• Positive Mass, Density, and Scalar Curvature on Noncompact Manifolds

    Hybrid - G10

    Member Seminar Speaker: Martin Lesourd Title: Positive Mass, Density, and Scalar Curvature on Noncompact Manifolds Abstract: I’ll describe some recent work spanning a couple of different papers on the topics mentioned in the title: Positive Mass, Density, and Scalar Curvature on Noncompact Manifolds. Two of these are with R. Unger, Prof. S-T. Yau, and two others are with R. Unger, […]

  • 4d strings at strong coupling

    Virtual

    Speakers: Fernando Marchesano (UAM-CSIC, Madrid)  and Max Wiesner (Harvard CMSA) Title: 4d strings at strong coupling As usual, the format will be 45 min talk + 30 min discussion, to encourage participation from the audience. Looking forward to seeing you there!

  • Greedy maximal independent sets via local limits

    Abstract: The random greedy algorithm for finding a maximal independent set in a graph has been studied extensively in various settings in combinatorics, probability, computer science, and chemistry. The algorithm builds a maximal independent set by inspecting the graph’s vertices one at a time according to a random order, adding the current vertex to the independent […]

  • Side-effects of Learning from Low Dimensional Data Embedded in an Euclidean Space

    Abstract: The  low  dimensional  manifold  hypothesis  posits  that  the  data  found  in many applications, such as those involving natural images, lie (approximately) on low dimensional manifolds embedded in a high dimensional Euclidean space. In this setting, a typical neural network defines a function that takes a finite number of vectors in the embedding space as input.  However, one often […]

  • Anomalies, topological insulators and Kaehler-Dirac fermions

    Virtual

    Abstract: Motivated by a puzzle arising from recent work on staggered lattice fermions we introduce Kaehler-Dirac fermions and describe their connection both to Dirac fermions and staggered fermions. We show that they suffer from a gravitational anomaly that breaks a chiral U(1) symmetry specific to Kaehler-Dirac fermions down to Z_4 in any even dimension. In odd dimensions […]

  • Machine Learning 30 STEM Courses in 12 Departments

    https://youtu.be/QaOZCa8SFvA Speaker: Iddo Drori, MIT EE&CS and Columbia School of Engineering Title: Machine Learning 30 STEM Courses in 12 Departments Abstract: We automatically solve, explain, and generate university-level course problems from thirty STEM courses (at MIT, Harvard, and Columbia) for the first time. We curate a new dataset of course questions and answers across a dozen […]

  • The Einstein-flow on manifolds of negative curvature

    Abstract: We consider the Cauchy problem for the Einstein equations for cosmological spacetimes, i.e. spacetimes with compact spatial hypersurfaces. Various classes of those dynamical spacetimes have been constructed and analyzed using CMC foliations or equivalently the CMC-Einstein flow. We will briefly review the Andersson-Moncrief stability result of negative Einstein metrics under the vacuum Einstein flow and […]

  • Virtual Teams in Gig Economy — An End-to-End Data Science Approach

    Abstract: The gig economy provides workers with the benefits of autonomy and flexibility, but it does so at the expense of work identity and co-worker bonds. Among the many reasons why gig workers leave their platforms, an unexplored aspect is the organization identity. In a series of studies, we develop a team formation and inter-team contest […]

  • Resonant side-jump thermal Hall effect of phonons coupled to dynamical defects

    Virtual

    https://youtu.be/nnczlM1xhy4 Abstract: We present computations of the thermal Hall coefficient of phonons scattering off defects with multiple energy levels. Using a microscopic formulation based on the Kubo formula, we find that the leading contribution perturbative in the phonon-defect coupling is of the 'side-jump' type, which is proportional to the phonon lifetime. This contribution is at resonance […]

  • Moduli space of tropical curves, graph Laplacians and physics

    Abstract: I will first review the construction of the moduli space of tropical curves (or metric graphs), and its relation to graph complexes. The graph Laplacian may be interpreted as a tropical version of the classical Torelli map and its determinant is the Kirchhoff graph polynomial (also called 1st Symanzik), which is one of the two […]

  • 2-categorical 3d mirror symmetry

    Virtual

    Abstract: It is by now well-known that mirror symmetry may be expressed as an equivalence between categories associated to dual Kahler manifolds. Following a proposal of Teleman, we inaugurate a program to understand 3d mirror symmetry as an equivalence between 2-categories associated to dual holomorphic symplectic stacks. We consider here the abelian case, where our theorem […]

  • Birkhoff’s conjecture on integrable billiards and Kac’s problem “hearing the shape of a drum”

    Abstract: Billiards on an elliptical billiard table are completely integrable: phase space is foliated by invariant submanifolds for the billiard flow. Birkhoff conjectured that ellipses are the only plane domains with integrable billiards. Avila-deSimoi- Kaloshin proved the conjecture for ellipses of sufficiently small eccentricity. Kaloshin-Sorrentino proved local results for all eccentricities. On the quantum level, the analogous […]