Professor Christian da Silva Rodrigues, from the Institute of Mathematics, Statistics and Scientific Computing (IMECC) from Unicamp, signed a cooperation agreement with the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Natural Sciences (MPI-MIS), from Germany. The agreement was formalized through the approval of the Geometry and Probability in Dynamic Systems research project. In addition to involving funding from the Max Planck Society for research, the agreement aims to strengthen cooperation between scientists from both institutions. Postgraduate and scientific initiation students at IMECC are part of the project led by Professor Christian.
For the professor, the main benefit of the agreement is the exchanges between researchers from Unicamp and Max Planck. “It opens up the possibility of strengthening relations between the two institutions, which is fruitful for both. The fact of having a flow of ideas from people working in different places contributes to the development of research”, he assesses.
Max Planck funding includes research inputs, scholarships and transportation for visits between researchers from both institutions. The scholarships covered by the agreement will be intended for doctoral and post-doctoral students. Another benefit of the partnership concerns access to the Institute's database. “In addition, if necessary, if experimental resources are needed, they have access to an entire experimental park”, observes Christian.
The approved project is integrated by professor Christian Rodrigues and, to date, doctoral students Renata Possobon and Hector Puma, and by Scientific Initiation students Giovanni Campos and Lucas Viana, all from IMECC. In addition to them, German researcher Jürgen Jost is participating, with whom Christian has already worked during the period in which he was a postdoctoral fellow and researcher at the Institute.
Search scope
Dynamic systems concern phenomena that change over time, explains the professor, seeking to understand patterns and classify possible behaviors. “There are several examples observed in nature, such as the orbit of a planet, the movement of a pendulum or the flow of pollen particles on the surface of a river. Each of these systems has its particularities, but what was discovered some time ago, from the point of view of Mathematics, is that there are mathematical principles that are universal for all of them, This is what theory seeks to understand", says.
With regard to geometry, the attention is on the geometric properties of the spaces where these systems occur, which are important in the description and how they can be used to make behavior predictions. Christian points out that one of the concerns is regarding the stability of the dynamics. “When you have a model that describes something, ideally that model has to be robust. If you have a theory that describes the movement of pollen particles on the surface of the river, ideally you want, if that action is impacted by, for example, gusts of wind that can blow from any direction, that your model can account for it. to describe this. When we propose these models, we want them to describe or at least give an idea of how stable the behavior of a dynamic system is in relation to, for example, random disturbances”, he explains.
The Institute
The Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Natural Sciences (MPI-MIS) is one of 86 institutes of the Max Planck Society in Germany, an independent German scientific research organization. In addition to the institutes in the country of origin, the Society maintains 20 centers spread around the world. The promotion of research in natural sciences, life sciences and humanities also takes place in the form of partnerships with groups. Currently, there are more than 70 partner groups, with the group led by Professor Christian being one of them.
