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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260519T161500
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260519T180000
DTSTAMP:20260610T200202
CREATED:20260511T180006Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260511T180006Z
UID:10003944-1779207300-1779213600@cmsa.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Geometry and Quantum Theory Seminar
DESCRIPTION:Joint Math/CMSA Geometry and Quantum Theory Seminar \nSpeaker: Vasily Krylov\, Harvard
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/quantumgeo_51926/
LOCATION:Science Center 507\, 1 Oxford Street\, Cambridge\, 02138
CATEGORIES:Geometry and Quantum Theory Seminar
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260428T161500
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260428T180000
DTSTAMP:20260610T200202
CREATED:20260410T145217Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260427T173936Z
UID:10003932-1777392900-1777399200@cmsa.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:The classifying space of a Morse flow category
DESCRIPTION:Joint Math/CMSA Geometry and Quantum Theory Seminar \nSpeaker: Lorenzo Riva\, Harvard CMSA \nTitle: The classifying space of a Morse flow category\n\nAbstract: 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 type of M\, thereby addressing a gap in a preprint of Cohen-Jones-Segal. We also give a counterexample when those assumptions are not satisfied.\n\n  \n 
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/quantumgeo_42826/
LOCATION:Science Center 507\, 1 Oxford Street\, Cambridge\, 02138
CATEGORIES:Geometry and Quantum Theory Seminar
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/media/Geometry-and-Quantum-Theory-Seminar-04.28.26.docx.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260422T090000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260422T103000
DTSTAMP:20260610T200202
CREATED:20260130T191058Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260430T205709Z
UID:10003887-1776848400-1776853800@cmsa.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:CMSA/Tsinghua Math-Science Literature Lecture: Nicolai Reshetikhin (Tsinghua): Asymptotic representation theory
DESCRIPTION:CMSA/Tsinghua Math-Science Literature Lecture \nDate: April 22\, 2026 \nTime: 9:00 – 10:30 am ET \nLocation: via Zoom Webinar \nSpeaker: Nicolai Reshetikhin\, Yau Mathematical Sciences Center\, Tsinghua University \nTitle: Asymptotic representation theory \nAbstract: Loosely speaking asymptotic representation theory studies representations of “large” groups or algebras. One of the first results in this direction is the study of Plancherel measures on the symmetric group $S_N$ in the limit $N\to \infty$ by Vershik and Kerov and Logan and Shepp. The first part of the talk will be an overview of results on statistics of irreducible representations in large tensor products. Then we focus on more modern results on statistics of tilting and projective modules in large tensor products and on how some problems in asymptotic representation theory are related to dimer models in statistical mechanics. \n\nBeginning in Spring 2020\, the CMSA began hosting a lecture series on literature in the mathematical sciences\, with a focus on significant developments in mathematics that have influenced the discipline\, and the lifetime accomplishments of significant scholars. \n  \n 
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/mathscilit2026_nr/
LOCATION:CMSA Room G10\, CMSA\, 20 Garden Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Math Science Literature Lecture Series,Public Lecture,Special Lectures
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/media/Mathlit_Reshetikhin.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260421T161500
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260421T180000
DTSTAMP:20260610T200202
CREATED:20260408T190831Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260417T142320Z
UID:10003930-1776788100-1776794400@cmsa.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Introduction to A-infty categories
DESCRIPTION:Joint Math/CMSA Geometry and Quantum Theory Seminar \nSpeaker: Ahsan Khan\, Harvard CMSA \nTitle: Introduction to A-infty categories\n\nAbstract: I will give a pedagogical account of A-infty categories and the various places they show up in mathematical physics.\n 
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/quantumgeo_42126/
LOCATION:Science Center 507\, 1 Oxford Street\, Cambridge\, 02138
CATEGORIES:Geometry and Quantum Theory Seminar
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/media/Geometry-and-Quantum-Theory-Seminar-04.21.26-scaled.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260414T161500
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260414T180000
DTSTAMP:20260610T200202
CREATED:20260408T190745Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260408T200311Z
UID:10003929-1776183300-1776189600@cmsa.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Abelian gauge fields and duality
