Speaker
Juan Margalef
(Memorial University)
Description
As one of the fundamental concepts in physics, degrees of freedom are commonly encountered in classical mechanics, statistical physics, and QFT. However, the concept is often introduced without a careful explanation. In this talk, I will present a pedagogical approach to understanding degrees of freedom by analyzing simple (but not trivial!) mechanical systems. We will emphasize the role played by topology and geometry, and demonstrate how this approach provides a physical introduction to topology.
Primary author
Juan Margalef
(Memorial University)
