Workshop Announcement: ---------------------------------------------------------------- Sharp Thresholds for Mixing Times ---------------------------------------------------------------- December 20 to December 23, 2004 American Institute of Mathematics Research Conference Center Palo Alto, California http://aimath.org/ARCC/workshops/mixingtimes.html ------------ Description: ------------ This workshop, sponsored by AIM and the NSF, will address basic questions about the mixing times of Markov chains. The mixing times of Markov chains are fundamental parameters that encode key geometric information about the chain and at the same time have a wide variety of applications. In the last twenty years, computer scientists and probabilists have brought new perspectives and methods to this study. By bringing together experts on a variety of different techniques, we hope that perhaps some of them can be combined or modified to obtain the necessary insights into the problems. The workshop is organized by Amir Dembo, Yuval Peres, and David Revelle. For more details please see the workshop announcement page: http://aimath.org/ARCC/workshops/mixingtimes.html Space and funding is available for a few more participants. If you would like to participate, please apply by filling out the on-line form (available at the link above) no later than September 20, 2004. Applications are open to all, and we especially encourage women, underrepresented minorities, junior mathematicians, and researchers from primarily undergraduate institutions to apply. Before submitting an application, please read the ARCC policies concerning participation and financial support for participants. -------------------------------------- AIM Research Conference Center (ARCC): -------------------------------------- The AIM Research Conference Center (ARCC) will hosts focused workshops in all areas of the mathematical sciences. ARCC focused workshops are distinguished by their emphasis on a specific mathematical goal, such as making progress on a significant unsolved problem, understanding the proof of an important new result, or investigating the convergence between two distinct areas of mathematics. For more information about ARCC, please visit http://www.aimath.org/ARCC/