Dear all, Our upcoming AM seminar is held next Wednesday 01 November at 1pm in F07 Carslaw Lecture Theatre 373. Our speaker is Pieter Roffelsen (University of Sydney). Talk details follow below: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Title: On connection problems for Painlev\’{e} transcendents and affine Del Pezzo surfaces Abstract: For ordinary differential equations, explicitly relating the behaviours of solutions near distinct points, constitutes an important but often completely intractable problem, known as a connection problem. It is thus a remarkable fact that, for the highly transcendental and nonlinear Painlevé equations, certain connection problems are solvable. In this talk, I will discuss some of the history and mathematics involved in solving these problems, as well as recent extensions to the q-difference setting, and how the beautiful geometry of affine Del Pezzo surfaces plays a central role in their solutions. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- An ongoing list of AM seminars is posted here: https://www.maths.usyd.edu.au/u/SemConf/Applied.html See you there, Jae Min