MoPAT Conference

Philipp J. di Dio (Main Organizer)

Philipp di Dio is a 5 Year Research Fellow (research group leader) at the Zukunftskolleg (Institute for Advanced Studies) with his own group since 2022. He studied chemistry and mathematics at the second oldest German university, the University of Leipzig founded 1409. After his bachelor in chemistry and his diploma in mathematics he did his PhD under supervision of Konrad Schmüdgen on the moment problem as a member of the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Science in Leipzig with a PhD-scholar ship. He did a PostDoc at the TU Berlin under supervision of Mario Kummer and at the LAAS-CNRS in Toulouse under supervision of e.g. Jean-Bernard Lasserre. With his DFG grant he joined in 2022 the University of Konstanz and the Zukunftskolleg where he works on the interplay between moments, polynomials, and partial differential equations.

Tobias Sutter (Co-Organizer)

Tobias Sutter is tenure-track-professor for Computer Science with focus on Machine Learning at the University of Konstanz since 2021. Since 2022 he is a member of the Centre for Human | Data | Society. He received his bachelor’s degree in 2007 on a thesis of Mechanical Engineering at the ETH Zürich (Switzerland), followed by the master’s degree in 2012. In 2017 he earned a PhD in Electrical Engineering (thesis: Convex programming in optimal control and information theory). After postdoctoral research positions at EPF Lausanne and ETH Zürich he is now Fellow of the Institute for Advanced Study at the University of Konstanz. He is Group leader at the Cluster of Excellence: Centre for the Advanced Study of Collective Behaviour and Program Committee of the Annual Learning for Dynamics & Control Conference (L4DC). His research is focused on Machine Learning, Stochastic Optimization and Control and Information Theory.

Baldi, Lorenzo (Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences, Leipzig)
Blomenhofer, Alexander Taveira (CWI Amsterdam)
Brüser, Clemens (TU Dresden)
Brosch, Daniel (University of Klagenfurt)
Cimpric, Jaka (University of Ljubljana)
di Dio, Philipp (University of Konstanz)
Eggen, Carl (University of Konstanz)
El Azhar, Hamza (Chouaib Doukkali University, Morocco)
van der Eyden, Mirte (University of Innbruck)
Fawzi, Hamza (University of Cambridge)
Garloff, Jürgen (University of Konstanz and HTWK Konstanz)
Grunwald, Rüdiger (University of Konstanz)
González Nevado, Alejandro (University of Konstanz)
Gutschlag, Theodor (University of Konstanz)
Hess, Sarah-Tanja (University of Konstanz)
Jablonski, Zenon (Jagiellonian University, Krakow)
Kaiser, Marcel (University of Konstanz)
Klingler, Andreas (University of Innsbruck)
Kovalyov, Ivan (University of Osnabrück)
Kozhasov, Khazhgali (Université Côte d’Azur, Nice)
Krapp, Lothar Sebastian (University of Konstanz)
Langer, Lars-Luca (University of Konstanz)
Lasserre, Jean-Bernard (LAAS-CNRS Toulouse)
Laurent, Monique (CWI Amsterdam and Tilburg University)
Metzlaff, Tobias (University of Kaiserslautern-Landau)
Michalek, Mateusz (University of Konstanz)
Miller, Jared (ETH Zurich)
Netzer, Tim (University of Innsbruck)
Pietrzycki, Pawel (Jagiellonian University, Krakow)
Ríos-Zertuche, Rodolfo (UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø)
Salac, Radek (University of Konstanz)
Sawall, David (University of Konstanz)
Schick, Moritz (University of Konstanz)
Schmüdgen, Konrad (University of Leipzig)
Schötz, Matthias (Polish Academy of Sciences)
Schweighofer, Markus (University of Konstanz)
Slot, Lucas (ETH Zurich)
Stochel, Jan (Jagiellonian University, Krakow)
Sun, Shengding (University of Cambridge)
Sutter, Tobias (University of Konstanz)
Vargas, Luis Felipe (IDSIA Lugano)
Zalar, Aljaz (University of Ljubljana)

If you don't find your name on the list, please let us know.

