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Speaker: Sean CoxTitle: Predicting non-continuous functionsVenue: CMSA Room G10Speaker: Sean Cox, Virginia Commonwealth University Title: Predicting non-continuous functions Abstract: One of the strangest consequences of the Axiom of Choice is the following Hardin-Taylor 2008 result: there is a “predictor” such that for every function $f$ from the reals to the reals—even nowhere continuous $f$—the predictor applied to $f \restriction (-\infty,t)$ correctly predicts $f(t)$ for *almost every* $t \in R$. They asked how robust such a predictor could be, with respect to distortions in the time (input) axis; more precisely, for which subgroups $H$ of Homeo^+(R) do there exist $H$-invariant predictors? Bajpai-Velleman proved an affirmative answer when H=Affine^+(R), and a negative answer when H is (the subgroup generated by) C^\infty(R). They asked about the intermediate region; in particular,… |
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Speaker: Tim AdamoTitle: An invitation to strong-field scatteringVenue: CMSA Room G10Speaker: Tim Adamo, University of Edinburgh Title: An invitation to strong-field scattering Abstract: Scattering amplitudes in strong background fields provide an arena where perturbative and non-perturbative physics meet, with important applications ranging from laser physics to black holes, but their study is hampered by the cumbersome nature of QFT in the background field formalism. In this talk, I will try to convince you that strong-field scattering amplitudes contain a wealth of physical information which cannot be obtained with standard perturbative techniques, ranging from all-order classical observables to constraints on exact solutions. Furthermore, I will discuss how amplitudes in certain chiral strong fields can be obtained to all-multiplicity twistor and string methods. |
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Speaker: Xin GuoTitle: Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs): An Analytical PerspectiveVenue: CMSA Room G10Speaker: Xin Guo, UC Berkeley Title: Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs): An Analytical Perspective Abstract: Generative models have attracted intense interests recently. In this talk, I will discuss one class of generative models, Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs). I will first provide a gentle review of the mathematical framework behind GANs. I will then proceed to discuss a few challenges in GANs training from an analytical perspective. I will finally report some recent progress for GANs training in terms of its stability and convergence analysis. |
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Speaker: Max MetlitskiTitle: Boundary behavior at classical and quantum phase transitionsVenue: CMSA Room G10Speaker: Max Metlitski (MIT) Title: Boundary behavior at classical and quantum phase transitions Abstract: There has been a lot of recent interest in the boundary behavior of materials. This interest is driven in part by the field of topological states of quantum matter, where exotic protected boundary states are ubiquitous. In this talk, I’ll ask: what happens at a boundary of a system, when the bulk goes through a phase transition. While this question was studied in the context of classical statistical mechanics in the 70s and 80s, basic aspects of the boundary phase diagram for the simplest classical phase transitions have been missed until recently. I’ll describe progress in this field, as well as some extensions to quantum phase transitions…. |
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Speaker: Julio Parra MartinezTitle: Black hole collider physicsVenue: CMSA Room G10Speaker: Julio Parra Martinez, Caltech Title: Black hole collider physics Abstract: Despite more than a century since the development of Einstein’s theory, the general relativistic two-body problem remains unsolved. A precise description of its solution is now essential, as it is necessary for understanding the strong-gravity dynamics of compact binaries observed at LIGO/VIRGO/KAGRA and in future gravitational wave observatories. In this talk, I will describe how considering the scattering of black holes and gravitons can shed new light on this problem. I will explain how using modern ideas from collider and particle physics we can calculate scattering observables in classical gravity, and extract the basic ingredients that describe the bound binary dynamics. Such calculations have produced state-of-art predictions… |
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Speaker: James HalversonTitle: Unexpected Uses of Neural Networks: Field Theory and Metric FlowsVenue: CMSA Room G10Speaker: James Halverson (Northeastern University) Title: Unexpected Uses of Neural Networks: Field Theory and Metric Flows Abstract: We are now quite used to the idea that deep neural networks may be trained in a variety of ways to tackle cutting-edge problems in physics and mathematics, sometimes leading to rigorous results. In this talk, however, I will argue that breakthroughs in deep learning theory are also useful for making progress, focusing on applications to field theory and metric flows. Specifically, I will introduce a neural network approach to field theory with a different statistical origin, that exhibits generalized free field behavior at infinite width and interactions at finite width, and that allows for the study of symmetries via the study of correlation functions… |
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Speaker: Luca IliesiuTitle: Black hole microstate counting from the gravitational path integralVenue: CMSA Room G10Colloquium Speaker: Luca Iliesiu, Stanford Title: Black hole microstate counting from the gravitational path integral Abstract: Reproducing the integer count of black hole micro-states from the gravitational path integral is an important problem in quantum gravity. In the first part of the talk, I will show that, by using supersymmetric localization, the gravitational path integral for 1/16-BPS black holes in supergravity can reproduce the index obtained in the string theory construction of such black holes. A more refined argument then shows that not only the black hole index but also the total number of black hole microstates within an energy window above extremality that is polynomially suppressed in the charges also matches this string theory index. In the second part of the talk, I will… |
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Speaker: Ruth BrittoTitle: Scattering amplitudes in quantum field theoryVenue: CMSA Room G10Speaker: Ruth Britto (Trinity College Dublin) Title: Scattering amplitudes in quantum field theory Abstract: Particle collider experiments require a detailed description of scattering events, traditionally computed through sums of Feynman diagrams. However, it is not practical to evaluate Feynman diagrams directly for all significant scattering processes. Moreover, adding all diagrams reveals many cancellations: scattering amplitudes in theories such as QCD take remarkably simple forms. This simplicity is a clue that the perturbative theory is perhaps best understood without reference to Feynman diagrams. In fact, it has recently become possible to explain some of this simplicity. I will show how to derive many amplitudes efficiently and elegantly, and propose taming the remaining complexity with ideas drawn from combinatorics and… |
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Speaker: Mete SonerTitle: Synchronization in a Kuramoto Mean Field GameVenue: CMSA Room G10Speaker: Mete Soner (Princeton University) Title: Synchronization in a Kuramoto Mean Field Game Abstract: Originally motivated by systems of chemical and biological oscillators, the classical Kuramoto model has found an amazing range of applications from neuroscience to Josephson junctions in superconductors, and has become a key mathematical model to describe self organization in complex systems. These autonomous oscillators are coupled through a nonlinear interaction term which plays a central role in the long term behavior of the system. While the system is not synchronized when this term is not sufficiently strong, fascinatingly, they exhibit an abrupt transition to a full synchronization above a critical value of the interaction parameter. We explore this system in the mean field formalism. We treat the system… |
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Speaker: Ning SuTitle: Conformal symmetry, Optimization algorithms and the Critical PhenomenaVenue: CMSA Room G10Speaker: Ning Su, University of Pisa Title: Conformal symmetry, Optimization algorithms and the Critical Phenomena Abstract: In the phase diagram of many substances, the critical points have emergent conformal symmetry and are described by conformal field theories. Traditionally, physical quantities near the critical point can be computed by perturbative field theory method, where conformal symmetry is not fully utilized. In this talk, I will explain how conformal symmetry can be used to determine certain physical quantities, without even knowing the fine details of the microscopic structure. To compute the observables precisely, one needs to develop powerful numerical techniques. In the last few years, we have invented many computational tools and algorithms, and predicted critical exponents of Helium-4 superfluid… |