Browsing 2016 by Title
Now showing items 5-15 of 15
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On the containment problem
[SNAP-2016-003-EN] (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] (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] (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] (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 ... -
Profinite groups
[SNAP-2016-014-EN] (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, ... -
Random sampling of domino and lozenge tilings
[SNAP-2016-002-EN] (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 ... -
Swarming robots
[SNAP-2016-001-EN] (Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach, 2016)When lots of robots come together to form shapes, spread in an area, or move in one direction, their motion has to be planned carefully. We discuss how mathematicians devise strategies to help swarms of robots behave like ... -
Symmetry and characters of finite groups
[SNAP-2016-005-EN] (Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach, 2016)Over the last two centuries mathematicians have developed an elegant abstract framework to study the natural idea of symmetry. The aim of this snapshot is to gently guide the interested reader through these ideas. In ... -
Towards a Mathematical Theory of Turbulence in Fluids
[SNAP-2016-015-EN] (Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach, 2016)Fluid mechanics is the theory of how liquids and gases move around. For the most part, the basic physics are well understood and the mathematical models look relatively simple. Despite this, fluids display a dazzling mystery ... -
Wie steuert man einen Kran?
[SNAP-2016-007-DE] (Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach, 2016)Die Steuerung einer Last an einem Kran ist ein technisch und mathematisch schwieriges Problem, da die Bewegung der Last nur indirekt beeinflusst werden kann. Anhand eines Masse-Feder-Systems illustrieren wir diese ... -
The Willmore Conjecture
[SNAP-2016-011-EN] (Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach, 2016)The Willmore problem studies which torus has the least amount of bending energy. We explain how to think of a torus as a donut-shaped surface and how the intuitive notion of bending has been studied by mathematics over time.