A space-filling pancake in crochet and steel
The chaotic behaviour of the famous Lorenz system is organised by an amazing surface: the Lorenz manifold. Imagine a pancake that grows and grows to fill the entire space without creasing or developing self-intersections. Our mathematical research into this object naturally led to artistic expression, when we realised that our computational method generates crochet instructions. The crocheted Lorenz manifold not only received media attention, but also gave new insight into the geometry of chaos. Follow-on work includes a steel sculpture with artist Benjamin Storch, and the idea of studying and visualising the Lorenz manifold as intersection curves on a sphere.
The seminar is part of the series “I mercoledì del DMIF”.
Bernd Krauskopf & Hinke Osinga
Bernd Krauskopf and Hinke Osinga, both Professors in Applied Mathematics, are world-leading experts in Applied Dynamical Systems and head a highly visible research group at the University of Auckland. They have made fundamental contributions to dynamical systems theory and associated state-of-the-art numerical methods, and are equally well recognised for applying dynamical systems methods in real-world contexts; these include nonlinear dynamics of laser systems, control theory, neuroscience, buildings in earthquakes, aircraft as ground vehicles and conceptual climate modelling. They are also famous for their crocheted model of the Lorenz manifold, which received considerable attention across the world.
