In this episode we see a research talk presented by Clayton Shonkwiler, a mathematician at Colorado State University, who is speaking to us about applications of geometry and topology to random walks/polygons and polymer physics.

In the talk, Clayton discusses some of the details of his joint work with Jason Cantarella, Bertrand Duplantier and Erica Uehara.  For more details, the interested viewer is directed to his papers: The Symplectic Geometry of Closed Equilateral Random Walks in 3-Space and A Fast Direct Sampling Algorithm for Equilateral Closed Polygons.

This video and paper are aimed at mathematicians, graduate students and undergraduates with some experience with topology.  However, advanced high school students may still enjoy looking at it to see what advanced theorems and proofs look like.

Students, parents, teachers and mathematicians alike will also enjoy visiting Clayton’s website http://shonkwiler.org/, which features stunning mathematical art inspired by the beautiful mathematics that arises in his research and teaching.

If you enjoy what you see, please be sure to Like our Facebook page.

CHANNEL: Geometry and Topology Today
© 2016 Scott Baldridge and David Shea Vela-Vick
Supported by NSF CAREER grant DMS-0748636, NSF grant DMS-1249708, and the NSF-funded VIGRE Student Colloquium Committee at LSU.