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Monday, April 23, 2007
3:00 PM - 4:00 PM
CNLS Conference Room (TA-3, Bldg 1690)

Colloquium

Should physicists in finite dimensions care about computer science?

Alan Middleton
University of Syracuse

Disordered materials, including spin glasses and interfaces in porous media, have extremely slow dynamics and complex metastable states. To start to understand the slow dynamics, fractal structures, and memory effects in these systems, one can study the low free energy states computationally. Adapting algorithms from computer science, one can study subtle questions about the spatial structure and thermodynamic limit. In turn, scaling pictures of these disordered materials can be used to understand the dynamics of algorithms and suggest new methods for optimization.

Host: Matthew Hastings (T-13, LANL)