Today

  • Electrical networks, Grassmannians, and cluster algebras

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

    Algebra Seminar Speaker: Lazar Guterman, Hebrew University of Jerusalem Title: Electrical networks, Grassmannians, and cluster algebras Abstract: An electrical network with $n$ boundary vertices induces a matrix called the response matrix which measures the electrical properties of the network. The set of response matrices of all electrical networks has a characterization in terms of positivity of […]

  • The active Young-Dupré equation

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

    Colloquium Speaker: Julien Tailleur, MIT Title: The active Young-Dupré equation Abstract: The Young-Dupré equation is a cornerstone of the equilibrium theory of capillary and wetting phenomena. In the biological world, interfacial phenomena are ubiquitous, from the spreading of bacterial colonies to tissue growth and flocking of birds, but the description of such active systems escapes […]

  • Covers of curves, Ceresa cycles, and unlikely intersections

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

    Algebra Seminar Speaker: Padamavathi Srinivasan, Boston University Title: Covers of curves, Ceresa cycles, and unlikely intersections Abstract: The Ceresa cycle is a canonical homologically trivial algebraic cycle associated to a curve in its Jacobian. In his 1983 thesis, Ceresa showed that this cycle is algebraically nontrivial for a very general complex curve of genus at least […]

  • Recent Advances in Probabilistically Checkable Proofs

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

    Colloquium Speaker: Dor Minzer (MIT) Title: Recent Advances in Probabilistically Checkable Proofs Abstract: The PCP Theorem is a cornerstone of computer science, with applications to hardness of approximation, verification, interactive protocols and more. It asserts a witness for the satisfiability of a given 3CNF formula can be encoded in a robust way that allows local checking.In this […]

  • Towards a Dolbeault AGT correspondence

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

    Differential Geometry and Physics Seminar Speaker: Surya Raghavendran, Yale Title: Towards a Dolbeault AGT correspondence Abstract: The AGT correspondence and its extensions propose geometric constructions of vertex algebras and their modules from the cohomology of various moduli spaces of sheaves on surfaces. Physically, the correspondence is illuminated throgh the holomorphic–topological twist of the six-dimensional N=(2,0) superconformal field […]

  • Asymptotic Theory of Attention: In-Context Learning and Sparse Token Detection

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

    Colloquium Speaker: Yue M. Lu, Harvard University Title: Asymptotic Theory of Attention: In-Context Learning and Sparse Token Detection Abstract: Attention-based architectures exhibit striking emergent abilities—from learning tasks directly from context to detecting rare, weak features in long sequences—yet a rigorous theory explaining these behaviors remains limited. In this talk, I will present two recent exactly solvable models that […]

  • Geometric Simplicity in Quantum Field Theory and Gravity

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

    Colloquium Speaker: Thomas Grimm, Utrecht University Title: Geometric Simplicity in Quantum Field Theory and Gravity Abstract: In physics we attribute much value to the emergence of simplicity, both conceptually and for computations. Familiar examples include algebraic relations among Feynman amplitudes, the surprising descriptions arising in large-N or duality limits, and the central role played by […]

  • Differentials and Singularities

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

    Algebra Seminar Speaker: Dawei Chen, Boston College Title: Differentials and Singularities Abstract: Given a holomorphic differential on a smooth algebraic curve, we associate to it a Gorenstein curve singularity with Gm-action.  Conversely, we show that every isolated Gorenstein curve singularity with Gm-action appears in this way.  This construction reveals a fascinating relation between differentials and […]

  • Featured

    Interaction of Statistics and Geometry: A New Landscape for Data Science

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

    Colloquium Speaker: Zhigang Yao (National University of Singapore) Title: Interaction of Statistics and Geometry: A New Landscape for Data Science Abstract:  Classical statistics views data as real numbers or vectors in Euclidean space, but modern challenges increasingly involve data with intrinsic geometric structures. A central problem in this direction is manifold fitting, with origins in H. Whitney’s […]

  • Featured

    Geometry Meets Physics: Finiteness, Tameness, and Complexity

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

    Geometry Meets Physics: Finiteness, Tameness, and Complexity Dates: November 12–14, 2025 Location: CMSA G10, 20 Garden Street, Cambridge MA 02138 (note: this event is in-person only) Finiteness is a fundamental property in consistent physical theories. From the earliest days of quantum field theory and string theory, the drive to eliminate unphysical infinities has been a […]

  • The Moyal bracket and the BV cohomology of the spinning particle

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

    Quantum Field Theory and Physical Mathematics Seminar Speaker: Ezra Getzler, Northwestern Title: The Moyal bracket and the BV cohomology of the spinning particle Abstract: The spinning particle is the one-dimensional reduction of the Neveu-Schwartz-Ramond superstring. It consists of a supersymmetric particle moving in a one-dimensional supergravity background, and its quantization is the Hilbert superspace of […]

  • Dimension Reduction and Adiabatic Limits of Generalized ASD Instantons

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

    Differential Geometry and Physics Seminar Speaker: Dylan Galt, Harvard Title: Dimension Reduction and Adiabatic Limits of Generalized ASD Instantons Abstract: I will begin by explaining a dimension reduction result for Tian's generalized ASD instantons over product manifolds, which generalizes work of Yuanqi Wang on codimension-one reduction and includes the cases of G2 and Spin(7) instantons as well […]