Calendar

< 2022 >
April 03 - April 09
  • 03
    April 3, 2022
    No events
  • 04
    April 4, 2022

    CMSA General Relativity Program Conference

    All day
    April 4, 2022-April 8, 2022

    Monday, April 4, 2022

    Time (ET)SpeakerTitle/Abstract
    9:30 am–10:30 amPieter Blue, University of Edinburgh, UK
    (virtual)
    Title: Linear stability of the Kerr spacetime in the outgoing radiation gauge

    Abstract: This talk will discuss a new gauge condition (i.e. coordinate condition) for the Einstein equation, the linearisation of the Einstein equation in this gauge, and the decay of solutions to the linearised Einstein equation around Kerr black holes in this gauge. The stability of the family of Kerr black holes under the evolution generated by the Einstein equation is a long-standing problem in mathematical relativity. In 1972, Teukolsky discovered equations governing certain components of the linearised curvature that are invariant under linearised gague transformations. In 1975, Chrzanowski introduced the “outgoing radiation gauge”, a condition on the linearised metric that allows for the construction of the linearised metric from the linearised curvature. In 2019, we proved decay for the metric constructed using Chrzanowski’s outgoing radiation gauge. Recently, using a flow along null geodesics, we have constructed a new gauge such that, in this gauge, the Einstein equation is well posed and such that the linearisation is Chrzanowski’s outgoing radiation gauge.

    This is joint work with Lars Andersson, Thomas Backdahl, and Siyuan Ma.

    10:30 am–11:30 amPeter Hintz, MIT
    (virtual)
    Title: Mode stability and shallow quasinormal modes of Kerr-de Sitter
    black holes

    Abstract: The Kerr-de Sitter metric describes a rotating black hole with mass $m$ and specific angular momentum $a$ in a universe, such as our own, with cosmological constant $\Lambda>0$. I will explain a proof of mode stability for the scalar wave equation on Kerr-de Sitter spacetimes in the following setting: fixing $\Lambda$ and the ratio $|a/m|<1$ (related to the subextremality of the black hole in question), mode stability holds for sufficiently small black hole mass $m$. We also obtain estimates for the location of quasinormal modes (resonances) $\sigma$ in any fixed half space $\Im\sigma>-C$. Our results imply that solutions of the wave equation decay exponentially in time to constants, with an explicit exponential rate. The proof is based on careful uniform estimates for the spectral family in the singular limit $m\to 0$ in which, depending on the scaling, the Kerr-de Sitter spacetime limits to a Kerr or the de Sitter spacetime.

    11:30 am–12:30 pmLars Andersson, Albert Einstein Institute, Germany
    (virtual)
    Title: Gravitational instantons and special geometry

    Abstract: Gravitational instantons are Ricci flat complete Riemannian 4-manifolds with at least quadratic curvature decay. In this talk, I will introduce some notions of special geometry, discuss known examples, and mention some open questions. The Chen-Teo gravitational instanton is an asymptotically flat, toric, Ricci flat family of metrics on $\mathrm{CP}^2 \setminus \mathrm{S}^1$, that provides a counterexample to the classical Euclidean Black Hole Uniqueness conjecture. I will sketch a proof that the Chen-Teo Instanton is Hermitian and non-Kähler. Thus, all known examples of gravitational instantons are Hermitian. This talks is based on joint work with Steffen Aksteiner, cf. https://arxiv.org/abs/2112.11863.

    12:30 pm–1:30 pmbreak
    1:30 pm–2:30 pmMartin Taylor, Imperial College London
    (virtual)
    Title: The nonlinear stability of the Schwarzschild family of black holes

    Abstract: I will present a theorem on the full finite codimension nonlinear asymptotic stability of the Schwarzschild family of black holes.  The proof employs a double null gauge, is expressed entirely in physical space, and utilises the analysis of Dafermos–Holzegel–Rodnianski on the linear stability of the Schwarzschild family.  This is joint work with M. Dafermos, G. Holzegel and I. Rodnianski.

    2:30 pm–3:30 pmPo-Ning Chen, University of California, Riverside
    (virtual)
    Title: Angular momentum in general relativity

    Abstract:
    The definition of angular momentum in general relativity has been a subtle issue since the 1960s, due to the ‘supertranslation ambiguity’. In this talk, we will discuss how the mathematical theory of quasilocal mass and angular momentum leads to a new definition of angular momentum at null infinity that is free of any supertranslation ambiguity.

    This is based on joint work with Jordan Keller, Mu-Tao Wang, Ye-Kai Wang, and Shing-Tung Yau.

    3:30 pm–4:00 pmbreak
    4:00 pm–5:00 pmDan Lee, Queens College (CUNY)
    (hybrid: in person & virtual)
    Title: Stability of the positive mass theorem

    Abstract: We will discuss the problem of stability for the rigidity part of the Riemannian positive mass theorem, focusing on recent work with Kazaras and Khuri, in which we proved that if one assumes a lower Ricci curvature bound, then stability holds with respect to pointed Gromov-Hausdorff convergence.

     

    Tuesday, April 5, 2022

    Time (ET)SpeakerTitle/Abstract
    9:30 am–10:30 amXinliang An, National University of Singapore
    (virtual)
    Title: Anisotropic dynamical horizons arising in gravitational collapse

    Abstract: Black holes are predicted by Einstein’s theory of general relativity, and now we have ample observational evidence for their existence. However theoretically there are many unanswered questions about how black holes come into being and about the structures of their inner spacetime singularities. In this talk, we will present several results in these directions. First, in a joint work with Qing Han, with tools from scale-critical hyperbolic method and non-perturbative elliptic techniques, with anisotropic characteristic initial data we prove that: in the process of gravitational collapse, a smooth and spacelike apparent horizon (dynamical horizon) emerges from general (both isotropic and anisotropic) initial data. This result extends the 2008 Christodoulou’s monumental work and it connects to black hole thermodynamics along the apparent horizon. Second, in joint works with Dejan Gajic and Ruixiang Zhang, for the spherically symmetric Einstein-scalar field system, we derive precise blow-up rates for various geometric quantities along the inner spacelike singularities. These rates obey polynomial blow-up upper bounds; and when it is close to timelike infinity, these rates are not limited to discrete finite choices and they are related to the Price’s law along the event horizon. This indicates a new blow-up phenomenon, driven by a PDE mechanism, rather than an ODE mechanism. If time permits, some results on fluid dynamics will also be addressed.

