CMSA

10-17-16 Mathematical Physics Seminar
2016-10-17 18:26 (America/New_York) | MA

10-14-16 CMSA Members’ Seminar
2016-10-14 18:24 | MA

10-13-2016 Homological Mirror Symmetry Seminar
2016-10-13 18:19 | MA

10-12-2016 Random Matrix & Probability Theory Seminar
2016-10-12 18:16 | MA

Duality String Seminar, Thursdays
2016-10-11 16:15 - 2016-10-12 18:00 | MA
The Duality String Seminar is held every Thursday at 4:15pm in Jefferson Lab, 453.
For details, please visit the website.
* The Duality String Seminar is sponsored by the Center of Mathematical Sciences and Applications’ Cheng Yu-Tong Fund, for Research at the Interface of Mathematics and Physics.

10-05-2016 Homological Mirror Symmetry Seminar
2016-10-05 18:17 | MA

10-05-2016 Random Matrix & Probability Theory Seminar
2016-10-05 17:41 | MA

10-03-16 Mathematical Physics Seminar
2016-10-03 18:13 | MA

09-29-2016 Homological Mirror Symmetry Seminar
2016-09-29 17:48 | MA

09-28-2016 Random Matrix & Probability Theory Seminar
2016-09-28 17:35 | MA

09-26-16 Mathematical Physics Seminar
2016-09-26 17:32 | MA

09-22-2016 Homological Mirror Symmetry Seminar
2016-09-22 14:00 - 16:00 | MA
References:

D. Auroux, A beginner’s introduction to Fukaya categories. arXiv:1301.7056
I. Smith, A symplectic prolegomenon. arXiv:1401.0269
D. Auroux, “Topics in geometry: mirror symmetry”, Fall 2009 (MIT Math 18.969)
Nick Sheridan’s IAS and Jussieu lectures.
Sheel Gantara “Topics in symplectic topology”, Spring 2016 (Stanford Math 257B)

09-21-2016 Random Matrix & Probability Theory Seminar
2016-09-21 17:13 | MA

09-19-2016 Mathematical Physics Seminar
2016-09-19 17:11 | MA

Homological Mirror Symmetry Seminar
2016-09-15 14:00 - 16:00 | MA
The seminar series, Homological Mirror Symmetry, will be held on selected Thursdays from 2PM – 4pm in CMSA Building, 20 Garden Street, Room G10.
The list of speakers is below and will be updated as details are confirmed.

Date
Name
Title

09-15-16

09-22-16
Netanel Blaier, Brandeis
“Intro to HMS.”
Abstract: This is the first talk of the seminar series. We survey the statement of Homological Mirror Symmetry (introduced by Kontsevich in 1994) and some known results, as well as briefly discussing its importance, and the connection to other formulations of Mirror Symmetry and the SYZ conjecture. Following that, we will begin to review the definition of the A-side (namely, the Fukaya category) in some depth. No background is assumed! Also, in the last half hour, we will divide papers and topics among participants.
Lecture Slides

09-29-16
Netanel Blaier, Brandeis
“Intro to HMS 2.”
Abstract: In the second talk, we review (some) of the nitty-gritty details needed to construct a Fukaya categories. This include basic Floer theory, the analytic properties of J-holomorphic curves and cylinders, Gromov compactness and its relation to metric topology on the compactified moduli space, and Banach setup and perturbation schemes commonly used in geometric regularization. We then proceed to recall the notion of an operad, Fukaya’s differentiable correspondences, and how to perform the previous constructions coherently in order to obtain $A_infty$-structures. We will try to demonstrate all concepts in the Morse theory ‘toy model’.
Lecture Slides

10-06-16

Hansol Hong, CMSA

Title: Homological mirror symmetry for elliptic curves
Abstract:
We survey the proof of homological mirror symmetry by Polishchuk and Zaslow. Some of more recent methods to prove HMS for elliptic curves will be discussed also,
which use homological algebra techniques and formal deformation theory of Lagrangians etc.
Notes
Notes (Baris)

10-13-16

Yu-Wei Fan, Harvard

Title: Semi-flat mirror symmetry and Fourier-Mukai transform
Abstract: We will review the semi-flat mirror symmetry setting in Strominger-Yau-Zaslow, and discuss the correspondence between special Lagrangian sections on the A-side and deformed Hermitian-Yang-Mills connections on the B-side using real Fourier-Mukai transform, following Leung-Yau-Zaslow.