You find here as PDF the list of participants and talks with abstracts. "jww" = "joint work with"

1. Baldi, Lorenzo (jww Greg Blekherman and Rainer Sinn)
Carathéodory numbers and flat extension for measures supported on genus one curves

2. Blomenhofer, Alexander Taveira (jww Alex Casarotti)
Nondefectivity of invariant secant varieties

3. Brüser, Clemens (jww Mario Kummer)
Quadratic Determinantal Representations of Positive Polynomials

4. Brosch, Daniel
Combinatoric derivations in extremal graph theory and Sidorenko's conjecture

5. Eggen, Carl (jww Oliver Stein and Stefan Volkwein)
Granularity for mixed-integer polynomial optimization problems

6. van der Eyden, Mirte
Beyond free spectrahedra

7. El Azhar, Hamza
On the square root problem

8. Fawzi, Hamza
Ground State Optimization

9. Jablonski, Zenon (jww Piotr Budzynski, Il Bong Jung and Jan Stochel)
Subnormality via moments

10. Klingler, Andreas (jww Tim Netzer)
A homotopy method for convex optimization

11. Kovalyov, Ivan
A truncated indefinite Stieltjes moment problem

12. Kozhasov, Khazhgali (jww Greg Blekherman, Pablo Parrilo, Bruce Reznick and Isabelle Shankar)
When are odd powers of non-negative forms SOS?

13. Krapp, Lothar Sebastian (jww Merlin Carl)
Schanuel's Conjecture, Roots of Exponential Polynomials and Peano Arithmetic

14. Lasserre, Jean-Bernard
The Christoffel function: New applications, connections and extensions

15. Laurent, Monique
Sums of Squares of Polynomials for Matrix Copositivity and Stable Sets in Graphs

16. Metzlaff, Tobias (jww Evelyne Hubert, Philippe Moustrou, and Cordian Riener)
Chebyshev Moments

17. Michalek, Mateusz
Enumerative geometry meets statistics and optimization

18. Miller, Jared (jww Chiara Meroni, Matteo Tacchi, and Mauricio Velasco)
Maximizing Slice-Volumes of Semialgebraic Sets using Sum-of-Squares Programming

19. Netzer, Tim (jww Maximilian Illmer and Andreas Thom)
Zeros of Polynomial Equations in Matrices, Quaternions and Beyond

20. Pietrzycki, Pawel (jww Jan Stochel)
Operator moments and Arveson's hyperrigidity

21. Ríos-Zertuche, Rodolfo (jww Didier Henrion, Milan Korda, and Martin Kruzík)
Relaxation gaps for SDP-based algorithms for PDEs and optimal control

22. Sawall, David (jww Mario Kummer)
Amalgamation of real zero polynomials with two common variables

23. Schick, Moritz (jww Mareike Dressler and Salma Kuhlmann)
Quantitative relation of the cones of sums of squares and sums of nonnegative circuit polynomials

24. Schmüdgen, Konrad
The matricial truncated moment problem

25. Schötz, Matthias (jww Philipp Schmitt)
Real Nullstellensatz for 2-step nilpotent Lie algebras

26. Schweighofer, Markus (jww Luis Vargas)
Pure states for polynomial nonnegativity certificates in the presence of zeros

27. Slot, Lucas (jww Jean-Bernard Lasserre)
Rational Christoffel functions for measures with conditional independence

28. Stochel, Jan
Moment problem for discrete measures via idempotents

29. Sun, Shengding (jww Greg Blekherman, Mario Kummer, Raman Sanyal and Kevin Shu)
Generalizing determinantal inequalities using linear prinicipal minor (lpm) polynomials

30. Vargas, Luis Filipe
Complexity Results About the Exactness of Sum-of-Squares Approximations for Polynomial Optimization

31. Zalar, Aljaz (jww Igor Klep and Tea Strekelj)
A gap between positive even quartics and sums of squares ones

If you don't find your talk/abstract here and/or the PDF, please let us know.

Please check for last-minute changes!

Your find the program, talks, and abstracts also here as PDF.

