Member Seminar Speaker: Lorenzo Riva, CMSA Title: Un-extending extended TQFTs Abstract: An ordinary topological quantum field theory (TQFT) assigns invariants to manifolds of dimensions n in a way that is compatible with cutting-and-gluing along submanifolds of dimension n-1. An extended TQFT assigns invariants that are also compatible with cutting along submanifolds of all codimensions. One way to […]
Workshop on Lagrangian Floer Theory and Applications Dates: September 28 – October 2, 2026 Location: CMSA G10, 20 Garden St., Cambridge MA 02138 This workshop is part of the Lagrangian Floer Theory and Applications Program In Person Registration Zoom Webinar Registration Speakers will include: Mohammed Abouzaid, Stanford University Kenneth Blakey, MIT Ciprian Bonciocat, Stanford Soham […]
Colloquium Speaker: Mehran Kardar, MIT Title: Life on a Noisy Seascape: Extinction, Growth, and Diversity Abstract: Populations and communities rarely evolve in static environments; their fitness landscapes fluctuate across space and time, forming what may be called a noisy seascape. This talk examines how such variability modifies classical models of population dynamics and community stability. Beginning from the […]
Joint Math/CMSA Geometry and Quantum Theory Seminar Speaker: Tomer Schlank Title: From Markov processes to path integrals Abstract: We will continue with Chapter 2 of the book and cover how we take the Markov process approach and Wick rotation to give a rigorous definition of path integrals.
CMSA Q&A Seminar Speaker: Denis Auroux, Harvard Title: What is Lagrangian Floer homology?
AI for the Working Mathematician Speaker: Harold Williams, USC Title: An Informal Introduction to Formal Proofs Abstract: In this talk we will give an introduction to Lean, a programming language adapted to expressing and verifying proofs. Lean and its flagship library, mathlib, have been the focus of a dedicated user community for about a decade, […]
Geometry and Mathematical Physics Seminar Speaker: Tobias Ekholm, Uppsala Title: Skein valued curve counts and associatives Abstract: We consider Lagrangians in the cotangent bundle of a 3-manifold that give branch covers the 0-section. A circle bundle over the cotangent bundle that degenerates over the Lagrangian gives an A_n-fibration over the base 3-manifold. We equip this A_n […]
Member Seminar Speaker: Aaron Landesman Title: Painlevé VI: the search for canonical representations Abstract: In 1902, Painlevé classified second order differential equations whose only movable singularities are poles, thereby obtaining the six Painlevé equations. Algebraic solutions to Painlevé's sixth equation correspond to canonical triples of 2 by 2 complex matrices. One can alternatively view these […]
CMSA Special Seminar Speaker: Michael Brenner Title: A physical interpretation of recent singularity theorems Abstract: We present a physical interpretation of recent mathematical proofs (Córdoba and Martínez-Zoroa; Buckmaster and Apogee; OpenAI) for singularity formation in nonlinear partial differential equations with smooth forcing. In our formulation, singularity formation is driven by a forward in time process whereby […]
Colloquium Speaker: Subhabrata Sen, Harvard Statistics Title: Spectral Methods for signal recovery in multi-modal problems Abstract: Motivated by multi-modal estimation, we will study a multi-view spiked random matrix model in which several noisy matrix observations contain correlated spikes. We will introduce a new spectral method for signal recovery in this setting and characterize the behavior […]
Joint Math/CMSA Geometry and Quantum Theory Seminar Speaker: Ahsan Khan, HarvardCMSA Title: Markov processes and path integrals continued Abstract: I will continue the discussion of chapter two, in particular focusing on vacuum expectation values and reflection positivity.
CMSA Q&A Seminar Speaker: Shaoyun Bai, MIT Title: What is a virtual fundamental cycle? (ICM Series: On the work of John Pardon) Abstract: One of Pardon’s important contribution to symplectic topology is a new approach to constructing virtual fundamental cycles/chains for moduli spaces of pseudo-holomorphic maps. As a former PhD student of John, my own […]