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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20241015T161500
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20241015T181500
DTSTAMP:20260703T010100
CREATED:20240917T162135Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240927T182405Z
UID:10003514-1729008900-1729016100@cmsa.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Topological Modular Forms\, its equivariant refinements and relation with supersymmetric quantum field theories
DESCRIPTION:Geometry and Quantum Theory Seminar \nSpeaker: Mayuko Yamashita\, Kyoto University \nTitle: Topological Modular Forms\, its equivariant refinements and relation with supersymmetric quantum field theories \nAbstract: This talk is about the Segal-Stolz-Teichner program\, which is one of the most deep and interesting topics relating homotopy theory and physics. Mathematically\, they propose a geometric model of TMF\, the spectrum (in homotopy theory) of Topological Modular Forms\, in terms of supersymmetric quantum field theories. Their proposal\, although far from solid formulation or a proof\, has been a guiding principle leading us to many new interesting ideas and discoveries in both mathematics and physics. In this talk\, I will give an overview of this topic\, as well as my current works using equivariant twisted TMF.
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/quantumgeo_101524/
LOCATION:Science Center Hall E\, 1 Oxford Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Geometry and Quantum Theory Seminar
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/media/CMSA-Geometry-Quantum-Theory-10.15.2024.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20241016T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20241016T130000
DTSTAMP:20260703T010100
CREATED:20241015T133229Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20241015T133655Z
UID:10003530-1729080000-1729083600@cmsa.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:CMSA Q&A Seminar: Nazim Bouatta
DESCRIPTION:CMSA Q&A Seminar \nSpeaker: Nazim Bouatta (HMS) \nTopic: What are AlphaFold2 and OpenFold
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/cmsaqa_101624/
LOCATION:Common Room\, CMSA\, 20 Garden Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:CMSA Q&A Seminar
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/media/CMSA-Q-A-Seminar-10.16.2024.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20241016T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20241016T150000
DTSTAMP:20260703T010100
CREATED:20241010T152711Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20241108T192805Z
UID:10003612-1729087200-1729090800@cmsa.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:From Word Prediction to Complex Skills: Data Flywheels for Mathematical Reasoning
DESCRIPTION:New Technologies in Mathematics Seminar \nSpeaker: Anirudh Goyal (University of Montreal) \nTitle: From Word Prediction to Complex Skills: Data Flywheels for Mathematical Reasoning \nAbstract: This talk examines how large language models (LLMs) evolve from simple word prediction to complex skills\, with a focus on mathematical problem solving. A major driver of AI products today is the fact that new skills emerge in language models when their parameter set and training corpora are scaled up. This phenomenon is poorly understood\, and a mechanistic explanation via mathematical analysis of gradient-based training seems difficult. The first part of the talk focuses on analysing emergence using the famous (and empirical) Scaling Laws of LLMs. Then I talk about howc LLMs can verbalize these skills by assigning labels to problems and clustering them into interpretable categories. This metacognitive ability allows us to leverage skill-based prompting\, significantly improving performance on mathematical reasoning. I then present a framework that combines LLMs with human oversight to generate challenging\, out-of-distribution math questions. This process led to the creation of the MATH^2 dataset\, which enhances both model and human performance\, driving further advances in mathematical reasoning capabilities. \n 
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/newtech_101624/
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/CMSA-NTM-Seminar-10.16.24.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20241018T090000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20241018T100000
DTSTAMP:20260703T010100
CREATED:20240907T193958Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20241015T143755Z
UID:10003468-1729242000-1729245600@cmsa.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Bosonic and fermionic 1-form symmetries and anomaly matching
DESCRIPTION:Quantum Field Theory and Physical Mathematics Seminar \n*via Zoom only* \nSpeaker: Rajath Radhakrishnan (ICTP\, Trieste) \nTitle: Bosonic and fermionic 1-form symmetries and anomaly matching \nAbstract: In this talk\, I will consider bosonic and fermionic (non-invertible) 1-form symmetries in 2+1d QFTs. These are 1-form symmetries implemented by topological line operators with real spins. I will present a classification of topological quantum field theories in which all line operators have real topological spins\, and use this framework to classify the anomalies associated with these 1-form symmetries. Additionally\, I will discuss the anomaly matching condition for these symmetries under an RG flow. I will illustrate this condition in concrete examples.
