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A rose by any other name
20 May 2013
The picture represents a "finite energy foliation" of the 3-dimensional manifold S1 x S2 with its standard contact structure. Finite energy foliations are ways of filling 3-dimensional space with smooth surfaces that are solutions to a differential equation arising in string theory.
Such pictures can help mathematicians gain insight into problems in dynamical systems and in topology - for example, an important strand in research by Chris Wendl (UCL Mathematics) has been using finite energy foliations to try and answer the question, "how many different 4-dimensional shapes could this 3-dimensional shape be the boundary of?
One can use this particular picture to deduce that the answer is exactly one.
Credit: Chris Wendl (UCL Mathematics)
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- This image can be reproduced freely providing the source is credited.
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