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Annual Lecture Series

and

Special Math Awareness Month Seminar

Date/Time/Room: Friday (04/04/2003) at 2:00pm in 110 Pickard Hall

Speaker: Martin Golubitsky, Department of Mathematics, University of Houston

"Symmetry in Chaos: Patterns on Average"

Abstract: Chaos rides on the back of a philosophical paradox: how can deterministic mathematical models produce random behavior?

There is a similar surprise regarding symmetry: symmetric causes can have asymmetric effects. This paradox is called symmetry-breaking. In recent years researchers have shown that it plays a major role in pattern formation in physical systems.

Finally, the way in which symmetry and chaos co-exist is a third paradox: symmetry suggests order and regularity while chaos suggests disorder and randomness. The combination leads to a striking series of pictures and to a notion of pattern on average.