CRM: Centro De Giorgi
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Differential Geometry and Parametrization of 3D Knots

28 June 2011 - 29 June 2011

This event is part of an intensive research period:
Knots and Applications.

Aims

There has been much progress understanding the geometry of "physical" knots in the two decades since Lou Kauffman poetically described the essence of this topic:

“Unlike the classical machine that is composed of well-defined parts that interact according to well-understood rules (gears and cogs), the sliding interaction of two ropes under tension is extraordinary and interactive, with tension, topology, and the system providing the form which finally results.” (Knots and Physics, 1992).

Not only do ropes serve as the basic physical inspiration for natural geometric problems for knots and links, but so do bands, ribbons, fluids and other elastic or electromagnetic materials. This workshop will explore the recent progress in and prospects for this field.

This event is part of the 3-month intensive research period program on “Knots and Applications”, that takes place at the Centro di Ricerca Matematica "Ennio De Giorgi" of the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, Italy, and that is organised in collaboration with INdAM.

Invited Speakers

Ryan Budney, U. Victoria, Canada
Jason Cantarella*, U. Georgia, USA
Yuanan Diao, U. North Carolina at Charlotte, USA
Joseph Fu, U. Georgia, USA
Robert Kusner, U. Massachusetts at Amherst, USA
Joel Langer, Case Western U., USA
Jun O’Hara*, Tokyo Metropolitan U., Japan
Pawel Strzelecki, Warsaw U., Poland
John Sullivan, Technical U. Berlin, Germany
Heiko von der Mosel, RWTH Aachen U., Germany

* To be confirmed

Registration

All prospective participants and attendees are kindly requested to register here before 23 June, 2011.

Participants willing to contribute with a talk are encouraged to submit title and abstract to Robert Kusner at profkusner@gmail.com and to Renzo L. Ricca at renzo.ricca@unimib.it . The local expenses of speakers will be covered by the organization. Young participants can apply for financial support, even if they are not submitting a talk.

Financial Support

Prospective participants should seek grant/university support towards travel expenses from local sources. Limited funding towards participant local expenses may be provided by CRM and INdAM upon application.

Request of Financial Support

Qualified junior participants and prospective attendees are invited to submit their request of financial support towards local expenses by sending their CV and list of publications to Robert Kusner at profkusner@gmail.com and to Renzo L. Ricca at renzo.ricca@unimib.it, before 13 April, 2011.

Poster

Publicize this Event: Please notify this event in your Department/Research Unit by downloading and posting the attached poster; please click here to download it.

Location

All lectures, oral contributions and posters will be held in the lecture room Aula Dini (via del Castelletto 11 Pisa) that is at only 2 minutes walk from Centro De Giorgi.

Practical information

How to Get There: From outside Pisa to CRM, read the instructions here

Shopping times and holidays

Typical shopping times are 8:30-12:30 and 15:30-19:30.

National holidays: 1 May, 2 June, 17 June