2026 Joint Mathematics Meetings
Jiri Minarcik
Artists
Jiri Minarcik
Fulbright-Masaryk Postdoctoral Fellow
Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States
Statement
I am a mathematician specializing on geometric flows and their applications in physics and computer graphics. My artistic work grows directly out of my research. I enjoy creating renderings, interactive simulations, and, more recently, physical 3D prints that visualize the mathematical phenomena I am currently exploring. My goal is for these works to help me and others see and understand these mathematical structures more clearly.
Artworks
This work visualizes the surface swept by a vortex filament evolving from a square loop under the vortex filament equation, which models the self-induced motion of vortices in an ideal, inviscid fluid such as smoke rings or bubble vortices. While these flows usually produce smooth motion, the equation admits well-defined evolution even for polygonal vortex filaments with corners. These evolve periodically and generate trajectories with multifractal properties. The rendered surface reveals the geometry of this motion, exposing layered, Romanesco-like patterns that emerge from a single local rule. How much of this intricate geometry can be captured in real experiments with vortex rings remains an open and exciting question.