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SUMMARY:Program on Classical\, quantum\, and probabilistic integrable systems - novel interactions and applications
DESCRIPTION:Program on Classical\, quantum\, and probabilistic integrable systems – novel interactions and applications \nDates: March 24–May 24\, 2025  \nLocation: CMSA\, 20 Garden Street\, Cambridge MA 02138 \nExactly solvable models have played pivotal roles in mathematics and physics throughout their history. The program is dedicated to exploring and developing a more recent wave of their influence in stochastic models together with accompanying combinatorial\, classical\, and quantum integrable systems. Topics will include: \n\nColored and uncolored interacting particle systems with associated vertex models and line ensembles\nYang-Baxter integrability and its applications in algebraic combinatorics\, quantum systems\, and conformal field theory\nQuantum stochastic models\, quantum exclusion processes\, and free probability\nEmerging new aspects of classical and quantum integrable systems – hydrodynamics\, large deviations of stochastic models\, and random surface models\n\nOrganizers: \n\nAmol Aggarwal\, Columbia University & Clay Mathematics Institute\nGuillaume Barraquand\, École normale supérieure\, Paris\nAlexei Borodin\, MIT\nIvan Corwin\, Columbia University\nPierre Le Doussal\, École normale supérieure\, Paris\nMichael Wheeler\, University of Melbourne\n\nParticipants \n\nDenis Bernard\, Ecole Normale Supérieure Paris\nAlexey Bufetov\, University of Leipzig\nPasquale Calabrese\, SISSA Trieste\nSylvie Corteel\, UC Berkeley\nCesar Cuenca\, Ohio State University\nJan De Gier\, University of Melbourne\nAndrea De Luca\, CNRS\, Cergy Paris University\nBenjamin Doyon\, King’s College London\nPatrik Ferrari\, University of Bonn\nVadim Gorin\, UC Berkeley\nTamara Grava\, SISSA\nJimmy He\, Ohio State University\nJiaoyang Huang\, University of Pennsylvania\nKurt Johansson\, KTH Stockholm\nRichard Kenyon\, Yale\nAlexandre Krajenbrink\, Cambridge Quantum Computing & Quantinuum\nAtsuo Kuniba\, University of Tokyo\nMatteo Mucciconi\, National University of Singapore\nGreta Panova\, University of Southern California\nLeonid Petrov\, University of Virginia\nSylvain Prolhac\, Université Paul Sabatier\, Toulouse\nTomaž Prosen\, University of Ljubljana\nTomohiro Sasamoto\, Tokyo Institute of Technology\nHerbert Spohn\, Technical University of Munich\nLi-Cheng Tsai\, University of Utah\n\nSchedule \nWeek 1\nMonday\, March 24th \n11:00am – 12:00pm Room G-10\, Lecture 1 of 4: Denis Bernard\, École normale supérieure de Paris: Quantum Exclusion Processes for (and by) Amateurs \n12:00 – 2:00pm Common Room: Program Lunch \n4:00 – 4:30pm Common Room: CMSA colloquium tea \n4:30 – 5:30pm Common Room\, CMSA colloquium: Amol Aggarwal\, Columbia University: The Toda Lattice as a Soliton Gas \n  \nTuesday\, March 25th \n3:30 – 4:00pm Common Room: Program tea \n4:00 – 5:00pm Room G-10\, Seminar: Patrik Ferrari\, Universität Bonn: Decoupling and decay of two-point functions in a two-species TASEP \n  \nWednesday\, March 26th \n11:00am – 12:00pm Room G-10\, Lecture 1 of 3: Atsuo Kuniba\, University of Tokyo: Multispecies ASEP and t-PushTASEP on a ring and a strange five vertex model \n3:00 – 4:00pm Room G-10\, Lecture 2 of 4: Denis Bernard\, École normale supérieure de Paris: Quantum Exclusion Processes for (and by) Amateurs \n4:30 – 5:30pm Common Room: Program wine and cheese reception \n  \nThursday\, March 27th \n11:00am – 12:00pm Room G-10\, Lecture 1 of 2: Benjamin Doyon\, King’s College London: The equations of generalised hydrodynamics\, and their unusual diffusve corrections \nAbstract: I will discuss the hydrodynamics of one-dimensional many-body integrable models. At the Euler scale\, this is given by “generalised hydrodynamics”\, whose equations only depend on the asymptotic state content and the two-body scattering shift of the model. I will explain how these equations arise\, and mention some of their properties: Hamiltonian structure\, exact solutions\, absence of shocks. At the diffusive scale\, generic one-dimensional models with state-dependent currents display super-diffusion. However\, integrable models are in a special class of “linearly degenerate systems”\, where there is no superdiffusion\, and one might expect a standard derivative expansion. I will explain how the diffusive corrections to the Euler equations are not given by a derivative expansion\, but instead governed by long-range correlations coming from an Euler-scale fluctuation theory. I will give the general ideas behind this fluctuation theory\, where initial fluctuations are deterministically transported by the Euler equation. I will finally provide arguments for the conjecture that\, once long-range correlations are accounted for\, there is no emergent stochasticity at all scales of hydrodynamics in integrable systems. \n3:30 – 4:00pm Common Room: Program tea \n4:00 – 5:00pm Room G-10\, Seminar: Sylvie Corteel\, University of California at Berkeley: Crystal Skeletons \n  \nFriday\, March 28th \n12:00 – 1:00 pm Common Room: Lunch with CMSA Member Seminar \n2:00 – 3:00pm Room G-10\, Lecture 3 of 4 : Denis Bernard\, École normale supérieure de Paris: Quantum Exclusion Processes for (and by) Amateurs \n3:30 – 4:00 pm Common Room: Program tea \n  \n\n \nWeek 2\nMonday\, March 31 \n11:00am – 12:00pm Room G-10\, Lecture 2 of 2: Benjamin Doyon\, King’s College London: The equations of generalised hydrodynamics\, and their unusual diffusve corrections \nAbstract: I will discuss the hydrodynamics of one-dimensional many-body integrable models. At the Euler scale\, this is given by “generalised hydrodynamics”\, whose equations only depend on the asymptotic state content and the two-body scattering shift of the model. I will explain how these equations arise\, and mention some of their properties: Hamiltonian structure\, exact solutions\, absence of shocks. At the diffusive scale\, generic one-dimensional models with state-dependent currents display super-diffusion. However\, integrable models are in a special class of “linearly degenerate systems”\, where there is no superdiffusion\, and one might expect a standard derivative expansion. I will explain how the diffusive corrections to the Euler equations are not given by a derivative expansion\, but instead governed by long-range correlations coming from an Euler-scale fluctuation theory. I will give the general ideas behind this fluctuation theory\, where initial fluctuations are deterministically transported by the Euler equation. I will finally provide arguments for the conjecture that\, once long-range correlations are accounted for\, there is no emergent stochasticity at all scales of hydrodynamics in integrable systems. \n12:00 – 2:00pm Common Room: Program Lunch \n2:00 – 3:00pm Room G-10\, Lecture 2 of 3: Atsuo Kuniba\, University of Tokyo: Solutions of tetrahedron and 3D reflection equations from quantum cluster algebras \n\nAbstract: Tetrahedron and 3D equations are three-dimensional generalizations of the Yang-Baxter and the reflection equations. I will explain how quantum cluster algebras lead to solutions that generalize and unify many known solutions.  \n\n3:30 – 4:00pm Program tea \n  \nTuesday\, April 1 \n11:00am – 12:00pm Room G-10\, Lecture 1 of 2: Kurt Johansson\, KTH Stockholm: Extremal particles in uniform random Gelfand-Tsetlin patterns \nAbstract: I will report on joint work with Elnur Emrah on edge fluctuations in uniform random interlacing patterns with fixed top configuration. The goal is to describe all possible limit processes that can occur\, and the conditions under which they occur. \n3:30pm – 4:00pm\, Common Room: Program tea \n  \nWednesday\, April 2 \n11:00am – 12:00pm Room G-10\, Lecture 4 of 4: Denis Bernard\, École normale supérieure de Paris: Quantum Exclusion Processes for (and by) Amateurs \n3:00 – 4:00pm Room G-10\, Lecture 3 of 3: Atsuo Kuniba\, University of Tokyo: Box-ball systems \nAbstract: Box-ball systems are one-dimensional integrable cellular automata introduced in 1990. This talk surveys major developments that have unfolded consistently over the decades\, enriching the scope of the theory. Topics include ultradiscretization\, crystal theory in quantum groups\, the combinatorial and thermodynamic Bethe ansatz\, as well as generalized hydrodynamics. \n4:30 – 5:30pm Common Room: Program wine and cheese reception \n  \nThursday\, April 3 \n11:00am – 12:00pm Room G-10\, Lecture 2 of 2: Kurt Johansson\, KTH Stockholm: Extremal particles in uniform random Gelfand-Tsetlin patterns \nAbstract: I will report on joint work with Elnur Emrah on edge fluctuations in uniform random interlacing patterns with fixed top configuration. The goal is to describe all possible limit processes that can occur\, and the conditions under which they occur. \n3:30pm – 4:00pm Common Room: Program tea \n  \nFriday\, April 4 \n12:00 – 1:00pm Common Room: CMSA Member Seminar and Lunch \n3:30 – 4:00pm Common Room: Program tea \n  \n\n \nWeek 3\nMonday\, April 7 \n12:00 – 2:00pm Common Room: Program lunch \n4:00 – 4:30pm Tea with CMSA colloquium \n4:30 – 5:30pm CMSA Colloquium: Ben Webster\, University of Waterloo and Perimeter Institute: 3-D Mirror Symmetry \n  \nTuesday\, April 8 \n11:00am – 2:00pm Room G-10\, Pierre Le Doussal\, École normale supérieure de Paris: Exact results for the macroscopic fluctuation theory of the 1D weakly asymmetric exclusion process. \n3:30 – 4:00pm Common Room: Program tea  \n  \nWednesday\, April 