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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260427T150000
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DTSTAMP:20260510T140702
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SUMMARY:Higher current algebras and chiral algebras
DESCRIPTION:Quantum Field Theory and Physical Mathematics Seminar \nSpeaker: Charles Young (University of Hertfordshire) \nTitle: Higher current algebras and chiral algebras \nAbstract: Vertex algebras capture physicists’ notion of OPEs in chiral CFTs\, in complex dimension one. For various motivations\, one would like to have analogs of vertex algebras in higher dimensions. Chiral algebras\, in the sense of Beilinson-Drinfeld and Francis-Gaitsgory\, provide a natural framework here\, because they re-express the vertex algebra axioms (which are rather sui generis\, and therefore hard to generalize) as something more recognizable (a chiral algebra is a Lie algebra\, of a sort).\nI will review this\, and then go on to introduce a certain concrete model of the unit chiral algebra in higher dimensions. In higher dimensions one is forced to work up to coherent homotopy in some fashion; in this model it turns out to be in the mildest fashion one could hope for: namely\, one moves from Lie algebras to their homotopy analogs\, L-infinity algebras\, and from chiral algebras to homotopy chiral algebras in a sense introduced by Malikov-Schechtman.\nThe main tool in the talk will be a strict cdga model — the polysimplicial model — of derived global sections of the structure sheaf on configuration space. The hope is that this model will prove well-adapted to doing concrete calculations\, and in that direction\, I will gesture towards a homotopy version of the usual Arnold/Orlik-Solomon relations for broken circuits. \nThis is joint work with Zhengping Gui and Laura Felder and is based largely on the preprint 2506.09728 \n  \n 
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/qft_42726/
LOCATION:CMSA G102\, 20 Garden Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138
CATEGORIES:Quantum Field Theory and Physical Mathematics
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/media/CMSA-QFT-and-Physical-Mathematics-4.27.26.docx-1-scaled.png
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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260427T163000
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CREATED:20260324T172426Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260420T154505Z
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SUMMARY:Enacted collective cognition: Brainless problem-solving in weaver ants
DESCRIPTION:Colloquium \nSpeaker: Ofer Feinerman\, Weizmann Institute of Science \nTitle: Enacted collective cognition: Brainless problem-solving in weaver ants \nAbstract: Unlike most ants\, weaver ants construct their nests by pulling together leaves. Because individual ants are small relative to the leaves\, they assemble their bodies into temporary tools that bend the leaves into a hollow structure\, later stabilized with larval silk. Remarkably\, they achieve functional nests across a wide range of leaf shapes and configurations\, suggesting that this distributed system is capable of solving complex\, open-ended problems.\nTo understand how this is possible\, we performed laboratory experiments using controlled leaf configurations. In simple cases\, we show that ants can rely on a zipping heuristic that produces closed nests\, and we use differential geometry to demonstrate how flexible leaves are transformed into rigid structures. Crucially\, this zipping behavior forms a feedback loop in which ants continuously read and modify the evolving structure. In this sense\, the nest itself functions as a shared physical information system.\nThis suggests that cognition in this system is not located within individual ants\, but is enacted through the co-dynamics of the colony and the structure it builds. We present preliminary experiments with more complex leaf configurations\, showing that this process can solve increasingly challenging construction problems. Together\, these results point to a distributed\, brainless\, and enactive form of cognition. \n  \n 
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/colloquium-42726/
LOCATION:CMSA Room G10\, CMSA\, 20 Garden Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Colloquium
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