    10:30 am–11:30 amSergiu Klainerman, Princeton
    (virtual)
    Title: Nonlinear stability of slowly rotating Kerr solutions

    Abstract: I will talk about the status of the stability of Kerr conjecture in General Relativity based on recent results obtained in collaboration with Jeremie Szeftel and Elena Giorgi.

    11:30 am–12:30 pmSiyuan Ma, Sorbonne University
    (virtual)
    Title: Sharp decay for Teukolsky master equation

    Abstract: I will talk about joint work with L. Zhang on deriving the late time dynamics of the spin $s$ components that satisfy the Teukolsky master equation in Kerr spacetimes.

    12:30 pm–1:30 pmBreak
    1:30 pm–2:30 pmJonathan Luk, Stanford
    (virtual)
    Title: A tale of two tails

    Abstract: Motivated by the strong cosmic censorship conjecture, we introduce a general method for understanding the late-time tail for solutions to wave equations on asymptotically flat spacetimes in odd spatial dimensions. A particular consequence of the method is a re-proof of Price’s law-type results, which concern the sharp decay rate of the late-time tails on stationary spacetimes. Moreover, we show that the late-time tails are in general different from the stationary case in the presence of dynamical and/or nonlinear perturbations. This is a joint work with Sung-Jin Oh (Berkeley).

    2:30 pm–3:30 pmGary Horowitz, University of California Santa Barbara
    (virtual)
    Title: A new type of extremal black hole

    Abstract: I describe a family of four-dimensional, asymptotically flat, charged black holes that develop (charged) scalar hair as one increases their charge at fixed mass. Surprisingly, the maximum charge for given mass is a nonsingular hairy black hole with a nondegenerate event horizon. Since the surface gravity is nonzero, if quantum matter is added, Hawking radiation does not appear to stop when this new extremal limit is reached. This raises the question of whether Hawking radiation will cause the black hole to turn into a naked singularity. I will argue that does not occur.

    3:30 pm–4:00 pmBreak
    4:00 pm–5:00 pmLydia Bieri, University of Michigan
    (virtual)
    Title: Gravitational radiation in general spacetimes

    Abstract: Studies of gravitational waves have been devoted mostly to sources such as binary black hole mergers or neutron star mergers, or generally sources that are stationary outside of a compact set. These systems are described by asymptotically-flat manifolds solving the Einstein equations with sufficiently fast decay of the gravitational field towards Minkowski spacetime far away from the source. Waves from such sources have been recorded by the LIGO/VIRGO collaboration since 2015. In this talk, I will present new results on gravitational radiation for sources that are not stationary outside of a compact set, but whose gravitational fields decay more slowly towards infinity. A panorama of new gravitational effects opens up when delving deeper into these more general spacetimes. In particular, whereas the former sources produce memory effects that are finite and of purely electric parity, the latter in addition generate memory of magnetic type, and both types grow. These new effects emerge naturally from the Einstein equations both in the Einstein vacuum case and for neutrino radiation. The latter results are important for sources with extended neutrino halos.

     

    Wednesday, April 6, 2022

    Time (ET)SpeakerTitle/Abstract
    9:30 am–10:30 amGerhard Huisken, Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach
    (virtual)
    TBA
    10:30 am–11:30 amCarla Cederbaum, Universität Tübingen, Germany
    (virtual)
    Title: Coordinates are messy

    Abstract: Asymptotically Euclidean initial data sets $(M,g,K)$ are characterized by the existence of asymptotic coordinates in which the Riemannian metric $g$ and second fundamental form $K$ decay to the Euclidean metric $\delta$ and to $0$ suitably fast, respectively. Provided their matter densities satisfy suitable integrability conditions, they have well-defined (ADM-)energy, (ADM-)linear momentum, and (ADM-)mass. This was proven by Bartnik using harmonic coordinates. To study their (ADM-)angular momentum and (BORT-)center of mass, one usually assumes the existence of Regge—Teitelboim coordinates on the initial data set $(M,g,K)$ in question. We will give examples of asymptotically Euclidean initial data sets which do not possess any Regge—Teitelboim coordinates We will also show that harmonic coordinates can be used as a tool in checking whether a given asymptotically Euclidean initial data set possesses Regge—Teitelboim coordinates. This is joint work with Melanie Graf and Jan Metzger. We will also explain the consequences these findings have for the definition of the center of mass, relying on joint work with Nerz and with Sakovich.

    11:30 am–12:30 pmStefanos Aretakis, University of Toronto
    (virtual)
    Title: Observational signatures for extremal black holes

    Abstract: We will present results regarding the asymptotics of scalar perturbations on black hole backgrounds. We will then derive observational signatures for extremal black holes that are based on global or localized measurements on null infinity. This is based on joint work with Gajic-Angelopoulos and ongoing work with Khanna-Sabharwal.

    12:30 pm–1:30 pmBreak
    1:30 pm–2:30 pmJared Speck, Vanderbilt University
    (virtual)
    Title: The mathematical theory of shock waves in multi-dimensional relativistic and non-relativistic compressible Euler flow

    Abstract: In the last two decades, there have been dramatic advances in the rigorous mathematical theory of shock waves in solutions to the relativistic Euler equations and their non-relativistic analog, the compressible Euler equations. A lot of the progress has relied on techniques that were developed to study Einstein’s equations. In this talk, I will provide an overview of the field and highlight some recent progress on problems without symmetry or irrotationality assumptions. I will focus on results that reveal various aspects of the structure of the maximal development of the data and the corresponding implications for the shock development problem, which is the problem of continuing the solution weakly after a shock. I will also describe various open problems, some of which are tied to the Einstein–Euler equations. Various aspects of this program are joint with L. Abbrescia, M. Disconzi, and J. Luk.

