Events at Physics |
Events on Tuesday, November 1st, 2016
- Chaos & Complex Systems Seminar
- The mathematics of taffy pulling
- Time: 12:05 pm - 1:00 pm
- Place: 4274 Chamberlin (refreshments will be served)
- Speaker: Jean-Luc Thiffeault, UW Department of Mathematics
- Abstract: Taffy is a type of candy made by repeated 'pulling' (stretching and folding) a mass of heated sugar. The purpose of pulling is to get air bubbles into the taffy, which gives it a nicer texture. Until the late 19th century, taffy was pulled by hand, an arduous task. The early 20th century saw an avalanche of new devices to mechanize the process. These devices have fascinating connections to the topological dynamics of surfaces, in particular with pseudo-Anosov maps, which are a prototypical chaotic system. Special algebraic integers such as the Golden ratio and the lesser-known Silver ratio make an appearance, as well as more exotic numbers. We examine different designs from a mathematical perspective, and discuss their efficiency.
- Host: Clint Sprott
- Council Meeting
- Council meeting
- Time: 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm
- Place: 2314 Chamberlin hall
- Speaker: Albrecht Karle
- Theory Seminar (High Energy/Cosmology)
- Open string moduli and multi-branched potentials
- Time: 3:30 pm
- Place: 5280 Chamberlin
- Speaker: Gianluca Zoccarato, Hong Kong IAS
- Abstract: In this talk we consider type II string compactifications on Calabi-Yau orientifolds with fluxes and D-branes and analyse the F-term scalar potential that simultaneously involves closed and open string modes. We focus on the cases of type IIA orientifolds with D6-branes and type IIB orientifolds with D7-branes. In type IIA models with D6-branes this potential can be directly computed by integrating out Minkowski three-forms showing therefore a multi-branched structure along the space of lifted open string moduli in which discrete shifts of brane moduli are compensated by changes in the RR flux quanta. To obtain the correct form of the scalar potential we find strong constraints on the Kähler potential implying some interesting no-scale relations obeyed by the Kähler metric. Importantly the addition of open string moduli breaks the factorisation between complex structure and Kähler moduli spaces. We conclude by discussing the mirror dual picture of type IIB flux compactifications with D7-brane Wilson lines.
- Host: Gary Shiu