Probability theory emerged in the second half of the 17th century as a way to think about monetary gambles, and how to choose wisely when facing uncertainty. Early thinking suggested that people would act so as to maximise the expected change in wealth – an average over all possible outcomes.
Point processes offer a convenient mathematical representation of earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, crimes and many other processes which occur at random times and locations. The data available in these fields has exploded with modern recording technology, and yet many data sets suffer from significant incompleteness.
Signals travel at finite speeds within the nerves of living organisms, between satellites and the Earth, or in computers and other technological devices. As a result, they incur delays in moving from one point to another, which engineers, roboticists, control-theorists and neuroscientists typically consider as a source of error.
Brownian motion has long been the standard paradigm for modelling random, diffusive motion, such as the haphazard movement of a dust particle floating in a fluid. This is considered to be “normal” diffusion, in which the mean square particle displacement – calculated as an average over an ensemble of particles – increases linearly in the […]
LML Fellow Mark Kirstein has received a PRIME fellowship from DAAD (the German Academic Exchange Service). This will support a 12-month research visit to the London Mathematical Laboratory, followed by a postdoctoral position at Leipzig University for 6 months. Mark will use his time at LML to study The time resolution of the probability weighting […]
Electroencephalography (EEG) provides a direct measure of neuronal activity as reflected in the scalp electrical field. Empirically, global measures of EEG topography remain stable in so-called EEG microstates for brief periods (50–100 ms) before switching to another quasi-stable state.
Here are links to a few recent articles by LML Fellow Mark Buchanan.
Erica’s research focusses on subtle issues affecting the use of mathematical models and simulations in aid of real-world decision making. In her own words,
Rainer was recently nominated for the Fellowship by the Institute of Theoretical Physics at the Technical University of Berlin. The Fellowship will support a guest professorship, enabling him to work with scientists of the German Collaborative Research Centre ‘Control of self-organising nonlinear systems’ (SFB910).
Lyapunov exponents play a central role in dynamical systems theory, and offer a measure of the local instability that lies behind deterministic chaos and the sensitive dependence of trajectories on initial conditions.
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