Clavius Activities at Holy Cross Summer of 2018

Clavius group at Holy Cross in 2018

List of Clavius mathematicians

Jennifer Ackerman
Michael Ackerman
Tom Banchoff
Adam Bartoszek
Jacob Binoy SJ
John Blanton
Tom Cecil
Lawrence Conlon
Pedro Ferreira SJ
Margaret Freije
Richard Freije
Kathy Hall
James Heitsch
Michele Intermont
Ron Knill
Javier Leach SJ

Jack Lutts
Maura Mast
Michael May SJ
Sr Barbara Reynolds SDS
Patrick Ryan
Paul Schweitzer SJ
Dennis Snow
Joanne Snow
James Stasheff
Pedro Suarez SJ
Andrius Tamulis
Carlos Vasco
Nelson Velandia SJ
Julio Vidaurrazaga
Pawel Walczak

Invited Colleagues 2018

Martin Magid, Wellesley College

Clavius Community Notes

2018 Holy Cross, Worcester, Massachusetts
Meeting #56: 23 June to 30 June

At the invitation of the College of the Holy Cross and its Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, the Clavius group gathered at Holy Cross for its fifty-sixth session. We were provided with office space and a lecture room in Swords Hall for our seminars and talks. Also, access to photocopying, printing services, email and the web was provided. The group’s housing arrangements and other needs were generously attended to by Chip O’Connor, Director of Conference Services at Holy Cross. Members were housed in the Figge apartment complex, an excellent arrangement that made it possible for us to continue our vibrant community life. As is customary, each day was concluded by Mass and a community meal. The participants this summer consisted of five Jesuits,eight married couples and four single lay persons. Seventeen Clavius mathematicians participated in the lectures and seminars along with several faculty members from Holy Cross and other colleges and universities.

Community Activities 2018

June 25, Faith discussion led by Ellen Ryan
June 26, Prayer service led by Paul Schweitzer
June 26, Business meeting at which it was decided to hold the next Clavius meeting at Holy Cross, June 22-July 6, 2019 (a two-week period)
June 27, Ignatius Day celebration

Seminars 2018

Working Seminar in Differential Geometry

Meetings were held at 9:30 AM on each day, Mondays through Friday.
Text Used: S. Sternberg: Curvature in Mathematics and Physics, Dover, 2012
Participants: Julio Vidaurrázaga, Carlos Vasco, Ron Knill and Nelson Velandia.
The work was an ongoing endeavor to understand the material. Most of the lecturing was done by Julio Vidaurrázaga and Carlos Vasco.

Differential Geometry Seminar

June 25, 26, Thomas Cecil, Cyclides of Dupin in 3-space and in Lie sphere geometry
June 26, Thomas Banchoff, Visualization of the flat torus in the 3-sphere and the cyclides of Dupin
June 27, Patrick Ryan, Veronese embeddings
June 29, Maura Mast, Closed geodesics in magnetic Heisenberg-type manifolds

Topology and Foliations Seminar

June 25, Paul Schweitzer, Exotic 4-dimensional manifolds that cannot be leaves of codimension one foliations (joint work with Carlos Menino)
June 28, David Damiano (Holy Cross) An introduction to random cell complexes

Topics Seminar

June 25, Ellen Ryan, Resilient aging through community
June 26, Kathleen Banchoff, Aging and transitions
June 27, Carlos Vasco, Model-theoretic Mathematics revisited: From ancient astronomy and the Pythagorean quadrivium to the progressive relativization of Mathematical Physics
June 27, Binoy Jacob, Peace activities at the Loyola Research Institute of Peace and International Relations
June 28, Carlos Vasco, Model-theoretic Mathematics: The Chronotopy program of ancient astronomy vs. the Erlangen program for modern geometry
June 28, Jennifer Ackerman, Moving from pre-requisites to co-requisites for general education Mathematics
June 29, John Little (Holy Cross), Greek mathematics recovered in Books 6 and 7 of Christopher Clavius’ Geometrica Practica
June 29, Nelson Velandia, Numerical solution of Mathisson-Papapetrou-Dixon equations for spinning test particles in a Kerr metric