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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20221207T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20221207T150000
DTSTAMP:20240116T060930Z
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
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230131T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230131T130000
DTSTAMP:20240118T033236Z
CREATED:20230817T164947Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240118T033236Z
UID:10001231-1675166400-1675170000@cmsa.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:AI and Theorem Proving
DESCRIPTION:Member Seminar \nSpeaker: Mike Douglas \nTitle: AI and Theorem Proving \nAbstract: We survey interactive theorem proving and the Lean theorem prover\, and the use of AI and large language models to improve this technology. We hope to start a discussion on projects we can do at the CMSA.
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/member-seminar-13123/
LOCATION:CMSA Room G10\, CMSA\, 20 Garden Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Member Seminar
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230202T123000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230202T133000
DTSTAMP:20240121T174936Z
CREATED:20230817T175011Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240121T174936Z
UID:10001272-1675341000-1675344600@cmsa.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Neural Optimal Stopping Boundary
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Max Reppen (Boston University) \nTitle: Neural Optimal Stopping Boundary \nAbstract:  A method based on deep artificial neural networks and empirical risk minimization is developed to calculate the boundary separating the stopping and continuation regions in optimal stopping. The algorithm parameterizes the stopping boundary as the graph of a function and introduces relaxed stopping rules based on fuzzy boundaries to facilitate efficient optimization. Several financial instruments\, some in high dimensions\, are analyzed through this method\, demonstrating its effectiveness. The existence of the stopping boundary is also proved under natural structural assumptions.
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/colloquium_2223/
LOCATION:CMSA Room G10\, CMSA\, 20 Garden Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Colloquium
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/media/02CMSA-Colloquium-02.02.2023.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230207T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230207T130000
DTSTAMP:20240215T101240Z
CREATED:20230817T165237Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240215T101240Z
UID:10001232-1675771200-1675774800@cmsa.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Motivic Geometry of Two-Loop Feynman Integrals
DESCRIPTION:Member Seminar \nSpeaker: Chuck Doran \nTitle: Motivic Geometry of Two-Loop Feynman Integrals \nAbstract: We study the geometry and Hodge theory of the cubic hypersurfaces attached to two-loop Feynman integrals for generic physical parameters. We show that the Hodge structure attached to planar two-loop Feynman graphs decomposes into a mixed Tate piece and a variation of Hodge structure from families of hyperelliptic curves\, elliptic curves\, or rational curves depending on the space-time dimension. We give more precise results for two-loop graphs with a small number of edges. In particular\, we recover a result of Spencer Bloch that in the well-known double box example there is an underlying family of elliptic curves\, and we give a concrete description of these elliptic curves. We show that the motive for the “non-planar” two-loop tardigrade graph is that of a family of K3 surfaces of generic Picard number 11. Lastly\, we show that generic members of the multi-scoop ice cream cone family of graph hypersurfaces correspond to pairs of multi-loop sunset Calabi-Yau varieties. Our geometric realization of these motives permits us in many cases to derive in full the homogeneous differential operators for the corresponding Feynman integrals. This is joint work with Andrew Harder and Pierre Vanhove.