9 \n12:00 – 1:00pm Common Room\, CMSA Q&A Seminar and lunch: Eric Maskin\, Harvard Economics: The Mathematics of Voting \n4:30 – 5:30pm Common Room: Program wine and cheese reception \n  \nThursday\, April 10 \n3:30 – 4:00pm Common Room: Program tea  \n  \nFriday\, April 11 \n12:00 – 1:00pm Common Room: CMSA member seminar and lunch \n3:30 – 4:00pm Common Room: Program tea \n  \n\nWeek 4\nMonday\, April 14 \n12:00 – 2:00pm Common Room: Program lunch \n4:00 – 4:30pm Tea with CMSA colloquium \n4:30 –5:30pm CMSA colloquium: Andrey Smirnov\, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: Quantum K-theory at roots of unity \n  \nTuesday\, April 15 \n11:00 am – 12:00pm Room G-10\, Ivan Corwin\, Columbia University: How Yang-Baxter unravels Kardar-Parisi-Zhang \nAbstract: Over the past few decades\, physicists and then mathematicians have sought to uncover the (conjecturally) universal long time and large space scaling limit for the so-called Kardar-Parisi-Zhang (KPZ) class of stochastically growing interfaces in (1+1)-dimensions. Progress has been marked by several breakthroughs\, starting with the identification of a few free-fermionic integrable models in this class and their single-point limiting distributions\, widening the field to include non-free-fermionic integrable representatives\, evaluating their asymptotics distributions at various levels of generality\, constructing the conjectural full space-time scaling limit\, known as the directed landscape\, and checking convergence to it for a few of the free-fermion representatives. \nIn this talk\, I will describe a method that should prove convergence for all known integrable representatives of the KPZ class to this universal scaling limit. The method has been fully realized for the Asymmetric Simple Exclusion Process and the Stochastic Six Vertex Model. It relies on the Yang-Baxter equation as its only input and unravels the rich complexity of the KPZ class and its asymptotics from first principles. This is based on a few works involving Amol Aggarwal\, Alexei Borodin\, Milind Hegde\, Jiaoyang Huang and me. \n3:30 – 4:00pm Common Room: Program tea  \n  \nWednesday\, April 16 \n11:00am – 12:00pm Room G-10\, Tamara Grava\, University of Bristol: Random solitons and soliton gas \nAbstract: A soliton is a localised travelling wave solution of a nonlinear dispersive equation. When the equation is integrable the interaction of many solitons is elastic. We study the behaviour of a set of N solitons for the Korteweg de Vries equation in the limit N goes to infinity (soliton gas) and the interaction of the soliton gas with a distinct soliton that we call a tracer soliton. We show that the average velocity of the tracer soliton satisfies the Zakharov-El kinetic equations. We then consider a set of random N soliton solution q_N(x\,t) and its limiting soliton gas q(x\,t). We prove a central limit theorem for the difference q_N(x\,t)-q(x\,t) for values of x and t that are bounded by log(N). \n12:00 – 1:00pm Common Room: CMSA Q&A seminar and lunch: Noah Golowich\, MIT: What is length generalization in large language models? \n4:30 – 5:30pm Common Room: Program wine and cheese reception \n  \nThursday\, April 17 \n11:00am – 12:00pm Room G-10\, Guillaume Barraquand\, École normale supérieure de Paris: Large time cumulants of the open KPZ equation \n12:00 – 1:00pm Common Room: lunch with featured Yip Lecture speaker Scott Aaronson and CMSA residents \n3:30pm Common Room: Program tea  \n4:00 – 5:00pm Science Center Hall A: Fifth Annual Yip Lecture\, Scott Aaronson: How Much Math is Knowable? \n5:00 – 6:00pm Math Department Common Room at the Harvard Science Center: Yip Lecture reception \n  \nFriday\, April 18 \n12:00 – 1:00pm Common Room: CMSA Member Seminar and lunch: Han Shao\, Harvard CMSA\, Topic TBD \n3:30 – 4:00pm Common Room: Program tea \n  \n\nWeek 5\n  \nMonday\, April 21 \n11:00am – 12:00pm Room G-10\, Tomaz Prosen\, University of Ljubljana\, Lecture 1 of 3: On Integrable Quantum and Classical Circuits (with Stochastic Boundaries) \nAbstract: I will introduce Yang-Baxter integrable brickwork quantum circuit models and discuss their integrability structure\, specifically\, the transfer matrix\, conservation laws etc. A paradigmatic example\, XXZ or unitary 6-vertex circuits exhibit an unusual link to KPZ scaling at the isotropic (SU(2) symmetric) point. I will establish the link to corresponding classical integrable Landau-Lifshitz circuits and discuss some aspects of transport and full counting statistics. \n12:00 – 2:00pm Common Room: Program Lunch \n4:00 – 4:30pm Common Room: CMSA colloquium tea \n4:30 – 5:30pm  Common Room\, CMSA colloquium: Ila Fiete\, MIT: Modeling the emergence of complex cortical structure from simple precursors in the brain: maps\, hierarchies\, and modules \n  \nTuesday\, April 22 \n11:00am – 12:00pm Room G-10\, Tomohiro Sasamoto\, Tokyo Institute of Technology: Large deviation of symmetric models through classical integrable systems \n3:30pm Common Room: Program tea  \n  \nWednesday\, April 23 \n11:00am – 12:00pm Room G-10\, Tomaz Prosen\, University of Ljubljana: On Integrable Quantum and Classical Circuits (with Stochastic Boundaries) \nAbstract: I will discuss explicit matrix product solutions for quantum many-body Markov chains\, defined for a Yang-Baxter integrable quantum circuit with specific stochastic Kraus processes at its boundaries. In the continuous time limit\, these solutions correspond to steady states of boundary driven Lindbladian dynamics and often yield non-trivial quasi-local conservation laws of integrable spin chains. The specific case of XXZ and Hubbard chain will be discussed. \n12:00 – 1:00pm Common Room: CMSA Q&A seminar and lunch: Alexei Borodin\, MIT: Connections between physics and probability \n4:30 – 5:30pm Common Room: Program wine and cheese reception \n  \nThursday\, April 24 \n11:00am – 12:00pm Room G-10\, Sylvain Prolhac\, Université Paul Sabatier\, Toulouse: Approach to stationarity for KPZ fluctuations in finite volume \nAbstract: At late times $t$\, the cumulants of the height for the KPZ fixed point in finite volume behave as affine functions of time $c_k(t) = a_k t+b_k$\, up to exponentially small corrections. The constant term $b_k$ is the last remaining information about the initial state observable at long enough times. Two approaches allow us to compute this constant from the totally asymmetric exclusion process\, a discrete version of the KPZ fixed point. First\, an iterated version of the matrix product representation for the stationary state leads\, for arbitrary initial conditions\, to expressions involving extreme value statistics of Brownian paths. On the other hand\, Bethe ansatz leads to rather explicit expressions for simple initial conditions. Comparison between the two approaches then provides conjectures for some generating functions of Brownian paths. \n3:30pm Common Room: Program tea  \n  \nFriday\, April 25 \n11:00am – 12:00pm Room G-10\, Tomaz Prosen\, University of Ljubljana\, Lecture 3 of 3: On Integrable Quantum and Classical Circuits (with Stochastic Boundaries) \nAbstract: In the last lecture I will discuss the possibility of quantum integrability of many-body quantum Markov chain generators\, such as Lindbladians with bulk or boundary dissipation\, and the corresponding circuit (Kraus) counterparts. The paradigmatic example is the XX model with dephasing noise which can be mapped to a Hubbard model with imaginary interaction\, both in the Hamiltonian and circuit formulation. \n3:30 – 4:00pm Common Room: Program tea \n  \n\nWeek 6\n  \nMonday\, April 28 \n11:00am – 12:00pm Room G-10\, Herbert Spohn\, Technische Universitaet Muenchen\, Lecture 1 of 3: Integral many-body systems and GHD \n12:00 – 2:00pm Common Room: Program Lunch \n2:00 – 3:00 pm Room G-10\, Tomohiro Sasamoto\, Tokyo Institute of Technology\, Exact density profile and current fluctuations in a tight-binding chain with dephasing noise \nAbstract: We consider a tight-binding chain with dephasing noise\, whose time evolution is described by the quantum master equation called the Gorini-Kossakowski-Sudarhan-Lindblad (GKSL) equation. By using a connection of this model to the Hubbard model with imaginary coupling [1]\, we study the density profile [2] and the variance of the current [3] exactly for the model on the infinite line by writing down contour integral formulas using Bethe ansatz. The talk is based on collaborations with Taiki Ishiyama and Kazuya Fujimoto.  \n4:00 – 4:30pm Common Room: CMSA colloquium tea \n4:30 –5:30pm Room G-10\, CMSA colloquium: Peter Sarnak\, IAS and Princeton University\, Bass-Note Spectra of locally uniform geometries \n  \nTuesday\, April 29 \n11:00 am – 12:00pm Room G-10\, Pasquale Calabrese\, SISSA Trieste\, Lecture 1 of 3: Quantum Mpemba effect \n2:00 – 3:00 pm Room G-10\, Greta Panova\, University of Southern California\, Grothendieck shenanigans: permutons from pipe dreams via integrable probability \nAbstract: Pipe dreams are tiling models originally introduced to study objects related to the Schubert calculus and K-theory of the Grassmannian. They can also be viewed as ensembles of random lattice walks with various interaction constraints. In our quest to understand what the maximal and typical algebraic objects look like\, we revealed some interesting permutons. The proofs use the theory of the Totally Asymmetric Simple Exclusion Process (TASEP). Deeper connections with domino tilings of the Aztec diamond and its frozen boundary allow us to describe the extreme cases of the original algebraic problem. This is based on joint work with A. H. Morales\, L. Petrov\, D. Yeliussizov. \n3:30 – 4:00pm Common Room: Program tea  \n  \nWednesday\, April 30 \n11:00am – 12:00pm Herbert Spohn\, Technische Universitaet Muenchen\, Lecture 2 of 3: Integral many-body systems and GHD \n12:00 – 1:00pm (tentative) Common Room: CMSA Q&A seminar and lunch \n3:00 – 4pm Room G-10\, Pasquale Calabrese\, SISSA Trieste\, Entanglement evolution and quasiparticle picture 1 \n4:30 – 5:30pm Common Room: Program wine and cheese reception \n  \nThursday\, May 1 \n11:00am – 12:00pm Room G-10\, Herbert Spohn\, Technische Universitaet Muenchen\, Lecture 3 of 3: Integral many-body systems and GHD \n2:00 – 3:00 pm Room G-10\, Li-Cheng Tsai\, University of Utah\, Stochastic heat flow by moments \nAbstract: The Stochastic Heat Flow (SHF) is the scaling limit of the directed polymers in random environments and the noise-mollified Stochastic Heat Equation (SHE)\, at the critical dimension of two and near the critical temperature. The finite-dimensional distributions of the SHF was obtained by Caravenna\, Sun\, and Zygouras (2023) by proving that the discrete polymers converge to a universal (model-independent) limit. In this talk\, I will report a new approach based on axioms. We formulate the SHF as a two-parameter continuous measure-valued process that satisfies a set of axioms\, and prove the uniqueness in law under these axioms. The key feature of the axioms concerns the matching of the first four moments. As an application\, we prove the convergence of the noise-mollified SHE to the SHF\, which only requires moment estimates. \n3:30pm Common Room: Program tea  \n  \nFriday\, May 2 \n11:00am – 12:00pm Room G-10\, Pasquale Calabrese\, SISSA Trieste\, Lecture 3 of 3: Entanglement evolution and quasiparticle picture 2 \n12:00 – 1:00pm Common Room\, CMSA Member seminar and lunch \n2:00 – 3:00 pm Room G-10\, Leonid Petrov\, University of Virginia: Random Fibonacci Words \nAbstract: Fibonacci words are words of 1’s and 2’s\, graded by the total sum of the digits. They form a differential poset YF which is an estranged cousin of the Young lattice powering irreducible representations of the symmetric group. We introduce families of “coherent” measures on YF depending on many parameters\, which come from the theory of clone Schur functions (Okada 1994). We characterize parameter sequences ensuring positivity of the measures\, and we describe the large-scale behavior of some ensembles of random Fibonacci words. The subject has connections to total positivity of tridiagonal matrices\, Stieltjes moment sequences\, orthogonal polynomials from the (q-)Askey scheme\, and residual allocation (stick-breaking) models. Based on a joint work with Jeanne Scott. \n3:30 – 4:00pm Common Room: Program tea \n\nWeek 7\n  \nMonday\, May 5 \n11:00am – 12:00pm Room G-10\, Jan De Gier\, University of Melbourne\, Lecture 1 of 3: Pfaffian point process for TASEP on the half line \n12:00 – 2:00pm Common Room: Program Lunch \n2:00 – 3:00 pm  Jiaoyang Huang\, University of Pennsylvania: Ramanujan Property and Edge Universality of Random Regular Graphs \nAbstract: Extremal eigenvalues of graphs are of particular interest in theoretical computer science and combinatorics. Specifically\, the spectral gap—the difference between the largest and second-largest eigenvalues—measures the expansion properties of a graph. In this talk\, I will focus on random d-regular graphs.I will begin by providing background on the eigenvalues of random d-regular graphs and their connections to random matrix theory. In the second part of the talk\, I will discuss our recent results on eigenvalue rigidity and edge universality for these graphs. Eigenvalue rigidity asserts that\, with high probability\, each eigenvalue concentrates around its classical location as predicted by the Kesten-McKay distribution. Edge universality states that the second-largest eigenvalue and the smallest eigenvalue of random d-regular graphs converge to the Tracy-Widom distribution from the Gaussian Orthogonal Ensemble. Consequently\, approximately 69% of d-regular graphs are Ramanujan graphs. This work is based on joint work with Theo McKenzie and Horng-Tzer Yau. \n  \n4:00 – 4:30pm Common Room: CMSA colloquium tea \n4:30 –5:30pm Common Room\, CMSA colloquium: Ariel Procaccia\, Harvard University\, Thinking Outside the Ballot Box \n  \nTuesday\, May 6 \n11:00 am – 12:00pm Room G-10\, Jan De Gier\, University of Melbourne\, Lecture 2 of 3: Pfaffian point process for TASEP on the half line \n2:00 – 3:00 Richard Kenyon\, Yale University\, Multinomial dimers and 3d limit shapes \nAbstract: The “multinomial dimer model” on a graph G is the dimer model on the N-fold blow up of G (the graph obtained by replacing each vertex with N vertices and each edge with a complete bipartite graph K_{N\,N}). In the large N limit this model is tractable for general graphs: we find formulas for the partition function and limit shapes in some natural settings\, including a three-dimensional version of the Aztec Diamond. This is joint work with Catherine Wolfram (Yale). \n3:30 – 4:00pm Common Room: Program tea  \n  \nWednesday\, May 7 \n3:00 – 4pm Room G-10\, Jan De Gier\, University of Melbourne\, Lecture 3 of 3: Pfaffian point process for TASEP on the half line \n4:30 – 5:30pm Common Room: Program wine and cheese reception \n  \nThursday\, May 8: \n2:00 – 3:00 pm Room G-10\, Andrea De Luca\, CNRS Cergy Paris University\, Monitored quantum systems\, product of random matrices and permutations \n3:30pm Common Room: Program tea  \n  \nFriday\, May 9: \n12:00 – 1:00pm Common Room: CMSA Member Seminar and lunch\, Sergiy Verstyuk\, Harvard CMSA\, Title TBD \n2:00 – 3:00 pm Room G-10\, Cesar Cuenca\, Ohio State University\, Random partitions at high temperature \nAbstract: By using Fourier transforms based on Jack symmetric polynomials\, we study discrete particle ensembles x_1>x_2>…>x_N with the inverse temperature beta in the regime where beta tends to zero\, as the number of particles tends to infinity. We prove the LLN and characterize the limiting measure in terms of a moment problem. For fixed-time distributions of special Markov chains\, the limiting measures can be expressed in terms of the eigenvalues of certain Jacobi operators. \n3:30 – 4:00pm Common Room: Program tea \n\nWeek 8\n  \nMonday\, May 12 \n11:00am – 12:00pm Room G-10\, Jimmy He\, Ohio State University\, Symmetries of periodic and free boundary measures on partitions \nAbstract: The periodic and free boundary q-Whittaker measures are probability measures on partitions defined in terms of q-Whittaker functions and an additional parameter $u$ controlling the behavior of the system at the boundary. I will explain a hidden distributional symmetry of this model which exchanges the $u$ and $q$ parameters\, as well as related results on Hall-Littlewood measures. As a special case\, we recover identities of Imamura–Mucciconi–Sasamoto. This is joint work with Michael Wheeler. \n12:00 – 2:00pm Common Room: Program Lunch \n4:00 – 4:30pm Common Room: CMSA colloquium tea \n4:30 – 5:30pm Common Room\, CMSA colloquium: Anna Seigal\, Harvard University\, Factorizations for data analysis \n  \nTuesday\, May 13 \n3:30pm Common Room: Program tea  \n  \nWednesday\, May 14 \n12:00 – 1:00pm Common Room: CMSA Conference Reports seminar and lunch: Hugo Cui\, Harvard CMSA\, reporting on the Perimeter Institute Theory+AI Workshop \n3:00 – 4:00pm Room G-10\, Alexandre Krajenbrink\, Cambridge Quantum Computing and Quantinuum\, Unveiling the classical integrable structure of the weak noise theory of the KPZ class: example of the matrix Log–Gamma polymer and the q-TASEP \n4:30 – 5:30pm Common Room: Program wine and cheese reception \n  \nThursday\, May 15 \n11:00am – 12:00pm Room G-10: Roger Van Peski\, Columbia University\, Integrability in discrete random matrix theory \n\nAbstract: Integrable structure has been well-used in classical random matrix theory\, and recently is also enjoying application in the parallel world of discrete random matrices (over integers\, p-adic integers\, and finite fields). In this talk I will try to cover—at least briefly—the following:\n\n\nSome favorite probabilistic results (convergence of discrete random matrix local limits to a new integrable interacting particle system\, the ‘reflecting Poisson sea’)\,\nSome exact formulas with Hall-Littlewood polynomials that make these results possible\, and \nSome intriguing newer formulas (joint with Jiahe Shen) for Hermitian and antisymmetric p-adic matrices\, which naturally feature ‘formal’ Hall-Littlewood processes with negative t parameter.\n\n\n\n2:00 – 3:00 pm Room G-10\, Matteo Mucciconi\, National University Singapore\, Orthogonality of spin q-Whittaker polynomials \nAbstract: Spin q-Whittaker polynomials are a family of symmetric polynomials that can be defined as partition functions of a solvable lattice model. Their study reveals that they possess mysterious properties such as additional “unorthodox” symmetries\, eigenrelations with respect to difference operators and a self orthogonality that I will prove in the talk. A particular case of these results include a novel orthogonality for the Grothendieck polynomials from K-theory of Grassmannian. I will also discuss applications to exact solutions of directed random polymer models with Beta weights. \n3:30pm Common Room: Program tea  \n  \nFriday\, May 16 \n12:00 – 1:00pm Common Room: CMSA Member Seminar  and lunch: Samy Jelassi\, Echo Chamber: RL Post-training Amplifies Behaviors Learned in Pretraining \n3:30 – 4:00pm Common Room: Program tea \n\nVideos are available on the Youtube Playlist. \n\n 