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/qm_101824/
LOCATION:CMSA Room G10\, CMSA\, 20 Garden Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Quantum Field Theory and Physical Mathematics
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/media/CMSA-QFT-10.18.2024.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20241018T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20241018T130000
DTSTAMP:20260703T010100
CREATED:20240919T144412Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20241015T180358Z
UID:10003521-1729252800-1729256400@cmsa.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Positive mass and rigidity theorems in Riemannian geometry  
DESCRIPTION:Member Seminar \nSpeaker: Puskar Mondal \nTitle: Positive mass and rigidity theorems in Riemannian geometry \nAbstract: Positive mass theorem proved by Schoen-Yau\, Witten\, Taubes-Parker is one of the most important results in scalar curvature geometry in asymptotically flat settings. Since then several versions have been proven and generalized to other geometries such as asymptotically hyperbolic manifolds. The analogous theorem for strictly positive curvature geometries is absent. There have been counterexamples but a precise quantification does not exist.I prove a scalar curvature rigidity theorem for spheres. In particular\, I prove that $n+1~(n\geq 2)$ dimensional spherical caps with constant positive mean curvature totally umbilic boundaries are rigid under smooth perturbations\, and such rigidity results fail for the hemisphere. The assertion of this result is based on the notion of a real Killing connection and solution of the boundary value problem associated with its Dirac operator. Additionally\, an improved eigenvalue estimate for the Dirac operator on hypersurfaces in positively curved manifolds is obtained.
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/member-seminar-101824/
LOCATION:CMSA Room G10\, CMSA\, 20 Garden Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Member Seminar
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/media/CMSA-Member-Seminar-10.18.24.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20241021T093000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20241021T103000
DTSTAMP:20260703T010100
CREATED:20240907T155707Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20241018T171738Z
UID:10003446-1729503000-1729506600@cmsa.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Foundation Seminar: Singularity Theorems\, Part I
DESCRIPTION:Foundation Seminar (Joint Seminar with BHI) \nLocation: BHI \nTitle: Singularity Theorems\, Part I \nJournal Club Discussion
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/foundation-seminar_102124/
LOCATION:Black Hole Initiative\, 20 Garden Street\, Cambridge MA\, CMSA\, 20 Garden Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Foundation Seminar
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/media/10.28.24_Singularity-Theorems-Part-II-4.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20241021T163000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20241021T173000
DTSTAMP:20260703T010100
CREATED:20240903T195022Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20241016T144838Z
UID:10003435-1729528200-1729531800@cmsa.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Higher Vapnik–Chervonenkis theory
DESCRIPTION:Colloquium \nSpeaker: Artem Chernikov\, University of Maryland \nTitle: Higher Vapnik–Chervonenkis theory \nAbstract: Finite VC-dimension\, a combinatorial property of families of sets\, was discovered simultaneously by Vapnik and Chervonenkis in probabilistic learning theory\, and by Shelah in model theory (where it is called NIP). It plays an important role in several areas including machine learning\, combinatorics\, mathematical logic\, functional analysis and topological dynamics. We develop aspects of higher-order VC-theory\, in particular establishing a generalization of the epsilon-net theorem for families of sets (and functions) on n-fold product spaces with bounded VC_n-dimension (i.e. there is a bound on the sizes of n-dimensional boxes that can be shattered). We obtain some applications in combinatorics and in model theory\, including a strong version of Szemerdi’s regularity lemma for hypergraphs omitting a fixed finite n-partite n-hypergraph. Joint work with Henry Towsner.
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/colloquium-102124/
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-10.21.2024.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20241022T161500
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20241022T181500
DTSTAMP:20260703T010100
CREATED:20240917T160638Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20241007T195901Z
UID:10003510-1729613700-1729620900@cmsa.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Fusion 2-Categories and their Classification
DESCRIPTION:Geometry and Quantum Theory Seminar \nSpeaker: Thibault Décoppet\, Harvard University \nTitle: Fusion 2-Categories and their Classification \nAbstract: Categorifying the classical notion of fusion (1-)category\, fusion 2-categories were recently introduced. These objects have found many applications in Physics\, most notably to the classification of topological orders\, but also to the description of non-invertible symmetries in 2+1 dimensions. The first part of this talk will be devoted to reviewing the definition of a fusion 2-category and giving many examples. In the second half\, I will present a remarkable result concerning the Morita theory of fusion 2-categories and explain how it can be used to give a homotopy coherent classification of fusion 2-categories. \n 
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/quantumgeo_102224/
LOCATION:Science Center Hall E\, 1 Oxford Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Geometry and Quantum Theory Seminar
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/media/CMSA-Geometry-Quantum-Theory-10.22.2024.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20241023T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20241023T130000
DTSTAMP:20260703T010100
CREATED:20241016T180943Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20241016T182816Z
UID:10003531-1729684800-1729688400@cmsa.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:CMSA Q&A Seminar: Dan Freed
DESCRIPTION:CMSA Q&A Seminar \nSpeaker: Dan Freed\, Harvard Mathematics & CMSA \nTopic: What are topological phases of matter?