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/member-seminar-2723/
LOCATION:CMSA Room G10\, CMSA\, 20 Garden Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Member Seminar
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230208T123000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230208T133000
DTSTAMP:20240214T112702Z
CREATED:20230817T175326Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240214T112702Z
UID:10001273-1675859400-1675863000@cmsa.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:From spin glasses to Boolean circuits lower bounds - Algorithmic barriers from the overlap gap property
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: David Gamarnik (MIT) \nTitle: From spin glasses to Boolean circuits lower bounds. Algorithmic barriers from the overlap gap property \nAbstract: Many decision and optimization problems over random structures exhibit an apparent gap between the existentially optimal values and algorithmically achievable values. Examples include the problem of finding a largest independent set in a random graph\, the problem of finding a near ground state in a spin glass model\, the problem of finding a satisfying assignment in a random constraint satisfaction problem\, and many many more. Unfortunately\, at the same time no formal computational hardness results exist which  explains this persistent algorithmic gap. \nIn the talk we will describe a new approach for establishing an algorithmic intractability for these problems called the overlap gap property. Originating in statistical physics theory of spin glasses\, this is a simple to describe property which a) emerges in most models known to exhibit an apparent algorithmic hardness; b) is consistent with the hardness/tractability phase transition for many models analyzed to the day; and\, importantly\, c) allows to mathematically rigorously rule out a large class of algorithms as potential contenders\, specifically the algorithms which exhibit a form of stability/noise insensitivity. \nWe will specifically show how to use this property to obtain stronger (stretched exponential) than the state of the art (quasi-polynomial) lower bounds on the size of constant depth Boolean circuits for solving the two of the aforementioned problems: the problem of finding a large independent set in a sparse random graph\, and the problem of finding a near ground state of a p-spin model. \nJoint work with Aukosh Jagannath and Alex Wein
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/collquium-2823/
LOCATION:CMSA Room G10\, CMSA\, 20 Garden Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Colloquium
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/media/02CMSA-Colloquium-02.08.2023.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230213T123000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230213T133000
DTSTAMP:20240222T165748Z
CREATED:20230817T175704Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240222T165748Z
UID:10001274-1676291400-1676295000@cmsa.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Complete Calabi-Yau metrics: Recent progress and open problems
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Tristan Collins\, MIT \nTitle: Complete Calabi-Yau metrics: Recent progress and open problems \nAbstract: Complete Calabi-Yau metrics are fundamental objects in Kahler geometry arising as singularity models or “bubbles” in degenerations of compact Calabi-Yau manifolds.  The existence of these metrics and their relationship with algebraic geometry are the subjects of several long standing conjectures due to Yau and Tian-Yau. I will describe some recent progress towards the question of existence\, and explain some future directions\, highlighting connections with notions of algebro-geometric stability.
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/collquium-21323/
LOCATION:CMSA Room G10\, CMSA\, 20 Garden Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Colloquium
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/media/02CMSA-Colloquium-02.13.2023-.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230214T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230214T130000
DTSTAMP:20240228T094059Z
CREATED:20230817T165432Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240228T094059Z
UID:10001233-1676376000-1676379600@cmsa.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Dynamics of active nematic defects on cones
DESCRIPTION:Member Seminar \nSpeaker: Farzan Vafa \nTitle: Dynamics of active nematic defects on cones \nAbstract: In the first part of the talk\, we investigate the ground-state configurations of two-dimensional liquid crystals with p-fold rotational symmetry (p-atics) on cones. The cone apex develops an effective topological charge\, which in analogy to electrostatics\, leads to defect absorption and emission at the cone apex as the deficit angle of the cone is varied. We find three types of ground-state configurations as a function of cone angle\, which is determined by charged defects screening the effective apex charge: (i) for sharp cones\, all of the +1/p defects are absorbed by the apex; (ii) at intermediate cone angles\, some of the +1/p defects are absorbed by the apex and the rest lie equally spaced along a concentric ring on the flank; and (iii) for nearly flat cones\, all of the +1/p defects lie equally spaced along a concentric ring on the flank. We check these results with numerical simulations for a set of commensurate cone angles and find excellent agreement. In the second part of the talk\, we investigate the dynamics of an active nematic on a cone\, and via simulations find long-time circular orbits of either one or two flank defects\, with transitions between these states mediated by the apex via defect absorption\, emission\, or defect pair creation.
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/member-seminar-21423/
LOCATION:CMSA Room G10\, CMSA\, 20 Garden Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Member Seminar
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230221T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230221T130000
DTSTAMP:20240118T052804Z
CREATED:20230817T165641Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240118T052804Z
UID:10001234-1676980800-1676984400@cmsa.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Hints of Flat Space Holography
DESCRIPTION:Member Seminar \nSpeaker: Dan Kapec \nTitle: Hints of Flat Space Holography \nAbstract: Despite our detailed understanding of holography in Anti-de Sitter space\, flat space holography remains somewhat mysterious. “Celestial CFT” is a formalism which attempts to recast quantum gravity in (d+2)-dimensional asymptotically flat spacetimes in terms of a d-dimensional Euclidean conformal field theory residing at the conformal boundary. I will discuss certain universal aspects of this correspondence. As in Anti-de Sitter space\, bulk gravitons produce a boundary stress tensor\, and bulk gluons furnish boundary-conserved currents. I will also show that continuous spaces of vacua in the bulk map directly onto the conformal manifold of the boundary CFT. This correspondence provides a new perspective on the role of the BMS group in flat space holography and offers a new interpretation of the antisymmetric double-soft gluon theorem in terms of the curvature of an infinite-dimensional vacuum manifold.
