One foundational pillar of low dimensional topology is the connection between link invariants and 3-manifold invariants. One generalization of this has been given by Reshetikhin and Turaev to a surgery theory for colored ribbon graphs. Then to complete the analogy rather than 3-manifold invariants we now have a 2+1 dimensional topology quantum field theory (TQFT). […]
Candidate for Assistant Professor in Mathematics Howard Levinson, University of Michigan Seeing Clearly Through a Microscope The goal of microscope imaging is to obtain high-resolution images of cells. However, due to the underlying physics involved, the resulting images are often blurred. In this talk, I will develop the mathematical framework to describe this blurring, which […]
One very important concept in understanding a dynamical system is coherent structure. Such structure segments the domain into different regions with similar behavior according to a quantity. When we try to partition space-time into regions according to a Lagrangian quantity advected along with passive tracers, such class of coherent structure is called the Lagrangian coherent […]
TOPIC: Graph Theory, Part II On the surface, graphs seem to be some of the simplest objects you might encounter in mathematics. After all, they are made up of just […]
I will present mathematical and computational methods used to model interactions between a viscous fluid and elastic structures in biological processes. For example, microfluidic devices carry very small volumes of […]
Chebotarev's theorem on roots of unity says that every minor of a discrete Fourier transform matrix of prime order is nonzero. We present a generalization of this result that includes […]
Abstract: Growing up, I always loved learning about world-changing scientific breakthroughs that were discovered by accident. Penicillin, artificial sweeteners, X-rays, and synthetic dyes are just a few of the discoveries that were stumbled upon by scientists who had other goals in mind. More recently, I have come to wonder why anecdotes about accidental discoveries in […]
For two genus $g$ handlebody-knots $H_{1}$ and $H_{2}$, we denote $H_{1} \geq H_{2}$ if there exists an epimorphism from the fundamental group of the handlebody-knot complement of $H_{1}$ onto the […]
We study the problems of clustering covariance stationary ergodic processes and locally asymptotically self-similar stochastic processes, when the true number of clusters is priorly known. A new covariance-based dissimilarity measure is introduced, […]
In 1897, Indiana physician Edwin J. Goodwin believed he had discovered a way to square the circle, and proposed a bill to Indiana Representative Taylor I. Record which would secure […]
A lot of the mathematics done at NIST supports the research on and measurement of advanced materials and technology. In this rather applied context. surprising mathematics makes an appearance. We […]
I will talk about a few graph-theoretic metrics then introduce the concept of refinements on a class of functions that include all metrics. As a case study, we will construct various […]