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/integrablesystems2025/
LOCATION:CMSA 20 Garden Street Cambridge\, Massachusetts 02138 United States
CATEGORIES:Event,Programs
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260223T090000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260311T170000
DTSTAMP:20260719T093637
CREATED:20250502T183538Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260325T134313Z
UID:10003750-1771837200-1773248400@cmsa.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Mathematics and Biology I: Morphometry\, Morphogenesis and Mathematics
DESCRIPTION:Mathematics and Biology I: Morphometry\, Morphogenesis and Mathematics \nDates: February 23–March 11\, 2026 \nLocation: Harvard CMSA\, Room G10\, 20 Garden Street\, Cambridge MA \nMathematics\, Morphometry and Morphogenesis is a 3-week program at the Harvard CMSA\, which will bring together researchers from a few different communities with a common aim—to understand shape and its development and evolution in living matter. \nThe aim is to bring together those interested in evolutionary and developmental biology\, soft and active matter physics\, and differential\, discrete and computational geometry and topology\, especially with a statistical bent. Although each of these fields has developed powerful tools and deep insights into form\, function\, and dynamics\, opportunities for them to meet and interact are rare. This workshop aims to foster dialogue and discovery across these disciplinary boundaries—where paleontologists\, developmental biologists\, physicists\, computer scientists and mathematicians can exchange ideas\, identify shared challenges\, and spark new collaborations. We envision this as a chance not only to showcase exciting advances within each domain\, but also to chart new directions together at the intersection of evolution\, development\, and geometry. \nThe first week will have a few tutorials on developmental and evolutionary aspects of morphology\, computational geometry\, statistics and dynamical systems\, along with a workshop-style meeting with research talks\, setting the stage for longer stays and new collaborations over the following weeks. \nPlease note that this is an in-person event. \n  \nWeek 1: Feb 23–27\, 2026: Teaching lectures and research seminars \nThe teaching lectures span a broad range of topics\, including statistical shape and morphometric analysis\, dynamical systems\, differential geometry\, and current themes in morphogenesis\, developmental biology\, and evolutionary developmental biology in Week 1. \n  \nWeek 2-3: March 2–5 & 10–11\, 2026: Research seminars and discussion \nWeeks 2 and 3 will cover development\, regeneration\, and evolution from quantitative\, morphometric\, and mathematical perspectives. \n  \nTopics include: \n🧬 Organoids & Tissue-Engineered Models \n🔬 Computational Imaging & Geometry \n⚙️ Biophysics\, Mechanics & Theory \n🌱 Developmental Biology & Evo-Devo \n  \nSpeakers: \n\nSalem al-Mosleh\, University of Maryland Eastern Shore\nVanessa Barone\, Stanford University\nYohannes Bellaiche\, Institut Curie\nAlain Chedotal\, Institut de la Vision\nGary P.T. Choi\, Chinese University of Hong Kong\nStefano Di Talia\, Duke University\nPaul Francois\, McGill University\nJianping Fu\, University of Michigan\nThomas Gregor\, Pasteur Institute & Princeton\nSahand Hormoz\, Harvard\nHelen James\, Smithsonian Institution\nPurnati Khuntia\, Harvard\nAllon Klein\, Harvard Medical School\nElena Kramer\, Harvard University\nThomas Lecuit\, College de France & IBDM\nDaniel Lew\, MIT\nL. Mahadevan\, Harvard\nM. Lisa Manning\, Syracuse\nAdam Martin\, MIT\nSean Megason\, Harvard\nNoah Mitchell\, University of Chicago\nAkankshi Munjal\, Duke\nNipam Patel\, MBL Woods Hole\nOlivier Pourquié\, Harvard Medical School\nAdrienne Roeder\, Cornell University\nMattia Serra\, UC San Diego\nSuraj Shankar\, University of Michigan\nAnuj Srivastava\, Johns Hopkins\nSebastian Streichan\, UC Santa Barbara\nBerta Verd\, University of Oxford\n\n  \nOrganizers: \n\nSalem al-Mosleh\, University of Maryland Eastern Shore\nVanessa Barone\, Stanford\nL. Mahadevan\, Harvard\nAkankshi Munjal\, Duke\nOlivier Pourquie\, Harvard\n\n  \nVideos from the program are available at the CMSA Youtube Channel. \nMathematics and Biology Playlist \nWeek 1: Feb 23–27\, 2026 – Workshop \nMonday\, 2/23/26 \n\n9:00–9:30 am: Breakfast\n\n9:30–10:30 am: Tutorial: Anuj Srivastava (Johns Hopkins) — Advances in Statistical Shape Analysis of Biological Structures\n\n10:30–11:00 am: Tea Break\n\n11:00 am–12:00 pm: Tutorial: Anuj Srivastava (Johns Hopkins) — Advances in Statistical Shape Analysis of Biological Structures\n\n12:00–1:30 pm: Lunch: CMSA Common Room\, catered\n\n1:30–2:15 pm: Research Talk: Noah Mitchell (University of Chicago) — Mechanical canalization of 3D chiral morphogenesis\n\nTuesday\, 2/24/26 \n\n9:00–9:30 am: Breakfast\n\n9:30–10:30 am: Tutorial: Mattia Serra (UCSD) —Tissue Flows\, Morphogen Transport and Positional Information: A Dynamical Systems Framework \n\n10:30–11:00 am: Tea Break\n\n11:00 am–12:00 pm: Tutorial: Mattia Serra (UCSD) — Tissue Flows\, Morphogen Transport and Positional Information: A Dynamical Systems Framework \n\n12:00–1:30 pm: Lunch Break\n\n1:30–2:15 pm: Research Talk: Paul Francois (McGill) — Waddington Landscapes in the Age of Machine Learning\n\nWednesday\, 2/25/26 \n\n9:00–9:30 am: Breakfast\n\n9:30–10:30 am: Tutorial: Olivier Pourquie (Harvard) — Segmentation and body axis\n\n10:30–11:00 am: Tea Break\n\n11:00 am–12:00 pm: Tutorial: Akankshi Munjal (Duke) — Principles of Tissue Morphogenesis\n\n12:00–1:30 pm: Lunch: CMSA Common Room\, catered\n\n1:30–2:15 pm: Research Talk: Allon Klein (Harvard) — Stochastic Cell State Transitions\n2:15–3:00 pm: Research Talk: Salem Al-Mosleh (University of Maryland) — Linking Geometry\, Evolution\, & Development of Bird Beaks\n\nThursday\, 2/26/26 \n\nIn-person discussions\n\nFriday\, 2/27/26 \n\n9:00–9:30 am: Breakfast\n\n9:30–10:30 am: Tutorial: Vanessa Barone (Stanford)\n\n10:30–11:00 am: Tea Break\n\n11:00 am–12:00 pm: Tutorial: Vanessa Barone (Stanford)\n\n12:00–1:30 pm: Lunch Break\n\n1:30–2:15 pm: Research Talk: Alain Chedotal (Institut de la Vision) — Tridimensional analysis of human development\n\n2:15–3:00 pm: Research Talk: Jianping Fu (University of Michigan) — Bioengineering Human Embryo and Organ Models\n\n\n  \nWeek 2: March 2–5\, 2026 \nMonday\, 3/2/26 \n\n9:00–9:30 am: Breakfast\n\n9:30–10:30 am: Research Talk: Thomas Lecuit (Collège de France) —Encoding neuronal shape in the stochastic dynamics of branching processes\n\n10:30–11:00 am: Tea Break\n\n11:00 am–12:00 pm: Research Talk: Danny Lew (MIT) — Tuning the Cell Polarity Circuit: location and number of polarity sites\n12:00–1:30 pm: Lunch: CMSA Common Room\, catered\n\n1:30–2:15 pm: Research Talk: Suraj Shankar (University of Michigan)\n2:15–2:50 pm: Trainee Research Talk: Wenhui Tang (Harvard) — Wetting dynamics and mechanics in human vertebrate somite formation\n2:50–3:05 pm: Tea Break\n3:05–3:35 pm: Trainee Research Talk: Ludwig Hoffmann (Harvard) — Shape deformations through mechanochemical feedback\n4:30–5:30 pm: CMSA Colloquium: L Mahadevan (Harvard) — Inverse problems in soft and active matter\n\nTuesday\, 3/3/26 \n\n9:00–9:30 am: Breakfast\n\n9:30–10:30 am: Research Talk: Adrienne Roeder (Cornell) — Mechanisms generating robustness in flower morphogenesis\n\n10:30–11:00 am: Tea Break\n\n11:00 am–12:00 pm: Research Talk: Gary Choi (Chinese University of Hong Kong) — Quantifying shape variation using quasi-conformal geometry\n\n12:00–1:30 pm: Lunch Break\n\n1:30–2:15 pm: Research Talk: Akankshi Munjal (Duke) — Shaping the inner ear from the Outside in\n\n2:15–2:50 pm: Trainee Research Talk: Sean McGeary (Harvard) — Uncovering principles of tissue organization with massively parallel cell-interaction assays\n2:50–3:05 pm: Tea Break\n3:05–3:35 pm: Trainee Research Talk: Oliver Inge (Harvard) —Combinatorial BMP4 and activin direct the choice between alternate routes to endoderm in a stem cell model of human gastrulation\n3:40–4:10 pm: Trainee Research Talk: Mehrana Raeisian Nejad (Harvard) — Stress-shape misalignment in confluent cell layers\n\nWednesday\, 3/4/26 \n\n9:00–9:30 am: Breakfast\n\n9:30–10:15 am: Research Talk: Nipam Patel (Marine Biology Lab\, Woods Hole) — Cellular Morphogenesis at the Nanoscale: Structural color in butterflies\n\n10:15–11:00 am: Tea Break\n\n11:00 am–12:00 pm: Research Talk: M. Lisa Manning (Syracuse) — Sparse mesenchymal cell networks as a fluid under tension (and possibly as tunable matter)\n\n12:00–1:30 pm: Lunch Break: CMSA Common Room\, catered\n\n1:30–2:30 pm: Research Talk: Research Talk: Stefano Di Talia (Duke) — Encoding Geometric Memory During Zebrafish Appendage Regeneration \n\n2:30–3:00 pm: Trainee Research Talk: Suhrid Ghosh (Harvard) — One Cell After Another: Mechanical Counting in Reproductive Evolution\n\n3:00–3:15 pm: Tea Break\n3:15–4:05 pm: Research Talk: Sean Megason (Harvard) — Algorithms for Creating Form: How multiscale control systems make development robust\n4:10–4:40 pm: Trainee Research Talk: Alexandru Bacanu (Harvard) — Forcing tissues into shape: mechanical development in the early human brain\n\nThursday\, 3/5/26 \n\n9:00–9:30 am: Breakfast\n\n9:30–10:30 am: Research Talk: Sebastian Streichen (UCSB) — Physics of Living Systems: From embryos to structured active matter\n\n10:30–11:00 am: Tea Break\n\n11:00 am–12:00 pm: Research Talk: Berta Verd (University of Oxford) — Evolving phenotypic diversity \n\n12:00–1:30 pm: Lunch Break\n\n1:30–2:15 pm: Research Talk: Elena Kramer (Harvard) — Life in a box: Generating developmental complexity while bound by cell walls\n\n2:20–2:50 pm: Trainee Research Talk: Beatrice Steinert (Brown) — Grids and Folds: Morphogenetic Mechanisms of Body Plan Organization\n\n2:50–3:05 pm: Tea Break\n3:05–3:35 pm: Trainee Research Talk: Rikki Garner (Harvard)\n3:40–4:10 pm: Trainee Research Talk: Chaitra Prabhakara (Harvard) — One Morphogen\, Diverse Patterns: Unraveling Muscle Formation Across the Embryonic Gut Axis\n\n  \nWeek 3: March 10–11\, 2026 \nTuesday\, 3/10/26 \n\n9:00–9:30 am: Breakfast\n\n9:30–10:30 am: Research talk: Adam Martin (MIT) — Getting in shape: geometry\, mechanics\, and signaling in living epithelia\n\n10:30–11:00 am: Tea break\n\n11:00 am–12:00 pm: Research talk: Yohannes Bellaiche (Institut Curie) — How do cells and tissues sense their size to tailor their dynamics during development?