EVENT DETAILS AND ABSTRACT

Title: Integrable Hamiltonian Systems: Tops and Elastic Curves
Speaker: Professor Vel Jurdjevic
Speaker Info: University of Toronto
Brief Description:
Special Note:
Abstract:

Abstract: The elastic curves are generalizations of equilibrium shapes of thin elastic rods subjected to bending and twisting moments at their ends. They are critical points of certain energy functionals on the frame bundle of the underlying Riemannian space. For n-dimensional space forms, the frame bundle coincides with the isometry group, and the extremal curves show a striking similarity to the equations of motion for generalized heavy tops. This mysterious connection between two seemingly unrelated topics will be the main theme of the lecture.