Distinguished Lecture Series

Professor Thomas Spencer

Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton

will give a series of lectures on

Statistical Mechanics, Phase Transitions and Random Matrices

Topic: Condensed Matter & Materials Physics

This lecture series will describe some mathematical results and conjectures about a variety models in statistical mechanics. These models include classical models such as the Ising model and the dipole gas as well as supersymmetric models which arise in the study of disordered quantum systems. Symmetry and nonlinear transformations will be used to analyze fluctuations of the spin and field configurations. Simple supersymmetric models will be shown to be related to history dependent walks. Professor Tom Spencer is one of the leading mathematical physicists. For his work he was awarded the Dannie Heineman Prize for Mathematical Physics. He is one the best speakers and is known for his ability to explain abstract mathematical ideas to other scientists.

Program of Lectures

Type Title Date Time Location Presentation
Theor./Math. Physics Seminar Central Limit theorems for Random Surfaces 16-Feb-2010 11:30
Colloquium Classical models of Quantum localization 11-Mar-2010 14:30 Lidow Rosen Auditorium (323) PDF File of: Classical models of Quantum localization
Theor./Math. Physics Seminar A Phase transition for a supersymmetric hyperbolic sigma model 14-Mar-2010 14:30 Lewiner Seminar Room (412)
Colloquium Central Limit theorems for Statistical Mechanics 15-Mar-2010 14:30