Workshops for Probabilistic Methods in Mathematical Physics

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

This is a proposal for supplementary funding for 4 workshops of the 2008-9 thematic year program of Probabilistic Methods in Mathematical Physics at the CRM (Centre de Recherches Mathematiques), on central topics in mathematical physics which are closely connected to probability theory. The requested funding is to pay the travel and hotel expenses of 10 younger participants at a U.S. university without an NSF grant for each of the four workshops. The workshops are coordinated and some younger participants will be invited to more than one workshop. In total, we are applying for funding to support 40 younger participants. Probablilistic methods have long been central in physics and mathematics, and their significance has only increased in recent years. The development of the Schramm-Loewner evolution and its applications by Lawler, Schramm, Smirnov, Werner and others in statistical mechanics is one important example. Another is the recent work of Okounkov, Nekrasov, Kenyon and others on the use of random partitions to determine partition functions of models in gauge theory. Yet another are applications of random fields by Bousso-Polchinski, Douglas and others to landscape statistics in string/M theory. The time is ripe for a year long review of the probabalistic methods and their applications through a series ofcoordinated workshops and lecture series. Broader Impact. The program is by nature inter-discipinary, and the workshops are designed to bring together mathematicians and physicists working on closely related (or identical problems) but from differing research traditions. The cross-fertilization from this kind of interaction has already had an enormous impact on contemporary mathematics. Many contemporary physicists have in return been highly influenced by the mathematical developments. In addition to the impact on established researchers, the program will bring in many graduate students, post-docs and other young researches and will expose a new generation to this important field.