Monday, March 11th 2024
Room K503

10.00 - 10.20 Arrival
10.25 - 10.30 Philipp di Dio and Tobias Sutter
Greetings and Opening
10.35 - 11.20 Konrad Schmüdgen
The matricial truncated moment problem
11.25 - 11.55 Pawel Pietrzycki
Operator moments and Arveson's hyperrigidity

12.00 - 13.30 Lunch and Coffee

13.30 - 14.15 Monique Laurent
Sums of Squares of Polynomials for Matrix Copositivity and Stable Sets in Graphs
14.20 - 15.05 Markus Schweighofer
Pure states for polynomial nonnegativity certificates in the presence of zeros
15.10 - 15.30 Coffee
15.30 - 15.55 Luis Filipe Vargas
Complexity Results About the Exactness of Sum-of-Squares Approximations for Polynomial Optimization
16.00 - 16.25 Mirte van der Eyden
Beyond free spectrahedra
16.30 - 16.55 Aljaz Zalar
A gap between positive even quartics and sums of squares ones

Tuesday, March 12th 2024
Room K503

9.00 - 9.45 Jan Stochel
Moment problem for discrete measures via idempotents
9.50 - 10.20 Matthias Schötz
Real Nullstellensatz for 2-step nilpotent Lie algebras
10.25 - 10.45 Coffee
10.45 - 11.10 Lorenzo Baldi
Carathéodory numbers and flat extension for measures supported on genus one curves
11.15 - 11.35 Moritz Schick
Quantitative relation of the cones of sums of squares and sums of nonnegative circuit polynomials
11.40 - 12.00 Lothar Sebastian Krapp
Schanuel's Conjecture, Roots of Exponential Polynomials and Peano Arithmetic

12.00 - 13.00 Lunch

13.00 - 17.00 Excursion to Hohentwiel (see also below)

Wednesday, March 13th 2024
Room K503

9.00 - 9.45 Jean-Bernard Lasserre
The Christoffel function: New applications, connections and extensions
9.50 - 10.20 Lucas Slot
Rational Christoffel functions for measures with conditional independence
10.25 - 10.45 Coffee
10.45 - 11.10 Rodolfo Ríos-Zertuche
Relaxation gaps for SDP-based algorithms for PDEs and optimal control
11.15 - 11.35 Tobias Metzlaff
Chebyshev Moments
11.40 - 12.00 Jared Miller
Maximizing Slice-Volumes of Semialgebraic Sets using Sum-of-Squares Programming

12.00 - 13.00 Lunch and Coffee

13.00 - 13.45 Hamza Fawzi
TBA
13.50 - 14.15 Shengding Sun
Generalizing determinantal inequalities using linear prinicipal minor (lpm) polynomials
14.20 - 14.45 Andreas Klingler
A homotopy method for convex optimization
14.50 - 15.10 Coffee
15.10 - 15.30 Carl Eggen
Granularity for mixed-integer polynomial optimization problems
15.35 - 15.55 David Sawall
Amalgamation of real zero polynomials with two common variables

16.00 - 24.00 Visiting Mainau and Conference Dinner (see also below)

Thursday, March 14th 2024
Room K503

9.00 - 9.45 Tim Netzer
Zeros of Polynomial Equations in Matrices, Quaternions and Beyond
9.50 - 10.20 Zenon Jablonski
Subnormality via moments
10.25 - 10.45 Coffee
10.45 - 11.10 Khazhgali Kozhasov
When are odd powers of non-negative forms SOS?
11.15 - 11.40 Alexander Taveira Blomenhofer
Nondefectivity of invariant secant varieties
11.45 - 12.05 Ivan Kovalyov
A truncated indefinite Stieltjes moment problem

12.05 - 13.00 Lunch and Coffee

13.00 - 13.30 Mateusz Michalek
Enumerative geometry meets statistics and optimization
13.35 - 14.00 Daniel Brosch
Combinatoric derivations in extremal graph theory and Sidorenko's conjecture
14.05 - 14.30 Hamza El Azhar
On the square root problem
14.35 - 14.55 Clemens Brüser
Quadratic Determinantal Representations of Positive Polynomials

15.00 - 15.30 Philipp di Dio and Tobias Sutter
Farewell and Coffee

The conference is hosted at the University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany, in the rooms R0511 (Mon, Wed, Thu), L0602 (Tue), and K503 (Mon-Thu). See also the Maps of the University.