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/cmsaqa_102324/
LOCATION:Common Room\, CMSA\, 20 Garden Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:CMSA Q&A Seminar
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/media/CMSA-Q-A-Seminar-10.23.2024.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20241023T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20241023T150000
DTSTAMP:20260703T010100
CREATED:20241021T140701Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20241108T192710Z
UID:10003616-1729692000-1729695600@cmsa.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:How Far Can Transformers Reason? The Globality Barrier and Inductive Scratchpad
DESCRIPTION:New Technologies in Mathematics Seminar \nSpeaker: Aryo Lotfi (EPFL) \nTitle: How Far Can Transformers Reason? The Globality Barrier and Inductive Scratchpad \nAbstract: Can Transformers predict new syllogisms by composing established ones? More generally\, what type of targets can be learned by such models from scratch? Recent works show that Transformers can be Turing-complete in terms of expressivity\, but this does not address the learnability objective. This paper puts forward the notion of ‘globality degree’ of a target distribution to capture when weak learning is efficiently achievable by regular Transformers\, where the latter measures the least number of tokens required in addition to the tokens histogram to correlate nontrivially with the target. As shown experimentally and theoretically under additional assumptions\, distributions with high globality cannot be learned efficiently. In particular\, syllogisms cannot be composed on long chains. Furthermore\, we show that (i) an agnostic scratchpad cannot help to break the globality barrier\, (ii) an educated scratchpad can help if it breaks the globality at each step\, however not all such scratchpads can generalize to out-of-distribution (OOD) samples\, (iii) a notion of ‘inductive scratchpad’\, that composes the prior information more efficiently\, can both break the globality barrier and improve the OOD generalization. In particular\, some inductive scratchpads can achieve length generalizations of up to 6x for some arithmetic tasks depending on the input formatting.
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/newtech_102324/
LOCATION:CMSA Room G10\, CMSA\, 20 Garden Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:New Technologies in Mathematics Seminar
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=application/pdf:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/media/CMSA-NTM-Seminar-10.23.24.docx-1-1.pdf
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20241025T090000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20241025T103000
DTSTAMP:20260703T010100
CREATED:20240907T194046Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20241018T221702Z
UID:10003469-1729846800-1729852200@cmsa.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:The spin-statistics theorem for TFTs
DESCRIPTION:Quantum Field Theory and Physical Mathematics Seminar \nSpeaker: Luuk Stehouwer\, Dalhousie University \nTitle: The spin-statistics theorem for TFTs \nAbstract: In quantum field theory (QFT) the spin-statistics theorem says that in a unitary QFT\, a particle has half-integer spin if and only if it is a fermion. I show how to phrase this statement in the language of functorial field theories. More precisely\, I explain when a functorial field theory “has fermions” and “has spinors” and when they are “related”. I will then restrict to topological field theories (TFTs) and define unitary TFTs. There are counterexamples of the spin-statistics theorem for non-unitary TFTs. I will prove that every unitary TFT satisfies the spin-statistics theorem. \n  \n  \n 
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/qm_102524/
LOCATION:CMSA Room G10\, CMSA\, 20 Garden Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Quantum Field Theory and Physical Mathematics
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/media/CMSA-QFT-and-Physical-Mathematics-10.25.2024.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20241025T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20241025T130000
DTSTAMP:20260703T010100
CREATED:20240919T144515Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20241022T155009Z
UID:10003522-1729857600-1729861200@cmsa.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Formality Theorem and Webs
DESCRIPTION:Member Seminar \nSpeaker: Ahsan Khan \nTitle: Formality Theorem and Webs \nAbstract: The “formality theorem” of Kontsevich was a key result that implies that every Poisson manifold admits a deformation quantization. I will review the ideas behind the formality theorem and discuss a potentially novel viewpoint on it involving webs and twisted masses.
