Seminars and Colloquia Schedule

Computing transition paths for rare events

Series
Applied and Computational Mathematics Seminar
Time
Monday, August 23, 2010 - 13:00 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 002
Speaker
Maria CameronU Maryland

I will propose two numerical approaches for minimizing the MFF. Approach<br />
I is good for high-dimensional systems and fixed endpoints. It is <br />
based on temperature relaxation strategy and Broyden's method. Approach<br />
II is good for low-dimensional systems and only one fixed endpoint. It<br />
is based on Sethian's Fast Marching Method.I will show the <br />
application of Approaches I and II to the problems of rearrangement of<br />
Lennard-Jones cluster of 38 atoms and of CO escape from the Myoglobin protein<br />
respectively.

At low temperatures, a system evolving according to the overdamped Langevin equation spends most of the time near the potential minima and performs rare transitions between them. A number of methods have been developed to study the most likely transition paths. I will focus on one of them: the MaxFlux Functional (MFF), introduced by Berkowitz in 1983.I will reintepret the MFF from the point of view of the Transition Path Theory (W. E & E. V.-E.) and show that the MaxFlux approximation is equivalent to the Eikonal Approximation of the Backward Kolmogorov Equation for the committor function.

Knots in overtwisted contact structures

Series
Geometry Topology Seminar
Time
Monday, August 23, 2010 - 14:00 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 114
Speaker
John EtnyreGa Tech
The study of Legendrian and transversal knots has been an essential part of contact topology for quite some time now, but until recently their study in overtwisted contact structures has been virtually ignored. In the past few years that has changed. I will review what is know about such knots and discuss recent work on the "geography" and "botany" problem.