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Now showing 1 - 10 of 14
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    Domino tilings of the Aztec diamond
    (Oberwolfach : Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach gGmbH, 2015) Rué, Juanjo
    Imagine you have a cutout from a piece of squared paper and a pile of dominoes, each of which can cover exactly two squares of the squared paper. How many different ways are there to cover the entire paper cutout with dominoes? One specific paper cutout can be mathematically described as the so-called Aztec Diamond, and a way to cover it with dominoes is a domino tiling. In this snapshot we revisit some of the seminal combinatorial ideas used to enumerate the number of domino tilings of the Aztec Diamond. The existing connection with the study of the so-called alternating-sign matrices is also explored.
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    Computing with symmetries
    (Oberwolfach : Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach gGmbH, 2018) Roney-Dougal, Colva M.
    Group theory is the study of symmetry, and has many applications both within and outside mathematics. In this snapshot, we give a brief introduction to symmetries, and how to compute with them.
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    Snake graphs, perfect matchings and continued fractions
    (Oberwolfach : Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach gGmbH, 2019) Schiffler, Ralf
    A continued fraction is a way of representing a real number by a sequence of integers. We present a new way to think about these continued fractions using snake graphs, which are sequences of squares in the plane. You start with one square, add another to the right or to the top, then another to the right or the top of the previous one, and so on. Each continued fraction corresponds to a snake graph and vice versa, via “perfect matchings” of the snake graph. We explain what this means and why a mathematician would call this a combinatorial realization of continued fractions.
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    Friezes and tilings
    (Oberwolfach : Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach gGmbH, 2015) Holm, Thorsten
    Friezes have occured as architectural ornaments for many centuries. In this snapshot, we consider the mathematical analogue of friezes as introduced in the 1970s by Conway and Coxeter. Recently, infinite versions of such friezes have appeared in current research. We are going to describe them and explain how they can be classified using some nice geometric pictures.
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    Das Problem der Kugelpackung
    (Oberwolfach : Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach gGmbH, 2016) Dostert, Maria; Krupp, Stefan; Rolfes, Jan Hendrik
    Wie würdest du Tennisbälle oder Orangen stapeln? Oder allgemeiner formuliert: Wie dicht lassen sich identische 3-dimensionale Objekte überschneidungsfrei anordnen? Das Problem, welches auch Anwendungen in der digitalen Kommunikation hat, hört sich einfach an, ist jedoch für Kugeln in höheren Dimensionen noch immer ungelöst. Sogar die Berechnung guter Näherungslösungen ist für die meisten Dimensionen schwierig.
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    On Logic, Choices and Games
    (Oberwolfach : Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach gGmbH, 2019) Oliva, Paulo
    Can we always mathematically formalise our taste and preferences? We discuss how this has been done historically in the field of game theory, and how recent ideas from logic and computer science have brought an interesting twist to this beautiful theory.
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    Aperiodic Order and Spectral Properties
    (Oberwolfach : Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach gGmbH, 2017) Baake, Michael; Damanik, David; Grimm, Uwe
    Periodic structures like a typical tiled kitchen floor or the arrangement of carbon atoms in a diamond crystal certainly possess a high degree of order. But what is order without periodicity? In this snapshot, we are going to explore highly ordered structures that are substantially nonperiodic, or aperiodic. As we construct such structures, we will discover surprising connections to various branches of mathematics, materials science, and physics. Let us catch a glimpse into the inherent beauty of aperiodic order!
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    Limits of graph sequences
    (Oberwolfach : Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach gGmbH, 2019) Klimošová, Tereza
    Graphs are simple mathematical structures used to model a wide variety of real-life objects. With the rise of computers, the size of the graphs used for these models has grown enormously. The need to efficiently represent and study properties of extremely large graphs led to the development of the theory of graph limits.
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    Winkeltreue zahlt sich aus
    (Oberwolfach : Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach gGmbH, 2017) Günther, Felix
    Nicht nur Seefahrerinnen, auch Computergrafikerinnen und Physikerinnen wissen Winkeltreue zu schätzen. Doch beschränkte Rechenkapazitäten und Vereinfachungen in theoretischen Modellen erfordern es, winkeltreue Abbildungen nur mit einer überschaubaren Datenmenge zu beschreiben. Entsprechende Theorien werden in der diskreten Mathematik untersucht. Im Folgenden lade ich Sie auf eine Reise in die faszinierende Welt der winkeltreuen Abbildungen ein.
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    Tropical geometry
    (Oberwolfach : Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach gGmbH, 2018) Brugallé, Erwan; Itenberg, Ilia; Shaw, Kristin; Viro, Oleg
    What kind of strange spaces hide behind the enigmatic name of tropical geometry? In the tropics, just as in other geometries, one of the simplest objects is a line. Therefore, we begin our exploration by considering tropical lines. Afterwards, we take a look at tropical arithmetic and algebra, and describe how to define tropical curves using tropical polynomials.