DESCRIPTION:Joint Math/CMSA Geometry and Quantum Theory Seminar \nSpeaker: Dan Freed\, Harvard Math & CMSA \nTitle: Abelian gauge fields and duality \nAbstract: 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 gauge field\, and some exotic examples such as Ramond–Ramond fields and the B-field in superstring theory. I will then get to the new paper and\, time permitting\, will suggest a very general framework that covers all examples. \n 
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/quantumgeo_41426/
LOCATION:Science Center 507\, 1 Oxford Street\, Cambridge\, 02138
CATEGORIES:Geometry and Quantum Theory Seminar
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/media/Geometry-and-Quantum-Theory-Seminar-04.14.26.docx.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260407T161500
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260407T180000
DTSTAMP:20260610T200202
CREATED:20260402T150251Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260402T152237Z
UID:10003928-1775578500-1775584800@cmsa.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:A Mumford form on infinite Grassmannians
DESCRIPTION:Joint Math/CMSA Geometry and Quantum Theory Seminar \nSpeaker: Oswaldo Vázquez (Harvard) \nTitle: A Mumford form on infinite Grassmannians \nAbstract: 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 will discuss the work in https://arxiv.org/abs/2412.18570\, which reviews how the moduli space can be embedded in an infinite dimensional Grassmannian as a Virasoro orbit and generalizes the Mumford form to other such orbits. In particular\, this “universal Mumford form” can be described in terms of coordinates in the Grassmannian\, which are amenable to computation and thus could have implications to the evaluation of amplitudes. \n 
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/quantumgeo_4726/
LOCATION:Science Center 507\, 1 Oxford Street\, Cambridge\, 02138
CATEGORIES:Geometry and Quantum Theory Seminar
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/media/Geometry-and-Quantum-Theory-Seminar-04.07.26.docx.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260401T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260401T130000
DTSTAMP:20260610T200202
CREATED:20260327T194647Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260327T195536Z
UID:10003925-1775044800-1775048400@cmsa.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:CMSA Q&A Seminar: Lauren Williams\, Harvard
DESCRIPTION:CMSA Q&A Seminar \nSpeaker: Lauren Williams\, Harvard \nTopic: The First Proof Project \n 
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/cmsaqa_4126/
LOCATION:Common Room\, CMSA\, 20 Garden Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:CMSA Q&A Seminar
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/media/CMSA-Q-A-Seminar-4.1.2026-scaled.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260331T161500
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260331T180000
DTSTAMP:20260610T200202
CREATED:20260323T144017Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260330T153340Z
UID:10003920-1774973700-1774980000@cmsa.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:1-shifted Yangians from 1-shifted Lie bialgebras
DESCRIPTION:Joint Math/CMSA Geometry and Quantum Theory Seminar \nSpeaker: Vasily Krylov\, Harvard \nTitle: 1-shifted Yangians from 1-shifted Lie bialgebras \nAbstract: In the previous talk\, Keyou explained that the fusion of line defects in 3d holomorphic–topological field theories is expected to be governed by so-called DG-shifted Yangians. Following arXiv:2503.08770\, I will present examples of such DG-shifted Yangians arising from 1-shifted Lie bialgebras. We will discuss both the classical and DG-shifted settings from a purely mathematical perspective.
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/quantumgeo_33126/
LOCATION:Science Center 507\, 1 Oxford Street\, Cambridge\, 02138
CATEGORIES:Geometry and Quantum Theory Seminar
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/media/Geometry-and-Quantum-Theory-Seminar-03.31.26-scaled.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260324T161500
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260324T180000
DTSTAMP:20260610T200202
CREATED:20260323T143256Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260323T143854Z
UID:10003919-1774368900-1774375200@cmsa.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Line operators in holomorphic QFT
DESCRIPTION:Joint Math/CMSA Geometry and Quantum Theory Seminar \nSpeaker: Keyou Zeng (CMSA) \nTitle: Line operators in holomorphic QFT \nAbstract: We will discuss the recent work (arxiv:2508.11749)\, which defines the so called dg shifted Yangian. I will discuss their origin from the study of 3d holomorphic topological field theories\, a variant of 3d TQFT. A dg shifted Yangian is supposed to control the fusion of line defect in the corresponding 3d HT theories. I will illustrate these discussions in examples.
