Penn State University

Interdisciplinary Seminar on PDEs and their Applications

Meeting on

Friday, May 9, 2008, Time: 2:00PM

132 Hawthorn Building, Altoona

Speaker:

Emily Dryden

Department of Mathematics
Bucknell University

Title:

Listening to orbifolds: What does the Laplace spectrum tell us?

Abstract:

A classical problem, made famous when Mark Kac asked, "Can one hear the shape of a drum?," is to determine what geometric information is contained in the vibration frequencies of an object. We consider the case of orbifolds, and will present some recent results in this area. Our tools come from analysis, geometry, and topology, but no particular background will be assumed.