Speaker
Hans Fogedby
(Aarhus University)
Description
The most exciting concepts in theoretical physics are those
that relate algebraic properties to geometrical ones. Of
course, the outstanding example of this is the geometric
meaning of the equations of general relativity, and their
realization in the shapes of possible universes and in black
holes. Other examples abound including the patterns of the
paths of Brownian motion, the forms of percolating clusters,
the shapes of snowflakes and the phase boundaries, and the
beautiful fingers of interpenetrating fluids and of dendrites.
An approach called Schramm-Loewner evolution (SLE) provides
a new method for dealing with a wide variety of
scale-invariant problems in two dimensions. This approach is
based upon an older method called Loewner Evolution (LE),
which connects analytical and geometrical constructions in
the complex plane.
