[BANANA] Oct 2: Joint ICME/Probability Seminar

[Chana Chiemi Motobu]

Subject- CME 500 Seminar - Joint ICME/Probability Seminar
Date - Monday, October 2, 2006

Presenter - Andrea Montanari, Assistant Professor in Electrical Engineering
and Statistics

Title
Phase transitions and critical scaling from physics to combinatorics and
code optimization

Abstract
Phase transitions, i.e. abrupt changes in the macroscopic properties of a
system as some control parameter is varied, are a main object of study for
statistical physics. It has recently become clear that their occurrence is
of interest to other domains, ranging from applied probability to random
combinatorics and coding. In this talk I will discuss a major phenomenon
related to phase transitions: the emergence of scaling properties in the
vicinity of the transition point. I will present an example in which such a
scaling behavior can be computed exactly and explain its relation to random
satisfiability problems and iterative coding systems. Most interestingly,
this result can be used to optimize low density parity check codes for
communication over the erasure channel at finite blocklength. [Based on
joint work with A.Amraoui, T.Richardson, R.Urbanke and A.Dembo]

Location and Time- Building 380, Room 380C (basement), 4:15-5:05PM
Refreshments are served at 4:00PM in the courtyard outside Room 380C

Research Interests
Coding Theory and iterative coding schemes. Combinatorial optimization and
typical case analysis. Statistical mechanics of disordered systems.
Mean-field spin glasses.

Bio
Andrea Montanari received a Laurea degree in Physics in 1997, and a Ph.D.
in Theoretical Physics in 2001 (both from Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa,
Italy). He has been post-doctoral fellow at Laboratoire de Physique
Théorique de l'Ecole Normale Supérieure (LPTENS), Paris, France, and the
Mathematical Sciences Research Institute, Berkeley, USA. Since 2002 he is
Chargée de Recherche (a permanent research position with Céntre National de
la Recherche Scientifique, CNRS) at LPTENS.

Links
- ICME Seminar Schedule: http://icme.stanford.edu/Events/
- Stanford Probability Seminar Schedule:
http://www-stat.stanford.edu/~kjross/seminar/
- Professor Montanari's Home Page: http://www.lpt.ens.fr/~Montanari/
- Abstract
http://www-stat.stanford.edu/~kjross/seminar/files/docs/montanari.pdf