10-20-16

Tim Large, MIT

Title: “Symplectic cohomology and wrapped Fukaya categories”
Abstract: While mirror symmetry was originally conjectured for compact manifolds, the phenomenon applies to non-compact manifolds as well. In the setting of Liouville domains, a class of open symplectic manifolds including affine varieties, cotangent bundles and Stein manifolds, there is an A-infinity category called the wrapped Fukaya category, which is easier to define and often more amenable to computation than the original Fukaya category. In this talk I will construct it, along with symplectic cohomology (its closed-string counterpart), and compute some examples. We will then discuss how compactifying a symplectic manifold corresponds, on the B-side of mirror symmetry, to turning on a Landau-Ginzburg potential.
Notes

10-27-16

Philip Engel, Columbia

Title: Mirror symmetry in the complement of an anticanonical divisor”
According to the SYZ conjecture, the mirror of a Calabi-Yau variety can be constructed by dualizing the fibers of a special Lagrangian fibration. Following Auroux, we consider this rubric for an open Calabi-Yau variety X-D given as the complement of a normal crossings anticanonical divisor D in X. In this talk, we first define the moduli space of special Lagrangian submanfiolds L with a flat U(1) connection in X-D, and note that it locally has the structure of a Calabi-Yau variety. The Fukaya category of such Lagrangians is obstructed, and the degree 0 part of the obstruction on L defines a holomorphic function on the mirror. This “superpotential” depends on counts of holomorphic discs of Maslov index 2 bounded by L. We then restrict to the surface case, where there are codimension 1 “walls” consisting of Lagrangians which bound a disc of Maslov index 0. We examine how the superpotential changes when crossing a wall and discuss how one ought to “quantum correct” the complex structure on the moduli space to undo the discontinuity introduced by these discs.
Notes

11-03-16

Yusuf Baris Kartal, MIT

HMS for Del Pezzo surfaces
I will present Auroux-Katzarkov-Orlov’s proof of one side of the homological mirror symmetry for Del Pezzo surfaces. Namely I will prove their derived categories are equivalent to the categories of vanishing cycles for certain LG-models together with B-fields. I plan to show how the general B-field corresponds to non-commutative Del Pezzo surfaces and time allowing may mention HMS for simple degenerations of Del Pezzo surfaces. The tools include exceptional collections( and mutations for degenerate case), explicit description of NC deformations, etc.

11-10-16
No seminar this week

12-08-16

Lino Amorim, Boston University

Title: The Fukaya category of a compact toric manifold
Abstract: In this talk I will discuss the Fukaya category of a toric manifold following the work of Fukaya-Oh-Ohta-Ono. I will start with an overview of the general structure of the Fukaya category of a compact symplectic manifold. Then I will consider toric manifolds in particular the Fano case and construct its mirror.
Video

09-12-2016 Mathematical Physics Seminar
2016-09-12 17:10 | MA

2016 Big Data Conference & Workshop
2016-08-22 09:00 - 2016-08-23 16:30 | Harvard Science Center, 1 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA, 02138
! LOCATION CHANGE: The conference will be in Science Center Hall C on Tuesday, Aug.23, 2016.
The Center of Mathematical Sciences and Applications will be hosting a workshop on Big Data from August 12 – 21, 2016 followed by a two-day conference on Big Data from August 22 – 23, 2016.
Big Data Conference features many speakers from the Harvard Community as well as many scholars from across the globe, with talks focusing on computer science, statistics, math and physics, and economics. This is the second conference on Big Data the Center will host as part of our annual events. The 2015 conference was a huge success.
The conference will be hosted at Harvard Science Center Hall A (Monday, Aug.22) & Hall C (Tuesday, Aug.23): 1 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138.
The 2016 Big Data conference is sponsored by the Center of Mathematical Sciences and Applications at Harvard University and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
Conference Speakers:

