Way back in 1994 I wrote an undergraduate thesis for my math degree at
Reed College. It was a fun project, studying
a discrete dynamic system that was an extension of the
Ising
model. Sort of cellular automata meets statistical mechanics.
It's the only significant thing I've written that's not
online (too lazy).
A few years ago my colleagues from the
Santa Fe Institute wrote a
preprint from that work,
Vortex Dynamics and
Entropic Coulomb Forces in Ising and Potts Antiferromagnets and Ice
Models. They were kind enough to list me as an author even though
I barely understand half the paper! I do have the pretty pictures,
though, plus a healthy appreciation of the complexity of
discrete systems.
I've never met one of the co-authors,
Cosma Shalizi. But
thanks to his having
a weblog I now
know more about him than the
other
guys.