MOYAL MEDALLIST AND LECTURE 2007
The 2007 Moyal Medallist is
Professor Peter Drummond, Department of Physics at the University of Queensland.
Prof. Drummond will deliver the 2007 Moyal Lecture:
on Friday 9 November 2007 at 7:00pm
@ Macquarie University: E7B-100 Lecture Theatre
How to get thereFrom quantum fields to ecosystems: dynamics on extended phase-spaces
Abstract:
The idea of representing quantum states on a classical phase-space was developed by Wigner, Moyal, and later by 2005 Nobel Laureate Roy Glauber. These approaches showed that certain quantum states could be mapped onto a classical phase space. To handle the exotic quantum states in current physics, it is necessary to extend these approaches to a non-classical phase space. This method scales linearly with the number of modes, rather than exponentially. It therefore gives rise to viable computer simulations on existing digital computers, thus complementing quantum computer developments. There are novel mathematical ideas here: stochastic gauges, or equivalence classes of weighted stochastic processes. These new methods have much wider applications as well, including ecosystem dynamics, extinction rates, and statistics of viral genetics.
Professor Drummond is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, the Australian Institute of Physics and the American Physical Society. He was awarded the Massey Medal of AIP/IOP in 2004.
This talk should be accessible to honours and graduate students in mathematics,
physics and statistics.
There will be time for questions and discussion after the lecture.
For more information, please contact Maths Dept Administrator Christine Hale (chale@ics.mq.edu.au).
John Corbett
Chair of the Moyal Medal Committee