    2:30 pm–3:30 pmLan-Hsuan Huang, University of Connecticut
    (hybrid: in person & virtual)
    Title: Null perfect fluids, improvability of dominant energy scalar, and Bartnik mass minimizers

    Abstract: We introduce the concept of improvability of the dominant energy scalar, and we derive strong consequences of non-improvability. In particular, we prove that a non-improvable initial data set without local symmetries must sit inside a null perfect fluid spacetime carrying a global Killing vector field. We also show that the dominant energy scalar is always almost improvable in a precise sense. Using these main results, we provide a characterization of Bartnik mass minimizing initial data sets which makes substantial progress toward Bartnik’s stationary conjecture.

    Along the way we observe that in dimensions greater than eight there exist pp-wave counterexamples (without the optimal decay rate for asymptotically flatness) to the equality case of the spacetime positive mass theorem. As a consequence, we find counterexamples to Bartnik’s stationary and strict positivity conjectures in those dimensions. This talk is based on joint work with Dan A. Lee.

    3:30 pm–4:00 pmBreak
    4:00 pm–5:00 pmDemetre Kazaras, Duke University
    (virtual)
    Title: Comparison geometry for scalar curvature and spacetime harmonic functions

    Abstract: Comparison theorems are the basis for our geometric understanding of Riemannian manifolds satisfying a given curvature condition. A remarkable example is the Gromov-Lawson toric band inequality, which bounds the distance between the two sides of a Riemannian torus-cross-interval with positive scalar curvature by a sharp constant inversely proportional to the scalar curvature’s minimum. We will give a new qualitative version of this and similar band-type inequalities in dimension 3 using the notion of spacetime harmonic functions, which recently played the lead role in our recent proof of the positive mass theorem. This is joint work with Sven Hirsch, Marcus Khuri, and Yiyue Zhang.

     

    Thursday, April 7, 2022

    Time (ET)SpeakerTitle/Abstract
    9:30 am–10:30 amPiotr Chrusciel, Universitat Wien
    (virtual)
    Title: Maskit gluing and hyperbolic mass

    Abstract: “Maskit gluing” is a gluing construction for asymptotically locally hyperbolic (ALH) manifolds with negative cosmological constant. I will present a formula for the mass of Maskit-glued ALH manifolds and describe how it can be used to construct general relativistic initial data with negative mass.

    10:30 am–11:30 amGreg Galloway, University of Miami (virtual)Title:  Initial data rigidity and applications

    Abstract:  We present a result from our work with Michael Eichmair and Abraão Mendes concerning initial data rigidity results (CMP, 2021), and look at some consequences.  In a note with Piotr Chruściel (CQG 2021), we showed how to use this result, together with arguments from Chruściel and Delay’s proof of the their hyperbolic PMT result, to obtain a hyperbolic PMT result with boundary.  This will also be discussed.

    11:30 am–12:30 pmPengzi Miao, University of Miami
    (virtual)
    Title: Some remarks on mass and quasi-local mass

    Abstract: In the first part of this talk, I will describe how to detect the mass of asymptotically flat and asymptotically hyperbolic manifolds via large Riemannian polyhedra. In the second part, I will discuss an estimate of the Bartnik quasi-local mass and its geometric implications. This talk is based on several joint works with A. Piubello, and with H.C. Jang.

    12:30 pm–1:30 pmBreak
    1:30 pm–2:30 pmYakov Shlapentokh Rothman, Princeton
    (hybrid: in person & virtual)
    Title: Self-Similarity and Naked Singularities for the Einstein Vacuum Equations

    Abstract: We will start with an introduction to the problem of constructing naked singularities for the Einstein vacuum equations, and then explain our discovery of a fundamentally new type of self-similarity and show how this allows us to construct solutions corresponding to a naked singularity. This is joint work with Igor Rodnianski.

    2:30 pm–3:30 pmMarcelo Disconzi, Vanderbilt University
    (virtual)
    Title: General-relativistic viscous fluids.

    Abstract: The discovery of the quark-gluon plasma that forms in heavy-ion collision experiments provides a unique opportunity to study the properties of matter under extreme conditions, as the quark-gluon plasma is the hottest, smallest, and densest fluid known to humanity. Studying the quark-gluon plasma also provides a window into the earliest moments of the universe, since microseconds after the Big Bang the universe was filled with matter in the form of the quark-gluon plasma. For more than two decades, the community has intensely studied the quark-gluon plasma with the help of a rich interaction between experiments, theory, phenomenology, and numerical simulations. From these investigations, a coherent picture has emerged, indicating that the quark-gluon plasma behaves essentially like a relativistic liquid with viscosity. More recently, state-of-the-art numerical simulations strongly suggested that viscous and dissipative effects can also have non-negligible effects on gravitational waves produced by binary neutron star mergers. But despite the importance of viscous effects for the study of such systems, a robust and mathematically sound theory of relativistic fluids with viscosity is still lacking. This is due, in part, to difficulties to preserve causality upon the inclusion of viscous and dissipative effects into theories of relativistic fluids. In this talk, we will survey the history of the problem and report on a new approach to relativistic viscous fluids that addresses these issues.

    3:30 pm–4:00 pmBreak
    4:00 pm–5:00 pmMaxime van de Moortel, Princeton
    (hybrid: in person & virtual)
    Title: Black holes: the inside story of gravitational collapse

    Abstract: What is inside a dynamical black hole? While the local region near time-like infinity is understood for various models, the global structure of the black hole interior has largely remained unexplored.
    These questions are deeply connected to the nature of singularities in General Relativity and celebrated problems such as Penrose’s Strong Cosmic Censorship Conjecture.
    I will present my recent resolution of these problems in spherical gravitational collapse, based on the discovery of a novel phenomenon: the breakdown of weak singularities and the dynamical formation of a strong singularity.

     

    Friday, April 8, 2022

    Time (ET)SpeakerTitle/Abstract
    9:30 am–10:30 amYe-Kai Wang, National Cheng Kun University, Taiwan
    (virtual)
    Title: Supertranslation invariance of angular momentum at null infinity in double null gauge

    Abstract: This talk accompanies Po-Ning Chen’s talk on Monday with the results described in the double null gauge rather than Bondi-Sachs coordinates. Besides discussing
    how Chen-Wang-Yau angular momentum resolves the supertranslation ambiguity, we also review the definition of angular momentum defined by A. Rizzi. The talk is based on the joint work with Po-Ning Chen, Jordan Keller, Mu-Tao Wang, and Shing-Tung Yau.