\n12:00–1:30 pm: Lunch Break\n\n1:30–2:15 pm: Research talk: Sahand Hormoz (Harvard) — Learning the rules of morphogenesis\n\nWednesday\, 3/11/26 \n\n9:00–9:30 am: Breakfast\n\n9:30–10:15 am: Research talk: Thomas Gregor (Pasteur Institute & Princeton) — From Fluctuations to Form: Empirical Laws and Scaling Principles in Development\n\n10:15–11:00 am: Research talk: Allison Kann (Harvard) — How to rebuild an organ: The cellular choreography of whole-body regeneration\n\n11:00–11:30 am: Tea Break\n11:30 am–12:00 pm: Research talk: Chandra Kuyyamudi Ashwinikumar (Harvard)\n12:00–12:30 pm: Research talk: Purnati Khuntia (Harvard) — Role of Nucleus in Building Epithelial Tissues \n1:00 pm: Lunch: CMSA Common Room\, catered\n\n\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n 
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/bioshape_2026/
LOCATION:CMSA 20 Garden Street Cambridge\, Massachusetts 02138 United States
CATEGORIES:Programs
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260427T090000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260430T170000
DTSTAMP:20260719T093637
CREATED:20250724T152524Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260507T181943Z
UID:10003757-1777280400-1777568400@cmsa.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Mathematics and Biology II: Mathematics and Science of Behavior
DESCRIPTION:Mathematics and Biology II: Mathematics and Science of Behavior \nDates: April 27–30\, 2026 \nLocation: Harvard CMSA\, Room G10\, 20 Garden Street\, Cambridge MA \nYoutube Playlist \n\n\nThis meeting will explore the emerging mathematics and science of embodied cognition—the idea that behavior arises not solely from the brain but through the dynamic interaction of brain\, body\, and environment. Understanding how animals sense\, move\, decide\, and coordinate\, from individual sensorimotor loops to collective dynamics\, demands mathematical frameworks that integrate geometry\, dynamics\, stochastic processes\, control theory\, and multiscale physics. The meeting will bring together experimentalists studying behavior across species with theorists and engineers building mathematical models and bio-inspired machines\, to identify shared principles of adaptive behavior. \n\n\nCo-organizers: L. Mahadevan (Harvard)\, Francesco Mori (Harvard CMSA)\, Venkatesh Murthy (Harvard) \nSpeakers \n\nPulkit Agrawal\, MIT\nKristin Branson\, HHMI\nAntonio C. Costa\, Sorbonne University/Paris Brain Institute\nNoah Cowan\, Johns Hopkins University\nRobert Datta\, Harvard Medical School\nBen de Bivort\, Harvard University\nOfer Feinerman\, Weizmann Institute of Science\nDeborah Gordon\, Stanford University\nAlbert Kao\, UMass Boston\nAnn Kennedy\, Scripps Research Institute\nHungtang Ko\, Tufts University\nGeorge Lauder\, Harvard University\nBence Ölveczky\, Harvard University\nKirstin Petersen\, Cornell University\nPavan Ramdya\, EPFL\nElizabeth Tibbetts\, University of Michigan\nRobert Wood\, Harvard University\n\n  \n\nSchedule (pdf) \nMonday\, Apr. 27\, 2026 \n9:00–9:30 am: Breakfast \n9:30–10:15 am: Deborah Gordon\, Stanford University\nTitle: The dynamics of collective behavior in changing environments\nAbstract: Collective behavior operates without central control\, using interactions among participants adjust to changing conditions. There is enormous diversity in the dynamics of collective behavior\, including in the rate of response to conditions\, in feedback regimes that set whether interactions stimulate or inhibit activity\, and the extent of centralization or modularity of information flow. An ecological perspective suggests how this diversity of collective behavior reflects the dynamics of the environment\, including its stability\, the ratio of resources spent to resources gained\, and the distribution of resources in time and space.\nAs examples\, I will discuss field studies and modelling of the regulation of foraging behavior in two species of ants\, Harvester ant colonies in the desert regulate foraging to manage high costs\, in water loss\, to obtain scattered and stable resources. They use a centralized system\, with the default to remain inactive unless stimulated\, that is slow to adjust foraging activity. In contrast\, the turtle ant colonies form trail networks in the canopy of the tropical forest\, in unstable conditions where activity costs are low\, to find and collect ephemeral and patchy resources. They use a highly modular system\, with the default to sustain activity unless inhibited\, that can rapidly adjust trail networks to changing resources and conditions. \n10:15–10:30 am: Discussion \n10:30–11:00 am: Tea Break \n11:00–11:45 am: Hungtang Ko\, Tufts University\nTitle: Collective mechanical intelligence: how fluid environments mediate self-organization of swarms\nAbstract: Biological collectives across scales self-organize within fluid environments. The mechanical coupling between swarming agents and fluid fields provides opportunities for both passive self-assembly and active\, fluid-mediated communication. However\, while sporadic evidence of collective mechanical intelligence exists\, its underlying mechanisms remain elusive. In this talk\, I will focus on two key systems: fire ant rafts and fish schools. Using a combination of experiments and mathematical models\, I will show that fire ant rafts leverage passive interfacial forces for self-assembly and self-stabilization. Furthermore\, I will demonstrate how schools of giant danio utilize mechanically intelligent formations in 3D\, and discuss how swarm robotics may provide the key to future research in collective mechanical intelligence. \n11:45 am–12:00 pm: Discussion \n12:00–1:30 pm: Catered Lunch \n1:30–2:15 pm: Albert Kao\, UMass Boston\nTitle: The limits and potential of collective wisdom\nAbstract: Over the past several years\, many studies have demonstrated\, both in theory and in experiments\, the ability of groups to make better decisions than individuals — a phenomenon known as collective wisdom. However\, the task types and experimental paradigms used vary considerably\, making comparisons across studies\, and consequently a unified theory of collective wisdom\, difficult. Here\, I derive a measure called the effective group size which allows for such comparisons. I use this measure to demonstrate several limitations to collective wisdom\, including when groups are large\, when there are correlations in opinions in the group\, and when information is passed down in chains. In addition\, collective wisdom is fragile in the face of an individual who has a disproportionate amount of power\, even if far from being a dictator. \n2:15–2:30 pm: Discussion \n2:30–3:15 pm: Ann Kennedy\, Scripps Research Institute\nTitle: Neural mechanisms that gate the expression of motivated behaviors\nAbstract: In order to survive and reproduce\, animals must set and weigh off goals in a way that is adaptive and responsive to the context of the environment. Intense evolutionary pressure has wired these algorithms of survival into the connectivity and gene expression patterns of the brain. In this talk\, I will present our lab’s recent work on the structure of animal behavior and its neural correlates\, showing how theory and modeling can uncover the computational mechanisms by which the brain sets survival goals and weighs off competing survival needs. I will first show how at the macroscopic level\, models of behavior as a feedback control system can help uncover control principles by which pressing survival needs can override less urgent drives. Next\, I will present new work exploring how macroscopic drives are translated into moment-to-moment behavioral choices. \n  \n3:15–4:30 pm: Discussion \n4:30–5:30 pm: CMSA Colloquium: Ofer Feinerman\, Weizmann Institute of Science\nTitle: Enacted collective cognition: Brainless problem-solving in weaver ants\nAbstract: Unlike most ants\, weaver ants construct their nests by pulling together leaves. Because individual ants are small relative to the leaves\, they assemble their bodies into temporary tools that bend the leaves into a hollow structure\, later stabilized with larval silk. Remarkably\, they achieve functional nests across a wide range of leaf shapes and configurations\, suggesting that this distributed system is capable of solving complex\, open-ended problems.