2024–25–B
Prof. Tom Meyerovitch
Abstract
Symbolic dynamics is a branch of mathematics that deals with sequences of characters letters or “symbols” form the point of view of dynamical systems. The basic guiding philosophy is that sometimes it is possible to code and understand complicated systems by a sequence of discrete samples. The decimal expansion of real numbers is a simple example of this kind of procedure. Techniques and ideas from symbolic dynamics have found significant applications in data storage and transmission as well as other parts of mathematics. In this course we will introduce basic notions and results in symbolic dynamics, via interesting examples. We will illustrate relations to other fields and relate to the more general frameworks of topological dynamics and ergodic theory.