I am a 3rd-year (out of 5 or 7) graduate student at UCSB in mathematical physics. I like problems in flat surfaces and large-N combinatorics, which are visually intuitive or deal with statistical algorithms or chaotic dynamical systems. Instead of having a deep interest in one area, I have superficial interests in a variety of areas -- a sort of generalist attitude. And I am a curmudgeon. I complain combinatorics papers are too combinatorial, algebraic geometry papers are too algebraic, ergodic theory and determinantal processes papers are too analytic. Here are problems that interest me these days:
These are pure math questions that borrow tools from (and hopefully contribute to) topics like 2D quantum gravity, 2D Yang-Mills, AdS/CFT correspondence, Holography, Integrable Systems, D-branes, AGT correspondence and BPS solitons in N=2 Supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory. Current Classes [Winter]Winter 2012Attending the Novel Numerical Methods and Physics of Graphene workshops at KITP. The material Graphene and the continuously varying families of Conformal Field theories (AdS/CFT correspondence) have gotten a lot of attention as a material last few years. These two conferences, side by side, continue the link between high-energy and condensed matter physics emphasized last quarter.
Fall 2011Attending the Topological Insulators and Holography/Fermions/Renormalization workshops at KITP.
2010-2011I spent Fall quarter as visiting graduate student at IPMU in Kashiwa, Japan, working with the Math and String Theory groups. However, I was enrolled in one class (QFT) at UCSB.
2009-2010
Notes, DraftsMostly expository... can't find it anywhere on the net in a unified place. The Euler Characteristic of Random Branched Covers on the Torus Go (Weiqi) Baduk:I am director of the East Coast Go Camp. I spent last summer (2009) in Shantou, China studying Go with Feng Yun, one of three female 9-dan professionals in the world. My KGS and WBaduk name is mrcactu5 and I am 4K or 6K depending on the server. Dots and Boxes / HexI am MonsieurCactus on Little Golem where you can find me playing Dots and Boxes, Hex, mini-Go and Twixt. Interested in Combinatorial Game Theory and surreal numbers. |