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/member-seminar-22123/
LOCATION:CMSA Room G10\, CMSA\, 20 Garden Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Member Seminar
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230222T123000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230222T133000
DTSTAMP:20240215T111058Z
CREATED:20230817T180053Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240215T111058Z
UID:10001275-1677069000-1677072600@cmsa.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:The Black Hole Information Paradox: A Resolution on the Horizon?
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Netta Engelhardt (MIT) \nTitle: The Black Hole Information Paradox: A Resolution on the Horizon? \nAbstract: The black hole information paradox — whether information escapes an evaporating black hole or not — remains one of the most longstanding mysteries of theoretical physics. The apparent conflict between validity of semiclassical gravity at low energies and unitarity of quantum mechanics has long been expected to find its resolution in a complete quantum theory of gravity. Recent developments in the holographic dictionary\, and in particular its application to entanglement and complexity\, however\, have shown that a semiclassical analysis of gravitational physics can reproduce a hallmark feature of unitary evolution. I will describe this recent progress and discuss some promising indications of a full resolution of the information paradox.
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/collquium-22223/
LOCATION:CMSA Room G10\, CMSA\, 20 Garden Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Colloquium
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/media/02CMSA-Colloquium-02.22.2023.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230302T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230302T130000
DTSTAMP:20240118T052933Z
CREATED:20230817T165840Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240118T052933Z
UID:10001235-1677758400-1677762000@cmsa.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:New bounds on lattice covering volumes\, and nearly uniform covers
DESCRIPTION:Member Seminar \nSpeaker: Barak Weiss   \nTitle: New bounds on lattice covering volumes\, and nearly uniform covers \nAbstract: Let L be a lattice in R^n and let K be a convex body. The covering volume of L with respect to K is the minimal volume of a dilate rK\, such that L+rK = R^n\, normalized by the covolume of L. Pairs (L\,K) with small covering volume correspond to efficient coverings of space by translates of K\, where the translates lie in a lattice. Finding upper bounds on the covering volume as the dimension n grows is a well studied problem\, with connections to practical questions arising in computer science and electrical engineering. In a recent paper with Or Ordentlich (EE\, Hebrew University) and Oded Regev (CS\, NYU) we obtain substantial improvements to bounds of Rogers from the 1950s. In another recent paper\, we obtain bounds on the minimal volume of nearly uniform covers (to be defined in the talk). The key to these results are recent breakthroughs by Dvir and others regarding the discrete Kakeya problem. I will give an overview of the questions and results.
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/member-seminar-3223/
LOCATION:CMSA Room G10\, CMSA\, 20 Garden Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Member Seminar
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230302T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230302T170000
DTSTAMP:20240216T085143Z
CREATED:20230817T180503Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240216T085143Z
UID:10001276-1677772800-1677776400@cmsa.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:The string/black hole transition in anti de Sitter space
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Erez Urbach\, Weizmann Institute of Science \nTitle: The string/black hole transition in anti de Sitter space \nAbstract: String stars\, or Horowitz-Polchinski solutions\, are string theory saddles with normalizable condensates of thermal-winding strings. In the past\, string stars were offered as a possible description of stringy (Euclidean) black holes in asymptotically flat spacetime\, close to the Hagedorn temperature. I will discuss the thermodynamic properties of string stars in asymptotically (thermal) anti-de Sitter background (including AdS3 with NS-NS flux)\, their possible connection to small black holes in AdS\, and their implications for holography. I will also present new “winding-string gas” saddles for confining holographic backgrounds such as the Witten model\, and their relation to the deconfined phase of 3+1 pure Yang-Mills.