    10:30 am–11:30 amZoe Wyatt, King’s College London
    (virtual)
    Title: Global Stability of Spacetimes with Supersymmetric Compactifications

    Abstract: Spacetimes with compact directions which have special holonomy, such as Calabi-Yau spaces, play an important role in
    supergravity and string theory. In this talk I will discuss a recent work with Lars Andersson, Pieter Blue and Shing-Tung Yau, where we show the global, nonlinear stability a spacetime which is a cartesian product of a high dimensional Minkowski space with a compact Ricci flat internal space with special holonomy. This stability result is related to a conjecture of Penrose concerning the validity of string theory. Our proof uses the intersection of methods for quasilinear wave and Klein-Gordon equations, and so towards the end of the talk I will also comment more generally on coupled wave–Klein-Gordon equations.

    11:30 am–12:30 pmElena Giorgi, Columbia University
    (hybrid: in person & virtual)
    Title: The stability of charged black holes

    Abstract: Black hole solutions in General Relativity are parametrized by their mass, spin and charge. In this talk, I will motivate why the charge of black holes adds interesting dynamics to solutions of the Einstein equation thanks to the interaction between gravitational and electromagnetic radiation. Such radiations are solutions of a system of coupled wave equations with a symmetric structure which allows to define a combined energy-momentum tensor for the system. Finally, I will show how this physical-space approach is resolutive in the most general case of Kerr-Newman black hole, where the interaction between the radiations prevents the separability in modes.

    12:30 pm–1:30 pmBreak
    1:30 pm–2:30 pmMarcus Khuri, Stony Brook University
    (virtual)
    Title: The mass-angular momentum inequality for multiple black holes

    Abstract
    : Consider a complete 3-dimensional initial data set for the Einstein equations which has multiple asymptotically flat or asymptotically cylindrical ends. If it is simply connected, axisymmetric, maximal, and satisfies the appropriate energy condition then the ADM mass of any of the asymptotically flat ends is bounded below by the square root of the total angular momentum. This generalizes previous work of Dain, Chrusciel-Li-Weinstein, and Schoen-Zhou which treated either the single black hole case or the multiple black hole case without an explicit lower bound. The proof relies on an analysis of the asymptotics of singular harmonic maps from
    R^3 \ \Gamma –>H^2   where \Gamma is a coordinate axis. This is joint work with Q. Han, G. Weinstein, and J. Xiong.
    2:30 pm–3:30 pmMartin Lesourd, Harvard
    (hybrid: in person & virtual)
    Title:  A Snippet on Mass and the Topology and Geometry of Positive Scalar Curvature

    Abstract:  I will talk about a small corner of the study of Positive Scalar Curvature (PSC) and questions which are most closely related to the Positive Mass Theorem. The classic questions are ”which topologies allow for PSC?” and ”what is the geometry of manifolds with PSC?”. This is based on joint work with Prof. S-T. Yau, Prof. D. A. Lee, and R. Unger.

    3:30 pm–4:00 pmBreak
    4:00 pm–5:00 pmGeorgios Moschidis, Princeton
    (virtual)
    Title: Weak turbulence for the Einstein–scalar field system.

    Abstract: In the presence of confinement, the Einstein field equations are expected to exhibit turbulent dynamics. In the presence of a negative cosmological constant, the AdS instability conjecture claims the existence of arbitrarily small perturbations to the initial data of Anti-de Sitter spacetime which, under evolution by the vacuum Einstein equations with reflecting boundary conditions at conformal infinity, lead to the formation of black holes after sufficiently long time.
    In this talk, I will present a rigorous proof of the AdS instability conjecture in the setting of the spherically symmetric Einstein-scalar field system. The construction of the unstable initial data will require carefully designing a family of initial configurations of localized matter beams and estimating the exchange of energy taking place between interacting beams over long periods of time, as well as estimating the decoherence rate of those beams.

     

    For the full schedule, please see: https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/gr-program/


    This conference will be held virtually on Zoom. Registration is required.
    Webinar Registration

    A few talks will be held in hybrid formats, with talks given from the CMSA seminar room, G-10. Advanced registration for in-person components is required.
    In-Person Registration

    For more information, please see https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/gr-program/

     

    CMSA General Relativity Conference

    9:30 AM-5:00 PM
    April 4, 2022-April 8, 2022

    The Harvard CMSA will be hosting a conference on General Relativity from April 4-8, 2022.
    This conference will be held virtually on Zoom. Registration is required.
    Webinar Registration A few talks will be held in hybrid formats, with talks given from the CMSA seminar room, G-10. Advanced registration for in-person components is required.
    In-Person Registration 

    For more information, please see: https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/gr-program/

     

    2022 Yip Lecture: Extraterrestrial Life

    7:00 PM-8:00 PM
    April 4, 2022
    1 Oxford Street, Cambridge MA, 02139

    Are we alone? It would be arrogant to think that we are, given that a quarter of all stars host a habitable Earth-size planet. Upcoming searches will aim to detect markers of life in the atmospheres of planets outside the Solar System. We also have unprecedented technologies to detect signs of intelligent civilizations through industrial pollution of planetary atmospheres, space archaeology of debris from dead civilizations or artifacts such as photovoltaic cells that are used to re-distribute light and heat on the surface of a planet or giant megastructures. Our own civilization is starting to explore interstellar travel. Essential information may also arrive as a “message in a bottle”, implying that we should examine carefully any unusual object that arrives to our vicinity from outside the Solar System, such as `Oumuamua.
     