Jörn Boehnke, Harvard CMSA
Joan Bruna, UC Berkeley [Video]
Tamara Broderick, MIT [Video]
Justin Chen, MIT [Video]
Yiling Chen, Harvard University [Video]
Amir Farbin, UT Arlington [Video]
Doug Finkbeiner, Harvard University [Video]
Andrew Gelman, Columbia University [Video]
Nina Holden, MIT [Video]
Elchanan Mossel, MIT
Alex Peysakhovich, Facebook
Alexander Rakhlin, University of Pennsylvania [Video]
Neal Wadhwa, MIT [Video]
Jun Yin, University of Wisconsin
Harry Zhou, Yale University [Video]

Please click Conference Program for a downloadable schedule with talk abstracts.
Conference Schedule:

August 22 – Day 1

8:30am
Breakfast

8:55am
Opening remarks

9:00am – 9:50am
Yiling Chen, “Machine Learning with Strategic Data Sources” [Video]

9:50am – 10:40am
Andrew Gelman, “Taking Bayesian Inference Seriously” [Video]

10:40am – 11:10am
Break

11:10am – 12:00pm
Harrison Zhou, “A General Framework for Bayes Structured Linear Models” [Video]

12:00pm – 1:30pm
Lunch

1:30pm – 2:20pm
Douglas Finkbeiner, “Mapping the Milky Way in 3D with star colors” [Video]

2:20pm – 3:10pm
Nina Holden, “Sparse exchangeable graphs and their limits” [Video]

3:10pm – 3:40pm
Break

3:40pm – 4:30pm
Alex Peysakhovich, “How social science methods inform personalization on Facebook News Feed” [Video]

4:30pm – 5:20pm
Amir Farbin, “Deep Learning in High Energy Physics” [Video]

August 23 – Day 2

8:45am
Breakfast

9:00am – 9:50am
Joan Bruna Estrach, “Addressing Computational and Statistical Gaps with Deep Networks” [Video]

9:50am – 10:40am
Justin Chen & Neal Wadhwa, “Smaller Than the Eye Can See: Big Engineering from Tiny Motions in Video” [Video]

10:40am – 11:10am
Break

11:10am – 12:00pm
Alexander Rakhlin, “How to Predict When Estimation is Hard: Algorithms for Learning on Graphs” [Video]

12:00pm – 1:30pm
Lunch

1:30pm – 2:20pm
Tamara Broderick, “Fast Quantification of Uncertainty and Robustness with Variational Bayes” [Video]

2:20pm – 3:10pm
Elchanan Mossel, “Phylogenetic Reconstruction – a Rigorous Model of Deep Learning”

3:10pm – 3:40pm
Break

3:40pm – 4:30pm
Jörn Boehnke, “Amazon’s Price and Sales-rank Data: What can one billion prices on 150 thousand products tell us about the economy?”

Workshop Participants:
Richard Freeman’s Group:

Sen Chai, ESSEC
Brock Mendel, Harvard University
Raviv Muriciano-Goroff, Stanford University
Sifan Zhou, CMSA

Scott Kominer’s Group:

Bradly Stadie, UC Berkeley
Neal Wadhwa, MIT [Video]
Justin Chen

Christopher Rogan’s Group:

Amir Farbin, UT Arlington [Video]
Paul Jackson, University of Adelaide

For more information about the workshops, please reach out directly to the individual group leaders.
* This event is sponsored by CMSA Harvard University and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

