Title: De Bruijn-Newman constant, Riemann zeta function, and statistical mechanics

Speaker: Wei Wu, New York University Shanghai

Time: 2025-04-03 (Thursday), 2025, 15:45 - 16:45

Place: Room 5306, the Fifth Teaching Building

Abstract: The Riemann hypothesis can be formulated as the Fourier transform of a special function having only real zeros. Polya introduced a one-parameter family of the zeta functions associated with the Fourier transform, and the work of De Bruijn and Newman implies that there is a phase transition of the behavior of zeros, marked by the now known De Bruijn-Newman constant. Such behavior of zeros also arises in a different field in statistical mechanics known as the Lee-Yang theorem. In this talk, we will survey these results.