    For more information, please visit the event webpage: https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/yip-2022/https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/yip-2022/

    Registration is required
    In-person option: Harvard Science Center:  Register Online for in-person
    Online option: livestream via Zoom Webinar: Register Online for Zoom

    Bio: Abraham (Avi) Loeb is the Frank B. Baird, Jr., Professor of Science at Harvard University and a bestselling author (in lists of the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Publishers Weekly, Die Zeit, Der Spiegel, L’Express and more). He received a PhD in Physics from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel at age 24 (1980–1986), led the first international project supported by the Strategic Defense Initiative (1983–1988), and was subsequently a long-term member of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton (1988–1993). Loeb has written 8 books, including most recently, Extraterrestrial (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2021), and nearly a thousand papers (with an h-index of 118) on a wide range of topics, including black holes, the first stars, the search for extraterrestrial life, and the future of the Universe. Loeb is the head of the Galileo Project in search for extraterrestrial intelligence, the Director of the Institute for Theory and Computation (2007–present) within the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, and also serves as the Head of the Galileo Project (2021–present). He had been the longest serving Chair of Harvard’s Department of Astronomy (2011–2020) and the Founding Director of Harvard’s Black Hole Initiative (2016–2021). He is an elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, the American Physical Society, and the International Academy of Astronautics. Loeb is a former member of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) at the White House, a former chair of the Board on Physics and Astronomy of the National Academies (2018–2021) and a current member of the Advisory Board for “Einstein: Visualize the Impossible” of the Hebrew University. He also chairs the Advisory Committee for the Breakthrough Starshot Initiative (2016–present) and serves as the Science Theory Director for all Initiatives of the Breakthrough Prize Foundation. In 2012, TIME magazine selected Loeb as one of the 25 most influential people in space and in 2020 Loeb was selected among the 14 most inspiring Israelis of the last decade.
     

    Click here for Loeb’s commentaries on innovation and diversity.


    Refreshments will be served between 6:30–7:00 pm before the lecture.

  • 05
    April 5, 2022

    CMSA General Relativity Program Conference

    All day
    April 5, 2022-April 8, 2022

    Monday, April 4, 2022

    Time (ET)SpeakerTitle/Abstract
    9:30 am–10:30 amPieter Blue, University of Edinburgh, UK
    (virtual)
    Title: Linear stability of the Kerr spacetime in the outgoing radiation gauge

    Abstract: This talk will discuss a new gauge condition (i.e. coordinate condition) for the Einstein equation, the linearisation of the Einstein equation in this gauge, and the decay of solutions to the linearised Einstein equation around Kerr black holes in this gauge. The stability of the family of Kerr black holes under the evolution generated by the Einstein equation is a long-standing problem in mathematical relativity. In 1972, Teukolsky discovered equations governing certain components of the linearised curvature that are invariant under linearised gague transformations. In 1975, Chrzanowski introduced the “outgoing radiation gauge”, a condition on the linearised metric that allows for the construction of the linearised metric from the linearised curvature. In 2019, we proved decay for the metric constructed using Chrzanowski’s outgoing radiation gauge. Recently, using a flow along null geodesics, we have constructed a new gauge such that, in this gauge, the Einstein equation is well posed and such that the linearisation is Chrzanowski’s outgoing radiation gauge.

    This is joint work with Lars Andersson, Thomas Backdahl, and Siyuan Ma.

    10:30 am–11:30 amPeter Hintz, MIT
    (virtual)
    Title: Mode stability and shallow quasinormal modes of Kerr-de Sitter
    black holes

    Abstract: The Kerr-de Sitter metric describes a rotating black hole with mass $m$ and specific angular momentum $a$ in a universe, such as our own, with cosmological constant $\Lambda>0$. I will explain a proof of mode stability for the scalar wave equation on Kerr-de Sitter spacetimes in the following setting: fixing $\Lambda$ and the ratio $|a/m|<1$ (related to the subextremality of the black hole in question), mode stability holds for sufficiently small black hole mass $m$. We also obtain estimates for the location of quasinormal modes (resonances) $\sigma$ in any fixed half space $\Im\sigma>-C$. Our results imply that solutions of the wave equation decay exponentially in time to constants, with an explicit exponential rate. The proof is based on careful uniform estimates for the spectral family in the singular limit $m\to 0$ in which, depending on the scaling, the Kerr-de Sitter spacetime limits to a Kerr or the de Sitter spacetime.

    11:30 am–12:30 pmLars Andersson, Albert Einstein Institute, Germany
    (virtual)
    Title: Gravitational instantons and special geometry

    Abstract: Gravitational instantons are Ricci flat complete Riemannian 4-manifolds with at least quadratic curvature decay. In this talk, I will introduce some notions of special geometry, discuss known examples, and mention some open questions. The Chen-Teo gravitational instanton is an asymptotically flat, toric, Ricci flat family of metrics on $\mathrm{CP}^2 \setminus \mathrm{S}^1$, that provides a counterexample to the classical Euclidean Black Hole Uniqueness conjecture. I will sketch a proof that the Chen-Teo Instanton is Hermitian and non-Kähler. Thus, all known examples of gravitational instantons are Hermitian. This talks is based on joint work with Steffen Aksteiner, cf. https://arxiv.org/abs/2112.11863.

    12:30 pm–1:30 pmbreak
    1:30 pm–2:30 pmMartin Taylor, Imperial College London
    (virtual)
    Title: The nonlinear stability of the Schwarzschild family of black holes

    Abstract: I will present a theorem on the full finite codimension nonlinear asymptotic stability of the Schwarzschild family of black holes.  The proof employs a double null gauge, is expressed entirely in physical space, and utilises the analysis of Dafermos–Holzegel–Rodnianski on the linear stability of the Schwarzschild family.  This is joint work with M. Dafermos, G. Holzegel and I. Rodnianski.

    2:30 pm–3:30 pmPo-Ning Chen, University of California, Riverside
    (virtual)
    Title: Angular momentum in general relativity

    Abstract:
    The definition of angular momentum in general relativity has been a subtle issue since the 1960s, due to the ‘supertranslation ambiguity’. In this talk, we will discuss how the mathematical theory of quasilocal mass and angular momentum leads to a new definition of angular momentum at null infinity that is free of any supertranslation ambiguity.

    This is based on joint work with Jordan Keller, Mu-Tao Wang, Ye-Kai Wang, and Shing-Tung Yau.

