Conference on Optimal Configurations on the Sphere and Other Manifolds

该奖项为参加Shanks系列会议和讲座的研究生和博士后研究人员提供支持，该系列会议和讲座于2010年5月17日至20日在范德比尔特大学举行。会议鼓励学生、新近获得博士学位的人以及在数学领域未被充分代表的群体成员参加，并为他们提供资金支持。会议的中心是在各种物理约束下相互作用系统的结构，特别强调粒子系统通过对向势相互作用，运动限制在给定维度的单位球。会议的重点是(a)在最小能量问题的渐近性中反映的流形的几何、拓扑和组合性质之间的关系；(b)从第一性原理分析和发展统计力学模型；(c)切片和Voronoi分解；(d)高维球体填料；(e)堵塞和接近最佳配置的结构几何形状；(f)随机多项式零点的渐近性。会议的特色是数论学者诺姆·埃尔基斯（Noam Elkies）的杰出演讲，八位受邀的全体演讲者，其他参与者的演讲特别会议，以及研究生研究的海报会议。会议突出了最近的重大发展，并为与会者提供了一个论坛，在非正式的气氛中会面并共同探讨共同关心的公开问题。会议网址：http://www.math.vanderbilt.edu/~optimal2010/

This award provides support for graduate students and postdoctoral researchers participating in the twenty-fifth meeting in the series of Shanks Conferences and Lectures, held 17-20 May 2010 at Vanderbilt University. The conference encourages and financially supports participation by students, recent Ph.D. recipients, and members of groups underrepresented in mathematics.The conference centers on the structure of interacting systems under various physical constraints, with particular emphasis on systems of particles interacting through a pair-wise potential with motion restricted to the unit sphere of given dimension. The conference focuses on (a) relationships between geometrical, topological, and combinatorial properties of a manifold that are reflected in the asymptotics of minimal energy problems; (b) the analysis and development of statistical mechanical models from first principles; (c) tilings and Voronoi decompositions; (d) high-dimensional sphere packings; (e) the geometry of the structure of jammed and near optimal configurations; and (f) the asymptotics of the zeros of random polynomials. The meeting features a distinguished lecture by number theorist Noam Elkies, eight invited plenary speakers, special sessions for talks by other participants, and a poster session for graduate student research. The conference highlights significant recent developments and provides a forum for the participants to meet and jointly explore open problems of common interest in an informal atmosphere.Conference web site: http://www.math.vanderbilt.edu/~optimal2010/