Sydney Dynamics Group Seminar: Prof. Mark Peletier, Technische Universiteit Eindhoven -- Sydney Dynamics Group Seminar

Seminar : Sydney Dynamics group Seminar.  
Day/time : Thursday, September 10 and 17th at 4:00 PM (series of 2 talks) 
Location : SMRI seminar room (A12 Macleay Room 301).
Speaker : Prof. Mark Peletier, Technische Universiteit Eindhoven 

Title: Wasserstein Gradient Flows - a lecture in two parts 

Abstract: Wasserstein gradient flows were introduced by Otto and co-workers in 1997.
Since then they have been shown to be ubiquitous in the modelling of real-world systems,
but at the same time we have found them to be versatile tools for all manner of
mathematical aims as well.  As a result, the Wasserstein metric and Wasserstein gradient
flows are a core component of modern-day analysis and calculus of variations.  

In the first lecture I want to introduce Wasserstein gradient flows and the related
concepts of metric-space gradient flows, illustrate them on various examples, and show a
number of consequences.  

In the second lecture I will zoom in to the modelling and physics interpretation of the
Wasserstein distance and Wasserstein gradient flows.  I will show how this particular
metric, which may seem strange at first sight, in fact is an extremely natural object in
the context of the modelling of real-world systems.  This gives us a deep insight into
the reason why there are so many Wasserstein gradient flows, and how they are related to
stochastic particle systems.