Seminar Calendar
for events the day of Wednesday, February 5, 2003.

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Questions regarding events or the calendar should be directed to Tori Corkery.
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Wednesday, February 5, 2003

RAP: Random Planar Curves, Conformal Invariance, and SLE
11:00 am   in 343 Altgeld Hall,  Wednesday, February 5, 2003
 Del Edit Copy
Submitted by rbauer.
 Robert Bauer (UIUC Math)Iterations of conformal maps

Quantum Information Science Seminar
12:00 pm   in 280 MRL,  Wednesday, February 5, 2003
 Del Edit Copy
Submitted by seminar.
 Dr. Jeffrey Guest (University of Michigan)Cold Rydberg atoms - new venues in quantum information, atom trapping, and plasma physicsAbstract: QuISS Seminar, Wednesday, February 5th, Noon, 280 MRL Dr. Guest will be available to meet with faculty all day on Tuesday and Wednesday, February 4th and 5th. Please contact me to set up times to meet with him ASAP. Thank you. The recent convergence of laser-cooling and trapping techniques with traditional Rydberg atom spectroscopy has opened up a new and wide-open frontier with implications in quantum information processing, cold-plasma physics, high-resolution spectroscopy, and the study of novel atomic systems. Utilizing cryogenic atom traps, we have made several forays into these areas. Laser-cooled neutral atoms, with temporary excitation to Rydberg states, have been proposed as a platform for quantum computing. I will discuss our efforts to realize a microscopic 'dipole blockade' in a cold Rydberg atom gas. This (coherent) mechanism may become an important tool in the machinery of neutral-atom quantum information processing and mesoscopic entanglement. I will further discuss the (incoherent) dynamics that occurs due to various types of collisions in cold Rydberg gases and plasmas. We observe electron trapping, l-mixing and n-mixing collisions, and full-scale ionization. I will describe a superconducting atom trap that we have built in order to extend cold-plasma research into the domain of very high magnetic fields. I will explain the physics of exotic, highly magnetized Rydberg states, which - as we believe - will play an important role in strongly magnetized cold plasmas. Finally, I will provide an update on experiments that aim to trap Rydberg atoms in conservative magnetostatic, electrostatic, and ponderomotive potentials. Trapped Rydberg atoms are expected to become a powerful tool in high-precision spectroscopy and fundamental measurements.

String Theory RAP
1:00 pm   in 241 Altgeld Hall,  Wednesday, February 5, 2003
 Del Edit Copy
Submitted by mcortez.
 Gordon Baym (UIUC Physics)Quantum MechanicsAbstract: Information regarding this seminar may be found at: http://www.math.uiuc.edu/~katz/stringrap.html

Topology Seminar
1:00 pm   in Altgeld Hall,  Wednesday, February 5, 2003
 Del Edit Copy
Submitted by cpfrench.
 The classification of p-local finite groups over the extraspecial group of order p^3 and exponent p.Abstract: The concept of p-local finite group arise in the work of Broto-Levi-Oliver as a generalization of the classical concept of finite group. Therefore, the classification of p-local finite groups has interest, not only by itself but, as an opportunity to enlighten one of the highest mathematical achievements in the last decades: The Classification of Finite Simple Groups. In this work we classify all p-local finite group over the p-groups of type p^{1+2}_+. In this classification three new exotic 7-local finite groups arise.

Computational Topology RAP
3:00 pm   in 447 Altgeld Hall,  Wednesday, February 5, 2003
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Submitted by ghrist.
 Robert Ghrist   [email] (UIUC Math)Introduction to homology Abstract: This is meant for people who want to know what homology "looks like" and what it tells you about a space. This forms the first background lecture for material on computational homology to be read later in the semester.

Motivic Cohomology
3:00 pm   in 345 Altgeld,  Wednesday, February 5, 2003
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Submitted by dan.
 David Gepner   [email] (UIUC)Introduction to motivic stable homotopy theory, IIAbstract: We continue to explain what stable homotopy theory in topology is and how it manifests itself in Voevodsky's homotopy theory for smooth varieties. We'll keep the technical prerequisites to a minimum and we welcome interested beginners.

Lie theory
5:00 pm   in 241 Altgeld Hall,  Wednesday, February 5, 2003
 Del Edit Copy
Submitted by dcmurphy.
 David Murphy   [email] (UIUC Math)Introduction to quantum groupsAbstract: We begin with the definition of "quantum group" and proceed from there to demonstrate several of their basic properties and behavior upon specialization. Time permitting; we may also discuss representations of quantum groups.