| Week of November 20 - November 22, 2002 | ||
| Statistical Mechanics Seminar | ||
| Topic: | Semiclassical Statistical Physics | |
| Presenter: | Carlos Aragao, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro | |
| Date: | Wednesday, November 20, 2002, Time: 2:00 p.m., Location: Jadwin 343 | |
| Abstract: | We will review the use of semiclassical path-integral methods in Statistical Physics, with emphasis on applications to Quantum Statistical Mechanics and Quantum Statistical Field Theory. We will present calculations of thermodynamic quantities for the anharmonic oscillator in contact with a heat bath, for interfaces in binary mixtures (or domain walls in magnetic systems) near criticality, and for scalar fields at finite temperature. | |
| Department Colloquium | ||
| Topic: | Dimers and amoebas | |
| Presenter: | Andrei Okounkov, Princeton University | |
| Date: | Wednesday, November 20, 2002, Time: 4:30 p.m., Location: Fine Hall 314 | |
| Abstract: | The amoeba of a plane complex curve is its image in the real plane under the map that takes coordinates to the logarithms of their absolute values. The dimer model on a planar graph is the study of all perfect matchings (that is, ways to partition all vertices into pairs of neighbors) on that graph. The dimer model has a long history in both mathematics and physics. In this talk, based on joint work with Richard Kenyon and Scott Scheffield, I will explain how to see amoebas in dimers. | |
| Discrete Mathematics Seminar | ||
| Topic: | The Phase Transition in the Biased Integer Partitioning Problem | |
| Presenter: | Jennifer Chayes, Microsoft Research | |
| Date: | Thursday, November 21, 2002, Time: 2:15 p.m., Location: Fine Hall 224 | |
| Abstract: | Please click here to view abstract | |
| Joint Princeton University/IAS Number Theory Seminar | ||
| Topic: | Quadratic twists of GL_3 L-series | |
| Presenter: | Gautam Chinta, Brown University | |
| Date: | Thursday, November 21, 2002: Time: 4:30, Location: Fine Hall 322 | |
| Topology Seminar *** Please note change in time | ||
| Topic: | Link homology | |
| Presenter: | Mikhail Khovanov, University of California at Davis | |
| Date: | Thursday, November 21, 2002: Time: 4:30p.m., Location: Fine Hall 314 | |
| Graduate Student Seminar | ||
| Topic: | Ultraproducts, Scaling limits and Fixed points: from Model Theory to discrete groups | |
| Presenter: | Lior Silberman, Princeton University | |
| Date: | Friday, November 22, 2002: Time: 12:30, Location: Fine Hall 1201 | |
| Abstract: | An ultrafilter on a set $I$ is a notion of "majority" for subsets of $I$. The existence of ultrafilters is a useful technical device in several fields. For example, they can be used to assign a unique limit to any sequence of real numbers, where this limit satisfies many of the usual properties of limits. Ultrafilters are also used in mathematical logic to form "Ultraproducts" of models, a useful construction. A combination of the two ideas leads to a definition of the limit of a sequence of metric spaces. I will show how M. Gromov uses this construction in the context of the representation theory of discrete groups and Kazhdan property (T). | |
| Geometric Analysis Seminar | ||
| Topic: | A classification of conformally invariant differential operators on densities | |
| Presenter: | Spyridon Alexakis, Princeton University | |
| Date: | Friday, November 22, 2002, Time: 3:00 p.m., Location: Fine Hall 314 | |
| Abstract: | A new family of conformally invariant differential operators on densities is constructed and a classification result is proven in odd dimensions. Furthermore, we find a connection of these new operators with Riemannian curvature invariants. | |
| Week of November 25 - November 29, 2002 | ||
| Analysis Seminar | ||
| Topic: | General relativity constraint equations : Their elliptic solution and their hyperbolic conservation laws | |
| Presenter: | James W. York, Cornell University | |
| Date: | Monday, November 25, 2002, Time: 4:00 p.m., Location: Fine Hall 314 | |
| Arnold's Diffusion Seminar | ||
| Topic: | TBA | |
| Presenter: | K. Khanin, Cambridge University | |
| Date: | Monday, November 25, 2002, Time: 4:00 p.m., Location: Fine Hall 601 | |
| PACM Colloquium | ||
| Topic: | Pore-scale Network Models for Two-phase Flow in Porous Media | |
| Presenter: | Michael Celia, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Princeton University | |
| Date: | Monday, November 25, 2002, Time: 4:00 p.m., Location: Fine Hall 214 | |