\nTo understand how this is possible\, we performed laboratory experiments using controlled leaf configurations. In simple cases\, we show that ants can rely on a zipping heuristic that produces closed nests\, and we use differential geometry to demonstrate how flexible leaves are transformed into rigid structures. Crucially\, this zipping behavior forms a feedback loop in which ants continuously read and modify the evolving structure. In this sense\, the nest itself functions as a shared physical information system.\nThis suggests that cognition in this system is not located within individual ants\, but is enacted through the co-dynamics of the colony and the structure it builds. We present preliminary experiments with more complex leaf configurations\, showing that this process can solve increasingly challenging construction problems. Together\, these results point to a distributed\, brainless\, and enactive form of cognition. \n  \nTuesday\, April 28\, 2026 \n9:00–9:30 am: Breakfast \n9:30–10:15 am: Ben de Bivort\, Harvard University\nTitle: Bayesian Inference on biophysical models of connectomes\nAbstract: Recent progress in connectomics has opened new frontiers for understanding the underlying principles of neural circuits. By leveraging high-resolution maps of synaptic connections\, computational models can simulate neural dynamics with unprecedented detail. However\, it remains challenging to parsimoniously integrate circuit activity data with connectomic information to make biological in- sights. We propose a Bayesian framework as a principled method for bringing to bear existing data\, enabling uncertainty quantification for inferring parameters of interest\, as well as for predicted circuit outputs. To demonstrate this approach\, we implement a simple spiking neuron model using leaky- integrate-and-fire dynamics in the Drosophila olfactory circuit\, incorporating available firing rate data. We evaluate how models with varying levels of biological detail fit experimental data and examine how training on different subsets of data influences model predictions. \n10:15–10:30 am: Discussion \n10:30–11:00 am: Trainee talk: Yasuko Isoe\, Harvard University\nTitle: Divergent spatiotemporal integration of whole-field visual motion in medaka and zebrafish larvae\nAbstract: Cross-species comparisons offer powerful leverage for identifying conserved and divergent neural computations underlying innate behavior. Visual motion integration is a fundamental operation that stabilizes an animal’s position relative to its environment\, yet how its underlying algorithms vary across closely related vertebrate brains remains poorly understood. We investigated how zebrafish (Danio rerio) and medaka (Oryzias latipes) larvae implement visual motion integration using both free-swimming behavioral assays and head-fixed\, tail-free preparations\, the latter allowing us to confirm and extend our findings under precise stimulus control. Using whole-field motion stimuli\, we found that the two species employ distinct spatiotemporal filtering strategies. Medaka pool motion signals over larger visual fields and weight peripheral inputs more strongly\, whereas zebrafish rely more on motion signals directly beneath the body. Temporally\, zebrafish respond robustly to brief stimuli\, while medaka require longer stimulus durations and sustain motion-driven activity well after stimulus offset. Decomposition of turning behavior revealed separable control modules for large and small corrective maneuvers\, with species differences arising primarily from prolonged temporal integration in medaka. Together\, our results demonstrate how alterations in basic computational motifs — spatiotemporal pooling\, gain\, and persistence — can generate divergent visuomotor strategies across closely related vertebrate brains\, offering a window into the evolutionary diversification of sensorimotor computation. \n11:00–11:30 am: Trainee Talk: Siddharth Jayakumar\, Harvard University\nTitle: Mice follow scent trails using predictive policies\nAbstract: Animals must extract reliable information from noisy sensory signals. In olfaction\, this is especially challenging\, since cues are sparse and must be actively sampled. We asked how mice navigate odor trails under these conditions. Using an “infinite” paper treadmill\, we find that mice rapidly learn to track trails with high precision. Disrupting bilateral sampling introduces systematic\, lateralized errors\, consistent with a comparison of signals across the two sides. Individual inhalations near the trail trigger rapid corrective movements.\nInterestingly\, we find that mice do not follow trails purely reactively: deviations in tracking at unexpected trail bends reflected recent history\, indicating the use of short-term memory. We have begun to investigate the neural substrates of this behavior\, focusing on how sensory signals and predictive information are represented in the brain. Broadly\, our results suggest that odor-guided navigation depends on combining immediate sensory input with a short-term internal estimate\, enabling reliable tracking despite sparse cues. \n11:30 am–12:00 pm: Discussion \n12:00–1:30 pm: Catered Lunch \n1:30–2:15 pm: Noah Cowan\, Johns Hopkins University\nTitle: Toward a Control Theory for Active Sensing\nAbstract: Active sensing is often defined as “movement for the purpose of sensing.” Here\, I take a different perspective—that active sensing in biological systems is not a distinct class of behaviors\, but rather a set of movement phenomena that arise from a control objective. Biological sensors adapt to persistent stimuli\, acting like high-pass filters that tend to block “DC.” Such “change-detecting” sensors can support efficient coding with a high dynamic range\, and in engineering\, bio-inspired event cameras are similar: they transmit information only when a pixel changes and\, as such\, are extremely fast and make efficient use of bandwidth for the right applications. However\, such “AC” sensors pose technical challenges for control. Specifically\, event-like biological sensors can cause a nonlinear system (1) to lose local linear observability\, and (2) to become impossible to stabilize about an equilibrium point (Biswas\, Sontag\, Cowan\, Eur J Control\, 2025). Active sensing behaviors must emerge for stable control\, even in the somewhat paradoxical setting where the task-level goal is to remain stationary. Here\, I will discuss my lab’s progress in analyzing how animals use active sensing behaviors to format sensory information\, enhancing observability and control. I will also present our efforts to formalize controller synthesis with event-like sensors. \n2:15–2:30 pm: Discussion \n2:30–3:15 pm: Robert Datta\, Harvard Medical School\nTitle: Unveiling structure in natural behavior\nAbstract: Ethologists describing animals in the wild have long appreciated that naturalistic\, self-motivated behavior is built from modules that are linked together over time into predictable sequences. Many such sequences are built to extract information from the environment.\nAnd yet\, it remains unclear how the brain regulates the selection of individual behavioral modules for expression at any given moment\, or how it dynamically composes these modules into the fluid behaviors observed when animals act of their own volition\, and in the absence of experimental restraint\, task structure or explicit reward. Here we use novel methods for characterizing spontaneous mouse behavior to reveal mechanisms used by the brain to create the architecture of self-guided behavior. \n3:15–4:30 pm: Discussion \n  \nWednesday\, April 29\, 2026 \n9:00–9:30 am: Breakfast \n9:30–10:15 am: Kristin Branson\, HHMI\nTitle: How can generative AI help us understand animal behavior?\nAbstract: Understanding animal behavior at an algorithmic level — what animals attend to\, how they form internal world models\, goals\, and plans\, and how state maps to action — remains a central challenge in neuroethology. Large-scale behavioral experiments now produce trajectory datasets of extraordinary scale and complexity\, but existing approaches necessarily compress this complexity to just a few dimensions. We argue that generative AI offers a path toward rich\, query-able models of the data. We adapt transformer-based sequence modeling to multi-agent animal keypoint trajectories\, treating behavior forecasting as analogous to next-token prediction. Our agent-based network inputs biologically-motivated sensory representations and outputs the distribution of future pose velocities. We show that the model captures statistical properties of the behavioral distribution. We have built a Python library that encapsulates the complexity of transforms relating raw keypoints and model inputs and outputs to make these tools extensible by the NeuroAI community and accessible to theorists and experimentalists. Finally\, we argue that mechanistic interpretability methods allow us to query trained models through the natural framework of artificial neuroethology experiments. \n10:15–10:30 am: Discussion \n10:30–11:00 am: Tea Break \n11:00–11:30 am: Trainee talk: Golnar Gharooni Fard\, Harvard University\nTitle: The Geometry and Dynamics of Embodied Cognition: From Collective Architecture to Interspecies Navigation\nAbstract: Biological behavior is fundamentally an emergent property of the coupling between an agent’s physical form\, its environment\, and local interaction rules. In this talk\, I explore the mathematical principles of this “embodied cognition” across two distinct scales: the stigmergic spatial memory of honeybee