| WORKSHOP ON TOPOLOGY: IDENTIFYING ORDER IN COMPLEX SYSTEMS | |
| Topic: | Configuration Spaces of Hard Disks |
| Speaker: | Matthew Kahle |
| Affiliation: | Member, School of Mathemtics, IAS |
| Date: | Wednesday, October 6 |
| Time/Room: | 4:30pm - 5:30pm/Rutgers HIll Center, Piscataway |
The space of all positions of n disks of radius r in a bounded region has long been studied from the points of view of statistical mechanics and probability. A phase transition is known to occur from simulations, but this is still mysterious to mathematicians. A problem suggested by Persi Diaconis is to study these spaces topologically. In this talk I will report on recent progress on this problem. This will include joint work with Yuliy Baryshnikov, Peter Bubenik, Gunnar Carlsson, and Jackson Gorham