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/quantumgeo_32426/
LOCATION:Science Center 507\, 1 Oxford Street\, Cambridge\, 02138
CATEGORIES:Geometry and Quantum Theory Seminar
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/media/Geometry-and-Quantum-Theory-Seminar-03.24.26-scaled.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260310T161500
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260310T180000
DTSTAMP:20260610T200202
CREATED:20260302T172556Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260309T175638Z
UID:10003914-1773159300-1773165600@cmsa.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:TQFTs do not detect the Milnor sphere
DESCRIPTION:Joint Math/CMSA Geometry and Quantum Theory Seminar \nSpeaker: Lorenzo Riva\, Harvard CMSA \nTitle: TQFTs do not detect the Milnor sphere \nAbstract: I will talk about the recent paper of Gripaios and Randall-Williams with that title\, where they prove that a functorial TQFT (i.e. a symmetric monoidal functor from the n-dimensional bordism category into a suitably nice target category) assigns the same value to homotopy spheres that bound a parallelizable manifold\, extending some no-go theorems of Reutter and Schommer-Pries.
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/quantumgeo_31026/
LOCATION:Science Center 507\, 1 Oxford Street\, Cambridge\, 02138
CATEGORIES:Geometry and Quantum Theory Seminar
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/media/Geometry-and-Quantum-Theory-Seminar-03.10.26-scaled.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260310T084500
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260310T101500
DTSTAMP:20260610T200202
CREATED:20260127T153158Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260316T161125Z
UID:10003881-1773132300-1773137700@cmsa.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:CMSA/Tsinghua Math-Science Literature Lecture: Martin Bridson: Profinite rigidity: Chasing finite shadows of infinite groups
DESCRIPTION:CMSA/Tsinghua Math-Science Literature Lecture \n \nDate: March 10\, 2026 \nTime: 8:45 – 10:15 am ET \nLocation: Harvard Science Center Hall A\, 1 Oxford Street\, Cambridge MA &  via Zoom Webinar \nSpeaker: Martin Bridson FRS is the Whitehead Professor of Pure Mathematics at Oxford and President of the Clay Mathematics Institute. \nTitle: Profinite rigidity: Chasing finite shadows of infinite groups \nAbstract: There are many situations in geometry or elsewhere in mathematics where it is natural or convenient to explore infinite groups of symmetries via their actions on finite objects. But how hard is it to find these finite manifestations and to what extent does the collection of all such actions determine the infinite group?\nIn this talk\, I will sketch some of the rich history of such problems and then describe some of the significant advances in recent years. \nWe’ll pay particular attention to groups that arise in 3-dimensional geometry and topology. \n  \n\nBeginning in Spring 2020\, the CMSA began hosting a lecture series on literature in the mathematical sciences\, with a focus on significant developments in mathematics that have influenced the discipline\, and the lifetime accomplishments of significant scholars. \n  \n 
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/mathscilit2026_mb/
CATEGORIES:Math Science Literature Lecture Series,Public Lecture,Special Lectures
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/media/Mathlit_Bridson-poster.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260304T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260304T170000
DTSTAMP:20260610T200202
CREATED:20260108T200326Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260316T161023Z
UID:10003868-1772640000-1772643600@cmsa.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:2026 Ding Shum Lecture: Sanjeev Arora\, Princeton