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/collquium-3223/
LOCATION:CMSA Room G10\, CMSA\, 20 Garden Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Colloquium
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/media/02CMSA-Colloquium-03.02.2023.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230307T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230307T130000
DTSTAMP:20240118T064352Z
CREATED:20230817T170153Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240118T064352Z
UID:10001236-1678190400-1678194000@cmsa.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Categorical Symmetry of the Standard Model from Gravitational Anomaly 
DESCRIPTION:Member Seminar \nSpeaker: Juven Wang \nTitle: Categorical Symmetry of the Standard Model from Gravitational Anomaly \nAbstract: In the Standard Model\, the total “sterile right-handed” neutrino number n_{νR} is not equal to the family number Nf. The anomaly index (-Nf+n_{νR}) had been advocated to play an important role in our previous work on Cobordism and Deformation Class of the Standard Model [2112.14765\, 2204.08393] and Ultra Unification [2012.15860] in order to predict new highly entangled sectors beyond the Standard Model. Moreover\, the invertible baryon minus lepton number B−L symmetry current conservation can be violated quantum mechanically by gravitational backgrounds such as gravitational instantons. In specific\, we show that a noninvertible categorical counterpart of the B−L symmetry still survives in gravitational backgrounds. In general\, we propose a construction of noninvertible symmetry charge operators as topological defects derived from invertible anomalous symmetries that suffer from mixed gravitational anomalies. Examples include the perturbative local and nonperturbative global anomalies classified by ℤ and ℤ16 respectively. For this construction\, we utilize the anomaly inflow concept and the 3d Witten-Reshetikhin-Turaev-type topological quantum field theory corresponding to a 2d rational conformal field theory with an appropriate chiral central charge\, or the 3d boundary topological order of 4d ℤTF4-time-reversal symmetric topological superconductor [2302.14862].
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/member-seminar-3723/
LOCATION:CMSA Room G10\, CMSA\, 20 Garden Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Member Seminar
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230308T123000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230308T133000
DTSTAMP:20240228T111406Z
CREATED:20230817T180824Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240228T111406Z
UID:10001277-1678278600-1678282200@cmsa.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Conformal symmetry\, Optimization algorithms and the Critical Phenomena
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Ning Su\, University of Pisa \nTitle: Conformal symmetry\, Optimization algorithms and the Critical Phenomena \nAbstract: 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 phase transition and Heisenberg magnet to very high precision.
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/collquium-3823/
LOCATION:CMSA Room G10\, CMSA\, 20 Garden Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Colloquium
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/media/02CMSA-Colloquium-03.08.2023.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230308T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230308T150000
DTSTAMP:20240223T154858Z
CREATED:20230808T190051Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240223T154858Z
UID:10001812-1678284000-1678287600@cmsa.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:How to steer foundation models?
DESCRIPTION:New Technologies in Mathematics Seminar \nSpeaker: Jimmy Ba\, University of Toronto \nTitle: How to steer foundation models? \nAbstract: By conditioning on natural language instructions\, foundation models and large language models (LLMs) have displayed impressive capabilities as general-purpose computers. However\, task performance depends significantly on the quality of the prompt used to steer the model. Due to the lack of knowledge of how foundation models work\, most effective prompts have been handcrafted by humans through a demanding trial-and-error process. To reduce the human effort in this alignment process\, I will discuss a few approaches to steer these powerful models to excel in various downstream language and image tasks. \n 
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/nt-3823/
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/03.08.2023.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230314T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230314T130000
DTSTAMP:20240118T065025Z
CREATED:20230817T170402Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240118T065025Z
UID:10001237-1678795200-1678798800@cmsa.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Randomized algorithms in combinatorics
DESCRIPTION:Member Seminar \nSpeaker: Michael Simkin \nTitle: Randomized algorithms in combinatorics \nAbstract: Randomized algorithms have been a computational workhorse for almost as long as there have been computers. Surprisingly\, such algorithms can also be used to attack problems that are neither algorithmic nor probabilistic. Time permitting I will discuss the following combintorial examples: \n\nEnumerative combinatorics and the n-queens problem: In how many ways can one place n queens on an n x n chessboard so that no queen threatens any other?\nConstructions of combinatorial designs and the Erdos high-girth Steiner triple system problem: An order-n Steiner triple system (STS) is a collection of triples on n vertices such that every pair of vertices is contained in exactly one triple. In 1973 Erdos conjectured that there exist STSs with arbitrary large girth (informally\, no small set of vertices spans many triples). I will discuss the use of randomized algorithms to prove this conjecture. Joint work with Kwan\, Sah\, and Sawhney.\nThresholds in random graphs and hypergraphs: I will discuss how randomized algorithms can be combined with the recent resolution of the Kahn–Kalai conjecture to determine thresholds in random (hyper) graph theory. Joint work with Pham\, Sah\, and Sawhney.
