• Quantum gravity from quantum matter

    Virtual

    Title: Quantum gravity from quantum matter Abstract: We present a model of quantum gravity in which dimension, topology and geometry of spacetime are collective dynamical variables that describe the pattern of entanglement of underlying quantum matter. As spacetimes with arbitrary dimensions can emerge, the gauge symmetry is generalized to a group that includes diffeomorphisms in […]

  • Cornering the universal shape of fluctuations and entanglement

    Virtual

    Title: Cornering the universal shape of fluctuations and entanglement Abstract: Understanding the fluctuations of observables is one of the main goals in physics. We investigate such fluctuations when a subregion of the full system can be observed, focusing on geometries with corners. We report that the dependence on the opening angle is super-universal: up to […]

  • Exotic quantum matter: From lattice gauge theory to hyperbolic lattices

    Virtual

    Title: Exotic quantum matter: From lattice gauge theory to hyperbolic lattices Abstract: This talk, in two parts, will discuss two (unrelated) instances of exotic quantum matter. In the first part, I will discuss quantum critical points describing possible transitions out of the Dirac spin liquid, towards either symmetry-breaking phases or topologically ordered spin liquids. I […]

  • Naturalness and muon anomalous magnetic moment

    Virtual

    Title: Naturalness and muon anomalous magnetic moment Abstract: We study a model for explaining the apparent deviation of the muon anomalous magnetic moment, (g-2), from the Standard Model expectation. There are no new scalars and hence no new hierarchy puzzles beyond those associated with the Standard model Higgs; the only new particles that are relevant […]

  • Big Data Conference 2021

    Virtual

    https://youtu.be/_ciQkuGYD-I On August 24, 2021, the CMSA hosted our seventh annual Conference on Big Data. The Conference features many 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. The 2021 Big Data Conference took place virtually on Zoom. Organizers:  Shing-Tung Yau, […]

  • The nu=5/2 enigma: Recent insights from theory and experiment

    Virtual

    peaker: Ady Stern & David Mross (Weizmann) Speaker: Ady Stern & David Mross (Weizmann Title: The nu=5/2 enigma: Recent insights from theory and experiment Abstract: Non-Abelian phases of matter have long inspired quantum physicists across various disciplines. The strongest experimental evidence of such a phase arises in quantum Hall systems at the filling factor 5/2 […]

  • Moduli spaces of stable pairs on algebraic surfaces

    Virtual

    Interdisciplinary Science Seminar Speaker: Yinbang Lin (Tongji University) Title: Moduli spaces of stable pairs on algebraic surfaces Abstract: As a variant of Grothendieck’s Quot schemes, we introduce the moduli space of limit stable pairs. We show an example over a smooth projective algebraic surface where there is a virtual fundamental class. We are able to […]

  • Hybrid Fracton Orders

    Virtual

    Nathanan Tantivasadakarn (Harvard) Video Title: Hybrid Fracton Orders Abstract: I will introduce a family of gapped quantum phases that exhibit the phenomenology of both conventional three-dimensional topological orders and fracton orders called “Hybrid Fracton Orders”.  First, I will present the simplest example of such an order: the “Hybrid X-cube” model, where excitations can be labeled identically to […]

  • CMSA Math-Science Literature Lecture: Nonlinear stability of Kerr black holes for small angular momentum

    Virtual

    Sergiu Klainerman (Princeton University) Title: Nonlinear stability of Kerr black holes for small angular momentum Abstract: According to a well-known conjecture,  initial data sets,  for the Einstein vacuum equations, sufficiently close to a Kerr solution with parameters $a, m$, $|a|/m <1$, have maximal developments with complete future null infinity and with domain of outer communication (i.e complement of […]

  • FRG Workshop on Geometric Methods for Analyzing Discrete Shapes

    Virtual

    This workshop will take place May 7-9 (Friday-Sunday), 2021 virtually on Zoom The aim of the workshop is to bring together a community of researchers in mathematics, computer science, and data science who develop theoretical and computational models to characterize shapes and analysis of image data. This workshop is part of the NSF FRG project: […]

  • CMSA Math-Science Literature Lecture: Moment maps and the Yang-Mills functional

    Virtual

    Frances Kirwan (University of Oxford) Title: Moment maps and the Yang-Mills functional Abstract: In the early 1980s Michael Atiyah and Raoul Bott wrote two influential papers, ‘The Yang-Mills equations over Riemann surfaces’ and ‘The moment map and equivariant cohomology’, bringing together ideas ranging from algebraic and symplectic geometry through algebraic topology to mathematical physics and number theory. […]