Colloquium: Edgar Knobloch

Spatially Localized Structures: Experiments, Theory and Numerics

Applied Mathematics 25th Anniversary

Edgar Knobloch

Department of Physics; University of California, Berkeley

Date and time: 

Friday, March 13, 2015 - 4:00pm

Location: 

Old Main Chapel

Abstract: 

Spatially localized structures arise frequently in nature. In this lecture I will describe a number of examples from different physical systems, followed by a discussion of the  basic ideas behind the phenomenon of nonlinear self-localization that is responsible for their existence. I will illustrate these ideas using a simple phenomenological model and explain why the qualitative predictions of this model help us understand the properties of much more complicated systems exhibiting spatial localization.