Schedule of Talks for the 2009-2010 Academic Year
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Date: |
Wednesday, October 7, 2009 |
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Speaker: |
Prof. Daniel E. Otero
Department of Mathematics
Xavier University
Email: oetro at xavier dot edu
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Title: |
Determining the determinant
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Abstract: |
Nearly every undergraduate student of mathematics learns how to solve linear systems with the help of determinants, so it may come as a surprise that the history of the development of the determinant is not better known than it is. In fact, there may be a good reason for this: befitting the complexity of the idea, its history is also quite complicated. The story of its genesis and evolution involves the interplay of a number of different problems, perspectives and approaches, and contributions were made by dozens of people over centuries. We plan to survey a key period of this history, from the time of Leibniz at the end of the 17th century, up to the watershed day of November 30, 1812, when Binet and Cauchy both presented papers on the determinant at the same meeting in Paris.
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Date: |
Wednesday, November 18, 2009 |
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Speaker: |
Prof. Ethan Coven
Department of Mathematics
Wesleyan University
Email: ecoven at wesleyan dot edu
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Title: |
The origins of modern symbolic dynamics
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Abstract: |
For the purposes of this talk, symbolic dynamics is the study of the iterates, under composition, of the shift transformation on compact spaces of sequences with entries from a finite alphabet.
It is generally believed that symbolic dynamics as defined above started with the seminal papers of Morse and Hedlund (Symbolic Dynamics and Symbolic Dynamics II, Amer. J. Math., 1938 and 1940). However, these papers show very little in common with present-day symbolic dynamics. On the other hand, Hedlund's 1944 Amer. J. Math. paper, Sturmian Minimal Sets, could have been written yesterday. I will trace the change to a 1941 letter from Hedlund to Morse.
Much of what I will say, including the Hedlund to Morse letter, appears in Coven and Nitecki, On the genesis of symbolic dynamics as we know it, Colloq. Math. 110 (2008), 227-242.
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Date: |
February 2010 |
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Speaker: |
Prof. Karen Parshall
Departments of Mathematics and History
University of Virginia
Email: khp3k at virginia dot edu
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Title: |
TBA
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Abstract: |
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Date: |
Wednesday, March 3, 2010 |
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Speaker: |
Prof. Erik Tou
Department of Mathematics
Carthage College
Email: etou at carthage dot edu
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Title: |
TBA
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Abstract: |
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Date: |
Wednesday, April 7, 2010 |
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Speaker: |
John Clagett
Architect
New Jersey
Email: clagett1 at verizon dot net
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Title: |
TBA
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Abstract: |
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Date: |
Wednesday, May 5, 2010 |
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Speaker: |
Prof. Janet Barnett
Department of Mathematics
Colorado State University - Pueblo
Email: janet.barnett at colostate-pueblo dot edu
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Title:
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TBA
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Abstract: |
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