DESCRIPTION:2026 Ding Shum Lecture \nDate: March 4\, 2026 \nTime: 4:00 pm \nLocation: Harvard Science Center Hall D & via Zoom Webinar \nSpeaker: Sanjeev Arora\, Princeton \nTitle: How could a Superhuman AI mathematician come about? \n\nAbstract: Can AI systems exceed the capabilities of the human experts who provided their training data? The talk will examine the hypothesis of AI self‑improvement\, involving mechanisms such as synthetic data generation\, reinforcement learning\, and tool‑augmented reasoning with formal verification loops. \nI will also present recent work at Princeton\, including the Gödel Prover V2 for Lean‑based theorem proving and a new inference pipeline that achieved state‑of‑the‑art performance (at the time of evaluation) on IMO‑ProofBench (Advanced) at moderate inference costs ($20–$30 per problem). These will illustrate how AI systems are sometimes able to escape “cognitive wells”—local optima in a model’s reasoning capabilities. While providing evidence for the feasibility of self‑improvement\, they also highlight important hurdles and open questions. \n\n  \n\n \nSanjeev Arora is Charles C. Fitzmorris Professor of Computer Science and Director of Princeton Language and Intelligence\, a unit devoted to research and applications of large AI models. He got his Phd from UC Berkeley in 1994 and has been a faculty member at Princeton since then. He has been awarded the ACM Prize in Computing (2011)\, Fulkerson Prize in Discrete Mathematics (2012)\, Packard Fellowship\, Sloan Fellowship\, and the ACM Doctoral Dissertation Prize. He was a plenary speaker at the International Congress of Mathematicians in 2018 and is a member of the National Academy of Science and American Academy of Arts and Sciences. \n\n\n\n\n\nThis event is made possible by the generous funding of Ding Lei and Harry Shum.\n\n\n 
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/2026_dingshum/
LOCATION:Harvard Science Center\, 1 Oxford Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138
CATEGORIES:Ding Shum Lecture,Event,Public Lecture,Special Lectures
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/media/Ding-Shum-2026_hall-d.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260303T161500
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260303T180000
DTSTAMP:20260610T200202
CREATED:20251223T191945Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260209T160052Z
UID:10003853-1772554500-1772560800@cmsa.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Solitonic Symmetry: Cohomology with TFT Coefficients
DESCRIPTION:Geometry and Quantum Theory Seminar \nSpeaker: Sanjay Raman\, Harvard \nTitle: Solitonic Symmetry: Cohomology with TFT Coefficients \nAbstract: We review the formalism of https://arxiv.org/pdf/2307.00939\, which develops the theory of solitonic symmetry in quantum field theory. The algebraic structure of solitonic symmetry is determined by the fusion of topological functionals in a given path-integral formulation of topological field theory\, and acts generically on topological defects determined by homotopy classes of maps to a “space of fields.” We will argue that the structure of solitonic symmetry in a theory with field space (Y) assembles into what looks like the cohomology of (Y) with coefficients in TFTs. We study this formalism in examples and show in particular that the maximal invertible solitonic subsymmetry reduces to the expected result.
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/quantumgeo_3326/
LOCATION:Science Center 507\, 1 Oxford Street\, Cambridge\, 02138
CATEGORIES:Geometry and Quantum Theory Seminar
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/media/CMSA-Geometry-Quantum-Theory-3.3.26-scaled.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260224T161500
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260224T180000
DTSTAMP:20260610T200202
CREATED:20251223T192031Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260223T151346Z
UID:10003855-1771949700-1771956000@cmsa.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Bi-HKT Manifolds\, Sigma Models\, Large N=4 and their String Constructions
DESCRIPTION:Geometry and Quantum Theory Seminar \nSpeakers: Max Hübner\, CMSA \nTitle: Bi-HKT Manifolds\, Sigma Models\, Large N=4 and their String Constructions \nAbstract: We continue our review of Witten’s paper “Instantons and the Large N=4 Algebra”. We discuss the realization of large N=4 supersymmetry in the context of supersymmetric sigma-models\, and discuss and motivate string theoretic duals to these sigma models. This talk aims to supply physical insight building on Saman’s talk from last week 2/17.
