Beyond the Gaussian Universality Class

vendredi 19 juin 2015, 11h00 - 12h00

Salle de réunion, espace Turing

The Gaussian central limit theorem says that for a wide class of stochastic systems, the bell curve (Gaussian distribution) describes the statistics for random fluctuations of important observables. In this talk I will look beyond this class of systems to a collection of probabilistic models which include random growth models, polymers, particle systems, matrices and stochastic PDEs, as well as certain asymptotic problems in combinatorics and representation theory. I will explain in what ways these different examples all fall into a single new universality classwith a much richer mathematical structure than that of the Gaussian. This talk is expository and meant for a wide audience without any particular background in these areas.