Quantum Matter Seminar Speaker: Abijith Krishnan (MIT) Title: A Plane Defect in the 3d O(N) Model Abstract: It was recently found that the classical 3d O(N) model in the semi-infinite geometry can exhibit an "extraordinary-log" boundary universality class, where the spin-spin correlation function on the boundary falls off as (log x)^(-q). This universality class exists for […]
Topological Quantum Matter Seminar Speaker: Kaifeng Bu (Harvard University) Title: Quantum information: the interplay of mathematics and physics Abstract: I will provide an introduction to quantum information, which points to a new connection with experiment on the one hand, and a potential new area of mathematical analysis on the other. I will introduce two recent results about […]
Algebraic Geometry in String Theory Seminar Speaker: Maksym Fedorchuk (Boston College) Title: CM-minimizers and standard models of Fano fibrations over curves Abstract: A recent achievement in K-stability of Fano varieties is an algebro-geometric construction of a projective moduli space of K-polystable Fanos. The ample line bundle on this moduli space is the CM line bundle […]
https://youtu.be/2CbIDgFFzRY Topological Quantum Matter Seminar Speaker: Ken K. W. Ma (Northeastern University) Title: The Fractional Quantum Hall Effect at ν=5/2: Past, Recent, and Future Abstract: The discovery of fractional quantum Hall (FQH) states started a new chapter in modern physics. Nowadays, more than 70 FQH states at different filling factors have been observed. Among them, the […]
Speaker: Xuwen Zhu (Northeastern) Title: Analysis of ALH* gravitational instantons Abstract: Gravitational instantons are non-compact Calabi-Yau metrics with L^2 bounded curvature and are categorized into six types. We will discuss one such type called ALH* metrics which has a non-compact end modelled by the Calabi ansatz with inhomogeneous collapsing near infinity. Such metrics appeared recently in the works on SYZ conjecture, […]
https://youtu.be/xTnSasVv4_0 General Relativity Seminar Speaker: Andras Vasy (Stanford) Title: The Feynman propagator and self-adjointness Abstract: In this talk I will discuss the Feynman and anti-Feynman inverses for wave operators on certain Lorentzian manifolds; these are two inverses which from a microlocal analysis perspective are more natural than the standard causal (advanced/retarded) ones. For instance, for the spectral family […]
CMSA Q and A Seminar Speakers: Mike Douglas (Harvard CMSA) and Anurag Anshu (Harvard Computer Science) Topics: Mike Douglas: What are scaling laws in deep learning? Anurag Anshu: What's the difference between classical information theory and quantum information theory (or classical computation vs quantum computation)?
Active Matter Seminar Speaker: Michael Shelley (Flatiron) Title: Active structures and flows in living cells Abstract: Flows in the fluidic interior of living cells can serve biological function or act as signatures of how intracellular forces are exerted. I'll discuss examples of each. One is understanding the emergence of cell-spanning vortical flows in large developing egg […]
Member Seminar Speaker: Juven Wang Title: Open Problems in Physics and Novel Solutions from Math Abstract: (1) How do neutrinos obtain tiny mass and oscillate between e, \mu, \tau three flavors? What consists of Dark Matter? What causes leptogenesis and baryogenesis? (2) Why the Parity Symmetry is violated in the weak interaction? How do we quantum mechanically regularize and […]
Joint Quantum Matter in Mathematics and Physics & Topological Quantum Matter Seminar Speaker: Da-Chuan Lu (UCSD) Title: Fermi surface symmetric mass generation and its application in nickelate superconductor Abstract: Symmetric mass generation (SMG) is a novel interaction-driven mechanism that generates fermion mass without breaking symmetry, unlike the standard Anderson-Higgs mechanism. SMG can occur in the […]
Algebraic Geometry in String Theory Seminar Speaker: Thorsten Schimannek (Utrecht University) Title: M-theory on nodal Calabi-Yau 3-folds and torsion refined GV-invariants Abstract: The physics of M-theory and Type IIA strings on a projective nodal CY 3-folds is determined by the geometry of a small resolution, even if the latter is not Kähler. We will demonstrate this […]
Colloquium Speaker: Justin Moore (Cornell University) Title: Homology, higher derived limits, and set theory Abstract: Singular homology has a number of well-known defects when used to study spaces such as the Hawaiian earring and solenoids. It may not reflect the "shape" of the space and can give counterintuitive information about its dimension. One remedy of […]