P h y s i c s   o f   S t r i n g s

Design and Inverse Problems

Spring 2006 VIGRE Seminars

Steve Cox and Mark Embree

How do strings vibrate and what forces slow them? How can one still a vibrating body as quickly as possible? Can one deduce material properties of a body from measurements of its vibrations?

  • CAAM 499       1-3 credits       Tuesdays, 3-4pm

    Design, build and use a state-of-the-art monochord. Measure complex eigenvalues and learn numerical means for computing such eigenvalues. Build and test models of viscoelastic wound strings.
    Prerequisite: consent of instructor.
    Schedule, notes, MATLAB codes, etc.

  • CAAM 699       3 credits       Tuesdays, 4-5pm

    Inverse Spectral Theory. Learn what the eigenvalues known.
    We will cover one beautiful method, [1], in depth and survey the methods in [2] and [3].
    Prerequisite: complex analysis.

    [1] J. Pöschel and E. Trubowitz. Inverse Spectral Theory. Academic Press, 1987.
    [2] H. Dym and H. P. McKean. Gaussian Processes, Function Theory and the Inverse Spectral Problem. Academic Press, 1976.
    [3] B. M. Levitan. Inverse Sturm-Liouville Problems. VSP, 1987.

Archive: Fall 2005 Seminar


Any student with a disability requiring accommodation in this course is encouraged
to contact the instructor during the first week of class, and also to contact
Disability Support Services in the Ley Student Center.