Thu, 01 Oct 2015
17:00 -
18:00
L1
Dancing Vortices
Étienne Ghys
(Ecole Normale Superieure, Lyons)
Abstract
Oxford Mathematics Public Lectures
This lecture has now sold out
There will be a special public lecture at 5pm on October 1 in the Andrew Wiles Building at Oxford University, during the week of the Clay Mathematics Institute’s annual Research Conference. The lecture will be given in English by the French Mathematician Étienne Ghys and will be designed for A-level students (and above). After the lecture, Professor Ghys will be presented with the first Clay Award for the Dissemination of Mathematical Knowledge.
Abstract
Nineteenth century observations of the behaviour of smoke rings and fluid vortices inspired an ingenious but misconceived model of the atom, a flawed proposal that nonetheless gave birth to the modern theory of knots. The chain of ideas has now come full circle with recent theoretical and experimental results on the existence of knotted vortices.
Clay Award for Dissemination