Mon, October 17, 2011
4:30 pm - 5:30 pm
University Hall 0014
Title: Basics of Shuffling
Speaker: Persi Diaconis, Stanford University
Abstract: How many times must a deck of cards be shuffled to mix it up? Translating this natural question into mathematics involves a mix of probability and algebra. The algebra leads all over the place (e.g., to Hodge decompositions for Hochschild homology). It also allows a useful answer to the original question: "About seven shuffles suffice."
