- Series
- Research Horizons Seminar
- Time
- Wednesday, October 7, 2009 - 12:00pm for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
- Location
- Skiles 171
- Speaker
- Stavros Garoufalidis – School of Mathematics, Georgia Tech – stavros@math.gatech.edu
- Organizer
- Craig Sloane
In linear algebra classes we learn that a symmetic matrix with
real entries has real eigenvalues. But many times we deal with nonsymmetric
matrices that we want them to have real eigenvalues and be stable under a
small perturbation. In the 1930's totally positive matrices were discovered
in mechanical problems of vibtrations, then lost for over 50 years. They
were rediscovered in the 1990's as esoteric objects in quantum groups and
crystal bases. In the 2000's these matrices appeared in relation to
Teichmuller space and its quantization. I plan to give a high school
introduction to totally positive matrices.