Department Colloquium

Department of Mathematics
Princeton University



March 1st, 2000


Conformal maps and the Whitham equations

The Whitham equations are a core stone of the perturbation theory of the soliton equations. They are deeply connected with structures of topological quantum field theories (WDVV equations), and with the Seiberg-Witten solution of N=2 supersymmetric gauge models. Recently, it was discovered that special solutions of the Whitham equations describe conformal maps.