[Crib-list] SPEAKER: Lionel Levine (MIT) -- Computational Research in Boston and Beyond Seminar -- Friday, October 7, 2011 -- TIME: 12:30 PM in Bldg. 32, Room 141

[Shirley Entzminger]

 			COMPUTATIONAL RESEARCH in BOSTON and BEYOND SEMINAR

DATE:		FRIDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2011
TIME:		12:30 PM
LOCATION:	Building 32, Room 141  (Stata Center)

Pizza and beverages will be provided at 12:15 PM outside Room 32-141.


TITLE:		Abelian Networks


SPEAKER:	LIONEL LEVINE   (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)


ABSTRACT:

Abelian networks are systems of communicating finite automata with a 
strong convergence property: the output of the network does not depend on 
the order in which the automata process their inputs. An example is the 
famous abelian sandpile model in statistical physics.

This talk will touch on three basic themes:

1.	Local-to-global principles: certain features of the automata are
 	automatically inherited by the whole network.

2.	Critical group: a finite abelian group that governs the long-term
 	behavior of the network.

3.	Halting problem: how to tell whether an abelian network halts on
 	all inputs.

Joint work with James Propp (U. Mass Lowell) and with MIT undergraduates 
Ben Bond, Giuliano Giacaglia and Linda Zayas-Palmer.

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Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, MA

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