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/member-seminar-102524/
LOCATION:CMSA Room G10\, CMSA\, 20 Garden Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Member Seminar
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=application/pdf:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/media/CMSA-Member-Seminar-10.25.24.docx.pdf
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20241025T143000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20241025T173000
DTSTAMP:20260703T010100
CREATED:20240907T191539Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20241010T152044Z
UID:10003466-1729866600-1729877400@cmsa.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Freedman CMSA Seminar
DESCRIPTION:Freedman CMSA Seminar \n*Note: via Zoom only* \n2:00-3:30 pm ET \nSpeaker: Matt Hastings\, Microsoft Quantum Program \nTitle: Invertible Phases of Matter and Quantum Cellular Automata: Dimensions One to Three \nAbstract: A Quantum Cellular Automaton (QCA) is a *-automorphism of the algebra of local operators. While local quantum circuits provide one example of QCA\, we are most interested in nontrivial QCA which are those which cannot be written as conjugation by a local quantum circuit. For systems in one and two spatial dimensions\, all nontrivial QCA are shifts (i.e.\, translations by some amount)\, up to conjugation by a quantum circuit\, but in three and higher dimensions\, other examples are known. I’ll explain the relation between QCA and a certain “boundary algebra” of operators in one lower spatial dimension\, and also the relation to invertible phases of matter on the boundary\, and use this to explain and motivate some of these results in dimensions one through three. \n  \n3:30-4:00 pm ET \nBreak/Discussion \n  \n4:00-5:30 pm ET \nSpeaker: Lukasz Fidkowski\, U Washington\, Physics \nTitle: Invertible Phases of Matter and Quantum Cellular Automata: Higher dimensions \nAbstract: We discuss the explicit construction of a non-trivial QCA in 3 dimensions\, one which takes the form of multiplication by a discrete Chern-Simons functional in an appropriate basis for the Hilbert space. We relate the non-trivialness of the QCA to the fact that the Chern-Simons action is not the integral of a gauge invariant local quantity. One property of this QCA is that it creates a specific non-trivial time reversal symmetry protected topological (SPT) phase when acting on a non-trivial tensor product state. Motivated by this\, we construct a general class of QCA in arbitrary dimensions based on time reversal protected SPTs\, and conjecture a general correspondence between unoriented cobordism (which classifies such SPTs) and QCA. \n  \n 
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/freedman_102524/
LOCATION:Virtual
CATEGORIES:Freedman Seminar
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/media/CMSA-Freedman-Seminar-10.25.2024.docx-1.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20241028T093000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20241028T103000
DTSTAMP:20260703T010100
CREATED:20240918T132207Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20241018T172052Z
UID:10003518-1730107800-1730111400@cmsa.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Foundation Seminar: Singularity Theorems\, Part II
DESCRIPTION:Foundation Seminar (Joint Seminar with BHI) \nLocation: BHI \nTitle: Singularity Theorems\, Part II \nJournal Club Discussion
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/foundation-seminar_102824/
LOCATION:20 Garden Street\, Cambridge\, MA 02138\, MA\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Foundation Seminar
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20241029T161500
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20241029T181500
DTSTAMP:20260703T010100
CREATED:20240917T160658Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20241015T150203Z
UID:10003511-1730218500-1730225700@cmsa.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Boundaries and duality for 3d gauge theories
DESCRIPTION:Geometry and Quantum Theory Seminar \nSpeaker: Ben Gammage\, Harvard University \nTitle: Boundaries and duality for 3d gauge theories \nAbstract: 3d N=4 supersymmetric gauge theory has a pair of topological twists\, the A-model and B-model\, the latter of which is also known as Rozansky-Witten theory. Conjecturally\, boundary conditions for these TFTs ought to admit descriptions in terms of (microlocal) perverse or coherent sheaves of categories\, respectively. Unfortunately\, neither of these admits a general mathematical definition; nevertheless\, in some cases these are well-defined 2-categories. We will survey these situations and the duality\, known as 3d mirror symmetry\, which relates the A- and B-models of different theories\, together with its relation to the relative Langlands duality of Ben-Zvi–Sakellaridis-Venkatesh.
