DIFFERENTIAL GEOMETRY/PDE/NUMERICAL ANALYSIS SEMINAR

                            Monday, November 27

                              Padelford C401
                                  3:45 pm


                               Jim Isenberg
                          (University of Oregon)

     TIME MACHINES, CHAOS IN THE HORIZON, AND THE FOUNTAIN CONJECTURE


Could an arbitrarily advanced civilization construct a time machine?  One
can turn this question into a mathematical issue involving the nature of
spacetimes and their Cauchy horizons.  Hawking has argued against the
possibility that a time machine might be built.  His argument assumes that
in a spacetime with a Cauchy horizon, a certain "fountain-like" behavior
generically occurs.  Piotr Chrusciel and I have used dynamical systems
theory and a Nash-Moser stability argument to show that in fact this
fountain behavior does not generically occur.


For more information about this seminar, view the Differential Geometry
Seminar World-Wide Web page at 

    https://www.math.washington.edu/~lee/Seminars/dg.html


To request disability accommodations, contact the Office of the ADA
Coordinator, at least ten days in advance of the event: 543-6450 (voice);
543-6452 (TDD); 685-3885 (FAX); access@u.washington.edu (E-mail).