Swampland Seminar Speaker: David Andriot (Annecy, LAPTH) Title: String theory scalar potentials and their critical points Abstract: Positive scalar potentials in string effective theories could provide an origin to Dark Energy, responsible for the accelerated expansion of our universe today or during inflation. It is thus crucial to characterize these scalar potentials, namely their slope, […]
Member Seminar Speaker: Michael Simkin Title: Randomized algorithms in combinatorics Abstract: Randomized algorithms have been a computational workhorse for almost as long as there have been computers. Surprisingly, such algorithms can also be used to attack problems that are neither algorithmic nor probabilistic. Time permitting I will discuss the following combintorial examples: Enumerative combinatorics and the […]
Active Matter Seminar Speaker: Jonathan Bauermann, Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems Title: Active chemical reactions in phase-separating systems Abstract: Motivated by the existence of membrane-less compartments in the chemically active environment of living cells, I will discuss the dynamics of droplets in the presence of active chemical reactions. Therefore, I […]
Quantum Matter Seminar Speaker: Andreas Bauer (Freie Universität Berlin) Title: Tensorial TQFT and disentangling modular Walker-Wang models Abstract: I will introduce simple "tensorial" definitions for many algebraic and categorical structures appearing in the classification of topological phases of matter. Such "tensorial TQFTs" will be defined as maps that associate tensors to geometric/topological objects of some […]
Member Seminar Speaker: Max Wiesner Title: Quantum Gravity constraints beyond asymptotic regimes Abstract: Not every effective field theory that is consistent in the absence of gravity can be completed to a consistent theory of quantum gravity. The goal of the Swampland program is to find general criteria that distinguish effective field theories, that can be obtained […]
On March 21, 2023, the CMSA hosted the fourth annual Ding Shum Lecture, given by Cynthia Dwork (Harvard SEAS and Microsoft Research). Time: 5:00-6:00 pm ET Location: Harvard University Science Center Hall D This event was be held in person and via Zoom webinar. Title: Measuring Our Chances: Risk Prediction in This World and its […]
Speaker: Mete Soner (Princeton University) Title: Synchronization in a Kuramoto Mean Field Game Abstract: Originally motivated by systems of chemical and biological oscillators, the classical Kuramoto model has found an amazing range of applications from neuroscience to Josephson junctions in superconductors, and has become a key mathematical model to describe self organization in complex systems. These autonomous oscillators are […]
Probability Seminar Speaker: Wei-Kuo Chen (Minnesota) Title: Some rigorous results on the Lévy spin glass model Abstract: The Lévy spin glass model, proposed by Cizeau-Bouchaud, is a mean-field model defined on a fully connected graph, where the spin interactions are formulated through a power-law distribution. This model is well-motivated from the study of the experimental metallic spin […]
https://youtu.be/Kt7n_0t6sgo General Relativity Seminar Speaker: Prahar Mitra (University of Cambridge) Title: New Phases of N=4 SYM Abstract: We construct new static solutions to gauged supergravity that, via the AdS/CFT correspondence, are dual to thermal phases in N=4 SYM at finite chemical potential. These solutions dominate the micro-canonical ensemble and are required to ultimately reproduce the microscopic entropy of AdS […]
Quantum Matter Seminar Speaker: Alexander Zlokapa, MIT Title: Traversable wormhole dynamics on a quantum processor Abstract: The holographic principle, theorized to be a property of quantum gravity, postulates that the description of a volume of space can be encoded on a lower-dimensional boundary. The anti-de Sitter (AdS)/conformal field theory correspondence or duality is the principal example […]
On Friday, March 24th, 4:30PM - 6PM, the CMSA will host the CMSA/MATH Bi-Annual Gathering for Harvard CMSA and Math affiliates in the Common Room at 20 Garden Street, Cambridge MA 02138.
Swampland Seminar Speaker: Valerio De Luca (UPenn) Title: Recent developments on the tidal Love numbers of black holes Abstract: Tidal Love numbers describe the deformability of compact objects under the presence of external tidal perturbations, and are found to be exactly zero for black holes in pure General Relativity. This property is however fragile, since […]