Joint Pitt-CMU Colloquium: Sir Michael Berry (University of Bristol, UK)

September 24, 2018 - 4:00pm

Title: Faster than fourier (pre)revisited: vorticulture, fractals, escape...

Abstract: Band-limited functions can oscillate arbitrarily faster than their fastest Fourier component over arbitrarily long intervals: they can ‘superoscillate’. In physics, this counterintuitive mathematical phenomenon is associated with almostdestructive interference, and occurs near phase singularities in optics and on the world’s ocean tides; and it is associated with quantum weak measurements. Where superoscillations occur, functions are exponentially weak and vulnerable to noise. They are an unexpectedly compact way of representing fractals. Superoscillations in red light can escape as gamma radiation.

Location and Address

11 Thaw Hall