Today

  • Geometry of dimer models

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

    Colloquium Speaker: Alexei Borodin, MIT Title: Geometry of dimer models Abstract: Random dimer coverings of large planar graphs are known to exhibit unusual and visually apparent asymptotic phenomena that include formation of frozen regions and various phases in the unfrozen ones. For a specific family of subgraphs of the (periodically weighted) square lattice known as the Aztec diamonds, the asymptotic behavior of dimers admits a precise description in […]

  • Special Kähler geometry and collapsing

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

    Differential Geometry and Physics Seminar Speaker: Valentino Tosatti, NYU Courant Institute Title: Special Kähler geometry and collapsing Abstract: Special Kähler geometry was first discovered in the context of N=2 supersymmetric 4D gauge theories, and it also plays a prominent role in mirror symmetry. A key observation of Donagi-Witten and Freed is that the base of every algebraic integrable system […]

  • Graph integrals on Kahler manifolds

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

    Quantum Field Theory and Physical Mathematics Seminar Speaker: Minghao Wang, Boston University Title: Graph integrals on Kahler manifolds Abstract: I will talk about my recent work with Junrong Yan. We proved the convergence of Graph integrals on analytic Kahler manifolds in the sense of Cauchy principal values, which are originally from holomorphic quantum field theories. […]

  • Degeneration of Calabi-Yau 3-folds and 3-forms

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

    Differential Geometry and Physics Seminar Speaker: Teng Fei, Rutgers Title: Degeneration of Calabi-Yau 3-folds and 3-forms Abstract: We study the geometries associated to various 3-forms on a symplectic 6-manifold of different orbital types. As an application, we demonstrate how this can be used to find Lagrangian foliations and other geometric structures of interest arising from […]

  • Featured

    Turbulent Mixing and Antagonistic Microorganisms

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

    Colloquium Speaker: David Nelson, Harvard Title: Turbulent Mixing and Antagonistic Microorganisms Abstract: Unlike coffee and cream that homogenize when stirred, growing micro-organisms (e.g., bacteria and baker’s yeast) can actively kill each other and avoid mixing.  How do such antagonistic interactions impact the growth and survival of competing strains, while being spatially advected by turbulent flows?  […]

  • Non-Supersymmetric Orbifolds, Quivers and Chen-Ruan Orbifold Cohomology

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

    Quantum Field Theory and Physical Mathematics Seminar Speaker: Max Hübner (Uppsala & CMSA) Title: Non-Supersymmetric Orbifolds, Quivers and Chen-Ruan Orbifold Cohomology Abstract: We consider D3-brane probes of non-supersymmetric orbifolds and IIA on the same class of non-supersymmetric orbifolds. Both setups are characterized, in part, by quivers (which in the latter case relate for example to D0-brane probes) from which […]

  • Moduli spaces of 4d N=2 quantum field theories

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

    Differential Geometry and Physics Seminar Speaker: Robert Moscrop, CMSA Title: Moduli spaces of 4d N=2 quantum field theories Abstract: Supersymmetry endows quantum field theories with several rich algebraic and geometric structures associated to their moduli space of vacua, providing powerful tools to study such theories non-perturbatively. For example, in four-dimensional theories with eight supercharges, the […]

  • Topological Manifolds – The First 100 Years

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

    Colloquium Speaker: Michael Freedman (Harvard CMSA and Logical Intelligence) Title: Topological Manifolds – The First 100 Years Abstract: I’ll review manifold topology in the topological category from its start with work of Rado (1925) and Kneser (1926) to the present. Work of Moise, Mazur, Kirby, Siebenmann, Sullivan, Kruskal, and the speaker will be discussed. In my view […]

  • Orientifolds for F-theory on K3 Surfaces

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

    Quantum Field Theory and Physical Mathematics Seminar Speaker: Chuck Doran (Alberta/CMSA) Title: Orientifolds for F-theory on K3 Surfaces Abstract: Compactification of F-theory on an elliptically fibered K3 surface provides a framework to encode type IIB string theory on elliptic curves, with the Kaehler modulus of the elliptic curve encoded in the complex structure of the elliptic fibers. In […]

  • Big Data Conference 2025

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

    Big Data Conference 2025 Dates: Sep. 11–12, 2025 Location: Harvard University CMSA, 20 Garden Street, Cambridge & via Zoom The Big Data Conference features speakers from the Harvard community as well as scholars from across the globe, with talks focusing on computer science, statistics, math and physics, and economics. Invited Speakers Markus J. Buehler, MIT […]

  • Echo Chamber: RL Post-training Amplifies Behaviors Learned in Pretraining

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

    Member Seminar Speaker: Samy Jelassi, CMSA Title: Echo Chamber: RL Post-training Amplifies Behaviors Learned in Pretraining Abstract: Reinforcement Learning has become a crucial step in training state-of-the-art language models such as DeepSeek-R1 for solving mathematical problems. In this talk, I will first review the mechanisms of Reinforcement Learning fine-tuning. Then, I will present a systematic end-to-end […]

  • Mathematical Physics and Algebraic Geometry Seminar

    Resurgence, number theory, and quantum mirror curves 

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

    Mathematical Physics and Algebraic Geometry Seminar Speaker: Claudia Rella (IHES) Title: Resurgence, number theory, and quantum mirror curves Abstract: Resurgence provides a powerful toolbox to access the non-perturbative sectors hidden within the divergent asymptotic series of quantum theories. Under some special assumptions, the non-perturbative data extracted via resurgent methods possess intrinsic number-theoretic properties that are deeply […]