School of Mathematics

We use persistent homology to analyze predictions of protein folding by trying to identify global geometric structures that contribute to the error when the protein is misfolded. The goal is to find correlations between global geometric structures, as measured by persistent homology, and the failure to predict the correct folding. This technique could be useful in guiding the energy minimization techniques to the correct minimum corresponding to the desired folding.

We will discuss the constructions of compact manifolds with exceptional holonomy (in fact, holonomy $G_{2}$),  due to Joyce and Kovalev.  These both use “gluing constructions”. The first involves de-singularising quotient spaces and the second constructs a 7-manifold from “building blocks” derived from Fano threefolds.  We will explain how the local moduli theory is determined by a period map and discuss connections between the global moduli problem and Riemannian convergence theory (for manifolds with bounded Ricci curvature).

We prove that if every problem in NP has n^k-size circuits for a fixed constant k, then for every NP-verifier and every yes-instance x of length n for that verifier, the verifier's search space has a witness for x that can be encoded with a circuit of only n^O(k^3) size. An analogous statement is proved for nondeterministic quasi-polynomial time, i.e., NQP = NTIME[n^(log n)^O(1)]. This significantly extends the Easy Witness Lemma of Impagliazzo, Kabanets, and Wigderson [JCSS'02] which only held for larger nondeterministic classes such as NEXP.