-Witten-Floer theory intertwining the instanton and monopole results.

Sponsor: National Science Foundation

PI: Weiping Li

 

Representations of Finite Groups and Applications

This project concerns the developments of an undergraduate, upper division course and an accompanying textbook that would teach the theory of the representations of finite groups, with specific and detailed applications, to mathematics majors, mathematics education majors and to students majoring in science and engineering.

Sponsor: National Science Foundation

PI: Lisa Mantini

 

Topology of 3-Manifolds

This project concerns the structure of 3-manifolds. In particular in studies the question of when non-compact covering spaces of 3-manifolds. It also studies the questions of when hyperbolic 3-manifolds are covered by surface bundles, when 3-manifolds with cubings of negative curvature are hyperbolic, and whether non-Haken 30manifolds contain small knots.

Sponsor: National Science Foundation

PI: Robert Myers

 

Polynomials in Analysis and Analytic Number Theory

The major direction of this research is the study of several polynomial problems in Classical Analysis and Analytic Number Theory by using the methods of Complex Function Theory, Potential Theory and Approximation Theory as a unifying approach. The problems include sharp inequalities for products and factors of polynomials, Faber polynomials, Beiberbach polynomials and Bergman kernal methods in approximation of conformal mappings.

Sponsor: National Science Foundation

PI: Igor Pritsker

 

Polynomials with Integer Coefficients

This project is devoted to the study of several central topics in polynomials with integer coefficients, which is based on a unifying approach via Potential Theory and Approximation Theory.

Sponsor: National Security Agency

PI: Igor Pritsker

 

The Geometry of Embedded Projective Varieties

This research studies the relationships between the following objects related to an embedded smooth projective variety X Pn: 1) Smooth curves embedded by line bundles of large, by explicit, degree; 2) canonical embedding of smooth curves; 3) and smooth varieties of dimension greater than or equal to two.

Sponsor: National Security Agency

PI: Peter Vermeire

 

Arithmetic Groups and Tessellations of Homogeneous Spaces

One focus of this project in the study of tessellations of homogeneous spaces. Namely, if G-H is a non-compact, simply connected homogeneous space of a connected Lie group G, the question is whether there is a propery discontinuous subgroup D of G, such that the orbit space D\G/H is compact. This project also studies crystals in mathematical spaces other then the three-dimensional universe that we live in. A crystal is a material whose atomic structure is very symmetric. The most fundamental problem in this subject is to decide which spaces contain crystals, and which do not. For this question, the most interesting spaces are homogeneous, which means that every point of the space looks exactly like all of the other points.

Sponsor: National Science Foundation

PI: Dave Witte

 

Geometric Structures for Elementary Teachers (GeoSET)

The GeoSET project will support the full development and dissemination of the curriculum and pedagogy for a discovery-based course in geometry intended for prospective elementary teachers. A wide range of curricular and pedagogical activities are supported by the prototype workbook-style text currently used successfully at Oklahoma State University including: group activities, extensive writing, math-literature connections, project, constructions with manipulatives and proofs.

Sponsor: National Science Foundation

PIs: John Wolf, Douglas Aichele

 

American Mathematical Society Centennial Fellowship

This fellowship provides financial support for visits to the University of Chicago and the University of Texas at Austin. A project on applications of the MHD equations to magnetic reconnection was initiated and two joint papers on modeling nonlinear water waves were completed.

Sponsor: American Mathematical Society

PI: Jiahong Wu

 

Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Award

The award is for the research project investigating asymptotic limits for mathematical models of fluid flow. These kind of limits under consideration arise in multidisciplinary areas when partial differential equations are used as models.

Sponsor: Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU)

PI: Jiahong Wu