I hope you’re all feeling refreshed from fall break and ready to tackle the second half of the semester! As you learn more math through your classes, keep in mind that attending seminars/colloquia is another important facet of expanding your mathematical horizons. :) We are here to make that easier for you!
Silvia Ghinassi, a postdoc at the IAS, will give a talk aimed at undergraduates on the Analyst’s Traveling Salesman Theorem this Wednesday 11/6 at 12:30-1:20 in Fine 224. Sandwiches will be served for lunch.
Title: The Analyst’s Traveling Salesman Theorem
Abstract: In computer science, the traveling salesman problem asks the following question: “Given a finite list of cities, what is the shortest possible route a traveling salesman has to take to visit each city?”. The problem was first formulated in 1930 and is one of the most intensively studied problems in optimization.
In analysis, we asked ourselves a similar question: “Given again a list of cities (possibly infinite, even uncountable, or better, a continuum!), when can our traveling salesman travel them all in finite (optimal, in some sense) time?”. Peter Jones in 1990 answered the question, proving the so-called “The Analyst’s Traveling Salesman Theorem”. We will discuss this theorem, its proof and related results (old and new).
Hope to see you there!
Sincerely,
Alice, co-advising chair
