Research Seminars: Applied and Computational Mathematics
Fall 2026
Time & Location: Typically talks will be in TBA at _:00 pm on a Friday.
Organizers: Guido Mazzuca
September 04, 2026
Applied and Computational
Title: Passive Scalar Mixing -- The Batchelor Scale
Speaker: Robin Chemnitz - Tulane University
Abstract: When pouring some milk into hot tea, the milk forms increasingly filamented patterns before eventually becoming a uniform blend of milky tea. Mathematically, this process is modelled by the advection-diffusion equation. It is conjectured that the filementations of a passive scalar (the milk) get smaller and smaller until they reach a specific lenghscale, the Batchelor scale, at which point the cascade halts. In this talk, passive scalar advection and the Batchelor scale are introduced and we provide a simple stochastic fluid model for which the Batchelor scale conjecture can be verified.
Time: 3:00 PM
Location: TBA
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September 11, 2026
Applied and Computational
Title: Computational approximation theory on higher-genus domains
Speaker: Cade Ballew - Tulane University
Abstract: We develop computational approximation theory on higher-genus domains, finite unions of disjoint subintervals of the real axis that arise naturally in orthogonal polynomial theory, iterative numerical linear algebra, and the study of integrable nonlinear wave equations. In each case, exploiting this underlying structure to choose appropriate basis functions (orthogonal polynomials) is essential to obtain a fast and accurate numerical method. A unifying theme is the numerical solution of Riemann--Hilbert problems on these domains.
Time: 3:00 PM
Location: TBA
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