Associate Professor of Mathematics Debra Boutin presented a colloquium at the Institute for Defense Analyses, Center for Communication Research, in Princeton, N.J., in February. In her talk, Boutin described the following questions of interest in the area of network symmetries: How many colors are needed in order to color the nodes of a network so that no (non-trivial) symmetry preserves the colors? Can a given network be drawn in Euclidean space (of some dimension) so that its Euclidean symmetries are precisely its network symmetries? If so, how many dimensions are required? What is a smallest set of nodes with the property that every symmetry can be uniquely determined by its action on this set?
Help us provide an accessible education, offer innovative resources and programs, and foster intellectual exploration.