Laura DeMarco finds psychedelic beauty in complex sequences

Why are there gaps in the asteroid belt?

The answer can be found in dynamical systems, the branch of mathematics that deals with the evolution of chaotic systems over time. The field was the subject of a recent Harvard Radcliffe Institute talk by Laura DeMarco.

“It turns out there’s a lot of hidden number theory in the planets’ very motion, for example, in the structure of the rings around Saturn,” explained DeMarco, Radcliffe Alumnae Professor at Harvard Radcliffe Institute and a professor of mathematics in the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences. There are places asteroids simply cannot be, she went on, because of the underlying number theory that “prohibits certain behavior.”

Read the full story at the Harvard Gazette.