collectives and the real-time dynamic coordination of human-bird mutualism. I’ll start by discussing static embodied intelligence through the lens of honeycomb construction. Using 3D-printed foundations to introduce controlled geometric frustration (including misalignment angles and lattice shifts) I demonstrate how honeybee collectives resolve structural mismatches through the adaptive placement of topological defects. I will show how these complex behavioral responses can be modeled as a physics-based potential minimization problem\, proving that the hive’s “intelligence” is a distributed response to local geometric cues. In the second part\, I transition to “dynamic” coordination by examining the mutualistic search for honeybee nests between humans and honeyguide birds in Africa. Unlike the persistent memory of the wax comb\, this interspecies cooperation requires real-time processing of noisy\, stochastic signals. I present a data-driven model of this interaction as a coupled tracking problem. By analyzing the interplay between human engagement and a leaky integrator memory constant\, I identify the sweet spots of temporal integration required to successfully filter bird behavior and maintain goal-oriented navigation. Together\, these two projects demonstrate that a data-driven physics-inspired modeling framework\, can uncover the fundamental rules of agent-environment coupling that drive adaptive behavior across biological scales. \n11:30 am–12:00 pm: Trainee talk: Wenyi Zhang\, Harvard University\nTitle: Mechanisms of Setpoint Control in Drosophila Navigation System\nAbstract: Navigation provides a powerful system for studying how animals balance behavioral persistence with flexibility. During navigation\, fruit flies often default to fast straight walking (or “menotaxis”) in a barren environment\, maintaining a stable heading setpoint over a long period of time. Conversely\, when the local environment is enriched with sensory stimuli\, flies often explore the environment with more frequent heading changes\, either through directed steering driven by a sequence of updating setpoints\, or through undirected turning driven by temporarily lifting the setpoint control. Although this framework suggests a central role for the setpoint in guiding navigation\, the neural mechanisms for flexible setpoint control remain unclear.\nHere we identified h∆A\, a central complex cell type involved in setpoint control. In an aversive heat paradigm\, hΔA played an important role in the fly’s sensory-driven deviation from the menotactic goal direction. We characterized hΔA population activity and found that it carries two separable activity components: a bump-like signal that encodes a slowly varying travel-direction-related setpoint\, and a spatially uniform signal associated with turning. We further identified modulatory inputs to hΔA that shape h∆A activity. Together\, these results support a model in which short- and long-timescale setpoints compete for steering control\, and suggest a circuit mechanism by which flies balance directional persistence with flexible reorientation under changing sensory conditions. \n12:00–1:30 pm: Catered Lunch \n1:30–2:15 pm: Bence Ölveczky\, Harvard University\nTitle: Using neuro-biomechanical simulations to probe neural control of learned skills\nAbstract: The goal of my lab is to decipher the circuit logic by which the brain learns and controls motor skills. The standard mechanistic approach is to dissect the underlying circuits brain area-by-brain area\, inferring function by relating recordings and perturbations within each to behavior. This runs into fundamental problems in highly recurrent systems\, where activity in any one node is shaped by the dynamics of the whole\, a problem compounded by the fact that the circuits we probe control a complex biomechanical body and not measurable features of behavior. I will discuss these challenges and present results suggesting that neuro-biomechanical simulation\, leveraging advances in physics simulation and AI\, can offer a powerful alternative window into the neural circuits underlying learned skills. \n2:15–2:30 pm: Discussion \n2:30–3:15 pm: Pavan Ramdya\, EPFL\nTitle: Object manipulation and affordance learning in Drosophila\nAbstract: Many animals must manipulate objects to perform tasks like pushing away debris when navigating over complex\, natural terrain. For previously unseen objects\, efficient manipulation requires that their affordances–the possible actions one can perform upon them–first be learned through experience. However\, the behavioral and neural mechanisms underlying the learning of object affordances remain largely unknown. To address this gap\, we show that adult Drosophila melanogaster flies can learn to push novel spherical objects without being given any explicit reward. To do this\, flies appear to learn the ball’s pushability affordance: pushing is delayed when animals are first exposed to an immobile ball\, and manipulating one ball accelerates pushing of a second one in a new context. Behavioral quantification of a large-scale neural silencing screen reveals that specific visual projection neurons and olfactory sensory neurons regulate initial reactions to the object while dopaminergic neurons and the mushroom bodies\, a center for learning and memory in insects\, are critical for generalizing object affordances. These findings open the door to a mechanistic understanding of object manipulation and affordance learning. \n3:15–4:30 pm: Discussion \n  \nThursday\, April 30\, 2026 \n9:00–9:30 am: Breakfast \n9:30–10:15 am: Pulkit Agrawal\, MIT\nTitle: What Robots Are Missing: Force Intelligence and Lifelong Learning\nAbstract: Modern robots can plan sophisticated motions\, yet they remain slow\, brittle\, and unreliable on tasks humans find effortless. The missing piece is not better planning\, but better force reasoning: knowing when\, where\, and how much force to apply under uncertainty and across diverse tasks. Force intelligence\, I argue\, is a unifying principle for scalable robotics—bridging dexterous manipulation and whole-body control. However\, even a force-aware robot that cannot learn from its own experience will remain brittle. Today’s systems are effectively frozen after training\, unable to adapt once deployed. Real-world autonomy instead demands learning in deployment: the ability to improve continuously from interactions\, failures\, and successes. In this talk\, I will present our lab’s recent work on lifelong learning and outline a future path for how combining it with force-centric design could enable reliable\, useful robots in the real world. \n10:15–10:30 am: Discussion \n10:30–11:00 am: Tea Break \n11:00–11:45 am: Antonio C. Costa\, Sorbonne University/Paris Brain Institute\nTitle: Unraveling the structure of behavioral variation: a dynamical approach to naturalistic data\nAbstract: Animal behavior varies widely\, both within the same individual over time and between individuals. While often overlooked\, this variation reflects hidden control variables and mechanisms that were shaped by evolution. For example\, variation in behavioral traits can help populations withstand environmental change\, while atypical motor patterns in neurological disorders may offer clues for personalized therapies. Comparing such complex behaviors is difficult. When dynamics are nonlinear and unfold over multiple timescales\, standard metrics based on summary statistics often miss meaningful differences. To address this\, we introduce a framework that encodes multiscale dynamics to compare behavior from data. By modeling nonlinear dynamics probabilistically (using transfer operators inferred from time-series data)\, we define a distance metric that captures behavioral differences across timescales. Tailored to finite\, noisy datasets\, our approach identifies principal axes of variation and enables rigorous clustering of individual trajectories. We demonstrate this framework in various biological systems\, including bacterial chemotaxis and larval zebrafish locomotion\, where the inferred axes of behavioral variation reflect underlying physiological variables and developmental histories. \n11:45 am–12:00 pm: Discussion \n12:00–1:30 pm: Catered Lunch \n1:30–2:15 pm: Elizabeth Tibbetts\, University of Michigan\nTitle: What paper wasps can teach us about the evolution of animal minds\nAbstract: Why do animals differ in their cognitive abilities? Some animals fail at apparently simple tasks\, while others have a remarkable capacity to collect\, retain\, and use information from the environment to guide their behavior. Although paper wasps brains are smaller than a grain of rice\, Tibbetts will show that wasps can perform seemingly complex behaviors like individual face recognition\, transitive inference\, social eavesdropping\, and concept learning. She will also describe experiments that take advantage of natural variation in behavior within and among wasp species to test how social interactions shape the development and evolution of cognitive abilities. \n2:15–2:30 pm: Discussion \n2:30–3:15 pm: Robert Wood\, Harvard University\nTitle: The Mechanical Side of Artificial Intelligence\nAbstract: Artificial Intelligence research typically focuses on perception\, learning\, and control methods to enable autonomous agents\, including robots\, to make and act on decisions in real-world scenarios. However\, even the most capable AI without a well-designed physical structure is of minimal use for canonical robotics