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/quantumgeo_102924/
LOCATION:Science Center Hall E\, 1 Oxford Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Geometry and Quantum Theory Seminar
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/media/CMSA-Geometry-Quantum-Theory-10.29.2024.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20241030T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20241030T130000
DTSTAMP:20260703T010100
CREATED:20241016T181110Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20241024T135640Z
UID:10003532-1730289600-1730293200@cmsa.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:CMSA Q&A Seminar: Michael Freedman
DESCRIPTION:CMSA Q&A Seminar \nSpeaker: Michael Freedman\, Harvard CMSA \nTopic: Broad perspective on manifolds: all dimensions\, all structures\, classification and dynamics
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/cmsaqa_103024/
LOCATION:Common Room\, CMSA\, 20 Garden Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:CMSA Q&A Seminar
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/media/CMSA-Q-A-Seminar-10.30.2024.docx-1.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20241104T093000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20241104T103000
DTSTAMP:20260703T010100
CREATED:20240918T132254Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20241104T150620Z
UID:10003519-1730712600-1730716200@cmsa.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Foundation Seminar
DESCRIPTION:Foundation Seminar (Joint Seminar with BHI) \nLocation: BHI\n\nSpeaker: Christoph Kehle (MIT)\n\nTitle: On the cosmic censorship conjectures\nAbstract: I will present the modern formulations of the weak and strong cosmic censorship conjectures and discuss some recent developments in the context of gravitational collapse.
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/foundation-seminar_11424/
LOCATION:Black Hole Initiative\, 20 Garden Street\, Cambridge MA\, CMSA\, 20 Garden Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Foundation Seminar
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20241104T163000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20241104T173000
DTSTAMP:20260703T010100
CREATED:20240903T195045Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20241016T202352Z
UID:10003436-1730737800-1730741400@cmsa.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:The mathematics of evolution
DESCRIPTION:Colloquium \nSpeaker: Martin Nowak (Harvard) \nTitle: The mathematics of evolution \nAbstract: All living systems are guided by evolutionary dynamics. Evolution is a search process which occurs in populations of reproducing individuals. The three fundamental forces of evolution are mutation\, selection and cooperation. I will present basic ideas in the mathematical description of evolutionary dynamics\, including quasi-species theory\, evolutionary game theory\, and evolutionary graph theory. I will discuss specific problems such as origin of life\, emergence of complexity\, mechanisms of cooperation\, evolution of cancer and how to overcome resistance to targeted therapy. \n 
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/colloquium-11424/
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-11.4.2024.docx.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20241105T161500
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20241105T181500
DTSTAMP:20260703T010100
CREATED:20240917T160718Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20241104T184936Z
UID:10003512-1730823300-1730830500@cmsa.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Introduction to Factorization algebras
DESCRIPTION:Geometry and Quantum Theory Seminar \nSpeaker: Dan Freed\, Harvard University \nTitle: Introduction to Factorization algebras
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/quantumgeo_11524/
LOCATION:Science Center Hall E\, 1 Oxford Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Geometry and Quantum Theory Seminar
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/media/CMSA-Geometry-Quantum-Theory-11.5.2024.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20241106T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20241106T130000
DTSTAMP:20260703T010100
CREATED:20241016T181341Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20241024T135813Z
UID:10003533-1730894400-1730898000@cmsa.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:CMSA Q&A Seminar: Michael Douglas
DESCRIPTION:CMSA Q&A Seminar \nSpeaker: Michael Douglas\, Harvard CMSA \nTopic: What is Argyres-Douglas theory?