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/member-seminar-31423/
LOCATION:CMSA Room G10\, CMSA\, 20 Garden Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Member Seminar
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230321T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230321T130000
DTSTAMP:20240118T070105Z
CREATED:20230817T170644Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240118T070105Z
UID:10001238-1679400000-1679403600@cmsa.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Quantum Gravity constraints beyond asymptotic regimes
DESCRIPTION:Member Seminar \nSpeaker: Max Wiesner \nTitle: Quantum Gravity constraints beyond asymptotic regimes \nAbstract: Not every effective field theory that is consistent in the absence of gravity can be completed to a consistent theory of quantum gravity. The goal of the Swampland program is to find general criteria that distinguish effective field theories\, that can be obtained as a low-energy approximation of quantum gravity\, from those that are inconsistent in the presence of gravity. These criteria are oftentimes motivated by patterns observed in explicit compactifications of perturbative string theory and have passed many non-trivial tests in asymptotic regions of the field space such as\, e.g.\, weak coupling limits. Still\, the Swampland criteria should equally apply to effective theories that do not arise in asymptotic regions of the field space of string theory compactifications. In this talk I will summarize some of my recent works that studies the interior of regions of the field space of string theory in the context of the Swampland program.
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/member-seminar-32123/
LOCATION:CMSA Room G10\, CMSA\, 20 Garden Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Member Seminar
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230322T123000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230322T133000
DTSTAMP:20240216T104444Z
CREATED:20230817T181152Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240216T104444Z
UID:10001278-1679488200-1679491800@cmsa.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Synchronization in a Kuramoto Mean Field Game
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Mete Soner (Princeton University) \nTitle: Synchronization in a Kuramoto Mean Field Game \nAbstract:  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 of oscillators as an infinite particle system\, but instead of positing the dynamics of the particles\, we let the individual particles determine endogenously their behaviors by minimizing a cost functional and eventually\, settling in a Nash equilibrium.  The mean field game also exhibits a bifurcation from incoherence to self-organization.  This approach has found interesting applications including circadian rhythms and jet-lag recovery.  This is joint work with Rene Carmona of Princeton and Quentin Cormier of INRIA\, Paris.
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/collquium-32223/
LOCATION:CMSA Room G10\, CMSA\, 20 Garden Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Colloquium
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/media/CMSA-Colloquium-03.22.2023.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230328T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230328T130000
DTSTAMP:20240118T070227Z
CREATED:20230817T170827Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240118T070227Z
UID:10001239-1680004800-1680008400@cmsa.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Monotonicity of quasilocal mass for asymptotically flat Riemannian manifolds
DESCRIPTION:Member Seminar \nSpeaker: Jue Liu \nTitle: Monotonicity of quasilocal mass for asymptotically flat Riemannian manifolds \nAbstract: The study of quasilocal mass in general relativity has a long history. In previous papers by many authors we have a deep understanding of the properties of quasilocal mass such as positivity\, rigidity and asymptotics etc. In this talk I will focus on the monotonicity of quasilocal mass\, which means the quasilocal mass of a finite region is smaller than that of a larger region containing the previous region. Motivated by the definition of Bartnik mass and Brown-York mass\, we define a new quasilocal mass using the Hamilton method. With this definition\, we derive the sufficient condition such that the quasilocal mass is monotonic. As an application I will also discuss the relationship with the Bartnik conjecture\, that is under what conditions there will be a static extension to the given Bartnik data.
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/member-seminar-32823/
LOCATION:CMSA Room G10\, CMSA\, 20 Garden Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Member Seminar
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230329T123000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230329T133000
DTSTAMP:20240216T102824Z
CREATED:20230817T181436Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240216T102824Z
UID:10001279-1680093000-1680096600@cmsa.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Scattering amplitudes in quantum field theory
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Ruth Britto (Trinity College Dublin) \nTitle: Scattering amplitudes in quantum field theory \nAbstract: 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 geometry.
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/collquium-32923/
LOCATION:CMSA Room G10\, CMSA\, 20 Garden Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Colloquium
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/media/CMSA-Colloquium-03.29.2023.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230403T110000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230403T120000
DTSTAMP:20240122T052041Z
CREATED:20230817T181822Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240122T052041Z
UID:10001280-1680519600-1680523200@cmsa.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Black hole microstate counting from the gravitational path integral
DESCRIPTION:Colloquium \nSpeaker: Luca Iliesiu\, Stanford \nTitle: Black hole microstate counting from the gravitational path integral \nAbstract: 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 present a second perspective on this state count and show how the BPS Hilbert space can be obtained by directly preparing states using the gravitational path integral. While such a preparation naively gives rise to a Hilbert space of BPS states whose dimension is much larger than expected\, I will explain how non-perturbative corrections in the overlap of such states are again responsible for reproducing the correct dimension of the Hilbert space.
