Ali Behsahdan: Math Colloquium
Room 103, Darwin Hall
4:00 pm
Beyond functions: A Gentle Dive into Distributions and Their Hidden Structure. Many integrals, derivatives, and limits that arise naturally in analysis or physics simply don’t make sense—until we expand our notion of the objects for which calculus operations such as derivatives and limits are meaningful. Distributions, or generalized functions, provide a powerful framework that not only resolves these paradoxes but also offers a unified language for working with PDEs, and more. In this talk, I will discuss the motivations behind distributions, explore some of their key properties, and show how familiar function spaces fit naturally within this broader setting. Along the way, we'll see examples where classical analysis falls short and how the distributional viewpoint steps in with clarity and elegance. Open to all students, faculty, and community members. For any questions or accommodations, please email [email protected]