Date | Speaker | Title: |
---|---|---|
29/2 | Ronnie Pavlov (UBC) | Z^d shifts with restricted subshifts and factors |
7/3 |   | No seminar |
14/3 | Arno Berger (Alberta) | Digits and Dynamics -- Benford's Law revisited |
21/3 |   | No seminar (holiday) |
28/3 | Nicolae Strungaru (UVic) | A characterization of continuous weighted model combs |
4/4 | Rod Edwards (UVic)  | Dynamics of Glass Networks |
Date: 14th March
Speaker: Arno Berger (Alberta) [ PIMS Distinguished Speaker ]
Title: Digits and Dynamics -- Benford's Law revisited
Abstract: Benford's Law (BL), a notorious gem of mathematics folklore,
asserts that leading digits of numerical data are usually not
equidistributed, as might be expected, but rather follow one
particular logarithmic distribution. Since first recorded by
Newcomb, this apparently counterintuitive observation has been
discussed widely under various aspects. It is very natural to ask
whether dynamical systems can actually generate numerical data
exhibiting Benford's logarithmic distribution and whether in turn
something about dynamics can be learned from BL. Both questions
have attracted considerable interest recently, and both are answered
in the affirmative in this talk. We explain why BL, at least in its strict
form, should not be expected to hold for classical "chaotic" systems,
we discuss several examples and applications which provide a clear
appreciation of BL's surprising ubiquity, and we mention a few
challenging open problems.
Date: 21st March
Title: No seminar
Date: 28th March
Speaker: Nicolae Strungaru (UVic)
Title: A characterization of continuous weighted model combs
Abstract
Spring 2006 |
Fall 2006 |
Spring 2007 |