Mathematics Colloquium: Lionel Levine (MIT)

  • Date: 01/13/2011
Lecturer(s):

Lionel Levine (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

 

Location: 

University of British Columbia

Topic: 

Growth rates and explosions in sandpiles

Description: 

How do simple local interactions combine to produce complex large-scale structure and patterns? The abelian sandpile model provides a beautiful test case. I'll discuss a pair of conjectures about the scale invariance and dimensional reduction of the patterns formed. A new perspective on sandpiles views them as free boundary problems for the discrete Laplacian with an extra integrality condition. Joint work with Anne Fey and Yuval Peres.

Schedule: 

1:00pm-2:00pm, WMAX 110

Sponsor: 

pims