Abstract: Understanding rare events like transitions of chemical system from reactant to product states is a challenging problem due to the time scale separation. In this talk, we will discuss some recent progress in mathematical theory of transition paths. In particular, we identify and characterize the stochastic process corresponds to transition paths. The study of transition path process helps to understand the transition mechanism and provides a framework to design and analyze numerical approaches for rare event sampling and simulation.

About the Speaker: Jianfeng Lu obtained his PhD in Applied Mathematics from Princeton University in 2009. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Mathematics, Chemistry, and Physics at Duke University. His research focus is analysis and algorithm development for problems motivated by applications in chemistry, materials science, and related fields.