The APDE seminar on Monday, 09/09 will be given by Di Fang in Evans 939 from 4:10 to 5pm.

Title: Diabatic Surface Hopping, Marcus Rate and Ehrenfest dynamics

Abstract: Surface hopping algorithms are popular tools to study dynamics of the quantum-classical mixed systems. In this talk, we will present a surface hopping algorithm in diabatic representations, in the view point of time dependent perturbation theory and semiclassical analysis. The algorithm is validated numerically in both weak coupling and avoided crossing regimes. We then discuss some recent progress on the asymptotics of the algorithm in weak and large coupling regimes. 

The APDE seminar on Monday, 08/26 will be given by Thilo Simon in Evans 939 from 4:10 to 5pm.

Title:
Skyrmions and stability of degree ±1 harmonic maps from the plane to the two-dimensional sphere.

Abstract: Skyrmions are topologically nontrivial patterns in the magnetization of extremely thin ferromagnets. Typically thought of as stabilized by the so-called Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI), or antisymmetric exchange interaction, arising in such materials, they are of great interest in the physics community due to possible applications in memory devices.

In this talk, I will characterize skyrmions as local minimizers of a
two-dimensional limit of the full micromagnetic energy, augmented by DMI and retaining the nonlocal character of the stray field energy. In the regime of dominating Dirichlet energy, I will provide rigorous predictions for their size and “wall angles”. The main tool is a quantitative stability result for harmonic maps of degree ± 1 from the plane to the two-dimensional sphere, relating the energy excess of any competitor to the homogeneous H¹-distance to the closest harmonic map. This is joint work with Anne Bernand-Mantel and Cyrill B. Muratov.