UPDATE: Due to COVID-19 and Furman restrictions (campus closed to off-campus visitors and gatherings), the in-person Clanton Visiting Mathematician program is cancelled for the 2020-2021 academic year. The next visit is being planned for Spring 2022. Details will be posted as they become available.
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Dr. Daniel Litt
On Thursday, March 5, 2020, the Department of Mathematics welcomed Dr. Daniel Litt from the University of Georgia as our speaker for this academic year. There was an afternoon colloquium talk and also a general audience talk in the evening.
3:15 p.m. Mathematics Office Suite Riley Hall, Room 205
4:00 p.m. Riley Hall, Room 106
Primes and Geometry
A system of polynomial equations with complex coefficients defines a shape — namely, the set of solutions to this system of equations. What kind of shapes show up this way? It turns out that this (incredibly hard) question has deep connections to number theory. I’ll explain a little bit about how these connections arise, and what we can learn from them.
7:30 p.m. Watkins Room, Trone Student Center
Impossible numbers and unknowable truths
Mathematicians pride themselves on certainty — we know that certain things are true because we can prove them. But it turns out that there are true things we can never prove — some of which are quite concrete. I’ll explain why this is true, and explain some of its implications, both in mathematics and outside of it.