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/cmsaqa_11624/
LOCATION:Common Room\, CMSA\, 20 Garden Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:CMSA Q&A Seminar
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/media/CMSA-Q-A-Seminar-11.6.2024.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20241106T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20241106T150000
DTSTAMP:20260703T010101
CREATED:20241021T164918Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20241108T192620Z
UID:10003617-1730901600-1730905200@cmsa.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Is Behavior Cloning All You Need? Understanding Horizon in Imitation Learning
DESCRIPTION:New Technologies in Mathematics Seminar \nSpeaker: Dylan Foster\, Microsoft Research \nTitle: Is Behavior Cloning All You Need? Understanding Horizon in Imitation Learning \nAbstract: Imitation learning (IL) aims to mimic the behavior of an expert in a sequential decision making task by learning from demonstrations\, and has been widely applied to robotics\, autonomous driving\, and autoregressive language generation. The simplest approach to IL\, behavior cloning (BC)\, is thought to incur sample complexity with unfavorable quadratic dependence on the problem horizon\, motivating a variety of different online algorithms that attain improved linear horizon dependence under stronger assumptions on the data and the learner’s access to the expert.In this talk\, we revisit the apparent gap between offline and online IL from a learning-theoretic perspective\, with a focus on general policy classes up to and including deep neural networks. Through a new analysis of behavior cloning with the logarithmic loss\, we will show that it is possible to achieve horizon-independent sample complexity in offline IL whenever (i) the range of the cumulative payoffs is controlled\, and (ii) an appropriate notion of supervised learning complexity for the policy class is controlled. When specialized to stationary policies\, this implies that the gap between offline and online IL is smaller than previously thought. We will then discuss implications of this result and investigate the extent to which it bears out empirically. \nBio: Dylan Foster is a principal researcher at Microsoft Research\, New York. Previously\, he was a postdoctoral fellow at MIT\, and received his PhD in computer science from Cornell University\, advised by Karthik Sridharan. His research focuses on problems at the intersection of machine learning\, AI\, interactive decision making. He has received several awards for his work\, including the best paper award at COLT (2019) and best student paper award at COLT (2018\, 2019). \n 
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/newtech_11624/
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/CMSA-NTM-Seminar-11.6.24.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20241108T100000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20241108T113000
DTSTAMP:20260703T010101
CREATED:20240907T194143Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20241104T181059Z
UID:10003470-1731060000-1731065400@cmsa.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Representations of minimal W-algebras: unitarity and modular invariance
DESCRIPTION:Quantum Field Theory and Physical Mathematics Seminar \nSpeaker: Victor Kac (MIT) \nTitle: Representations of minimal W-algebras: unitarity and modular invariance \nAbstract: The minimal W-algebras\, obtained by quantum Hamiltonian reduction from affina vertex algebras\, form the most interesting class of vertex algebras\, which includes all superconformal algebras: Virasoro\, Neveu-Scharz\, N=2\, 3\, 4\, and big N=4. I will explain a unified classification of their unitary representations\, and their character formulas. For N=0\, 1\, and 2 these vertex algebras are modular invariant (meaning that tr q^L_0-c/24 is a modular function). However for all other minimal W-algebra modular invariance fails\, and one needs the “modification” of characters to restore modular invariance. Unfortunately the representation-theoretical or physical meaning of the modification is not known (at least to me).
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/qm_11824/
LOCATION:Virtual
CATEGORIES:Quantum Field Theory and Physical Mathematics
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/media/CMSA-QFT-and-Physical-Mathematics-11.8.2024.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20241108T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20241108T130000
DTSTAMP:20260703T010101
CREATED:20240919T144552Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20241105T154430Z
UID:10003523-1731067200-1731070800@cmsa.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:ADHM spaces and their quantizations
DESCRIPTION:Member Seminar \nSpeaker: Vasily Krylov\, CMSA \nTitle: ADHM spaces and their quantizations \nAbstract: In their paper “Construction of Instantons\,” Atiyah\, Drinfeld\, Hitchin\, and Manin introduced an algebraic construction of the moduli space of instantons on R^4\, now also known as the “ADHM space.” This is a Poisson complex variety; it has been actively studied by both mathematicians and physicists. In this talk\, I will review the ADHM construction\, present examples\, and discuss various geometric and algebraic properties of ADHM spaces. I will also describe natural quantizations of these Poisson varieties. I will explain a joint result with Etingof\, Losev\, and Simental\, providing explicit formulas for the dimensions and characters of all finite-dimensional representations of these quantizations. Time permitting\, I will illustrate some predictions of the 3D mirror symmetry in the example of ADHM spaces\, following our joint paper with Shlykov.
