MIT: Independent Activities Period: IAP

IAP 2017



Complexity in the Universe

Dr. Tom Chang, Mr. Ryan McKinnon

Jan/13 Fri 01:30PM-02:30PM Marlar Lounge 37-252

Enrollment: Unlimited: No advance sign-up
Prereq: none

Two Talks! 1:30-2:30pm

Complexity and Multifractals in Space and the Universe (Dr. Tom Chang)

This talk comprises a series of descriptive narratives geared toward the general audience. "Dynamical complexity" is a phenomenon observed in interacting many-body systems within which multitudes of different sizes of large scale coherent structures emerge, resulting in stochastic behaviors vastly different from those that could be surmised from the underlying equations of interactions. Everywhere one peers into space and the cosmos, there is complexity with the appearance of intermittent fluctuating events involving the mixing and distribution of correlated structures at all spatial and temporal scales. Read the full abstract

Simulating the Universe on a Supercomputer (Mr. Ryan McKinnon)

Galaxies in the universe form and grow over time in a complicated nonlinear fashion. Recent advances in supercomputing ability make it possible to numerically model the essential physics and evolve a "mock" universe from shortly after the Big Bang to the present day, producing a fairly realistic population of galaxies. In this talk, I will highlight the key topics in physics that govern galaxy formation, display visualizations from state-of-the-art astrophysics simulations, and discuss the supercomputing resources needed to simulate the universe.

Sponsor(s): Kavli Institute for Astrophysics & Space Research
Contact: Debbie Meinbresse, 37-241, 617 253-1456, MEINBRES@MIT.EDU