08-02-2016 China Gazetteer Seminar
2016-08-02 17:08 | MA

07-19-2016 Chinese Economy Seminar
2016-07-19 17:07 | MA

07-12-2016 Chinese Economy Seminar
2016-07-12 17:06 | MA

Workshop on Optimization in Image Processing
2016-06-27 09:00 - 2016-06-30 12:30 | CMSA Room G10, CMSA, 20 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA, 02138, United States
The Center of Mathematical Sciences and Applications will be hosting a workshop on Optimization in Image Processing on June 27 – 30, 2016. This 4-day workshop aims to bring together researchers to exchange and stimulate ideas in imaging sciences, with a special focus on new approaches based on optimization methods. This is a cutting-edge topic with crucial impact in various areas of imaging science including inverse problems, image processing and computer vision. 16 speakers will participate in this event, which we think will be a very stimulating and exciting workshop. The workshop will be hosted in Room G10 of the CMSA Building located at 20 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138.
Titles, abstracts and schedule will be provided nearer to the event.
Speakers:

Antonin Chambolle, CMAP, Ecole Polytechnique
Raymond Chan, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Ke Chen, University of Liverpool
Patrick Louis Combettes, Université Pierre et Marie Curie
Mario Figueiredo, Instituto Superior Técnico
Alfred Hero, University of Michigan
Ronald Lok Ming Lui, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Mila Nikolova, Ecole Normale Superieure Cachan
Shoham Sabach, Israel Institute of Technology
Martin Benning, University of Cambridge
Jin Keun Seo, Yonsei University
Fiorella Sgallari, University of Bologna
Gabriele Steidl, Kaiserslautern University of Technology
Joachim Weickert, Saarland University
Isao Yamada, Tokyo Institute of Technology
Wotao Yin, UCLA

Please click Workshop Program for a downloadable schedule with talk abstracts.
Please note that lunch will not be provided during the conference, but a map of Harvard Square with a list of local restaurants can be found by clicking Map & Resturants.
Please click here for registration – Registration Deadline: June 7, 2016; Registration is capped at 70 participants.

Schedule:

June 27 – Day 1

9:00am
Breakfast

9:20am
Opening remarks

9:30am – 10:20am
Joachim Weickert, “FSI Schemes: Fast Semi-Iterative Methods for Diffusive or Variational Image Analysis Problems”

10:20am – 10:50am
Break

10:50am – 11:40pm
Patrick Louis Combettes, “Block-Iterative Asynchronous Variational Image Recovery”

11:40am – 12:30pm
Isao Yamada, “Spicing up Convex Optimization for Certain Inverse Problems”

12:30pm – 2:00pm
Lunch

2:30pm – 3:20pm
Fiorella Sgallari, “Majorization-Minimization for Nonconvex Optimization”

3:20pm – 3:50pm
Break

3:50pm – 4:40pm
Shoham Sabach, “A Framework for Globally Convergent Methods in Nonsmooth and Nonconvex Problems”

June 28 – Day 2

9:00am
Breakfast

9:30am – 10:20am
Antonin Chambolle, “Acceleration of alternating minimisations”

10:20am – 10:50am
Break

10:50am – 11:40am
Mario Figueiredo, “ADMM in Image Restoration and Related Problems: Some History and Recent Advances”

11:40am – 12:30pm
Ke Chen, “Image Restoration and Registration Based on Total Fractional-Order Variation Regularization”

12:30pm – 2:30pm
Lunch

2:30pm – 4:40pm
Discussions

June 29 – Day 3

9:00am
Breakfast

9:30am – 10:20am
Alfred Hero, “Continuum relaxations for discrete optimization”

10:20am – 10:50am
Break

10:50am – 11:40am
Wotao Yin, “Coordinate Update Algorithms for Computational Imaging and Machine Learning”

11:40am – 12:30pm
Mila Nikolova, “Limits on noise removal using log-likelihood and regularization”

12:30pm – 2:30pm
Lunch

2:30pm – 3:20pm
Martin Benning, “Nonlinear spectral decompositions and the inverse scale space method”

3:20pm – 3:50pm
Break

3:50pm – 4:40pm
Ronald Ming Lui, “TEMPO: Feature-endowed Teichmuller extremal mappings of point cloud for shape classification”

June 30 – Day 4

9:00am
Breakfast

9:30am – 10:20am
Jin Keun Seo, “Mathematical methods for biomedical impedance imaging”

10:20am – 10:50am
Break

10:50am – 11:40am
Gabriele Steidl, “Iterative Multiplicative Filters for Data Labeling”

11:40am – 12:30pm
Raymond Chan, “Point-spread function reconstruction in ground-based astronomy”

* This event is sponsored by CMSA Harvard University.

