• 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 ...
    • 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 ...
    • 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 ...
    • 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 ...
    • 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 ...
    • Topological Complexity, Robotics and Social Choice 

      [SNAP-2018-005-EN] Carrasquel, José; Lupton, Gregory; Oprea, John (Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach, 2018-08-10)
      Topological complexity is a number that measures how hard it is to plan motions (for robots, say) in terms of a particular space associated to the kind of motion to be planned. This is a burgeoning subject within the ...
    • Topological recursion 

      [SNAP-2018-002-EN] Sułkowski, Piotr (Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach, 2018-03-05)
      In this snapshot we present the concept of topological recursion – a new, surprisingly powerful formalism at the border of mathematics and physics, which has been actively developed within the last decade. After introducing ...
    • Tropical geometry 

      [SNAP-2018-007-EN] Brugallé, Erwan; Itenberg, Ilia; Shaw, Kristin; Viro, Oleg (Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach, 2018-07-19)
      What kind of strange spaces hide behind the enigmatic name of tropical geometry? In the tropics, just as in other geometries, one of the simplest objects is a line. Therefore, we begin our exploration by considering tropical ...