NITheP - National Institute For Theoretical Physics

WITS Node Seminar:

The National Institute for Theoretical Physics, and the Centre for Theoretical Physics, School of Physics, would like to invite to its coming talk in the theory seminar series, entitled:

"An invitation to sandpiles"

to be presented by Prof. David Perkinson (Reed College, Portland Oregon, USA)

Abstract: The Abelian Sandpile Model (ASM) was created by Dhar in 1990.
It is a generalization of the sandpile model proposed by Bak, Tang, and Wiesenfeld, who claimed the model exhibited a property they called "self-organized criticality." The ASM is connected to a wide range of mathematics: Markov processes and statistical mechanics, combinatorics (tilings, the Tutte polynomial, parking functions, the matrix-tree theorem, hyperplane arrangements), algebraic geometry (lattice ideals), graph analogues to Riemann surfaces, and tropical geometry. This will be a introduction to the subject, highlighting algebraic and combinatorial aspects of the theory.

Date: Tuesday, 14th February 2012
Venue: Frank Nabarro Lecture Theatre P216
Time: 13.20 - 14.10

For more information please contact:

Alan S. Cornell

School of Physics
University of the Witwatersrand
Private Bag 3
Wits 2050
South Africa

Tel.:+27-11-717-6819