SEMINAR: Physics Seminar

A new perspective on renormalization is taken by use of an iterative wavelet based averaging as suggested by Stephane Mallat. This replaces the band limited Fourier transforms used currently. The result is a hierarchy of fundamental excitations of the system based on the complexity of the interaction (the number of scales) and the size of the interactions (the scale sizes). The system can then be second quantised with the state of the system given by occupation numbers or the number of each of the fundamental excitations of the system. This gives a natural metric for the state of the system (in terms of these occupation numbers), and a complete specification of the dynamics by the renormalized action (which is diagonal) in this renormalized coordinate system. It should be noted that the wavelet based averaging needs to respect the group symmetries of the dynamics. This method also has application to the understanding of complex systems, as it gives a metric for complexity; and has application to the identification of image texture.

BIO: Michael E. Glinsky received a B.S. degree in physics from Case Western Reserve University in 1983 and a Ph.D. degree in physics from the University of California, San Diego in 1991. His doctoral research on magnetized pure electron plasmas was recognized by the American Physical Society as the outstanding thesis in the United States (1993 Simon Ramo Award). Before enrolling in graduate school as a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellow, he worked as a geophysicist for Shell Oil Company. After graduate school, he worked as a Department of Energy Distinguished Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory for 5 years. More recently he worked for three years at the Shell E&P Technology Co. doing research on Bayesian AVO and 4D inversion. After being the Section Leader of Quantitative Interpretation for BHP Billiton Petroleum, he moved into the BHP Billiton corporate centre where he was Manager, Resource R&D. Currently, he is CEO Science Leader at CSIRO, and an Adjunct Professor of Physics at University of Western Australia. He has published over 25 papers in the refereed scientific literature on subjects as varied as plasma physics, signal processing for oil exploration, x-ray diagnostics, application of exterior calculus to theoretical mechanics, and laser biological tissue interactions. He received the 2004 CSIRO Medal for Research Achievement for his research on petroleum reservoir characterization.