Wednesday, October 30, 2013
4:00 PM -
5:00 PM
Annenberg 105
Computing + Mathematical Sciences Seminar
Petri nets, chemistry, and quantum theory
John Baez,
Professor,
Department of Mathematics,
University of California - Riverside,
Speaker's Bio:
John Carlos Baez is an American mathematical physicist and a professor of mathematics at the University of California, Riverside (UCR) in Riverside, California. He is known for his work on spin foams in loop quantum gravity. More recently, his research has focused on applications of higher categories to physics and other things.
John Carlos Baez is an American mathematical physicist and a professor of mathematics at the University of California, Riverside (UCR) in Riverside, California. He is known for his work on spin foams in loop quantum gravity. More recently, his research has focused on applications of higher categories to physics and other things.
Chemists use "chemical reaction networks" to describe random interactions between things of different types. These are essentially the same as what computer scientists call "Petri nets", or mathematicians would call "free symmetric monoidal categories". The reachability problem for a Petri net asks which collections of things can turn into which other collections of things: it is decidable but hard. More relevant to chemistry is the master equation, a differential equation describing how the probability that some collection will turn into some other collection changes with time. This turns out to have a nice description using some math from quantum field theory, but with probabilities replacing amplitudes. Refreshments at 3:45pm in 106 Annenberg
Event Sponsors:
For more information, please contact Lucinda Acosta by phone at 4843 or by email at [email protected].