| Abstract: | Pore-scale network models for two-phase flow in porous media describe fluid movement and interface displacements at the scale of individual pores. Aggregation of many pores, into an interconnected network structure, allows for simulations from which volume-averaged properties may be computed. Typical averaged variables include fluid saturations, average capillary pressures, specific interfacial areas, and measures of contact-line length. We have been using both quasi-static and dynamic network models to explore new constitutive relationships at the continuum porous-medium scale, with a focus on relationships involving specific interfacial area and dynamic capillary pressure, and on the nature of hysteresis. We have also coupled interface displacement models with models of miscible displacement to investigate upscaling relationships for problems of inter-phase mass transfer, with application to groundwater contamination problems. This talk will present the underlying mathematical models, and describe computational upscaling studies from which continuum-scale properties are derived. | |
| Week of December 2 - December 6, 2002 | ||
| Analysis Seminar | ||
| Topic: | TBA | |
| Presenter: | Mihaela Iftime, Northeastern University | |
| Date: | Monday, December 2, 2002, Time: 4:00 p.m., Location: Fine Hall 314 | |
| PACM Colloquium | ||
| Topic: | TBA | |
| Presenter: | Natalia Berloff, University of Cambridge | |
| Date: | Monday, December 2, 2002, Time: 4:00 p.m., Location: Fine Hall 214 | |
| Arnold's Diffusion Seminar | ||
| Topic: | TBA | |
| Presenter: | K. Khanin, Cambridge University | |
| Date: | Tuesday, December 3, 2002, Time: 4:00 p.m., Location: Fine Hall 401 | |
| Department Colloquium | ||
| Topic: | $H^{1/2}$ with values into $S^1$ and the Ginzburg-Landau model in 3-d | |
| Presenter: | Haim Brezis, Rutgers University and Paris VI | |
| Date: | Wednesday, December 4, 2002, Time: 4:30 p.m., Location: Fine Hall 314 | |
| Abstract: | Please click here to view abstract | |
| Discrete Mathematics Seminar | ||
| Topic: | TBA | |
| Presenter: | Peter Winkler, Bell Labs | |
| Date: | Thursday, December 5, 2002, Time: 2:15 p.m., Location: Fine Hall 224 | |
| Joint Princeton University/IAS Number Theory Seminar | ||
| Topic: | Shioda-Inose structures of one parameter families of K3 surfaces | |
| Presenter: | Ling Long, IAS | |
| Date: | Thursday, December 5, 2002: Time: 4:30, Location: Fine Hall 322 | |
| Abstract: | Based on a special structure for certain K3 surfaces with large Picard number, the Shioda-Inose structure, we develop an algorithm to solve some arithmetic problems. For example, given a one parameter family of algebraic elliptic K3 surfaces with generic Picard number 19, we can use this algorithm to identify fibers whose groups of global sections (with respect to a fixed fibration) having larger rank. As a further result, we can obtain some identities involving character sums. | |
| Topology Seminar *** Please note change in time | ||
| Topic: | Ending laminations and the classification of hyperbolic 3-manifolds | |
| Presenter: | Yair Minsky, SUNY at Stonybrook | |
| Date: | Thursday, December 5, 2002: Time: 4:30 p.m., Location: Fine Hall 314 | |
| Geometric Analysis Seminar | ||
| Topic: | TBA | |
| Presenter: | Andrea Malchiodi, IAS | |
| Date: | Friday, December 6, 2002, Time: 3:00 p.m., Location: Fine Hall 314 | |
| Week of December 9 - December 13, 2002 | ||
| Analysis Seminar | ||
| Topic: | TBA | |
| Presenter: | Vincent Moncrief, Yale University | |
| Date: | Monday, December 9, 2002, Time: 4:00 p.m., Location: Fine Hall 314 | |
| Algebraic Geometry Seminar | ||
| Topic: | Jets, arcs and minimal log discrepancies | |
| Presenter: | Mircea Mustata, Clay and Harvard University | |
| Date: | Tuesday, December 10, 2002, Time: 4:30 p.m., Location: Fine Hall 322 | |
| Department Colloquium | ||
| Topic: | Gauge Symmetry Breaking | |
| Presenter: | Ed Witten, Institute for Advanced Study | |
| Date: | Wednesday, December 11, 2002, Time: 4:30 p.m., Location: Fine Hall 314 | |
| Abstract: | I will describe the gauge symmetry breaking that is observed in superconductors and has an analog in four-manifold theory, and the gauge symmetry breaking in elementary particle physics that physicists are still aiming to understand more fully. | |
| Discrete Mathematics Seminar | ||
| Topic: | A generalisation of a conjecture of Erdos and Rothschild | |
| Presenter: | Peter Keevash, Princeton University | |
| Date: | Thursday, December 12, 2002, Time: 2:15 p.m., Location: Fine Hall 224 | |
| Abstract: | Please click here to view abstract | |
| Joint Princeton University/IAS Number Theory Seminar | ||
| Topic: | TBA | |
| Presenter: | Yuval Flicker, Ohio State University | |
| Date: | Thursday, December 12, 2002: Time: 4:30, Location: Fine Hall 322 | |
| Topology Seminar *** Please note change in time | ||
| Topic: | Negative curvature and exotic smooth surfaces | |
| Presenter: | Tom Farrell, State University of New York at Binghamton | |
| Date: | Thursday, December 12, 2002: Time: 4:30p.m., Location: Fine Hall 314 | |