SMS scnews item created by Martin Wechselberger at Thu 4 Oct 2007 1505
Type: Seminar
Distribution: World
Expiry: 10 Oct 2007
Calendar1: 10 Oct 2007 1405-1455
CalLoc1: Eastern Avenue Lecture Theatre
Auth: wm@p6283.pc.maths.usyd.edu.au

Applied Maths Seminar: Dooley -- Dynamical systems: theory and practice

Dynamical systems based on transformations of measure spaces were a natural mathematical
abstraction from statistical mechanics in the early years of last century.  The theory
was developed by Kolmogorov and Sinai, and Shannon applied it to information theory.
The notion of entropy is key in understanding how chaotic these systems are.  

I shall give a survey of the theory of entropy and some recent results on structure of
dynamical systems and entropy for non-singular systems.  Some of this has applications
to new areas, and I have talked to DSTO about modelling battlefields using it.