The study of Dynamical Systems emerged from classical 19th and 20th century physics as an abstraction of systems that change over time. Today the discipline has evolved into a rich and independent theory, with connections to many other branches of mathematics, including number theory, combinatorics, analysis, random walks and random matrix products, fractal geometry and geometric measure theory, information theory, Lie groups and discrete groups, descriptive set theory, computation and complexity theory, complex analysis, and mathematical finance. The dynamical systems group at the Hebrew University has taken a central role in the development of the theory since the early 1960s, and includes many of the leading researchers in the field today.
The theory of probability serves as a mathematical model for uncertainty. Its roots trace back to the 17th century, but it expanded significantly in the 20th century, both in theoretical scope and in applications, establishing it on the foundations of measure theory. Today, probability theory is used in nearly every aspect of daily life, and its influences are evident in other mathematical fields such as combinatorics, geometry, and number theory. Members of the institute study both discrete and continuous probability, and their areas of interest range from random walks and random graphs to Gaussian processes and random matrices.
Faculty members in Dynamics and Probability:
- Ohad Noy Feldheim: Probability theory, Combinatorics, Mathematical physics.
- Hillel Furstenberg (emeritus): Ergodic theory, Topological dynamics, Lie groups, Geometry of fractals, Ergodic Ramsey Theory.
- Adi Glücksam: Complex analysis, Potential theory, Dynamics.
- Ori Gurel-Gurevich: Probability theory, Simple random walks on general graphs, Percolation theory, Random graphs, Probabilistic algorithms, Spatial random systems.
- Mike Hochman: Dynamical system theory, Ergodic theory, Topological dynamics, Symbolic dynamics, Fractal geometry.
- Yuri Kifer (emeritus): Probability, Dynamical systems, Financial mathematics.
- Zemer Kosloff: Ergodic theory, Probability, Dynamical systems.
- Or Landesberg: Homogeneous dynamics, Ergodic theory, Hyperbolic geometry, Fractal geometry.
- Genadi Levin: Low-dimensional dynamics, Complex dynamics, Non-linear phenomena, Complex analysis.
- Noam Lifshitz: Combinatorics, Discrete analysis, Group theory, Probability theory.
- Elon Lindenstrauss: Ergodic theory, Dynamical systems, and their applications to number theory.
- Shahar Mozes: Ergodic theory, Lie Groups and Discrete subgroups.
- Yuval Peled: Combinatorics, Probability theory, Topology.
- Alexander Sodin: Mathematical physics, Analysis, Probability.
- Benjy Weiss (emeritus): Ergodic theory, Topological dynamics, Probability theory.
- Tamar Ziegler: Ergodic theory, Combinatorics, Number theory.