General Relativity Seminar Speaker: Professor Harvey Reall (University of Cambridge) Title: The second law of black hole mechanics in effective field theory Abstract: I shall discuss the second law of black hole mechanics in gravitational theories with higher derivative terms in the action. Wall has described a method for defining an entropy that satisfies the second law […]
Title: Duality in Einstein’s Gravity Abstract: Electric-Magnetic duality has been a key feature behind our understanding of Quantum Field Theory for over a century. In this talk I will describe a similar property in Einstein’s gravity. The gravitational duality reveals, in turn, a wide range of new IR phenomena, including aspects of the double copy […]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aq_XXzbFr18&list=PL0NRmB0fnLJQAnYwkpt9PN2PBKx4rvdup&index=3 Quantum Matter in Mathematics and Physics Speaker: Yichul Cho (SUNY Stony Brook) Title: Non-invertible Symmetries in Nature Abstract: In this talk, I will discuss non-invertible symmetries in familiar 3+1d quantum field theories describing our Nature. In massless QED, the classical U(1) axial symmetry is not completely broken by the ABJ anomaly. Instead, it turns […]
Colloquium Speaker: Yannai Gonczarowski (Harvard) Title: Strategyproof-Exposing Mechanisms Descriptions Abstract: One of the crowning achievements of the field of Mechanism Design has been the design and usage of the so-called "Deferred Acceptance" matching algorithm. Designed in 1962 and awarded the Nobel Prize in 2012, this algorithm has been used around the world in settings ranging […]
https://youtu.be/D7dqadF5k9Q New Technologies in Mathematics Seminar Speaker: Johan Commelin, Mathematisches Institut, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg Title: Breaking the one-mind-barrier in mathematics using formal verification Abstract: In this talk I will argue that formal verification helps break the one-mind-barrier in mathematics. Indeed, formal verification allows a team of mathematicians to collaborate on a project, without one person understanding all parts of […]
General Relativity Seminar Title: The Gregory-Laflamme instability of black strings revisited Abstract: In this talk I will discuss our recent work that reproduces and extends the famous work of Lehner and Pretorius on the end point of the Gregory-Laflamme instability of black strings. We consider black strings of different thicknesses and our numerics allow us to get closer to the singularity than ever before. In […]
Member Seminar Speaker: Shai Chester Title: Derivation of AdS/CFT for Vector Models Abstract: We derive an explicit map at finite N between the singlet sector of the free and critical O(N) and U(N) vector models in any spacetime dimension above two, and a bulk higher spin theory in anti-de Sitter space in one higher dimension. For the boundary […]
Swampland Seminar Speaker: Samir Mathur (Ohio State) Title: The story of the information paradox Abstract: In 1975 Hawking argued that black hole evaporation would lead to a loss of unitarity in quantum theory. The small corrections theorem made Hawking's argument into a precise statement: if semiclassical physics hold to leading order in any gently curved region of […]
https://youtu.be/MxXD2yA2pxQ Topological Quantum Matter Seminar Speaker: Semyon Klevtsov, University of Strasbourg Title: Geometric test for topological states of matter Abstract: We generalize the flux insertion argument due to Laughlin, Niu-Thouless-Tao-Wu, and Avron-Seiler-Zograf to the case of fractional quantum Hall states on a higher-genus surface. We propose this setting as a test to characterise the robustness, or […]
Active Matter Seminar Speaker: Shenshen Wang, UCLA Title: Limit and potential of adaptive immunity Abstract: The adaptive immune system is able to learn from past experiences to better fit an unforeseen future. This is made possible by a diverse and dynamic repertoire of cells expressing unique antigen receptors and capable of rapid Darwinian evolution within an individual. However, […]
Colloquium Speaker: Melody Chan, Brown Title: Moduli spaces of graphs Abstract: A metric graph is a graph—a finite network of vertices and edges—together with a prescription of a positive real length on each edge. I'll use the term "moduli space of graphs" to refer to certain combinatorial spaces—think simplicial complexes—that furnish parameter spaces for metric […]
https://youtu.be/1v9STFWqArQ General Relativity Seminar Speaker: Nikolaos Athanasiou Title: A scale-critical trapped surface formation criterion for the Einstein-Maxwell system Abstract: Few notions within the realm of mathematical physics succeed in capturing the imagination and inspiring awe as well as that of a black hole. First encountered in the Schwarzschild solution, discovered a few months after the […]