Cornell scientist discusses X-ray phase problem solutions

Veit Elser of Cornell University will speak on “A Solution Strategy for Hard Problems Inspired by the X-ray Phase Problem” Wednesday, April 24 at 4 p.m. in 124 Hasbrouck Laboratory.

A standard topic in the introductory physics curriculum is computing a diffraction pattern given a pair of slits of a given size and separation -- but not the reverse, i.e. directly computing the structure of the slits from the diffraction pattern. This colloquium begins with a tutorial on solving the reverse problem and puts this in the context of current efforts to image molecules with free-electron x-ray lasers. The principle of the algorithm that solves the x-ray "phase problem," as it is usually called, is remarkably general and has proven to be a powerful strategy for solving a broad range of constraint problems. A sampling of these, from packings to proteins, is described at the end of the talk.

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