• Factorizations for data analysis

    CMSA Room G10 CMSA, 20 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA, United States

    Colloquium Speaker: Anna Seigal, Harvard University Title: Factorizations for data analysis Abstract: We can find structure in data by factoring it into building blocks, which should be interpretable for the context at hand. A classical example is principal component analysis (PCA), which uses the eigendecomposition of the covariance matrix to find axes of variation in a dataset. Starting from […]

  • Fukaya category and gauge theory

    Science Center 507 1 Oxford Street, Cambridge

    Geometry and Quantum Theory Seminar Speaker: Saman Habibi Esfahani, Harvard CMSA Title: Fukaya category and gauge theory Abstract: After setting up some background, I will discuss the Fukaya $A_\ infty$-category and several instances where it appears in gauge theory, such as in the study of flat connections on Riemann surfaces, holomorphic sections of some hyperkähler […]

  • Higher categories of cobordisms

    Science Center 507 1 Oxford Street, Cambridge

    Geometry and Quantum Theory Seminar Speaker: Lorenzo Riva Title: Higher categories of cobordisms Abstract: I will give a brief introduction to topological field theories from a higher categorical perspective. After saying a few things about higher categories, I will define a family of n-categories of bordisms and talk about their universal properties. I will try […]

  • Geometry and Quantum Theory Seminar

    Science Center 507 1 Oxford Street, Cambridge

    Geometry and Quantum Theory Seminar Speaker 1: Max Hubner, CMSA Title: On Topological Structures in String Theory Abstract: Geometric engineering constructions in string theory often realize QFTs relative to an extra-dimensional geometry. This perspective parallels the symmetry TFT construction where a QFT is presented relative to its extra-dimensional symmetry quiche. Unsurprisingly, as we will discuss, […]

  • A Classifying Space for Phases of Matrix Product States

    Science Center 507 1 Oxford Street, Cambridge

    Geometry and Quantum Theory Seminar Speakers: Daniel Spiegel, Harvard Math Title: A Classifying Space for Phases of Matrix Product States Abstract: Alexei Kitaev has conjectured that there should be a loop spectrum consisting of spaces of gapped invertible quantum spin systems, indexed by spatial dimension d of the lattice. Motivated by Kitaev’s conjecture, I will […]

  • Geometry and Quantum Theory Seminar

    Science Center 507 1 Oxford Street, Cambridge

    Geometry and Quantum Theory Seminar Speaker: Dylan Galt, Harvard (60 minute talk) Title: What is a "nonlinear" near-symplectic form? Abstract: In this talk, I will explain how one might understand this question and why a possible answer can be found in the geometry of coassociative 4-folds, a special class of minimal submanifolds discovered by Harvey and Lawson.   […]

  • Geometry and Quantum Theory Seminar

    Science Center 507 1 Oxford Street, Cambridge

    Geometry and Quantum Theory Seminar Speakers: (1) Elliott Gesteau, CMSA (60 min) and  (2) Sanjay Raman, Harvard (30 min) (1) Title: Holography for closed universes Abstract: 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 […]

  • A fully local extension of Chern-Simons theory

    Science Center 507 1 Oxford Street, Cambridge

    Geometry and Quantum Theory Seminar Speaker: Dan Freed Title: A fully local extension of Chern-Simons theory Abstract: 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 […]

  • Khovanov homology from KLRW algebras

    Science Center 507 1 Oxford Street, Cambridge

    Geometry and Quantum Theory Seminar Speaker: Sunghyuk Park, CMSA Title: Khovanov homology from KLRW algebras Abstract: 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 […]

  • Coulomb branches and KLRW algebras

    Science Center 507 1 Oxford Street, Cambridge

    Geometry and Quantum Theory Seminar Speaker:Vasily Krylov, CMSA Title: Coulomb branches and KLRW algebras Abstract: 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. […]

  • Homological mirror symmetry for Coulomb branches

    Science Center 507 1 Oxford Street, Cambridge

    Geometry and Quantum Theory Seminar Speaker: Sebastian Haney, Harvard Title: Homological mirror symmetry for Coulomb branches Abstract: 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 […]