During 2024–25, the CMSA will host a seminar on Quantum Matter in Mathematics and Physics, organized by Ahsan Khan, Robert Moscrop, and Sunghyuk Park.

This seminar will take place on Fridays at 9:00–10:30 am (Eastern Time) through October. In November, seminars will be held from 10:00–11:30 am. To learn how to attend this seminar, please fill out this form.

The schedule will be updated as talks are confirmed.

Videos are available at the Quantum Matter in Mathematics and Physics Youtube Playlist

Non-Invertible Peccei-Quinn Symmetry and the Massless Quark Solution to the Strong CP Problem

Virtual

Quantum Matter in Mathematics and Physics Seminar Speaker: Sungwoo Hong, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) Title: Non-Invertible Peccei-Quinn Symmetry and the Massless Quark Solution to the Strong CP Problem Abstract: In this talk, I will discuss a new solution to the strong CP problem, one of the most important and challenging problems, […]

Discrete geometry and the modular bootstrap

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

Quantum Matter in Mathematics and Physics Seminar Speaker: Henry Cohn (MIT and Microsoft) Title: Discrete geometry and the modular bootstrap Abstract: In this talk, I'll discuss the remarkable connections between the modular bootstrap and sphere packing or ground state problems discovered by Hartman, Mazáč, and Rastelli in 2019, with a focus on opportunities for further […]

What Observables are Safe to Calculate?

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

Quantum Matter in Mathematics and Physics Seminar Speaker: Jesse Thaler, MIT Title: What Observables are Safe to Calculate? Abstract: In collider physics, perturbative quantum field theory is the workhorse framework for computing theoretical predictions to compare to experimental measurements. An observable is called "safe" if its cross section can be predicted order-by-order in perturbation theory […]

From quantum Hall to Hubbard physics in twisted bilayer graphene

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

Quantum Matter in Mathematics and Physics Seminar Speaker: Eslam Khalaf (Harvard) Title: From quantum Hall to Hubbard physics in twisted bilayer graphene Abstract: Early on it was noticed that twisted bilayer graphene (TBG) has elements in common with two paradigmatic examples of strongly correlated physics: Hubbard physics and quantum Hall physics. On the one hand, […]

Improving Mean-Field Theory for Quantum Magnets

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

Quantum Matter in Mathematics and Physics Seminar Speaker: Junyi Zhang, Johns Hopkins University Title: Improving Mean-Field Theory for Quantum Magnets Abstract: Frustrated magnets have garnered significant attention because of their potential to host exotic spin liquids, while many real material candidates exhibit magnetic orders.  Due to their proximity to spin liquid phases, the semiclassical descriptions […]

Love and Naturalness

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

Quantum Matter in Mathematics and Physics Seminar Speaker: Mikhail Ivanov (MIT) Title: Love and Naturalness Abstract: Recent progress in gravitational wave astronomy has spurred the development of efficient tools to describe gravitational binary dynamics. One such tool is classical worldline effective field theory (EFT). In the first part of my talk, I will show how to […]

Phases and Phase Transitions of Spin Chains with Non-invertible Symmetries

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

Quantum Matter in Mathematics and Physics Seminar Speaker: Arkya Chatterjee (MIT) Title: Phases and Phase Transitions of Spin Chains with Non-invertible Symmetries Abstract: Non-invertible symmetries are often emergent at low-energies in gapless states of quantum matter. It is useful to construct lattice models that have these as exact symmetries in order to provide a UV-complete […]

Landscape of Tensor Network States Preparable from Measurement

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

Quantum Matter in Mathematics and Physics Seminar Speaker: Rahul Sahay (Harvard) Title: Landscape of Tensor Network States Preparable from Measurement Abstract: Measurements and feedback have emerged as powerful resources for creating many-body quantum states. However, a detailed understanding of what is possible is restricted to fixed-point representatives of phases of matter. In this talk, we go beyond this, […]

Instanton in Lattice QCD from Higher Categories and Higher Anafunctors

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

Speaker: Jing-Yuan Chen, Tsinghua University Title: Instanton in Lattice QCD from Higher Categories and Higher Anafunctors Abstract:  Putting continuum QFT (not just TQFT) on the lattice is important for both fundamental understandings and practical numerics. The traditional way of doing so, based on simple intuitions, however, does not admit natural definitions for general topological operators of continuous-valued […]

Classification and Construction of crystalline topological superconductors and insulators in interacting fermion systems

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

Quantum Matter Seminar Speaker: Zhengcheng Gu, Chinese University of Hong Kong Title: Classification and construction of crystalline topological superconductors and insulators in interacting fermion systems Abstract: The construction and classification of crystalline symmetry protected topological (SPT) phases in interacting bosonic and fermionic systems have been intensively studied in the past few years. Crystalline SPT phases […]

Dolbeault Virasoro algebra and M5 branes

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

Quantum Field Theory and Physical Mathematics Seminar Speaker: Brian Williams, Boston University Title: Dolbeault Virasoro algebra and M5 branes Abstract: The worldvolume theory on a stack of M5 branes in M-theory is superconformal. We propose a conjecture that in the holomorphic twist of the theory on a stack of M5 branes an infinite-dimensional enhancement of […]