Undergraduate seminar

When:
September 3, 2014 @ 3:30 pm – 4:30 pm
2014-09-03T15:30:00-10:00
2014-09-03T16:30:00-10:00
Where:
Keller 403

Speaker: Masato Wakayama, Institute of Mathematics for Industry
Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan

[Seminar for undergraduates]
An introduction and application of Lie theory - a theme from spherical
harmonics

Spherical harmonics are orthogonal functions and span rotation invariant
spaces on the two dimensional sphere S^2. They are a basis of the space
of the square integrable functions on S^2, as the name would suggest.
Spherical harmonics are used extensively in various fields. They have
been used to solve problems in physics, such as in heat equations, the
gravitational and electric fields. They have also been used in quantum
chemistry and physics to model the electron configuration in atoms, and
recently in computer graphics. In this talk, I will present fundamental
elements of a (Lie) group theoretical background of spherical harmonics
(representation theory of the rotation group). If time permits, I will
try to touch its application to the spherical harmonic lighting in
computer graphics.