Calendar

It is natural to study automorphisms of hypersurfaces in projective spaces. In this talk, I will discuss a new approach to determine all possible orders of automorphisms of smooth hypersurfaces with fixed degree and dimension. Then we consider the specific case of cubic fourfolds, and discuss the relation with Hodge theory.

Zoom: https://harvard.zoom.us/j/91780604388?pwd=d3BqazFwbDZLQng0cEREclFqWkN4UT09

Confusingly for the uninitiated, experts in infinite-dimensional category theory make use of different definitions of an ∞-category, and theorems in the ∞-categorical literature are often proven “analytically”, in reference to the combinatorial specifications of a particular model. In this talk, we present a new point of view on the foundations of ∞-category theory, which allows us to develop the basic theory of ∞-categories — adjunctions, limits and colimits, co/cartesian fibrations, and pointwise Kan extensions — “synthetically” starting from axioms that describe an ∞-cosmos, the infinite-dimensional category in which ∞-categories live as objects. We demonstrate that the theorems proven in this manner are “model-independent”, i.e., invariant under change of model. Moreover, there is a formal language with the feature that any statement about ∞-categories that is expressible in that language is also invariant under change of model, regardless of whether it is proven through synthetic or analytic techniques. This is joint work with Dominic Verity.

Zoom: https://harvard.zoom.us/j/779283357?pwd=MitXVm1pYUlJVzZqT3lwV2pCT1ZUQT09

Prediction algorithms assign numbers to individuals that are popularly understood as individual “probabilities” — e.g., what is the probability of 5-year survival after cancer diagnosis? — and which increasingly form the basis for life-altering decisions. The understanding of individual probabilities in the context of such unrepeatable events has been the focus of intense study for decades within probability theory, statistics, and philosophy. Building off of notions developed in complexity theory and cryptography, we introduce and study Outcome Indistinguishability (OI). OI predictors yield a model of probabilities that cannot be efficiently refuted on the basis of the real-life observations produced by Nature.

We investigate a hierarchy of OI definitions, whose stringency increases with the degree to which distinguishers may access the predictor in question.  Our findings reveal that OI behaves qualitatively differently than previously studied notions of indistinguishability.  First, we provide constructions at all levels of the hierarchy.  Then, leveraging recently-developed machinery for proving average-case fine-grained hardness, we obtain lower bounds on the complexity of the more stringent forms of OI.  The hardness result provides scientific grounds for the political argument that, when inspecting algorithmic risk prediction instruments, auditors should be granted oracle access to the algorithm, not simply historical predictions.

Joint work with Cynthia Dwork, Omer Reingold, Guy N. Rothblum, Gal Yona; to appear at STOC 2021.

Zoom: https://harvard.zoom.us/j/98231541450

Given a smooth plane curve C defined over an arbitrary field k, we say that C is transverse-free if it has no transverse lines defined over k. If k is an infinite field, then Bertini’s theorem guarantees the existence of a transverse line defined over k, and so the transverse-free condition is interesting only in the case when k is a finite field F_q. After fixing a finite field F_q, we can ask the following question: For each degree d, what is the fraction of degree d transverse-free curves among all the degree d curves? In this talk, we will investigate an asymptotic answer to the question as d tends to infinity. This is joint work with Brian Freidin.

Zoom: https://harvard.zoom.us/j/91794282895?pwd=VFZxRWdDQ0VNT0hsVTllR0JCQytoZz09

We will discuss an elementary way of detecting some global anomalies from the way the symmetry algebra is realized on the torus Hilbert space of the anomalous theory, give a physical description of the imprint of the “layers” that enter in the cobordism classification of anomalies and discuss applications, including how anomalies can imply a supersymmetric spectrum in strongly coupled (nonsupersymmetric) gauge theories.

Zoom: https://harvard.zoom.us/j/977347126

There is a long standing connection between the Tate conjecture in codimension 1 and finiteness properties, which first appeared in Tate’s seminal work on the endomorphisms of abelian varieties. I will explain how one can possibly extend this connection to codimension 2 cycles, using the theory of Brauer groups, moduli of twisted sheaves, and twisted derived equivalences, and prove the Tate conjecture for K3 squares. This recovers an earlier result of Ito-Ito-Kashikawa, which was established via a CM lifting theory, and moreover provides a recipe of constructing all the cycles on these varieties by purely geometric methods.

Zoom: https://harvard.zoom.us/j/99334398740

Password: The order of the permutation group on 9 elements.

We will begin by discussing hyperbolic geometry, and how it can be used to build “evenly curved” metrics on a donut with one point removed. We will then discuss Maryam Mirzakhani’s computation of the “size” of the universe of all such metrics (the Weil-Petersson volume of the moduli space of complete hyperbolic metrics on a punctured torus)

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Motivated by the relation between anomaly and topological/SPT order in one higher dimension, we propose a solution to the chiral fermion problem. In particular, we find several sufficient conditions, such that a chiral fermion field theory can be regularized by an
interacting lattice model in the same dimension. We also discuss some related issues, such as mass without mass term, and why ‘topological’ phase transitions are usually not “topological” phase transitions.

Zoom: https://harvard.zoom.us/j/977347126