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/quantumgeo_22426/
LOCATION:Science Center 507\, 1 Oxford Street\, Cambridge\, 02138
CATEGORIES:Geometry and Quantum Theory Seminar
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/media/CMSA-Geometry-Quantum-Theory-2.24.26.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260219T153000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260219T163000
DTSTAMP:20260610T200202
CREATED:20260209T003754Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260209T193802Z
UID:10003891-1771515000-1771518600@cmsa.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Constructing oriented TQFTs from twisted pivotal tensor categories
DESCRIPTION:Geometry and Quantum Theory Seminar \nSpeaker: William Stewart \nTitle: Constructing oriented TQFTs from twisted pivotal tensor categories \nAbstract: The cobordism hypothesis classifies n-dimensional oriented TQFTs in terms of SO(n) homotopy fixed point data. An SO(2) homotopy fixed point structure on a finite tensor category gives rise to a twisted pivotal structure (a more general notion than a pivotal structure). In this talk\, I will illustrate how the usual skein theory (also called string nets) of a pivotal tensor category can be generalized to the twisted pivotal setting\, yielding new 2d oriented TQFTs. This is joint work with Ben Haioun and Filippos Sytilidis.
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/quantumgeo_21926/
LOCATION:CMSA Room G10\, CMSA\, 20 Garden Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Geometry and Quantum Theory Seminar
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/media/CMSA-Geometry-Quantum-Theory-2.19.26-scaled.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260218T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260218T130000
DTSTAMP:20260610T200202
CREATED:20251223T192453Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260213T210947Z
UID:10003858-1771416000-1771419600@cmsa.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:CMSA Q&A Seminar: Dan Freed\, Harvard
DESCRIPTION:CMSA Q&A Seminar \nSpeaker: Dan Freed\, Harvard \nTopic: How does one navigate the job market as a postdoc in 2026?
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/cmsaqa_21826/
LOCATION:Common Room\, CMSA\, 20 Garden Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:CMSA Q&A Seminar
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/media/CMSA-Q-A-Seminar-2.18.2026-scaled.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260217T161500
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260217T180000
DTSTAMP:20260610T200202
CREATED:20251223T192010Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260217T154218Z
UID:10003854-1771344900-1771351200@cmsa.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Geometric structures on gauge theoretic moduli spaces
DESCRIPTION:Geometry and Quantum Theory Seminar \nSpeaker: Saman Habibi Esfahani (CMSA) \nTitle: Geometric structures on gauge theoretic moduli spaces \nAbstract: Motivated by Witten’s study of instantons on S3 x S1\, we survey some classical and recent results\, programs\, and conjectures on geometric structures\, such as symplectic and hyperkahler\, on moduli spaces of instantons and monopoles on various manifolds\, from a mathematical perspective. This talk serves as background for Max’s talk on 2/24.
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/quantumgeo_21726/
LOCATION:Science Center 507\, 1 Oxford Street\, Cambridge\, 02138
CATEGORIES:Geometry and Quantum Theory Seminar
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/media/CMSA-Geometry-Quantum-Theory-2.17.26-scaled.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260211T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260211T130000
DTSTAMP:20260610T200202
CREATED:20251223T192428Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260122T164632Z
UID:10003857-1770811200-1770814800@cmsa.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:CMSA Q&A Seminar: James Eldred Pascoe\, Drexel University
DESCRIPTION:CMSA Q&A Seminar \nSpeaker: James Eldred Pascoe\, Drexel University \nTitle: (What is) The tracial fundamental group and free universal monodromy? \nAbstract: We introduce the tracial fundamental group to classify the analytic continuation of functions that are locally behave like the trace of natural matrix valued functions. While globally defined natural matrix-valued functions (known as free noncommutative functions\, which roughly locally are defined by noncommutative power series) satisfy universal monodromy\, we show that these tracial free functions exhibit a rigid but nontrivial structure governed by the aforementioned group. We prove that the tracial fundamental group is always a torsion-free\, divisible abelian group\, standing in sharp contrast to the non-abelian fundamental groups of classical domains.