Train
Konstanz can be conveniently reached via train with the main train station (Konstanz Hauptbahnhof) being located in the city center. Searching and booking of connections can be done via the DB Navigator App of the German railway.

Air travel
The closest international airport to Konstanz is Zürich (Switzerland), with fast direct train connections (45min) to Konstanz main station. Other international airports are Stuttgart (3h), Frankfurt (4h), and Munich (5h).

Within Konstanz
Konstanz has a good public bus system, bus line 9 runs from the city center to the University every 15min. Tickets can be purchased online, at machines at the bus stations or directly in the bus. There are also various public bike and eScooter options available, which can be booked via the respective apps.

We invite scholars from all career stages and backgrounds who are interested in the topic of the converence to participate.

Registration
To register, please email your details (name, institution, career stage) to the organizers MoPAT24@uni-konstanz.de by end of February.

Conference Fees
For the excursion and the dinner we have to charge a small fee since our funds can not support all participants:
- excursion: 20€ (entrance to Hohentwiel + transporation by bus)
- dinner: 40€ (entrance to the island of mainau + food + drinks)

You can bring your wife/husband/children to the conference dinner and the excursion. Adults pay the same fee as participants, for childen reduced fees are available.

How to pay the fee: TBA

Contributed Talks
Registered participants may contribute a talk to the conference. Please submit your title and abstract to MoPAT24@uni-konstanz.de by end of February.

Childcare
The University of Konstanz offers Childcare during events. We have limited funds to support childcare. Please let us know at least six weeks before the conference to organize.

Special Needs
If you have special needs, do not hesitate to contact us MoPAT24@uni-konstanz.de.

Official Letter of Registration/Participation from the Organizers
If you need (e.g. for visa purposes) an official confirmation letter of registration/participation for the conference we can provide this letter of participation/participation.

In Konstanz you can choose any hotel you like. We recommend the following hotels

• ibis Konstanz: it is close to Sternplatz with easy access to bus lines to the university and the inner city, from Bahnhof (main station) take a bus to Sternplatz, from Sternplatz take bus 9A/B to Universität,
• ibis budget Konstanz: take bus line 6 to/from Bahnhof (main station) or if you arrive with RE2 you can leave the train at Konstanz Fürstenberg and walk 750min/10min to this hotel; for the conference take bus 6 to Sternplatz and then 9A/B to Universtität,
• harbr Hotel Konstanz

and youth hostel

• Otto-Moericke-Tower Konstanz: 25min walking distance to the university, if you get a room in the tower you will have a beautiful view over the lake.

Tipp: The bus line 9A/B goes between Bahnhof (main station) and Universität (university). Bus line 13/4 and 4/13 between Bahnhof (main station) and Mainau (island). All these lines stop at Sternplatz next to the Rhein bridge.

The dinner is organized as a buffet and the kitchen continuously prepares dishes.

Starters
carrot salad, cucumber salad, couscous salad, sweet pepper salad, leaf salad with Mainau herb dressing and balsamico dressing, different sorts of bread

Main courses
- thin strips of chicken with mushroom cream sauce
- pike-perch with dill cream sauce
- curry made with lentils (vegan)

Side dishes
butter rice, pasta, carrots, sweet pepper, zucchini

Desserts
mixed fruits, red fruit jelly with vanilla sauce

If you have any special dietary needs or allergies, please let us know in advance.

A conference is nothing without the speakers, the participants, and the chairs.

We therefore thank all 31 speakers who managed to present their math in such a tight schedule. We thank all 42 participants, especially all 25 coming from outside. You came from Leipzig, Tromso, Cambridge, Amsterdam, Osnarbrück, Kaiserlautern, Toulouse, Nice, El Jadida in Marocco (which is close to Casablanca), from Zurich, Lugano, Ljubliana, Klagenfurth, Innsbruck, Krakow, Warsaw, and Dresden. Did I forget anyone?

We also want to thank all the chairs who kindly agreed to moderate the sessions and for guiding us through the talks and introducing the speakers. In the talks we have seen all kinds of mathematics connected to moments and polynomials.

I think at this occasion here it is appropriate to recall the words of Richard Feynman. In my opinion his words also apply to mathematics. Richard Feynman said the following:

“Physics is like sex: sure, it may give some practical results, but that's not why we do it.”

