Seminars and Colloquia by Series

Thin Elastic Materials Under Confinement

Series
Applied and Computational Mathematics Seminar
Time
Monday, September 29, 2008 - 13:00 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 255
Speaker
Silas Alben – School of Mathematics, Georgia Tech
We discuss two problems. First: When a piece of paper is crumpled, sharp folds and creases form. These are distributed over the sheet in a complex yet fascinating pattern. We study experimentally a two-dimensional version of this problem using thin strips of paper confined within rings of shrinking radius. We find a distribution of curvatures which can be fit by a power law. We provide a physical argument for the power law using simple elasticity and geometry. The second problem considers confinement of charged polymers to the surface of a sphere. This is a generalization of the classical Thompson model of the atom and has applications in the confinement of RNA and DNA in viral shells. Using computational results and asymptotics we describe the sequence of configurations of a simple class of charged polymers.

Numerical Simulations with Uncertainty - Prediction and Estimation

Series
Applied and Computational Mathematics Seminar
Time
Monday, September 22, 2008 - 13:00 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 255
Speaker
Dongbin Xiu – Division of Applied Math, Purdue University
There has been growing interest in developing numerical methods for stochastic computations. This is motivated by the need to conduct uncertainty quantification in simulations, where uncertainty is ubiquitous and exists in parameter values, initial and boundary conditions, geometry, etc. In order to obtain simulation results with high fidelity, it is imperative to conduct stochastic computations to incorporate uncertainty from the beginning of the simulations. In this talk we review and discuss a class of fast numerical algorithms based on generalized polynomial chaos (gPC) expansion.The methods are highly efficient, compared to other traditional In addition to the forward stochastic problem solvers, we also discuss gPC-based methods for addressing "modeling uncertainty", i.e., deficiency in mathematical models, and solving inverse problems such as parameter estimation. ones, and suitable for stochastic simulations of complex systems.

Numerical Simulations of Global Approach for Photon Scanning Tunneling Microscopy - Coupling of Finite Element and Boundary Integral Methods

Series
Applied and Computational Mathematics Seminar
Time
Monday, September 15, 2008 - 13:00 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 255
Speaker
Peijun Li – Department of Mathematics, Purdue University
Near-field optics has developed dramatically in recent years due to the possibility of breaking the diffraction limit and obtaining subwavelength resolution. Broadly speaking, near-field optics concerns phenomena involving evanescent electromagnetic waves, to which the super-resolving capability of near-field optics may be attributed. In order to theoretically understand the physical mechanism of this capability, it is desirable to accurately solve the underlying scattering problem in near-field optics. We propose an accurate global model for one of the important experimental modes of near-field optics, photon scanning tunneling microscopy, and develop a coupling of finite element and boundary integral method for its numerical solution. Numerical experiments will be presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method and to show the features of wave propagation in photon scanning tunneling microscope.  The proposed model and developed method have no limitations on optical or geometrical parameters of probe and sample, they can be used for realistic simulations of various near-field microscope configurations.

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