January 21, 1997:        "How long is a piece of string ?""


                             Julian Borrill 
                            Dept. of Physics
                            Dartmouth College

Cosmic strings are topologically stable energy configurations
which may be formed at a phase transition in the very early
universe, and, if so, may be responsible for generating the
primordial density perturbations necessary to seed the
clustering of matter into the astrophysical structures we
observe today. I will discuss the traditional
Vachaspati-Vilenkin method of computer-simulating their
formation, demonstrate its shortcomings, and present a recent
alternative "lattice-free" approach.


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January 28, 1997:           TBA

                         Ulf Osterberg
                        Dept. of Elec. Eng.
                        Dartmouth College

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February 11, 1997:          TBA
         
                          Stuart Kauffman
                         Santa Fe Institute

             Visiting Montogomery Fellow of Dartmouth College

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