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/cmsaqa_21126/
LOCATION:Common Room\, CMSA\, 20 Garden Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:CMSA Q&A Seminar
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/media/CMSA-Q-A-Seminar-2.11.2026.docx-scaled.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260204T130000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260204T140000
DTSTAMP:20260610T200202
CREATED:20260130T153923Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260203T152223Z
UID:10003885-1770210000-1770213600@cmsa.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:CMSA Q&A Seminar: Ludmil Katzarkov\, University of Miami
DESCRIPTION:CMSA Q&A Seminar \nSpeaker: Ludmil Katzarkov\, University of Miami \nTitle: New Birational Invariants \nAbstract: We will introduce the origins of the main ideas of the theory of atoms. Applications follow. Equivariant and mixed atoms will be considered.
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/cmsaqa_2426/
LOCATION:Common Room\, CMSA\, 20 Garden Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:CMSA Q&A Seminar
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/media/CMSA-Q-A-Seminar-2.4.2026.docx-1-scaled.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260203T161500
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260203T180000
DTSTAMP:20260610T200202
CREATED:20251223T191910Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260202T171722Z
UID:10003852-1770135300-1770141600@cmsa.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:More on Kubota's spectrum of invertible states
DESCRIPTION:Geometry and Quantum Theory Seminar \nSpeakers: Dan Freed and Bowen Yang\, Harvard CMSA \nTitle: More on Kubota’s spectrum of invertible states \nAbstract: Bowen will explain a construction aptly dubbed “Kitaev’s pump” in Kubota’s paper. Time permitting\, Bowen will demonstrate its ubiquity throughout the study of topological phases\, where it appears under various guises. In the second hour\, Dan will sketch Kubota’s construction of a spectrum from families of invertible quantum lattice systems.
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/quantumgeo_2326/
LOCATION:Science Center 507\, 1 Oxford Street\, Cambridge\, 02138
CATEGORIES:Geometry and Quantum Theory Seminar
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/media/CMSA-Geometry-Quantum-Theory-2.3.26-scaled.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260127T161500
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260127T183000
DTSTAMP:20260610T200202
CREATED:20250407T174204Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260126T163039Z
UID:10003739-1769530500-1769538600@cmsa.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:The Quasi-Adiabatic Theorem and All That
DESCRIPTION:Geometry and Quantum Theory Seminar \nSpeaker: Daniel Spiegel\, Harvard \nTitle: The Quasi-Adiabatic Theorem and All That \nAbstract: Yosuke Kubota has recently made progress on understanding Kitaev’s conjecture by constructing a loop spectrum consisting of spaces of quantum spin systems\, indexed by spatial dimension of the lattice (arXiv: 2503.12618). After a brief reminder on the C*-algebraic formalism of quantum spin systems\, I will discuss Section 2 of this paper\, which covers some of the more analytical tools used to construct the loop spectrum. In particular\, I will focus on the quasi-adiabatic theorem which roughly speaking states that a smooth path of gapped Hamiltonians with unique ground states gives rise to a path of nice automorphisms that map the ground state at time zero to the path of ground states.
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/quantumgeo_12726/
LOCATION:Science Center 507\, 1 Oxford Street\, Cambridge\, 02138
CATEGORIES:Geometry and Quantum Theory Seminar
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/media/CMSA-Geometry-Quantum-Theory-1.27.26-scaled.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251216T161500
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251216T183000
DTSTAMP:20260610T200202
CREATED:20251031T150328Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251031T150328Z
UID:10003824-1765901700-1765909800@cmsa.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Geometry and Quantum Theory Seminar
DESCRIPTION:Geometry and Quantum Theory Seminar \nSpeaker: tba
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/quantumgeo_121625/
LOCATION:Science Center 507\, 1 Oxford Street\, Cambridge\, 02138
CATEGORIES:Geometry and Quantum Theory Seminar
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251210T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251210T130000
DTSTAMP:20260610T200203
CREATED:20251209T223200Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251209T223544Z
UID:10003844-1765368000-1765371600@cmsa.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:CMSA Q&A Seminar: Dan Freed\, CMSA
DESCRIPTION:CMSA Q&A Seminar \nSpeaker: Dan Freed\, CMSA \nTopic: Constructions of homotopy types in geometry and physics \n 
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/cmsaqa_121025/
LOCATION:Common Room\, CMSA\, 20 Garden Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:CMSA Q&A Seminar