tasks. Our research is focused on the design\, mechanics\, materials\, and manufacturing of novel robot platforms that make perception\, control\, or action easier or more robust for natural\, unstructured\, and often unpredictable environments. Key principles in this pursuit include bioinspired designs\, smart materials for novel sensors and actuators\, and the development of multi-scale\, multi-material manufacturing methods. This talk will illustrate this philosophy by highlighting the creation of three classes of robots with unique hardware challenges: bioinspired microrobots\, soft-bodied robots for manipulation\, and robots for interacting with delicate marine life. \n3:15–4:00 pm: Discussion \n4:00–5:00 pm: George Lauder\, Harvard University\nTitle: Fish schooling behavior from kinematics to hydrodynamics to energetics\nAbstract: Do fish moving in a school reduce their energetic costs compared to swimming alone? If so\, how does collective motion reduce the energy needed to move? Only within the last two years have experimental studies directly demonstrated that fish swimming in a group have lower energy expenditure than solitary locomotion. Most studies of how fish move in a collective have focused on understanding the potential benefits of swimming in fixed relative positions. But recent experiments on fish schooling behavior have revealed that fish within the school are nearly constantly rearranging their relative positions. In this talk I will show how fish in a school can save energy even if they do not maintain fixed positions. Analyses of water flow patterns within fish schools have been used to resolve this “paradox” and show that fish movement within a school creates hydrodynamic shelters with zones of reduced flow velocity that nearby fish can take advantage of. \n  \n 
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/bioshape2_2026/
LOCATION:CMSA 20 Garden Street Cambridge\, Massachusetts 02138 United States
CATEGORIES:Programs
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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260915T090000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20261121T170000
DTSTAMP:20260719T093637
CREATED:20251023T141842Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260615T170659Z
UID:10003825-1789462800-1795280400@cmsa.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Lagrangian Floer Theory and Applications Program
DESCRIPTION:Lagrangian Floer theory and Applications Program \nDates: September 15–November 21\, 2026 \nLocation: CMSA G10\, 20 Garden St.\, Cambridge MA 02138 \nThis thematic program will focus on recent developments in Lagrangian Floer theory and applications.  These include the development of family Floer theory\, degeneration techniques\, Floer homotopy theory in the Lagrangian case\, Floer theory in prime characteristic\, and applications to problems in singularity theory\, geometry and dynamics. \nA one-week workshop will be held near the start of the program (September 28 – October 2\, 2026)\, with the same title as the thematic program. \nOrganizers: Denis Auroux (Harvard)\, Jonny Evans (Lancaster)\, and Chris Woodward (Rutgers) \n  \nTo express interest in attending the workshop or program\, and to apply for funding if available\, please fill out the form.  \nFunding from the National Science Foundation may be available for US-based graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. \n  \n \nimage: Water Sky Garden\, Vancouver\nDate: 31 January 2010\, 12:57:46\nSource: Studio Echelman\nAuthor: Peter Vanderwarker\, Studio Echelman \n 
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/lft2026/
LOCATION:CMSA 20 Garden Street Cambridge\, Massachusetts 02138 United States
CATEGORIES:Programs
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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20270215T080000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20270515T170000
DTSTAMP:20260719T093637
CREATED:20260130T203025Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260511T150141Z
UID:10003888-1802678400-1810400400@cmsa.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Stable Homotopy Theory and Arithmetic Geometry
DESCRIPTION:Stable Homotopy Theory and Arithmetic Geometry \nDates: Feb 15–May 15\, 2027 \nLocation: Harvard CMSA\, 20 Garden St\, Cambridge MA \nThis program will focus on interactions between stable homotopy theory and arithmetic geometry. In recent years\, ideas from homotopy theory have begun to play an important role in areas such as p-adic cohomology\, prismatic methods\, and aspects of the Langlands program\, while techniques from arithmetic geometry have led to new insights and computations in chromatic homotopy theory. Despite this growing overlap\, researchers in the two areas often use different languages and tools. A central goal of the program is to make these ideas more accessible across fields and to encourage collaborations around shared problems. \nThe program will run from February 15 to May 15 and will be built around research and informal collaboration. It will begin with a short introductory bootcamp\, followed by two focused workshops (one near the start and one toward the end)\, a weekly seminar with broadly accessible talks\, and a weekly open-problem session. Most of the time will be left open for discussion and joint work among participants\, aiming to spark new projects and longer-term connections between the two communities. \nThe program will include: \n(1) a bootcamp during the week Feb. 22–26\, consisting of introductory lectures on both subjects;\n(2) two research workshops—one during Mar. 1–5 and one during May 3–7—highlighting current developments\, especially those at the interface of the two areas;\n(3) a weekly seminar featuring talks of broad relevance to participants; and\n(4) a weekly open-problem seminar aimed at proposing and developing collaborative research directions\, both for the duration of the program and beyond. \nRegister Online \n  \nOrganizers: Tomer Schlank (Harvard)\, Jared Weinstein (Boston University)\, Mark Kisin (Harvard)\, Jeremy Hahn (MIT)\, Lucas Mann (Münster)
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/htag/
LOCATION:CMSA\, 20 Garden Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Programs
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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20270830T090000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20280505T170000
DTSTAMP:20260719T093637
CREATED:20260605T140406Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260707T134018Z
UID:10003950-1819616400-1841158800@cmsa.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:CMSA Quantum Field Theory Program
DESCRIPTION:CMSA Quantum Field Theory Program \nDates: August 30\, 2027 – May 5\, 2028 \nLocation: Harvard CMSA\, 20 Garden Street\, Cambridge MA \nQuantum field theory (QFT) has long been a subject with a large influence on mathematics\, yet there is still no unified mathematical framework that encompasses all viewpoints. Constructive QFT and Algebraic QFT—typified by the Wightman and Haag-Kastler axiom systems\, respectively—have many achievements in relativistic and Euclidean QFT\, but they do not include Wick-rotated theories on compact manifolds and so miss many of the geometric\, topological\, and algebraic developments of the past several decades. These developments include supersymmetric QFT and applications to geometry and topology\, generalized symmetries in QFT\, and a robust mathematical theory of topological QFTs. The more recent Segal and Costello-Gwilliam axiom systems do accommodate some of these developments\, but they are largely disjoint from the analytic progress. Techniques from probability theory and stochastic PDE have been used to advance traditional constructive and algebraic QFT; they have also been applied to obtain rigorous results in two-dimensional conformal field theory and Euclidean lattice gauge theories. There has also been recent progress in quantum lattice systems\, revealing surprising new bridges between operator algebras and topology. \nThis special year at CMSA aims to shape the direction of the field by bringing the analytic and geometric threads of mathematical QFT into closer contact. The program will gather a diverse group of mathematicians together with physicists who enjoy close interactions with mathematicians. The year will be organized around the four focus areas listed below. There will be several short courses and one weeklong workshop for each of these focus areas. All lectures will be hybrid. \nFOCUS AREAS \nFirst Semester \n\nAxiomatic approaches to QFT\nSymmetry\, anomalies\, and topology\n\nSecond Semester \n\nProbabilistic methods in QFT\nSupersymmetry\, geometry\, and moduli spaces\n\n  \nSIGN UP \nWe welcome long-term visitors as well as short-term visitors and online participants.  If you would like to participate in the program\, other than the workshops\, please click here: Visitor Form \nIf you would like to be on a mailing list for information and announcements about this special year\, please click here: Subscribe to the CMSA QFT Program Mailing List \n  \nOrganizers:  \n\nSourav Chatterjee (Stanford University)\nClay Cordova (University of Chicago)\nDan Freed (Harvard University)\nAnton Kapustin (Caltech)\nConstantin Teleman (University of California\, Berkeley)\n\n  \n\n 
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/cmsaqft_2027/
LOCATION:Hybrid – G10
CATEGORIES:Programs
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