So, I hope you enjoyed the talks and math presented so far and also of tomorrow. I know in the few occasions I had time to listen I did enjoy your talks and your math you are doing.

I hope that we, Konstanz, the University of Konstanz, the department of mathematics, the Zukunftskolleg, Tobias Sutter, and maybe even me myself, have been at least adequate hosts for you, your talks, and your math. We thank you all for coming here.

I also want to thank all people from Konstanz who made this conference possible: our secretaries, our staff at the Zukunftskolleg, the Mainau team for the conference dinner, and Tobias Sutter for organizing this conference with me.

I want to give a special thanks to all our PhD students. Your work in the background ensured a smooth procedure of the conference.

Also a special thanks goes to our invited speakers. You not only kindly agreed to come but also moderately spend your allowance. Jan Stochel for example came all the way from Krakow by bus. And Tim Netzer, even as an invited speaker, completely did without financial support, come here. That made it possible to invite you all to this dinner and also to the excursion yesterday. As you can imagine I am looking forward explaining this to our administration next week!

However, unfortunately, some couldn't addend for the excursion. You really missed out on something.

Speaking of attending, Konrad Schmüdgen, Schmüddi. You have been a senior fellow here in Konstanz for the last 2 months. You intensely worked with me once again and it reminded me of my PhD time with you in Leipzig.

It is therefore, as your last PhD student, not only my duty but also my privilege and pleasure to say the following. I thank you for your mind, your math, and your kind personality. You tought me and many others math. Your impact as a teacher and researcher is outstanding. Even today when I have a question you immediately can cite by heart the literature on several topics for the last 150 years.

You are still open minded and your mind is not only still flexible but sharp. If I reach your age I would be blessed to be even only half as good as you are. Mathematics, and I think we all, owe you a great deal and I know that it makes you uncomfortable to hear that.

I therefore want to end this speech by asking everyone to rise their glasses and just say "Thank you".

THANK YOU.

See Moped.

 In Konstanz:

• Archäologisches Landesmuseum Baden-Württemberg: State archeological museum about Konstanz and the Lake Konstanz region, located at Sternplatz
• Konstanz city center with buildings from the middle ages (from 1380 and older)
• Konzil: the only time and place where a pope was elected in Germany
• Münster: Cathedral of Konstanz
• Sea Life: Aqua Marine Museum
• Therme: after a long day relax in the outdoor pool or in the sauna

Ferry, ship, and boat tours on Lake Konstanz:

• Bodensee Schifffahrt BSB: connecting several cities/harbors at Lake Konstanz
• Katamaran: a fast connection between Konstanz and Friedrichshafen
• ferry Konstanz/Staad - Meersburg: car, bike, and pedestrian ferry connecting Konstanz/Staad with Meersburg

At and around Lake Konstanz (Bodensee):

• Dornier Museum for Air and Space Flight: take the Katamaran from Konstanz habor to Friedrichshafen
• Hohentwiel: the conference excursion will take place there
• Lindau Island: take a BSB boat from Konstanz harbor to Lindau
• Mainau Island: the conference dinner is held there with extra time to explore the island
• Meersburg: take bus 1 to Staad/Fähre and use the ferry
• München: take a FlixBus from Konstanz to Munich and visit e.g. one of the Pinakotheken (with one of van Gogh's sunflowers) or the Deutsches Museum (with the original desk and experimental setup of Otto Hahn and Fritz Straßmann for the first experimental proof of nuclear fission)
• Reichenau Island: famous for the landscape, the view, and several churches, especially Sankt Georg from the 9th century AD
• Rheinfall: take a train from Konstanz to Neuhausen Rheinfall
• Salem Monastery and Palace
• Straßburg: take a train from Konstanz to Straßburg
• Winterthur: take a train from Konstanz to Winterthur and visit e.g. the Kunst Museum
• Zurich: take a train from Konstanz to Zurich and visit e.g. the Kunsthaus or the Zoological Museum of the University Zurich

Can I bring my wife/husband/children to the conference (dinner, excursion)?
Yes. Additional adults pay the same fee as regular conference participants, for children we can offer reduced fees. For children the university provides childcare during events.