Tuesday 11 March 2025 at 5 pm, for the cycle "Please Don't Delete: Math Dialogues", Prof. Alessandra Caraceni (SNS - Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa) will give a talk titled Inevitable Crossings and Random Demonstrations.
The meeting will take place at the University Library Headquarters - U6 Building Agorà (Piazza dell'Ateneo Nuovo 1, Milan) University of Milano-Bicocca and will be introduced by Prof. Gianmario Tessitore, Director of the Department.
Abstract: It is 1944; in a labour camp on the outskirts of Budapest, mathematician Pál Turán has the task of transporting bricks from the kilns to the storage areas by loading them into wagons that must then be pushed along tracks by hand. Each kiln is connected by a track to each storage area; running the wagons does not require much effort, except at the junction of two tracks, where they invariably derail and most of the bricks end up on the ground. Pál asks why is the track network built so wastefully, with so many exasperating crossings? How could the number of crossings be minimised, while still connecting each kiln to each storage area? This is perhaps the first question ever asked (still fundamentally open!) about the ‘crossing number’, an important concept in graph theory; in tracing its history and investigating some of its applications we will ‘’cross‘’ constructivist artists, computer scientists, sceptical mathematicians, and finally come across one of the most valuable parts of Pál Erdős' legacy: the so-called Probabilistic Method.
Visit the Page for more information on Prof. Caraceni and fill in the form for registration not mandatory, but welcome, at the aperitif that will follow.
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