During the 2024–25 academic year, the CMSA will be hosting a Mathematical Physics and Algebraic Geometry  Seminar, organized by Chuck Doran and Keyou Zeng.

This seminar will take place weekly on Thursdays from 10:00–11:00 am Eastern Time.

The schedule will be updated as talks are confirmed.

Twisted Tools for (Untwisted) Quantum Field Theory

CMSA Room G10 CMSA, 20 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA, United States

Mathematical Physics and Algebraic Geometry Speaker: Justin Kulp (Simons Center for Geometry and Physics) Title: Twisted Tools for (Untwisted) Quantum Field Theory Abstract: One of the most important properties of QFTs is that they can be deformed by "turning on interactions." Essentially every observable can be viewed as coupling the theory to some external system. Famously, adding […]

Feynman graph integrals from topological holomorphic theories 

CMSA Room G10 CMSA, 20 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA, United States

Mathematical Physics and Algebraic Geometry Seminar Speaker: Minghao Wang (Boston University) Title: Feynman graph integrals from topological holomorphic theories Abstract: Feynman graph integrals from topological theories were developed by M. Kontsevich, S. Axelrod and I. M. Singer in 1990s. These integrals have many mathematical applications, such as knot invariants, operad theory and formality theorems. In […]

Witten deformation for non-Morse functions and gluing formulas 

CMSA Room G10 CMSA, 20 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA, United States

Mathematical Physics and Algebraic Geometry Speaker: Junrong Yan (Northeastern University) Title: Witten deformation for non-Morse functions and gluing formulas Abstract: Witten deformation is a versatile tool with numerous applications in mathematical physics and geometry. In this talk, we will focus on the analysis of Witten deformation for a family of non-Morse functions, which leads to […]

Enumerative geometry and modularity in two-modulus K3-fibered Calabi-Yau threefolds

CMSA Room G10 CMSA, 20 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA, United States

Mathematical Physics and Algebraic Geometry Seminar Speaker: Chuck Doran, Harvard CMSA Title: Enumerative geometry and modularity in two-modulus K3-fibered Calabi-Yau threefolds Abstract: Smooth $M_m$-polarized K3-fibered Calabi-Yau (CY) 3-folds have been classified in terms of the choice of a generalized functional invariant and, in the case $m=1$, a generalized homological invariant. The resulting geometries generally exhibit […]

Heterotic Little String Theories and Inequivalent Genus-One Fibrations

Virtual

Mathematical Physics and Algebraic Geometry Seminar Speaker: Hamza Ahmed, Northeastern University Title: Heterotic Little String Theories and Inequivalent Genus-One Fibrations Abstract: Little String Theories (LSTs) are 6D Supersymmetric quantum field theories (SQFTs) with an additional physical relation called T-duality. This enables us to arrange them into equivalence classes, where each equivalence class has 6D LSTs that lead […]

Mirror Construction for Nakajima Quiver Varieties

CMSA Room G10 CMSA, 20 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA, United States

Mathematical Physics and Algebraic Geometry Seminar Speaker: Ju Tan (Boston University) Title: Mirror Construction for Nakajima Quiver Varieties Abstract: Quiver possesses a rich representation theory. On the one hand, it exhibits a deep connection with instantons and coherent sheaves as illuminated by the ADHM construction and the works of many others. On the other hand, […]

Bounds and Dualities of Type II Little String Theories

CMSA Room G10 CMSA, 20 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA, United States

Mathematical Physics and Algebraic Geometry Seminar Speaker: Fabian Ruehle (Northeastern University) Title: Bounds and Dualities of Type II Little String Theories Abstract: The goal of this seminar is to introduce Type II Little String Theories (LSTs), which are six-dimensional supersymmetric QFTs. We explore how to geometrically engineer these theories within the context of M-/F-theory (top-down) as well […]

(Un)likely intersections

CMSA Room G10 CMSA, 20 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA, United States

Mathematical Physics and Algebraic Geometry Seminar Speaker: Tom Scanlon, UC Berkeley Title: (Un)likely intersections Abstract: The Zilber-Pink conjectures predicts that for an ambient special variety  (such as an abelian variety or a Shimura variety), if   is an irreducible algebraic subvariety which is not contained a proper special subvariety of  (e.g. a proper algebraic subgroup in the abelian variety case […]

A new construction of c = 1 conformal blocks

CMSA Room G10 CMSA, 20 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA, United States

Mathematical Physics and Algebraic Geometry Seminar Speaker: Qianyu Hao, University of Geneva Title: A new construction of c = 1 conformal blocks Abstract: The Virasoro conformal blocks are very interesting since they have many connections to other areas of math and physics. For example, when c = 1, they are related to tau functions of Painlevé equations. I will first explain what […]

Skein valued curve counts for the topological vertex and knot conormals

CMSA Room G10 CMSA, 20 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA, United States

Mathematical Physics and Algebraic Geometry Seminar Speaker: Tobias Ekholm, Uppsala University Title: Skein valued curve counts for the topological vertex and knot conormals Abstract: Combining the invariance of holomorphic curve counts in the skein module with a study of holomorphic curves at infinity of the vertex we find three simple skein operator polynomials that annihilates […]

The Quantum GIT conjecture

CMSA Room G10 CMSA, 20 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA, United States

https://youtu.be/_LDiw4Lq-9c Mathematical Physics and Algebraic Geometry Seminar Speaker: Daniel Pomerleano (UMass Boston) Title: The Quantum GIT conjecture Abstract: Let X be a Fano variety with G action. The quantum GIT conjecture predicts a formula for the quantum cohomology of "anti-canonical" GIT quotients X//G in terms of the equivariant quantum cohomology of X. The formula is […]

Tyurin degenerations, Relative Lagrangian foliations and categorification of DT invariants

Virtual

https://youtu.be/O2U7elI0mbo Mathematical Physics and Algebraic Geometry Seminar Speaker: Artan Sheshmani (BIMSA) Title: Tyurin degenerations, Relative Lagrangian foliations and categorification of DT invariants Abstract: We discuss construction of a derived Lagrangian intersection theory of moduli spaces of perfect complexes, with support on divisors on compact Calabi-Yau threefolds. Our goal is to compute deformation invariants associated to a fixed […]