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/member-seminar-11824/
LOCATION:CMSA Room G10\, CMSA\, 20 Garden Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Member Seminar
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/media/CMSA-Member-Seminar-11.8.24.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20241113T100000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20241113T230000
DTSTAMP:20260703T010101
CREATED:20241017T141250Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20241115T175125Z
UID:10003613-1731492000-1731538800@cmsa.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Frontier of Formal Theorem Proving with Large Language Models: Insights from the DeepSeek-Prover Series
DESCRIPTION:New Technologies in Mathematics Seminar \nSpeaker: Huajian Xin\, DeepSeek \nTitle: Frontier of Formal Theorem Proving with Large Language Models: Insights from the DeepSeek-Prover Series \nAbstract: Recent advances in large language models have markedly influenced mathematical reasoning and automated theorem proving within artificial intelligence. Yet\, despite their success in natural language tasks\, these models face notable obstacles in formal theorem proving environments such as Lean and Isabelle\, where exacting derivations must adhere to strict formal specifications. Even state-of-the-art models encounter difficulty generating accurate and complex formal proofs\, revealing the unique blend of mathematical rigor required in this domain. In the DeepSeek-Prover series (V1 and V1.5)\, we have explored specialized methodologies aimed at addressing these challenges. This talk will delve into three foundational areas: the synthesis of training data through autoformalization\, reinforcement learning that utilizes feedback from proof assistants\, and test-time optimization using Monte Carlo tree search. I will also provide insights into current model capabilities\, persistent challenges\, and the future potential of large language models in automated theorem proving.
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/newtech_111324/
LOCATION:Virtual
CATEGORIES:New Technologies in Mathematics Seminar
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/media/CMSA-NTM-Seminar-11.13.24.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20241115T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20241115T130000
DTSTAMP:20260703T010101
CREATED:20240919T144643Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20241115T144349Z
UID:10003524-1731672000-1731675600@cmsa.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Quantum Criticality in Black Hole Scattering
DESCRIPTION:Member Seminar \nSpeaker: Uri Kol \nTitle: Quantum Criticality in Black Hole Scattering \nAbstract: Perturbation theory around rotating black holes captures a few important effects in the physics of gravitational waves emitted from binary mergers. Despite a long and rich history\, developing a qualitative understanding of the system remains a challenging problem. In this talk I will describe an emergent critical phenomena arising in black hole perturbation theory\, which is reminiscent of the structure found in quantum many-body systems. A critical point is identified at zero temperature\, giving rise to a wide “quantum” critical region at finite temperatures that is dominated by critical fluctuations. In the critical region\, the physics is exclusively described by a set of critical exponents\, therefore leading to robust predictions. \n 
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/member-seminar-111524/
LOCATION:CMSA Room G10\, CMSA\, 20 Garden Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Member Seminar
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/media/CMSA-Member-Seminar-11.15.24.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20241115T143000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20241115T173000
DTSTAMP:20260703T010101
CREATED:20240923T164810Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20241112T153736Z
UID:10003602-1731681000-1731691800@cmsa.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Freedman CMSA Seminar
DESCRIPTION:Freedman CMSA Seminar \n*Note: via Zoom only* \n  \n2:00-3:30 pm ET \nSpeaker: Michael Freedman\, Harvard CMSA \nTitle: Some questions and theorems about closed 3 manifolds embedded in S^4 \nAbstract: Much is unknown about smooth embeddings of 3-manifolds in S^4; the Schoenflies problem  (Is there only one smoothly embedded 3-sphere in S^4 up to isotopy?) is the best-known example. There has long been a hope that 3-manifold reasoning applied to level-sets will be helpful.  I’ll mention some successes and failures of this method and revisit a classical theorem of Hantzsche in this light. (Hantzsche: If a 3-manifold embeds in S^4 its linking form is hyperbolic.) \n  \n3:30-4:00 pm ET \nBreak/Discussion \n  \n4:00-5:30 pm ET \nSpeaker: Slava Krushkal\, University of Virginia \nTitle: A higher order torsion linking form for 3-manifolds \nAbstract: This talk is based on a joint work with Mike Freedman defining a triple linking form for rational homology spheres\, assuming that the classical torsion linking pairing of three classes pairwise vanishes. I will discuss its vanishing for 3-manifolds in S^4\, and its relation to the Matsumoto triple intersection form on 4-manifolds. \n  \n 
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/freedman_11824/
LOCATION:Virtual
CATEGORIES:Freedman Seminar
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/media/CMSA-Freedman-Seminar-11.15.2024.docx-1.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20241118T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20241118T150000
DTSTAMP:20260703T010101
CREATED:20241108T183204Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20241108T184917Z