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/media/CMSA-Q-A-Seminar-12.10.2025-scaled.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251209T161500
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251209T183000
DTSTAMP:20260610T200203
CREATED:20251031T145823Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251208T150959Z
UID:10003830-1765296900-1765305000@cmsa.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Geometry and Quantum Theory Seminar
DESCRIPTION:Geometry and Quantum Theory Seminar \nSpeaker: Lorenzo Riva\, CMSA \nTitle: Aganagic’s invariant is Khovanov homology \nAbstract: Webster computed the Khovanov homology of (the closure of) a braid in terms of the action of that braid on a certain KLRW category. Aganagic proposed that the same computation could be done in the Fukaya-Seidel category of the multiplicative Coulomb branch associated to a weighted quiver. In this talk we will recap the story so far and then sketch LePage and Shende’s proof of Aganagic’s proposal. \n  \nSpeaker: Bowen Yang\, CMSA \nTitle: Some groups from Condensed matter physics \nAbstract: I would like to talk about some groups coming from the study of quantum spin systems. They inspired a construction of generalized homology theories related to Azumaya algebras. \n  \n  \n 
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/quantumgeo_12925/
LOCATION:Science Center 507\, 1 Oxford Street\, Cambridge\, 02138
CATEGORIES:Geometry and Quantum Theory Seminar
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/media/CMSA-Geometry-Quantum-Theory-12.9.25-scaled.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251202T161500
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251202T183000
DTSTAMP:20260610T200203
CREATED:20251021T202125Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251201T192115Z
UID:10003822-1764692100-1764700200@cmsa.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Homological mirror symmetry for Coulomb branches
DESCRIPTION:Geometry and Quantum Theory Seminar \nSpeaker: Sebastian Haney\, Harvard \nTitle: Homological mirror symmetry for Coulomb branches \nAbstract: I will describe a result of Aganagic\, Danilenko\, Li\, Shende\, and Zhou which constructs a embeddings of certain cylindrical KLRW categories into Fukaya-Seidel categories of multiplicative Coulomb branches. This can be thought of as a homological mirror symmetry statement relating the Fukaya category of a multiplicative Coulomb branch to the derived category of a resolved additive Coulomb branch. I will describe the construction of the relevant Fukaya–Seidel categories\, and explain how the KRLW relations are realized by counts of holomorphic disks in symmetric products of surfaces. \n\n 
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/quantumgeo_12225/
LOCATION:Science Center 507\, 1 Oxford Street\, Cambridge\, 02138
CATEGORIES:Geometry and Quantum Theory Seminar
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/media/CMSA-Geometry-Quantum-Theory-12.2.25-scaled.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251125T161500
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251125T183000
DTSTAMP:20260610T200203
CREATED:20251021T202057Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251124T145931Z
UID:10003821-1764087300-1764095400@cmsa.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Coulomb branches and KLRW algebras
DESCRIPTION:Geometry and Quantum Theory Seminar \nSpeaker:Vasily Krylov\, CMSA \nTitle: Coulomb branches and KLRW algebras \nAbstract: I will introduce Coulomb branches associated to a pair of a reductive group G and its complex representation N. We will discuss their main geometric properties and examine explicit examples. I will also highlight the connection to the moduli space of monopoles. Time permitting\, we will see how KLRW naturally arise in this context.
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/quantumgeo_112525/
LOCATION:Science Center 507\, 1 Oxford Street\, Cambridge\, 02138
CATEGORIES:Geometry and Quantum Theory Seminar
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/media/CMSA-Geometry-Quantum-Theory-11.25.25-scaled.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251111T161500
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251111T183000
DTSTAMP:20260610T200203
CREATED:20251021T202013Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251110T161345Z
UID:10003820-1762877700-1762885800@cmsa.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Khovanov homology from KLRW algebras
DESCRIPTION:Geometry and Quantum Theory Seminar \nSpeaker: Sunghyuk Park\, CMSA \nTitle: Khovanov homology from KLRW algebras \nAbstract: This is the first in a four-part series\, organized together with Vasily Krylov\, Sebastian Haney\, and Lorenzo Riva\, aimed at understanding Aganagic’s categorification of quantum link invariants through Coulomb branches and homological mirror symmetry. In this first talk\, I will lay the algebraic background for this story by explaining how Khovanov homology can be understood in terms of higher representation theory via Khovanov-Lauda-Rouquier-Webster (KLRW) algebras.