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/colloquium-4323/
LOCATION:CMSA Room G10\, CMSA\, 20 Garden Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Colloquium
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/media/CMSA-Colloquium-04.03.2023.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230404T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230404T130000
DTSTAMP:20240228T092930Z
CREATED:20230817T171014Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240228T092930Z
UID:10001240-1680609600-1680613200@cmsa.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Optimal Dynamic Allocation: Simplicity through Information Design
DESCRIPTION:Member Seminar \nSpeaker: Faidra Monachou \nTitle: Optimal Dynamic Allocation: Simplicity through Information Design \nAbstract: We study dynamic nonmonetary markets where objects are allocated to unit-demand agents with private types. An agent’s value for an object is supermodular in her type and the quality of the object\, and her payoff is quasilinear in her waiting cost. The social planner’s objective is a linear combination of allocative efficiency (i.e.\, the sum of values) and welfare (i.e.\, the sum of payoffs). We identify the optimal mechanism in the class of direct-revelation mechanisms that elicit agents’ types and assign them to objects over time. We show that\, when the social planner can design the information disclosed to the agents about the objects\, the optimal mechanism has a simple implementation: a first-come first-served waitlist with deferrals. In this implementation\, the information disclosed about each object is an interval containing the object quality\, rather than the exact quality. These intervals partition the quality space. We also show that when the planner’s objective weight on welfare increases\, these intervals become coarser\, and optimal disclosure policies less informative. A direct corollary is that mechanisms that achieve higher welfare also induce lower distributional inequality\, in terms of the Lorenz order.
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/member-seminar-4423/
LOCATION:CMSA Room G10\, CMSA\, 20 Garden Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Member Seminar
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230411T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230411T130000
DTSTAMP:20240118T070619Z
CREATED:20230817T171211Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240118T070619Z
UID:10001241-1681214400-1681218000@cmsa.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Spectral gap and two-point functions in spin glasses
DESCRIPTION:Member Seminar \nSpeaker: Changji Xu \nTitle: Spectral gap and two-point functions in spin glasses \nAbstract: Many have worked on spin glass models over the past 50 years\, including physicists\, mathematicians\, and computers. A question that arises is whether computers yield dependable simulation results. In this talk\, I will discuss some recent mathematical progress on spectral gap and two-point functions in spin glasses models.
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/member-seminar-41123/
LOCATION:CMSA Room G10\, CMSA\, 20 Garden Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Member Seminar
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230412T123000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230412T133000
DTSTAMP:20240215T103145Z
CREATED:20230817T182227Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240215T103145Z
UID:10001281-1681302600-1681306200@cmsa.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Unexpected Uses of Neural Networks: Field Theory and Metric Flows  
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: James Halverson (Northeastern University)\n \nTitle: Unexpected Uses of Neural Networks: Field Theory and Metric Flows\nAbstract:  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 in a different duality frame. Then\, I will review recent progress in approximating Calabi-Yau metrics as neural networks and cast that story into the language of neural tangent kernel theory\, yielding a theoretical understanding of neural network metric flows induced by gradient descent and recovering famous metric flows\, such as Perelman’s formulation of Ricci flow\, in particular limits.
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/colloquium12523/
LOCATION:CMSA Room G10\, CMSA\, 20 Garden Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Colloquium
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/media/02CMSA-Colloquium-04.12.2023.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230418T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230418T130000
DTSTAMP:20240228T091907Z
CREATED:20230817T171352Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240228T091907Z
UID:10001242-1681819200-1681822800@cmsa.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Recent progress on coupled Einstein-Yang-Mills dynamics
DESCRIPTION:Member Seminar \nSpeaker: Puskar Mondal \nTitle: Recent progress on coupled Einstein-Yang-Mills dynamics \nAbstract: I will discuss my recent work with prof. S.T. Yau on Einstein-Yang-Mills theory. I’ll discuss the main ideas behind the stability of the Minkowski and Milne space time under coupled gauge-gravity perturbations. Construction of the gauge invariant energies that control the suitable norms of the physical degrees of freedom in a double-null framework play an important role. I’ll sketch how the special structure of the Einstein and Yang-Mills nonlinearities play a crucial role in obtaining the stability result of non-expanding spacetimes in particular AF spacetimes.