UID:10003620-1731938400-1731942000@cmsa.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Emergent Non-Invertible Symmetries —The Adjoint QCD Example
DESCRIPTION:Quantum Field Theory and Physical Mathematics Seminar \nSpeaker: Shani Nadir Meynet (Uppsala) \nTitle: Emergent Non-Invertible Symmetries — The Adjoint QCD Example \nAbstract: After reviewing some general properties of generalized symmetries and the renormalization group (RG) flow for quantum field theories (QFT)\, I’ll describe how the recently discovered non-invertible symmetries can be used to study theories at strong coupling. I’ll illustrate these facts using (3+1)-dimensional adjoint QCD with two flavors as an example. This theory can be obtained by mass deforming a pure N=2 super Yang-Mills theory. Relying on supersymmetric results\, dynamical abelianization and monopole condensation\, we are able to get to the description of an infrared (IR) phase as an abelian theory flowing to a CP1 sigma model. In this scenario\, the IR phase has an emergent non-invertible symmetry\, which is matched with the non-invertible symmetry of the IR CP1 phase. This result illustrates how an emergent non-invertible symmetry can be used to provide a bridge connecting gauge theories at strong coupling and their IR via dynamical abelianization. \n 
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/qm_111824/
LOCATION:CMSA Room G10\, CMSA\, 20 Garden Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Quantum Field Theory and Physical Mathematics
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/media/CMSA-QFT-and-Physical-Mathematics-11.18.2024.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20241119T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20241119T190000
DTSTAMP:20260703T010101
CREATED:20240917T162304Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20241118T171726Z
UID:10003515-1732039200-1732042800@cmsa.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Factorization algebras in TQFT
DESCRIPTION:Geometry and Quantum Theory Seminar \nSpeakers: Mayuko Yamashita\, Kyoto University \nTitle: Factorization algebras in TQFT \nAbstract: This is the first in the series of our working seminars on factorization algebras/homologies. This talk focuses on locally constant factorization algebras\, which correspond to Topological QFTs. I first explain they are equivalent to algebras over E_n operads and their variants. Then I define the factorization homology and discuss basic properties and examples. If time allows\, I also mention the connection with the cobordism hypothesis.
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/quantumgeo_111924/
LOCATION:Science Center 507\, 1 Oxford Street\, Cambridge\, 02138
CATEGORIES:Geometry and Quantum Theory Seminar
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=application/pdf:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/media/CMSA-Geometry-Quantum-Theory-11.19.2024.docx.pdf
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20241120T100000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20241120T230000
DTSTAMP:20260703T010101
CREATED:20241017T153402Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20241115T183929Z
UID:10003614-1732096800-1732143600@cmsa.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Thinking Like Transformers - A Practical Session
DESCRIPTION:New Technologies in Mathematics Seminar \nSpeaker: Gail Weiss\, EPFL \nTitle: Thinking Like Transformers – A Practical Session \nAbstract: With the help of the RASP programming language\, we can better imagine how transformers—the powerful attention based sequence processing architecture—solve certain tasks. Some tasks\, such as simply repeating or reversing an input sequence\, have reasonably straightforward solutions\, but many others are more difficult. To unlock a fuller intuition of what can and cannot be achieved with transformers\, we must understand not just the RASP operations but also how to use them effectively.\nIn this session\, I would like to discuss some useful tricks with you in more detail. How is the powerful selector_width operation yielded from the true RASP operations? How can a fixed-depth RASP program perform arbitrary length long-addition\, despite the equally large number of potential carry operations such a computation entails? How might a transformer perform in-context reasoning? And are any of these solutions reasonable\, i.e.\, realisable in practice? I will begin with a brief introduction of the base RASP operations to ground our discussion\, and then walk us through several interesting task solutions. Following this\, and armed with this deeper intuition of how transformers solve several tasks\, we will conclude with a discussion of what this implies for how knowledge and computations must spread out in transformer layers and embeddings in practice.
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/newtech_112024/
LOCATION:Virtual
CATEGORIES:New Technologies in Mathematics Seminar
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/media/CMSA-NTM-Seminar-11.20.24.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20241120T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20241120T130000
DTSTAMP:20260703T010101
CREATED:20241104T194035Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20241107T171413Z
UID:10003535-1732104000-1732107600@cmsa.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:CMSA Q&A Seminar: Anurag Anshu
DESCRIPTION:CMSA Q&A Seminar \nSpeaker: Anurag Anshu\, Harvard University \nTopic: What is quantum complexity theory? \n  \n 
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/cmsaqa_112024/
LOCATION:Common Room\, CMSA\, 20 Garden Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:CMSA Q&A Seminar
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/media/CMSA-Q-A-Seminar-11.20.2024.png
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR