From - Mon Mar 3 22:36:09 1997 Path: Radon.Stanford.EDU!news.Stanford.EDU!su-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.bbnplanet.com!newsxfer3.itd.umich.edu!newsxfer.itd.umich.edu!uunet!in1.uu.net!128.6.21.17!dziuxsolim.rutgers.edu!usenet From: Barbara Quigley Newsgroups: comp.theory Subject: DIMACS Workshop on Statistical Physics Methods in Discrete Probability, Combinatorics and Theoretical Computer Science , March 23-27, 1997 Date: Thu, 27 Feb 1997 14:49:14 -0500 Organization: Rutgers University Lines: 72 Distribution: inet Message-ID: <3315E53A.3861@dimacs.rutgers.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: iyar.rutgers.edu Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; name="Statistical-text" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-poster: bquigley@dimacs X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.0 (X11; I; SunOS 5.5 sun4m) Content-Disposition: inline; filename="Statistical-text" -------------------------------------------------------------------------- | DIMACS: Center for Discrete Mathematics & Theoretical Computer Science | | A National Science Foundation Science and Technology Center | -------------------------------------------------------------------------- DIMACS 1996-97 Focus on Discrete Probability Workshop on Statistical Physics Methods in Discrete Probability, Combinatorics and Theoretical Computer Science March 23-27, 1997 March 23-24, 1997 at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ March 25-27, 1997 at DIMACS, CoRE Building, Rutgers University Organizers: Jennifer T. Chayes and Dana Randall Email: jchayes@math.ucla.edu and randall@math.gatech.edu During the past decade, there have been tremendous advances in the study of discrete probabilistic systems, notably percolation, using methods and intuition from statistical physics. Recently these methods have also begun to find surprising applications in combinatorics and theoretical computer science. It has been realized that many fundamental problems in these fields can be mapped into statistical physics problems. Various properties of these physical models, such as phase transitions, then have important implications explaining the behavior of the original systems. This workshop will focus on new developments and directions at the interface between statistical physics and the fields of discrete probability, combinatorics, information theory and theoretical computer science. The workshop will bring together both established and young researchers in the various fields with the intention of developing a common language and recognizing parallels among the fundamental problems being addressed by these researchers. Among the topics to be discussed are: --critical percolation - finite-size scaling and conformal invariance --Potts models, random cluster models and the Tutte polynomial --dynamics of the giant component in the random graph model --hard core models and independent sets --noisy channels and network reliability --Markov sampling methods --phase transitions in random structures and algorithms The workshop will have both introductory lectures to establish a common language and more advanced lectures focusing on new developments. There will be ample time for discussion of open problems. PARTICIPATION: Contact the organizers to discuss possibilities to give presentations and regarding possibilities of financial support. The Special Year program is made possible by long term funding from the National Science Foundation, the New Jersey Commission on Science and Technology and DIMACS university and industry partners. DIMACS Center; Rutgers University; P.O. Box 1179; Piscataway, NJ 08855-1179 TEL: 908-445-5928 FAX: 908-445-5932 ** EMAIL: center@dimacs.rutgers.edu WWW: http://dimacs.rutgers.edu ** TELNET: telnet info.rutgers.edu 90 DIMACS is a partnership of Rutgers University, Princeton University, AT&T Labs, Bellcore, and Bell Laboratories.