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SUMMARY:Equivariant normal forms via the Moser trick - Robbins\, J (Univer
 sity of Bristol)
DTSTART:20130425T100000Z
DTEND:20130425T110000Z
UID:TALK44884@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Mustapha Amrani
DESCRIPTION:As is well known\, phase transitions in Landau theory are desc
 ribed by bifurcations of critical points of the free energy. Phase transit
 ions can be most easily analysed for certain normal forms\, which contain 
 a small number of essential terms. One would like to know when a given fre
 e energy can be brought into a normal form\, locally at least\, by a near-
 identity change of variables. If the free energy possesses some symmetries
 \, then one would like this change of variables to preserve these symmetri
 es.\n\nUsing as an example a free energy for biaxial nematic liquid crysta
 ls\, I will discuss an approach to normal form transformations using Moser
 's trick. The Moser trick reduces the nonlinear problem to a linear one th
 rough the determination of the generator of a one-parameter family of tran
 sformations linking the identity to the required transformation.\n
LOCATION:Seminar Room 2\, Newton Institute Gatehouse
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