• How to choose a winner: the mathematics of social choice 

      [SNAP-2015-009-EN] Powers, Victoria Ann (Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach, 2015)
      Suppose a group of individuals wish to choose among several options, for example electing one of several candidates to a political office or choosing the best contestant in a skating competition. The group might ask: what ...
    • The mathematics of aquatic locomotion 

      [SNAP-2018-008-EN] Tucsnak, Marius (Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach, 2018-06-19)
      Aquatic locomotion is a self-propelled motion through a liquid medium. It can be of biological nature (fish, microorganisms,. . .) or performed by robotic swimmers. This snapshot aims to introduce the reader to some ...
    • Mathematics plays a key role in scientific computing 

      [SNAP-2017-011-EN] Shu, Chi-Wang (Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach, 2017-12-29)
      I attended a very interesting workshop at the research center MFO in Oberwolfach on “Recent Developments in the Numerics of Nonlinear Hyperbolic Conservation Laws”. The title sounds a bit technical, but in plain language ...
    • Mathematische Modellierung von Krebswachstum 

      [SNAP-2017-004-DE] Engwer, Christian; Knappitsch, Markus (Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach, 2017-10-17)
      Krebs ist eine der größten Herausforderungen der modernen Medizin. Der WHO zufolge starben 2012 weltweit 8,2 Millionen Menschen an Krebs. Bis heute sind dessen molekulare Mechanismen nur in Teilen verstanden, was eine ...
    • Mixed volumes and mixed integrals 

      [SNAP-2018-014-EN] Rotem, Liran (Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach, 2018-12-29)
      In recent years, mathematicians have developed new approaches to study convex sets: instead of considering convex sets themselves, they explore certain functions or measures that are related to them. Problems from ...
    • Molecular Quantum Dynamics 

      [SNAP-2017-006-EN] Hagedorn, George A.; Lasser, Caroline (Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach, 2017-10-24)
      We provide a brief introduction to some basic ideas of Molecular Quantum Dynamics. We discuss the scope, strengths and main applications of this field of science. Finally, we also mention open problems of current ...
    • News on quadratic polynomials 

      [SNAP-2017-002-EN] Pottmeyer, Lukas (Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach, 2017-07-18)
      Many problems in mathematics have remained unsolved because of missing links between mathematical disciplines, such as algebra, geometry, analysis, or number theory. Here we introduce a recently discovered result concerning ...
    • Number theory in quantum computing 

      [SNAP-2018-012-EN] Schönnenbeck, Sebastian (Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach, 2018-08-07)
      Algorithms are mathematical procedures developed to solve a problem. When encoded on a computer, algorithms must be "translated" to a series of simple steps, each of which the computer knows how to do. This task is ...
    • On radial basis functions 

      [SNAP-2019-002-EN] Buhmann, Martin; Jäger, Janin (Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach, 2019-03-13)
      Many sciences and other areas of research and applications from engineering to economics require the approximation of functions that depend on many variables. This can be for a variety of reasons. Sometimes we have a ...
    • On the containment problem 

      [SNAP-2016-003-EN] Szemberg, Tomasz; Szpond, Justyna (Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach, 2016)
      Mathematicians routinely speak two languages: the language of geometry and the language of algebra. When translating between these languages, curves and lines become sets of polynomials called “ideals”. Often there are ...
    • Polyhedra and commensurability 

      [SNAP-2016-009-EN] Guglielmetti, Rafael; Jacquement, Matthieu (Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach, 2016)
      This snapshot introduces the notion of commensurability of polyhedra. At its bottom, this concept can be developed from constructions with paper, scissors, and glue. Starting with an elementary example, we formalize it ...
    • Prime tuples in function fields 

      [SNAP-2016-010-EN] Bary-Soroker, Lior (Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach, 2016)
      How many prime numbers are there? How are they distributed among other numbers? These are questions that have intrigued mathematicians since ancient times. However, many questions in this area have remained unsolved, and ...
    • Das Problem der Kugelpackung 

      [SNAP-2016-004-DE] Dostert, Maria; Krupp, Stefan; Rolfes, Jan Hendrik (Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach, 2016)
      Wie würdest du Tennisbälle oder Orangen stapeln? Oder allgemeiner formuliert: Wie dicht lassen sich identische 3-dimensionale Objekte überschneidungsfrei anordnen? Das Problem, welches auch Anwendungen in der digitalen ...
    • Le problème ternaire de Goldbach 

      [SNAP-2014-003-FR] Helfgott, Harald (Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach, 2024)
      Leonhard Euler (1707–1783), l’un des plus grands mathématiciens du XVIIIe siècle et de tous les temps, entretenait une correspondance régulière avec l’un de ses amis: Christian Goldbach (1690–1764), un amateur polymathe ...
    • Profinite groups 

      [SNAP-2016-014-EN] Bartholdi, Laurent (Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach, 2016)
      Profinite objects are mathematical constructions used to collect, in a uniform manner, facts about infinitely many finite objects. We shall review recent progress in the theory of profinite groups, due to Nikolov and Segal, ...
    • Prony’s method: an old trick for new problems 

      [SNAP-2018-004-EN] Sauer, Tomas (Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach, 2018-03-06)
      In 1795, French mathematician Gaspard de Prony invented an ingenious trick to solve a recovery problem, aiming at reconstructing functions from their values at given points, which arose from a specific application in ...
    • Random sampling of domino and lozenge tilings 

      [SNAP-2016-002-EN] Fusy, Éric (Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach, 2016)
      A grid region is (roughly speaking) a collection of “elementary cells” (squares, for example, or triangles) in the plane. One can “tile” these grid regions by arranging the cells in pairs. In this snapshot we review different ...
    • A short story on optimal transport and its many applications 

      [SNAP-2018-013-EN] Santambrogio, Filippo (Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach, 2018-08-08)
      We present some examples of optimal transport problems and of applications to different sciences (logistics, economics, image processing, and a little bit of evolution equations) through the crazy story of an industrial ...
    • Snake graphs, perfect matchings and continued fractions 

      [SNAP-2019-001-EN] Schiffler, Ralf (Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach, 2019-02-13)
      A continued fraction is a way of representing a real number by a sequence of integers. We present a new way to think about these continued fractions using snake graphs, which are sequences of squares in the plane. You ...
    • Solving quadratic equations in many variables 

      [SNAP-2017-012-EN] Tignol, Jean-Pierre (Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach, 2017-12-30)
      Fields are number systems in which every linear equation has a solution, such as the set of all rational numbers $\mathbb{Q}$ or the set of all real numbers $\mathbb{R}$. All fields have the same properties in relation ...