Organizers: Raymond Chan and Shing-Tung Yau

06-08-2016 Random Matrix & Probability Theory Seminar
2016-06-08 17:04 | MA

06-01-2016 Random Matrix & Probability Theory Seminar
2016-06-01 17:03 | MA

05-25-2016 General Relativity Seminar
2016-05-25 16:52 | MA

Workshop on Aspects of General Relativity
2016-05-23 08:30 - 2016-05-24 16:00 | MA
The Center of Mathematical Sciences and Applications will be hosting a workshop on General Relativity from May 23 – 24, 2016. The workshop will be hosted in Room G10 of the CMSA Building located at 20 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138. The workshop will start on Monday, May 23 at 9am and end on Tuesday, May 24 at 4pm.
Speakers:

Po-Ning Chen, Columbia University
Piotr T. Chruściel, University of Vienna
Justin Corvino, Lafayette College
Greg Galloway, University of Miami
James Guillochon, Harvard University
Lan-Hsuan Huang, University of Connecticut
Dan Kapec, Harvard University
Dan Lee, CUNY
Alex Lupsasca, Harvard University
Pengzi Miao, University of Miami
Prahar Mitra, Harvard University
Lorenzo Sironi, Harvard University
Jared Speck, MIT
Mu-Tao Wang, Columbia University

Registration is capped at 70 participants.
Schedule:

May 23 – Day 1

8:30am
Breakfast

8:55am
Opening remarks

9:00am – 9:45am
Greg Galloway, “Some remarks on photon spheres and their uniqueness“

9:45am – 10:30am
Prahar Mitra, “BMS supertranslations and Weinberg’s soft graviton theorem“

10:30am – 11:00am
Break

11:00am – 11:45am
Dan Kapec, “Area, Entanglement Entropy and Supertranslations at Null Infinity“

11:45am – 12:30pm
Piotr T. Chruściel, “The cosmological constant and the energy of gravitational radiation”

12:30pm – 2:00pm
Lunch

2:00pm – 2:45pm
James Guillochon, “Tidal disruptions of stars by supermassive black holes: dynamics, light, and relics”

2:45pm – 3:30pm
Mu-Tao Wang, “Quasi local conserved quantities in general relativity“

3:30pm – 4:00pm
Break

4:00pm – 4:45pm
Po-Ning Chen, “Quasi local energy in presence of gravitational radiations”

4:45pm – 5:30pm
Pengzi Miao, “Total mean curvature, scalar curvature, and a variational analog of Brown York mass“

May 24 – Day 2

8:45am
Breakfast

9:00am – 9:45am
Justin Corvino, “Scalar curvature deformation and the Bartnik mass“

9:45am – 10:30am
Lan-Hsuan Huang, “Constraint Manifolds with the Dominant Energy Condition“

10:30am – 11:00am
Break

11:00am – 11:45am
Dan Lee, “Lower semicontinuity of Huisken’s isoperimetric mass“

11:45am – 12:30pm
Jared Speck, “Shock Formation in Solutions to the Compressible Euler Equations“

12:30pm – 2:00pm
Lunch

2:00pm – 2:45pm
Lorenzo Sironi, “Electron Heating and Acceleration in the Vicinity of Supermassive Black Holes“

2:45pm – 3:30pm
Alex Lupsasca, “Near Horizon Extreme Kerr Magnetospheres“

* Click titles for talk videos. All videos are also available on “Harvard CMSA” channel on Youtube, grouped into playlist “Workshop on Aspects on General Relativity“.
* This event is sponsored by National Science Foundation (NSF) and CMSA Harvard University.

