{"id":47393,"date":"2026-04-22T15:47:55","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T13:47:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/fstm-en\/?post_type=events&#038;p=47393"},"modified":"2026-04-23T09:41:41","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T07:41:41","slug":"physics-colloquium-talk-by-prof-alexander-a-migdal","status":"publish","type":"events","link":"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/fstm-en\/events\/physics-colloquium-talk-by-prof-alexander-a-migdal\/","title":{"rendered":"Physics Colloquium \/ talk by Prof. Alexander Migdal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<section class=\"wp-block-unilux-blocks-free-section section\"><div class=\"container xl:max-w-screen-xl\">\n<h2 class=\"has-text-align-left wp-block-unilux-blocks-heading\"        id=\"decoding-fluid-chaos-the-arithmetic-attractor-of-decaying-turbulence\"\n    >\nDecoding fluid chaos: The arithmetic attractor of decaying turbulence<\/h2>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-unilux-blocks-spacer is-spacer-size-sm\"><\/div>\n\n\n<p><strong>Abstract:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Turbulence is often described as the last great unsolved problem of classical physics. In this colloquium I will review a line of work suggesting that, at least for decaying turbulence, the apparent disorder hides a surprisingly rigid underlying structure. The starting point is a reformulation of the Navier&#8211;Stokes dynamics in loop space, where the nonlinear evolution of the fluid is recast in terms of circulation loops rather than the velocity field itself. In this language, the late-time turbulent state admits an exact decaying solution in terms of a one-dimensional momentum loop.<br>The striking feature of this solution is that its support is not organized by a smooth continuum, as in standard multifractal pictures, but by reduced rational numbers. In the continuum limit, these rational data become dense and generate what I call an arithmetic attractor: a singular geometric object whose intermittency is encoded by number-theoretic structure, specifically the Farey sequence of coprime fractions. I will explain this idea in nontechnical terms and show how it leads to a new interpretation of fluid chaos, in which randomness at large scales is organized by a hidden deterministic arithmetic skeleton.<br>I will also discuss recent large-scale numerical simulations showing that very different randomized initial conditions converge, in the bulk, toward the same predicted behavior. This supports the view that the Euler ensemble describes a universal late-time state of decaying turbulence. More broadly, the talk will present loop-space methods, developed over decades in gauge theory and now extended to fluids, as a new language for nonlinear dynamics that has already opened several longstanding nonlinear problems in classical and quantum physics to exact analysis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>About the speaker:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Professor <strong>Alexander A. Migdal<\/strong> is a distinguished theoretical physicist working at<strong> IAS Princeton<\/strong> whose career has spanned foundational on anomalous dimensions and conformal bootstrap methods, and made major advances in large-\ud835\udc41\ud835\udc41 QCD, loop equations, and two-dimensional quantum gravity. After a successful transition to industry as an inventor, entrepreneur, and technology leader, Professor Migdal returned to academia in 2019 as a Research Professor at NYU. Since then, he has developed a bold new framework for turbulence, including exact analytic solutions of Navier\u2013Stokes loop equations and striking connections between classical turbulence, quantum mechanics, and number theory. His recent work challenges long-standing assumptions in turbulence theory and has attracted international attention. He is currently a Distinguished Visitor at IAS Luxembourg, hosted by the TopTurbQC project led by Professors Adolfo del Campo and Jean-Marc Schlenker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Spring Physics Colloquium will follow a new format:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"ulux-list\">\n<li class=\"ulux-list-item\">The colloquium will take place on <strong>Monday, 27 April <\/strong>, at <strong>1:00 PM<\/strong> in room <strong>BSC 2.01<\/strong> in the B\u00e2timent des Sciences at Campus Limpertsberg;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"ulux-list-item\">Before the colloquium, we warmly invite you to a <strong>lunch break<\/strong> at <strong>12:00 PM<\/strong> in the main hall of the B\u00e2timent des Sciences. This is a great opportunity to engage with <strong>Prof. Alexander A. Midgal<\/strong> and connect with fellow attendees over a nice coffee break. For logistics purposes, please register by <strong>Friday,  24 April,<\/strong> using the Coffee registration <strong>link below<\/strong>;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"ulux-list-item\"><strong>Attendance in person is preferred.<\/strong> If you are unable to join us in person, you can still participate in the event remotely through the <strong>Webex link<\/strong> provided below. Meeting number (access code): 2783 097 4784; Meeting password: HWwsJqew394.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-unilux-blocks-custom-buttons btn-list\"><li class=\"wp-block-unilux-blocks-custom-button\"    aria-disabled=\"false\"\n    >\n    <a\n        role=\"link\"\n        aria-disabled=\"false\"\n                    href=\"https:\/\/ulsurvey.uni.lu\/index.php\/584713?lang=en\"\n                target=\"_blank\"\n        class=\"btn btn--primary\"\n            >Lunch registration<\/a>\n<\/li>\n\n\n<li class=\"wp-block-unilux-blocks-custom-button\"    aria-disabled=\"false\"\n    >\n    <a\n        role=\"link\"\n        aria-disabled=\"false\"\n                    href=\"https:\/\/unilu.webex.com\/unilu\/j.php?MTID=me087d5219fbfd3d7c6fe8f90f42a1314\"\n                target=\"_blank\"\n        class=\"btn btn--primary\"\n            >Webex link<\/a>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div><\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Headshot of the speaker<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":105,"featured_media":47411,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"featured_image_focal_point":{"x":0.51,"y":0.41},"show_featured_caption":false,"ulux_newsletter_groups":"","uluxPostTitle":"","uluxPrePostTitle":"","_trash_the_other_posts":false,"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"event_start_date":"2026-04-27 13:00:00","event_end_date":"2026-04-27 14:00:00","event_speaker_name":"Professor Alexander Migdal","event_speaker_link":"","event_is_online":false,"event_location":"BS 2.01 Campus Limpertsberg","event_street":"162a, avenue de la Fa\u00efencerie","event_location_link":"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/en\/about\/campuses\/limpertsberg-campus\/","event_zip_code":"1511","event_city":"Luxembourg","event_country":"Luxembourg"},"events-topic":[315],"events-type":[329,322],"organisation":[80,29,95],"authorship":[105],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v22.3 (Yoast SEO v22.3) - 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