Title:  Homogenization of Parabolic Operators

Abstract:  Operators that oscillate rapidly on a domain present challenges to estimating a solution. In homogenization, we hope to replace such an operator with one that is uniform in the domain.  In this talk, we will explore the problem of homogenizing a periodic parabolic operator with Dirichlet boundary conditions. We find a form for the operator using a formal expansion and then use Tartar's method of oscillating test functions to prove the result.