Organizers: Piotr T. Chruściel and Shing-Tung Yau

05-18-2016 General Relativity Seminar
2016-05-18 17:02 | MA

05-13-2016 Special Mathematical Physics Seminar
2016-05-13 16:54 | MA

05-11-2016 Random Matrix & Probability Theory Seminar
2016-05-11 17:00 | MA

05-11-2016 General Relativity Seminar
2016-05-11 16:58 | MA

Simons Collaboration on Homological Mirror Symmetry
2016-05-06 09:00 - 2016-05-08 17:00 | MA
The Center of Mathematical Sciences and Applications will be hosting a 3-day workshop on Homological Mirror Symmetry and related areas on May 6 – May 8, 2016 at Harvard CMSA Building: Room G10 20 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
Organizers:
D. Auroux, S.C. Lau, N.C. Leung, Bong Lian, C.C. Liu, S.T. Yau
Speakers:

Netanel Blaier (MIT)
Kwokwai Chan (CUHK)
Bohan Fang (Peking University)
Amanda Francis (BYU)
Hansol Hong (CUHK)
Heather Lee (Purdue University)
Si Li (Tsinghua University)
Yu-Shen Lin (Stanford University)
Alex Perry (Harvard University)
Hiro Tanaka (Harvard University)
Sara Tukachinsky (HUJ)
Michael Viscardi (MIT)
Eric Zaslow (Northwestern University)
Jingyu Zhao (Columbia University)

Please click here for the conference Main Website.
Please click Simons Workshop Schedule with Abstract for a downloadable schedule with talk abstracts.

Schedule:

May 6 – Day 1

9:00am
Breakfast

9:35am
Opening remarks

9:45am – 10:45am
Si Li, “Quantum master equation, chiral algebra, and integrability”

10:45am – 11:15am
Break

11:15am – 12:15pm
Sara Tukachinsky, “Point like bounding chains and open WDVV“

12:15pm – 1:45pm
Lunch

1:45pm – 2:45pm
Bohan Fang, “Mirror B model for toric Calabi Yau 3 folds“

2:45pm – 3:00pm
Break

3:00pm – 4:00pm
Hiro Tanaka, “Toward Fukaya categories over arbitrary coefficients“

4:00pm – 4:15pm
Break

4:15pm – 5:15pm
Hansol Hong, “Noncommutative mirror functors“

May 7 – Day 2

9:00am
Breakfast

9:45am – 10:45am
Eric Zaslow, “Lagrangian fillings what does the sheaf say?“

10:45am – 11:15am
Break

11:15am – 12:15pm
Alex Perry, “Derived categories of Gushel Mukai varieties“

12:15pm – 1:45pm
Lunch

1:45pm – 2:45pm
Amanda Francis, “A Landau Ginzburg mirror theorem inspired by Borcea Voisin symmetry“

2:45pm – 3:00pm
Break

3:00pm – 4:00pm
Heather Lee, “Homological mirror symmetry for open Riemann surfaces from pair of pants decompositions“

4:00pm – 4:15pm
Break

4:15pm – 5:15pm
Yu-Shen Lin, “Counting Holomorphic Discs via Tropical Discs on K3 Surfaces“

May 8 – Day 3

9:00am
Breakfast

9:45am – 10:45am
Kwokwai Chan, “HMS for local CY manifolds via SYZ“

10:45am – 11:15am
Break

11:15am – 12:15pm
Netanel Blaier, “The quantum Johnson homomorphism, formality and symplectic isotopy“

12:15pm – 1:45pm
Lunch

1:45pm – 2:45pm
Jingyu Zhao, “Periodic symplectic cohomology and the Hodge filtration“

2:45pm – 3:00pm
Break

3:00pm – 4:00pm
Michael Viscardi, “Equivariant quantum cohomology and the geometric Satake equivalence“

* Click titles for talk videos. All videos are also available on “Harvard CMSA” channel on Youtube, grouped into playlist “Simons Collaboration on Homological Mirror symmetry“.

This event is sponsored by the Simons Foundation and CMSA Harvard University.