    3:30 pm–4:00 pmbreak
    4:00 pm–5:00 pmDan Lee, Queens College (CUNY)
    (hybrid: in person & virtual)
    Title: Stability of the positive mass theorem

    Abstract: We will discuss the problem of stability for the rigidity part of the Riemannian positive mass theorem, focusing on recent work with Kazaras and Khuri, in which we proved that if one assumes a lower Ricci curvature bound, then stability holds with respect to pointed Gromov-Hausdorff convergence.

     

    Tuesday, April 5, 2022

    Time (ET)SpeakerTitle/Abstract
    9:30 am–10:30 amXinliang An, National University of Singapore
    (virtual)
    Title: Anisotropic dynamical horizons arising in gravitational collapse

    Abstract: Black holes are predicted by Einstein’s theory of general relativity, and now we have ample observational evidence for their existence. However theoretically there are many unanswered questions about how black holes come into being and about the structures of their inner spacetime singularities. In this talk, we will present several results in these directions. First, in a joint work with Qing Han, with tools from scale-critical hyperbolic method and non-perturbative elliptic techniques, with anisotropic characteristic initial data we prove that: in the process of gravitational collapse, a smooth and spacelike apparent horizon (dynamical horizon) emerges from general (both isotropic and anisotropic) initial data. This result extends the 2008 Christodoulou’s monumental work and it connects to black hole thermodynamics along the apparent horizon. Second, in joint works with Dejan Gajic and Ruixiang Zhang, for the spherically symmetric Einstein-scalar field system, we derive precise blow-up rates for various geometric quantities along the inner spacelike singularities. These rates obey polynomial blow-up upper bounds; and when it is close to timelike infinity, these rates are not limited to discrete finite choices and they are related to the Price’s law along the event horizon. This indicates a new blow-up phenomenon, driven by a PDE mechanism, rather than an ODE mechanism. If time permits, some results on fluid dynamics will also be addressed.

    10:30 am–11:30 amSergiu Klainerman, Princeton
    (virtual)
    Title: Nonlinear stability of slowly rotating Kerr solutions

    Abstract: I will talk about the status of the stability of Kerr conjecture in General Relativity based on recent results obtained in collaboration with Jeremie Szeftel and Elena Giorgi.

    11:30 am–12:30 pmSiyuan Ma, Sorbonne University
    (virtual)
    Title: Sharp decay for Teukolsky master equation

    Abstract: I will talk about joint work with L. Zhang on deriving the late time dynamics of the spin $s$ components that satisfy the Teukolsky master equation in Kerr spacetimes.

    12:30 pm–1:30 pmBreak
    1:30 pm–2:30 pmJonathan Luk, Stanford
    (virtual)
    Title: A tale of two tails

    Abstract: Motivated by the strong cosmic censorship conjecture, we introduce a general method for understanding the late-time tail for solutions to wave equations on asymptotically flat spacetimes in odd spatial dimensions. A particular consequence of the method is a re-proof of Price’s law-type results, which concern the sharp decay rate of the late-time tails on stationary spacetimes. Moreover, we show that the late-time tails are in general different from the stationary case in the presence of dynamical and/or nonlinear perturbations. This is a joint work with Sung-Jin Oh (Berkeley).

    2:30 pm–3:30 pmGary Horowitz, University of California Santa Barbara
    (virtual)
    Title: A new type of extremal black hole

    Abstract: I describe a family of four-dimensional, asymptotically flat, charged black holes that develop (charged) scalar hair as one increases their charge at fixed mass. Surprisingly, the maximum charge for given mass is a nonsingular hairy black hole with a nondegenerate event horizon. Since the surface gravity is nonzero, if quantum matter is added, Hawking radiation does not appear to stop when this new extremal limit is reached. This raises the question of whether Hawking radiation will cause the black hole to turn into a naked singularity. I will argue that does not occur.

    3:30 pm–4:00 pmBreak
    4:00 pm–5:00 pmLydia Bieri, University of Michigan
    (virtual)
    Title: Gravitational radiation in general spacetimes

    Abstract: Studies of gravitational waves have been devoted mostly to sources such as binary black hole mergers or neutron star mergers, or generally sources that are stationary outside of a compact set. These systems are described by asymptotically-flat manifolds solving the Einstein equations with sufficiently fast decay of the gravitational field towards Minkowski spacetime far away from the source. Waves from such sources have been recorded by the LIGO/VIRGO collaboration since 2015. In this talk, I will present new results on gravitational radiation for sources that are not stationary outside of a compact set, but whose gravitational fields decay more slowly towards infinity. A panorama of new gravitational effects opens up when delving deeper into these more general spacetimes. In particular, whereas the former sources produce memory effects that are finite and of purely electric parity, the latter in addition generate memory of magnetic type, and both types grow. These new effects emerge naturally from the Einstein equations both in the Einstein vacuum case and for neutrino radiation. The latter results are important for sources with extended neutrino halos.

     

    Wednesday, April 6, 2022

    Time (ET)SpeakerTitle/Abstract
    9:30 am–10:30 amGerhard Huisken, Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach
    (virtual)
    TBA
    10:30 am–11:30 amCarla Cederbaum, Universität Tübingen, Germany
    (virtual)
    Title: Coordinates are messy

    Abstract: Asymptotically Euclidean initial data sets $(M,g,K)$ are characterized by the existence of asymptotic coordinates in which the Riemannian metric $g$ and second fundamental form $K$ decay to the Euclidean metric $\delta$ and to $0$ suitably fast, respectively. Provided their matter densities satisfy suitable integrability conditions, they have well-defined (ADM-)energy, (ADM-)linear momentum, and (ADM-)mass. This was proven by Bartnik using harmonic coordinates. To study their (ADM-)angular momentum and (BORT-)center of mass, one usually assumes the existence of Regge—Teitelboim coordinates on the initial data set $(M,g,K)$ in question. We will give examples of asymptotically Euclidean initial data sets which do not possess any Regge—Teitelboim coordinates We will also show that harmonic coordinates can be used as a tool in checking whether a given asymptotically Euclidean initial data set possesses Regge—Teitelboim coordinates. This is joint work with Melanie Graf and Jan Metzger. We will also explain the consequences these findings have for the definition of the center of mass, relying on joint work with Nerz and with Sakovich.

