• Formation Control and Rigidity Theory 

      [SNAP-2019-017-EN] Zelazo, Daniel; Zhao, Shiyu (Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach, 2019-12-11)
      Formation control is one of the fundamental coordination tasks for teams of autonomous vehicles. Autonomous formations are used in applications ranging from search-and-rescue operations to deep space exploration, with ...
    • The Interaction of Curvature and Topology 

      [SNAP-2019-020-EN] Kordaß, Jan-Bernhard (Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach, 2019-12-18)
      In this snapshot we will outline the mathematical notion of curvature by means of comparison geometry. We will then try to address questions as the ways in which curvature might influence the topology of a space, and ...
    • Is it possible to predict the far future before the near future is known accurately? 

      [SNAP-2019-021-EN] Gander, Martin J. (Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach, 2019-12-18)
      It has always been the dream of mankind to predict the future. If the future is governed by laws of physics, like in the case of the weather, one can try to make a model, solve the associated equations, and thus predict ...
    • Limits of graph sequences 

      [SNAP-2019-010-EN] Klimošová, Tereza (Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach, 2019-09-04)
      Graphs are simple mathematical structures used to model a wide variety of real-life objects. With the rise of computers, the size of the graphs used for these models has grown enormously. The need to efficiently represent ...
    • The Mathematics of Fluids and Solids 

      [SNAP-2019-019-EN] Kaltenbacher, Barbara; Kukavica, Igor; Lasiecka, Irena; Triggiani, Roberto; Tuffaha, Amjad; Webster, Justin (Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach, 2019-12-18)
      Fluid-structure interaction is a rich and active field of mathematics that studies the interaction between fluids and solid objects. In this short article, we give a glimpse into this exciting field, as well as a ...
    • Mixed-dimensional models for real-world applications 

      [SNAP-2019-014-EN] Nordbotten, Jan Martin (Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach, 2019-11-21)
      We explore mathematical models for physical problems in which it is necessary to simultaneously consider equations in different dimensions; these are called mixed-dimensional models. We first give several examples, and ...
    • Nonlinear Acoustics 

      [SNAP-2019-008-EN] Kaltenbacher, Barbara; Brunnhuber, Rainer (Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach, 2019-09-04)
      Nonlinear acoustics has been a topic of research for more than 250 years. Driven by a wide range and a large number of highly relevant industrial and medical applications, this area has expanded enormously in the last ...
    • On Logic, Choices and Games 

      [SNAP-2019-009-EN] Oliva, Paulo (Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach, 2019-09-04)
      Can we always mathematically formalise our taste and preferences? We discuss how this has been done historically in the field of game theory, and how recent ideas from logic and computer science have brought an interesting ...
    • 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 ...
    • Positive Scalar Curvature and Applications 

      [SNAP-2019-004-EN] Rosenberg, Jonathan; Wraith, David (Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach, 2019-04-25)
      We introduce the idea of curvature, including how it developed historically, and focus on the scalar curvature of a manifold. A major current research topic involves understanding positive scalar curvature. We discuss why ...
    • Random permutations 

      [SNAP-2019-007-EN] Betz, Volker (Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach, 2019-07-12)
      100 people leave their hats at the door at a party and pick up a completely random hat when they leave. How likely is it that at least one of them will get back their own hat? If the hats carry name tags, how difficult ...
    • 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 ...
    • A surprising connection between quantum mechanics and shallow water waves 

      [SNAP-2019-018-EN] Fillman, Jake; VandenBoom, Tom (Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach, 2019-12-11)
      We describe a connection between quantum mechanics and nonlinear wave equations and highlight a few problems at the forefront of modern research in the intersection of these areas.
    • Touching the transcendentals: tractional motion from the bir th of calculus to future perspectives 

      [SNAP-2019-013-EN] Milici, Pietro (Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach, 2019-11-21)
      When the rigorous foundation of calculus was developed, it marked an epochal change in the approach of mathematicians to geometry. Tools from geometry had been one of the foundations of mathematics until the 17th century ...