Multivariable Complex Dynamics (09w5060)

Organizers

Eric Bedford (Stony Brook University)

Jeffrey Diller (University of Notre Dame)

Description

The Banff International Research Station will host the "Multivariable Complex Dynamics” workshop next week, March 1 - March 6, 2009.

Dynamical systems concerns itself with making predictions about the distant future in situations governed by definite but often quite complicated mathematical rules. The solar system, the weather, and the stock market are all things modeled mathematically as dynamical systems. In all these examples, one finds that small gaps in knowledge make precise predictions about the future practically impossible. Nevertheless, dynamical systems provides tools for describing the future in probabilistic terms, forecasting broad trends rather than specific occurrences.

Our workshop in multivariable complex dynamics takes up this theme for a class of systems known as "meromorphic mappings." These are mathematically much easier to analyze than things like the weather, but they arise naturally in computer algorithms and in various physical models. Furthermore, recent progress in understanding meromorphic dynamics has revealed beautiful connections with algebra, geometry, and number theory, enriching our perspective on a large range of mathematics beyond dynamical systems.


The Banff International Research Station for Mathematical Innovation and Discovery (BIRS) is a collaborative Canada-US-Mexico venture that provides an environment for creative interaction as well as the exchange of ideas, knowledge, and methods within the Mathematical Sciences, with related disciplines and with industry. The research station is located at The Banff Centre in Alberta and is supported by Canada's Natural Science and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), the US National Science Foundation (NSF), Alberta's Advanced Education and Technology, and Mexico's Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnologí­a (CONACYT).