    11:30 am–12:30 pmStefanos Aretakis, University of Toronto
    (virtual)
    Title: Observational signatures for extremal black holes

    Abstract: We will present results regarding the asymptotics of scalar perturbations on black hole backgrounds. We will then derive observational signatures for extremal black holes that are based on global or localized measurements on null infinity. This is based on joint work with Gajic-Angelopoulos and ongoing work with Khanna-Sabharwal.

    12:30 pm–1:30 pmBreak
    1:30 pm–2:30 pmJared Speck, Vanderbilt University
    (virtual)
    Title: The mathematical theory of shock waves in multi-dimensional relativistic and non-relativistic compressible Euler flow

    Abstract: In the last two decades, there have been dramatic advances in the rigorous mathematical theory of shock waves in solutions to the relativistic Euler equations and their non-relativistic analog, the compressible Euler equations. A lot of the progress has relied on techniques that were developed to study Einstein’s equations. In this talk, I will provide an overview of the field and highlight some recent progress on problems without symmetry or irrotationality assumptions. I will focus on results that reveal various aspects of the structure of the maximal development of the data and the corresponding implications for the shock development problem, which is the problem of continuing the solution weakly after a shock. I will also describe various open problems, some of which are tied to the Einstein–Euler equations. Various aspects of this program are joint with L. Abbrescia, M. Disconzi, and J. Luk.

    2:30 pm–3:30 pmLan-Hsuan Huang, University of Connecticut
    (hybrid: in person & virtual)
    Title: Null perfect fluids, improvability of dominant energy scalar, and Bartnik mass minimizers

    Abstract: We introduce the concept of improvability of the dominant energy scalar, and we derive strong consequences of non-improvability. In particular, we prove that a non-improvable initial data set without local symmetries must sit inside a null perfect fluid spacetime carrying a global Killing vector field. We also show that the dominant energy scalar is always almost improvable in a precise sense. Using these main results, we provide a characterization of Bartnik mass minimizing initial data sets which makes substantial progress toward Bartnik’s stationary conjecture.

    Along the way we observe that in dimensions greater than eight there exist pp-wave counterexamples (without the optimal decay rate for asymptotically flatness) to the equality case of the spacetime positive mass theorem. As a consequence, we find counterexamples to Bartnik’s stationary and strict positivity conjectures in those dimensions. This talk is based on joint work with Dan A. Lee.

    3:30 pm–4:00 pmBreak
    4:00 pm–5:00 pmDemetre Kazaras, Duke University
    (virtual)
    Title: Comparison geometry for scalar curvature and spacetime harmonic functions

    Abstract: Comparison theorems are the basis for our geometric understanding of Riemannian manifolds satisfying a given curvature condition. A remarkable example is the Gromov-Lawson toric band inequality, which bounds the distance between the two sides of a Riemannian torus-cross-interval with positive scalar curvature by a sharp constant inversely proportional to the scalar curvature’s minimum. We will give a new qualitative version of this and similar band-type inequalities in dimension 3 using the notion of spacetime harmonic functions, which recently played the lead role in our recent proof of the positive mass theorem. This is joint work with Sven Hirsch, Marcus Khuri, and Yiyue Zhang.

     

    Thursday, April 7, 2022

    Time (ET)SpeakerTitle/Abstract
    9:30 am–10:30 amPiotr Chrusciel, Universitat Wien
    (virtual)
    Title: Maskit gluing and hyperbolic mass

    Abstract: “Maskit gluing” is a gluing construction for asymptotically locally hyperbolic (ALH) manifolds with negative cosmological constant. I will present a formula for the mass of Maskit-glued ALH manifolds and describe how it can be used to construct general relativistic initial data with negative mass.

    10:30 am–11:30 amGreg Galloway, University of Miami (virtual)Title:  Initial data rigidity and applications

    Abstract:  We present a result from our work with Michael Eichmair and Abraão Mendes concerning initial data rigidity results (CMP, 2021), and look at some consequences.  In a note with Piotr Chruściel (CQG 2021), we showed how to use this result, together with arguments from Chruściel and Delay’s proof of the their hyperbolic PMT result, to obtain a hyperbolic PMT result with boundary.  This will also be discussed.

    11:30 am–12:30 pmPengzi Miao, University of Miami
    (virtual)
    Title: Some remarks on mass and quasi-local mass

    Abstract: In the first part of this talk, I will describe how to detect the mass of asymptotically flat and asymptotically hyperbolic manifolds via large Riemannian polyhedra. In the second part, I will discuss an estimate of the Bartnik quasi-local mass and its geometric implications. This talk is based on several joint works with A. Piubello, and with H.C. Jang.

    12:30 pm–1:30 pmBreak
    1:30 pm–2:30 pmYakov Shlapentokh Rothman, Princeton
    (hybrid: in person & virtual)
    Title: Self-Similarity and Naked Singularities for the Einstein Vacuum Equations

    Abstract: We will start with an introduction to the problem of constructing naked singularities for the Einstein vacuum equations, and then explain our discovery of a fundamentally new type of self-similarity and show how this allows us to construct solutions corresponding to a naked singularity. This is joint work with Igor Rodnianski.

    2:30 pm–3:30 pmMarcelo Disconzi, Vanderbilt University
    (virtual)
    Title: General-relativistic viscous fluids.

    Abstract: The discovery of the quark-gluon plasma that forms in heavy-ion collision experiments provides a unique opportunity to study the properties of matter under extreme conditions, as the quark-gluon plasma is the hottest, smallest, and densest fluid known to humanity. Studying the quark-gluon plasma also provides a window into the earliest moments of the universe, since microseconds after the Big Bang the universe was filled with matter in the form of the quark-gluon plasma. For more than two decades, the community has intensely studied the quark-gluon plasma with the help of a rich interaction between experiments, theory, phenomenology, and numerical simulations. From these investigations, a coherent picture has emerged, indicating that the quark-gluon plasma behaves essentially like a relativistic liquid with viscosity. More recently, state-of-the-art numerical simulations strongly suggested that viscous and dissipative effects can also have non-negligible effects on gravitational waves produced by binary neutron star mergers. But despite the importance of viscous effects for the study of such systems, a robust and mathematically sound theory of relativistic fluids with viscosity is still lacking. This is due, in part, to difficulties to preserve causality upon the inclusion of viscous and dissipative effects into theories of relativistic fluids. In this talk, we will survey the history of the problem and report on a new approach to relativistic viscous fluids that addresses these issues.