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/member-seminar-41823/
LOCATION:Common Room\, CMSA\, 20 Garden Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Member Seminar
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230420T133000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230420T143000
DTSTAMP:20240216T085423Z
CREATED:20230817T182708Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240216T085423Z
UID:10001282-1681997400-1682001000@cmsa.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Black hole collider physics
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Julio Parra Martinez\, Caltech \nTitle: Black hole collider physics \nAbstract: 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 for current and future gravitational wave observatories\, which open the door for further discovery as we enter this new era of precision gravitational physics.
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/collquium-42023/
LOCATION:CMSA Room G10\, CMSA\, 20 Garden Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Colloquium
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/media/CMSA-Colloquium-04.20.2023.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230425T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230425T130000
DTSTAMP:20240118T071815Z
CREATED:20230817T171725Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240118T071815Z
UID:10001243-1682424000-1682427600@cmsa.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:On complete Calabi-Yau metrics and some related Monge-Ampere equations
DESCRIPTION:Member Seminar \nSpeaker: Freid Tong \nTitle: On complete Calabi-Yau metrics and some related Monge-Ampere equations \nAbstract: We will give a basic introduction to constructions for complete Calabi-Yau metrics. A systematic approach to construct such metrics using PDE methods was proposed in the work of Tian-Yau in the 90s and have attracted a lot of attention in recent years. I will discuss some joint work with B. Guo and T. Collins on a singular version of such a construction\, as well as some ongoing work with Prof. Yau on some related boundary value problems. \n 
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/member-seminar-42523/
LOCATION:CMSA Room G10\, CMSA\, 20 Garden Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Member Seminar
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230426T123000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230426T133000
DTSTAMP:20240122T053311Z
CREATED:20230817T183259Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240122T053311Z
UID:10001283-1682512200-1682515800@cmsa.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Boundary behavior at classical and quantum phase transitions
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Max Metlitski (MIT) \nTitle: Boundary behavior at classical and quantum phase transitions \nAbstract: 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. \n 
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/collquium-42623/
LOCATION:CMSA Room G10\, CMSA\, 20 Garden Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Colloquium
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/media/CMSA-Colloquium-04.26.2023.rev2_.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230426T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230426T150000
DTSTAMP:20240209T151145Z
CREATED:20230809T103350Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240209T151145Z
UID:10001224-1682517600-1682521200@cmsa.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Toolformer: Language Models Can Teach Themselves to Use Tools
DESCRIPTION:New Technologies in Mathematics Seminar \nSpeaker: Timo Schick\, Meta AI \nTitle: Toolformer: Language Models Can Teach Themselves to Use Tools \nAbstract: Language models exhibit remarkable abilities to solve new tasks from just a few examples or textual instructions\, especially at scale. They also\, paradoxically\, struggle with basic functionality\, such as arithmetic or factual lookup\, where much simpler and smaller models excel. In this talk\, we show how these limitations can be overcome by letting language models teach themselves to use external tools via simple APIs. We discuss Toolformer\, a model trained to independently decide which APIs to call\, when to call them\, what arguments to pass\, and how to best incorporate the results into future token prediction. Through this\, it achieves substantially improved zero-shot performance across a variety of downstream tasks without sacrificing its core language modeling abilities. \n 
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/nt-42623/
LOCATION:Virtual
CATEGORIES:New Technologies in Mathematics Seminar
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/media/CMSA-NTM-Seminar-04.26.23.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230502T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230502T130000
DTSTAMP:20240118T085308Z
CREATED:20230817T171918Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240118T085308Z
UID:10001244-1683028800-1683032400@cmsa.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Toroidal Positive Mass Theorem
DESCRIPTION:Member Seminar \nSpeaker: Aghil Alaee \nTitle: Toroidal Positive Mass Theorem \nAbstract: In this talk\, we review the positive mass conjecture in general relativity and prove a toroidal version of this conjecture in an asymptotically hyperbolic setting.
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/member-seminar-5223/
LOCATION:CMSA Room G10\, CMSA\, 20 Garden Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Member Seminar
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230503T123000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230503T133000
DTSTAMP:20240216T085646Z
CREATED:20230817T183740Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240216T085646Z
UID:10001284-1683117000-1683120600@cmsa.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs): An Analytical Perspective
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Xin Guo\, UC Berkeley \nTitle: Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs): An Analytical Perspective \nAbstract: 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. \n 
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/collquium-5323/
LOCATION:CMSA Room G10\, CMSA\, 20 Garden Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Colloquium
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/media/CMSA-Colloquium-05.03.2023.png
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR