astronomy

Michael J. Larsen

Michael J. Larsen is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Michael J. Larsen rather than just read about it. In short: Michael Jeffrey Larsen is an American mathematician, a distinguished professor of mathematics at Indiana University Bloomington. Academic biography In high school, Larsen tied with four other competitors for the top score in the 1977 International Mathematical Olympiad in Belgrade, winning a gold medal.

Key takeaways

Michael J. Larsen belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Michael J. Larsen to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Michael J. Larsen from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Michael Jeffrey Larsen is an American mathematician, a distinguished professor of mathematics at Indiana University Bloomington.

Academic biography In high school, Larsen tied with four other competitors for the top score in the 1977 International Mathematical Olympiad in Belgrade, winning a gold medal. As an undergraduate mathematics student at Harvard University, Larsen became a Putnam Fellow in 1981 and 1983. He graduated from Harvard in 1984, and earned his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1988, under the supervision of Gerd Faltings. After working at the Institute for Advanced Study he joined the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania in 1990, and then moved to the University of Missouri in 1997. He joined the Indiana University faculty in 2001. His wife Ayelet Lindenstrauss (Elon Lindenstrauss' sister) is also a mathematician and Indiana University professor. Their son Daniel at age 13 became the youngest person to publish a crossword in the New York Times. In 2022, Daniel published a discovery about Carmichael numbers.

Research Larsen is known for his research in arithmetic algebraic geometry, combinatorial group theory, combinatorics, and number theory. He has written highly cited papers on domino tiling of Aztec diamonds, topological quantum computing, and on the representation theory of braid groups.

Awards and honors In 2013 he became a fellow of the American Mathematical Society, for "contributions to group theory, number theory, topology, and algebraic geometry". He received the E. H. Moore Research Article Prize of the AMS in 2013 (jointly with Richard Pink).

Selected publications Elkies, Noam; Kuperberg, Greg; Larsen, Michael; Propp, James (1992), "Alternating-sign matrices and domino tilings. I", Journal of Algebraic Combinatorics, 1 (2): 111–132, arXiv:math.CO/9201305, doi:10.1023/A:1022420103267, MR 1226347, S2CID 41082861. Freedman, Michael H.; Larsen, Michael; Wang, Zhenghan (2002a), "A modular functor which is universal for quantum computation", Communications in Mathematical Physics, 227 (3): 605–622, Bibcode:2002CMaPh.227..605F, doi:10.1007/s002200200645, MR 1910833, S2CID 8990600. Freedman, Michael H.; Larsen, Michael J.; Wang, Zhenghan (2002b), "The two-eigenvalue problem and density of Jones representation of braid groups", Communications in Mathematical Physics, 228 (1): 177–199, arXiv:math/0103200, Bibcode:2002CMaPh.228..177F, doi:10.1007/s002200200636, MR 1911253, S2CID 8163385. Freedman, Michael H.; Kitaev, Alexei; Larsen, Michael J.; Wang, Zhenghan (2003), "Topological quantum computation", Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society, 40 (1): 31–38, arXiv:quant-ph/0101025, doi:10.1090/S0273-0979-02-00964-3, MR 1943131.

References

External links Home page at Indiana University

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Michael J. Larsen

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Michael J. Larsen claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Michael J. Larsen before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Michael J. Larsen ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Michael J. Larsen

In research: Michael J. Larsen appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Michael J. Larsen in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Michael J. Larsen is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 20th-century American mathematicians, 21st-century American mathematicians, Fellows of the American Mathematical Society, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Michael J. Larsen outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Michael J. Larsen in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Michael J. Larsen means in your own words.
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Frequently asked questions

What is Michael J. Larsen in simple terms?

Michael Jeffrey Larsen is an American mathematician, a distinguished professor of mathematics at Indiana University Bloomington. Academic biography In high school, Larsen tied with four other competitors for the top score in the 1977 International Mathematical Olympiad in Belgrade, winning a gold m…

Why does Michael J. Larsen matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Michael J. Larsen?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Michael J. Larsen.