On Wednesday March 14th 2012 CTMS will present a lecture by Eric Vanden-Eijnden from the Courant Institute at New York University Department of Mathematics.

Location: 130 Physics Building

Time: 1:30pm

Title: Transition Path Theory for the Modeling and Simulation of Reactive Processes

Abstract: Transition Path Theory (TPT) is a theoretical framework for describing activated processes and rare events in complex systems. It can also be used as a starting point for developing efficient numerical algorithms for analyzing such processes. Here I will review the basic components of TPT and discuss its connections with the Transition-State Theory, Kramers reaction-rate theory as well as Freidlin-Wentzell theory of large deviations.

I will also discuss how TPT can be used to design efficient path-finding algorithms, such as the string method or the max-flux method, as well as algorithms for free energy and rate  calculations, such as milestoning.

Finally, I will discuss how TPT can be used to build Markov State Models to analyze time-series data.