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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20221207T100000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20221207T110000
DTSTAMP:20260409T104723
CREATED:20230705T075744Z
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SUMMARY:Controlling Quantum Matter with Quantum Cavity Fields
DESCRIPTION:Topological Quantum Matter Seminar \nSpeaker: Vasil Rokaj (Harvard) \nTitle: Controlling Quantum Matter with Quantum Cavity Fields \nAbstract: Cavity modification of material properties and phenomena is a novel research field motivated by the advances in strong light-matter interactions [1]. For condensed matter systems it has been demonstrated experimentally that the transport properties of 2D materials can be modified via coupling to vacuum fields [2\,3]. While in polaritonic chemistry it has been shown that ground state chemical properties can be controlled with cavity fields [4]. In the first part of my talk\, I will present how the quantized cavity field can alter the conduction properties of a condensed matter system by focusing on the paradigmatic Sommerfeld model of the free electron gas [5]. The exact analytic solution of the Sommerfeld model in the cavity will be presented as well as its fundamental properties. Then\, in the second part of the talk\, I will focus on a many-particle system of cold ions in a harmonic trap coupled to the cavity field. I will show how this system couples collectively to the cavity and that hybrid states between light and matter\, known as polaritons\, emerge. The formation of polaritons leads to the modification of the properties of the cold ions and enhances the localization of the many-body wave function [6]. Connections to experiments will be discussed as well. \n[1] F. Garcia-Vidal\, C. Ciuti\, T. W. Ebbesen\, Science\, 373\, 178 (2021) \n[2] G. L. Paravicini-Bagliani et al.\, Nat. Phys. 15\, 186-190 (2019) \n[3] F. Appugliese et al.\, Science 375 (6584)\, 1030-1034 (2022) \n[4] T. W. Ebbesen\, Acc. Chem. Res. 49\, 11\, 2403–2412 (2016) \n[5] V. Rokaj\, M. Ruggenthaler\, F. G. Eich\, A. Rubio\, Phys. Rev. Research 4\, 013012 (2022) \n[6] V. Rokaj\, S.I. Mistakidis\, H.R. Sadeghpour\, arXiv:2207.03436 (2022)
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/tqms_12722/
LOCATION:CMSA Room G10\, CMSA\, 20 Garden Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Topological Quantum Matter Seminar
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/media/CMSA-Topological-Seminar-12.07.22.png
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20221207T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20221207T150000
DTSTAMP:20260409T104723
CREATED:20230808T185642Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240116T060930Z
UID:10001215-1670421600-1670425200@cmsa.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:How do Transformers reason? First principles via automata\, semigroups\, and circuits
DESCRIPTION:New Technologies in Mathematics Seminar \nSpeaker: Cyril Zhang\, Microsoft Research \nTitle: How do Transformers reason? First principles via automata\, semigroups\, and circuits \nAbstract: The current “Transformer era” of deep learning is marked by the emergence of combinatorial and algorithmic reasoning capabilities in large sequence models\, leading to dramatic advances in natural language understanding\, program synthesis\, and theorem proving. What is the nature of these models’ internal representations (i.e. how do they represent the states and computational steps of the algorithms they execute)? How can we understand and mitigate their weaknesses\, given that they resist interpretation? In this work\, we present some insights (and many further mysteries) through the lens of automata and their algebraic structure. \nSpecifically\, we investigate the apparent mismatch between recurrent models of computation (automata & Turing machines) and Transformers (which are typically shallow and non-recurrent). Using tools from circuit complexity and semigroup theory\, we characterize shortcut solutions\, whereby a shallow Transformer with only o(T) layers can exactly replicate T computational steps of an automaton. We show that Transformers can efficiently represent these shortcuts in theory; furthermore\, in synthetic experiments\, standard training successfully finds these shortcuts. We demonstrate that shortcuts can lead to statistical brittleness\, and discuss mitigations. \nJoint work with Bingbin Liu\, Jordan Ash\, Surbhi Goel\, and Akshay Krishnamurthy.
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/nt-12722/
LOCATION:CMSA Room G10\, CMSA\, 20 Garden Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:New Technologies in Mathematics Seminar
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/media/12.07.2022.png
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20221207T153000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20221207T163000
DTSTAMP:20260409T104723
CREATED:20230807T165823Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240110T091938Z
UID:10001187-1670427000-1670430600@cmsa.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Fourier quasicrystals and stable polynomials
DESCRIPTION:Probability Seminar \nNote location change: Science Center Room 300H \nSpeaker: Lior Alon (MIT) \nTitle: Fourier quasicrystals and stable polynomials \nAbstract: The Poisson summation formula says that the countable sum of exp(int)\, over all integers n\, vanishes as long as t is not an integer multiple of 2 pi. Can we find a non-periodic discrete set A\, such that the sum of exp(iat)\, over a in A\, vanishes for all t outside of a discrete set? The surprising answer is yes. Yves Meyer called the atomic measure supported on such a set a crystalline measure. Crystalline measures provide another surprising connection between physics (quasicrystals) and number theory (the zeros of the Zeta and L functions under GRH). A recent work of Pavel Kurasov and Peter Sarnak provided a construction of crystalline measures with ‘good’ convergence (Fourier quasicrystals) using stable polynomials\, a family of multivariate polynomials that were previously used in proving the Lee-Yang circle theorem and the Kadison-Singer conjecture. After providing the needed background\, I will discuss a recent work in progress with Cynthia Vinzant on the classification of these Kurasov-Sarnak measures and their supporting sets. We prove that these sets have well-defined gap distributions. We show that each Kurasov-Sarnak measure decomposes according to the irreducible decomposition of its associated polynomial\, and the measures associated with each irreducible factor is either supported on an arithmetic progression\, or its support has a bounded intersection with any arithmetic progression. Finally\, we construct random Kurasov-Sarnak measures with gap distribution as close as we want to the eigenvalues spacing of a random unitary matrix. \nBased on joint work with Pravesh Kothari.
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/probability-12722/
LOCATION:Harvard Science Center\, 1 Oxford Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138
CATEGORIES:Probability Seminar
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/media/CMSA-Probability-Seminar-12.07.22.png
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