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/quantumgeo_111125/
LOCATION:Science Center 507\, 1 Oxford Street\, Cambridge\, 02138
CATEGORIES:Geometry and Quantum Theory Seminar
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/media/CMSA-Geometry-Quantum-Theory-11.11.25-scaled.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251105T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251105T130000
DTSTAMP:20260610T200203
CREATED:20251014T151053Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251014T151917Z
UID:10003817-1762344000-1762347600@cmsa.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:CMSA Q&A Seminar: Paul Seidel\, MIT
DESCRIPTION:CMSA Q&A Seminar \nSpeaker: Paul Seidel\, MIT \nTopic: Fukaya categories of Landau-Ginzburg models
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/cmsaqa_11525/
LOCATION:Common Room\, CMSA\, 20 Garden Street\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:CMSA Q&A Seminar
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/media/CMSA-Q-A-Seminar-11.5.2025-scaled.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251104T161500
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251104T183000
DTSTAMP:20260610T200203
CREATED:20251021T201937Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251031T151517Z
UID:10003819-1762272900-1762281000@cmsa.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:A fully local extension of Chern-Simons theory
DESCRIPTION:Geometry and Quantum Theory Seminar \nSpeaker: Dan Freed \nTitle: A fully local extension of Chern-Simons theory \nAbstract: The Reshetikhin-Turaev-Witten invariants of 3-manifolds fit into a 3-dimensional topological field theory that also attaches invariants to 2-manifolds and 1-manifolds. It has long been asked to extend to invariants of 0-manifolds as well\, a question that often takes the form: What does Chern-Simons theory attach to a point?. In joint work with Claudia Scheimbauer and Constantin Teleman we use the cobordism hypothesis to construct a fully local version of Chern-Simons theory. We also consider different versions with different tangential structures\, as I will explain.
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/quantumgeo_11425/
LOCATION:Science Center 507\, 1 Oxford Street\, Cambridge\, 02138
CATEGORIES:Geometry and Quantum Theory Seminar
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/media/CMSA-Geometry-Quantum-Theory-11.4.25-scaled.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251028T161500
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251028T183000
DTSTAMP:20260610T200203
CREATED:20251021T201853Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251027T135640Z
UID:10003818-1761668100-1761676200@cmsa.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Geometry and Quantum Theory Seminar
DESCRIPTION:Geometry and Quantum Theory Seminar \nSpeakers: (1) Elliott Gesteau\, CMSA (60 min) and  (2) Sanjay Raman\, Harvard (30 min) \n(1) Title: Holography for closed universes \nAbstract: Recent advances in holography and black hole physics have prompted a number of new puzzles related to the physics of closed universes\, which can be argued to have a one-dimensional Hilbert space of states from various perspectives. In this talk I will review this new set of puzzles\, with an emphasis of the mathematical questions that they seem to raise. \n  \n(2) Title: Non-supersymmetric branes\, bordism\, and fractional charges \nAbstract: We dive a little deeper into the non-supersymmetric brane configurations studied in Kaidi-Tachikawa-Yonekura (2024). We study the gravitational analogues of the branes in the aforementioned paper\, relating them to relative defects predicted by the Cobordism Conjecture\, and we argue for the existence of objects carrying fractional heterotic string and M2-brane charge.
URL:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event/quantumgeo_102825/
LOCATION:Science Center 507\, 1 Oxford Street\, Cambridge\, 02138
CATEGORIES:Geometry and Quantum Theory Seminar
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/media/CMSA-Geometry-Quantum-Theory-10.28.25-scaled.png
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR