Joint Math/CMSA Geometry and Quantum Theory Seminar Speaker: Oswaldo Vázquez (Harvard) Title: A Mumford form on infinite Grassmannians Abstract: The Polyakov measure in bosonic string theory can be expressed in terms of the Mumford form, which is a trivializing section of a product of determinant line bundles over the moduli space of genus g curves. We […]
Joint Math/CMSA Geometry and Quantum Theory Seminar Speaker: Dan Freed, Harvard Math & CMSA Title: Abelian gauge fields and duality Abstract: Motivated by the new paper arXiv:2603.19161, I will give a general talk about abelian gauge fields, including duality. I will start with classical Maxwell theory, then discuss various “finite” examples, the typical p-form abelian […]
Joint Math/CMSA Geometry and Quantum Theory Seminar Speaker: Ahsan Khan, Harvard CMSA Title: Introduction to A-infty categories Abstract: I will give a pedagogical account of A-infty categories and the various places they show up in mathematical physics.
https://youtu.be/91-jAKfUpRY CMSA/Tsinghua Math-Science Literature Lecture Date: April 22, 2026 Time: 9:00 - 10:30 am ET Location: via Zoom Webinar Speaker: Nicolai Reshetikhin, Yau Mathematical Sciences Center, Tsinghua University Title: Asymptotic representation theory Abstract: Loosely speaking asymptotic representation theory studies representations of “large” groups or algebras. One of the first results in this direction is the study […]
https://youtu.be/mIA4yknV1d8 Sixth Annual Yip Lecture Date: April 23, 2026 Time: 4:00–5:00 pm ET Location: Harvard Science Center Hall A & via Zoom Webinar Speaker: Regina Barzilay, MIT Title: Can ML methods design drugs? Abstract: Today, life sciences are driven by prohibitively expensive wet lab experimentations, which limit the pace and scope of discovery. This talk focuses […]
Joint Math/CMSA Geometry and Quantum Theory Seminar Speaker: Lorenzo Riva, Harvard CMSA Title: The classifying space of a Morse flow category Abstract: Following a paper of Calle and Liu we show that, under suitable tameness assumptions, the classifying space of the Morse category associated to a manifold M with a Morse function recovers the homotopy […]
Joint Math/CMSA Geometry and Quantum Theory Seminar Speaker: Vasily Krylov, Harvard
Geometry and Quantum Theory Seminar Speaker: Nikita Sopenko, CMSA Title: Quasi-local algebras and invertible phases of matter Abstract: In the algebraic approach to quantum field theory, observables localized in bounded regions form a net of von Neumann algebras generating what is known as a quasi-local algebra. I will discuss the classification of quasi-local algebras under […]
Joint Math/CMSA Geometry and Quantum Theory Seminar Speaker: Dan Freed Title: Path integral quantization of particles via probability Abstract: This is the beginning of our study of Sourav Chatterjee's Gauge Theory Lecture Notes, a book-in-progress. This lecture follows Chapter 1, which covers the path integral quantization of a single particle. We begin in real time with […]
https://youtu.be/p_tb0IHjo74 CMSA/Tsinghua Math-Science Literature Lecture Date: September 16, 2026 Time: 9:00 - 10:30 am ET Location: CMSA G10, 20 Garden Street & via Zoom Webinar Speaker: Robert E. Gompf, University of Texas, Austin Title: On classifying smoothings of R^4–from the beginning to the present Abstract: The field of 4-manifold topology was born around 1981 with two […]
Joint Math/CMSA Geometry and Quantum Theory Seminar Speaker: Dan Freed, Harvard Title: Path integral quantization of particles via probability (Part 2) Abstract: I will pick up where I left off last week. The first half of the lecture will cover the general strategy of constructing a quantum system using Markov processes, as described in Section […]
CMSA Q&A Seminar Speaker: Hugh Woodin, Harvard Title: Truth, proof, and AI