Michael Kiessling, Rutgers University

Abstract

This talk reports the results of a research project with undergraduate student Renna Yi this past Summer. What was meant as a warm-up problem for understanding what "Steve Smale's 7th problem for the 21st century" is all about turned out to hold some surprises. In particular, two mathematical constructions which are usually cooked up for the purpose of illustrating some calculus (II and III) concepts show up naturally in the Riesz Equilibrium Problem of 3 Points on a Circle: Hilbert's Monkey Saddle is one of those, the other one will be revealed at the talk.