Abstract: This talk is a (leisurely!) introduction to the mathematical theory of random polymers. In the first half of the talk I discuss questions like:
- What is a polymer?
- What types of polymers occur in nature?
- What are the typical size and shape of a polymer?
- What questions may a mathematician ask and hope to answer?
- What is the model setting?
In the second half of the talk I present a number of basic models of random polymers interacting with themselves and/or with their environment, and for each give a brief outline of what is known, unknown and challenging.
Here is a link to the slides of den Hollander’s talk.
Location: room 611 of the Wiskunde building (campus De Uithof) Budapestlaan 6, Utrecht.
Date and time: Thursday, October 15, 2009 15:30-16:30. The lecture is preceded by coffee, tea, and cookies from 15.00 to 15.30 hour in the same room.
Schedule of the Utrecht math colloquium : Next term’s talks, This year's talks. Last year's talks. Guidelines for speakers.
Other math colloquia : TU Delft, Leiden, UvA Amsterdam, VU Amsterdam, Nijmegen.
Organisers : Gil Cavalcanti, Wilberd van der Kallen and Paul Zegeling