    3:30 pm–4:00 pmBreak
    4:00 pm–5:00 pmMaxime van de Moortel, Princeton
    (hybrid: in person & virtual)
    Title: Black holes: the inside story of gravitational collapse

    Abstract: What is inside a dynamical black hole? While the local region near time-like infinity is understood for various models, the global structure of the black hole interior has largely remained unexplored.
    These questions are deeply connected to the nature of singularities in General Relativity and celebrated problems such as Penrose’s Strong Cosmic Censorship Conjecture.
    I will present my recent resolution of these problems in spherical gravitational collapse, based on the discovery of a novel phenomenon: the breakdown of weak singularities and the dynamical formation of a strong singularity.

     

    Friday, April 8, 2022

    Time (ET)SpeakerTitle/Abstract
    9:30 am–10:30 amYe-Kai Wang, National Cheng Kun University, Taiwan
    (virtual)
    Title: Supertranslation invariance of angular momentum at null infinity in double null gauge

    Abstract: This talk accompanies Po-Ning Chen’s talk on Monday with the results described in the double null gauge rather than Bondi-Sachs coordinates. Besides discussing
    how Chen-Wang-Yau angular momentum resolves the supertranslation ambiguity, we also review the definition of angular momentum defined by A. Rizzi. The talk is based on the joint work with Po-Ning Chen, Jordan Keller, Mu-Tao Wang, and Shing-Tung Yau.

    10:30 am–11:30 amZoe Wyatt, King’s College London
    (virtual)
    Title: Global Stability of Spacetimes with Supersymmetric Compactifications

    Abstract: Spacetimes with compact directions which have special holonomy, such as Calabi-Yau spaces, play an important role in
    supergravity and string theory. In this talk I will discuss a recent work with Lars Andersson, Pieter Blue and Shing-Tung Yau, where we show the global, nonlinear stability a spacetime which is a cartesian product of a high dimensional Minkowski space with a compact Ricci flat internal space with special holonomy. This stability result is related to a conjecture of Penrose concerning the validity of string theory. Our proof uses the intersection of methods for quasilinear wave and Klein-Gordon equations, and so towards the end of the talk I will also comment more generally on coupled wave–Klein-Gordon equations.

    11:30 am–12:30 pmElena Giorgi, Columbia University
    (hybrid: in person & virtual)
    Title: The stability of charged black holes

    Abstract: Black hole solutions in General Relativity are parametrized by their mass, spin and charge. In this talk, I will motivate why the charge of black holes adds interesting dynamics to solutions of the Einstein equation thanks to the interaction between gravitational and electromagnetic radiation. Such radiations are solutions of a system of coupled wave equations with a symmetric structure which allows to define a combined energy-momentum tensor for the system. Finally, I will show how this physical-space approach is resolutive in the most general case of Kerr-Newman black hole, where the interaction between the radiations prevents the separability in modes.

    12:30 pm–1:30 pmBreak
    1:30 pm–2:30 pmMarcus Khuri, Stony Brook University
    (virtual)
    Title: The mass-angular momentum inequality for multiple black holes

    Abstract
    : Consider a complete 3-dimensional initial data set for the Einstein equations which has multiple asymptotically flat or asymptotically cylindrical ends. If it is simply connected, axisymmetric, maximal, and satisfies the appropriate energy condition then the ADM mass of any of the asymptotically flat ends is bounded below by the square root of the total angular momentum. This generalizes previous work of Dain, Chrusciel-Li-Weinstein, and Schoen-Zhou which treated either the single black hole case or the multiple black hole case without an explicit lower bound. The proof relies on an analysis of the asymptotics of singular harmonic maps from
    R^3 \ \Gamma –>H^2   where \Gamma is a coordinate axis. This is joint work with Q. Han, G. Weinstein, and J. Xiong.
    2:30 pm–3:30 pmMartin Lesourd, Harvard
    (hybrid: in person & virtual)
    Title:  A Snippet on Mass and the Topology and Geometry of Positive Scalar Curvature

    Abstract:  I will talk about a small corner of the study of Positive Scalar Curvature (PSC) and questions which are most closely related to the Positive Mass Theorem. The classic questions are ”which topologies allow for PSC?” and ”what is the geometry of manifolds with PSC?”. This is based on joint work with Prof. S-T. Yau, Prof. D. A. Lee, and R. Unger.

    3:30 pm–4:00 pmBreak
    4:00 pm–5:00 pmGeorgios Moschidis, Princeton
    (virtual)
    Title: Weak turbulence for the Einstein–scalar field system.

    Abstract: In the presence of confinement, the Einstein field equations are expected to exhibit turbulent dynamics. In the presence of a negative cosmological constant, the AdS instability conjecture claims the existence of arbitrarily small perturbations to the initial data of Anti-de Sitter spacetime which, under evolution by the vacuum Einstein equations with reflecting boundary conditions at conformal infinity, lead to the formation of black holes after sufficiently long time.
    In this talk, I will present a rigorous proof of the AdS instability conjecture in the setting of the spherically symmetric Einstein-scalar field system. The construction of the unstable initial data will require carefully designing a family of initial configurations of localized matter beams and estimating the exchange of energy taking place between interacting beams over long periods of time, as well as estimating the decoherence rate of those beams.

     

    For the full schedule, please see: https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/gr-program/


    This conference will be held virtually on Zoom. Registration is required.
    Webinar Registration

    A few talks will be held in hybrid formats, with talks given from the CMSA seminar room, G-10. Advanced registration for in-person components is required.
    In-Person Registration

    For more information, please see https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/gr-program/

     

    Math Picture Language Seminar: Analytic Langlands correspondence for complex curves

    9:30 AM-10:30 AM
    April 5, 2022

     I will start the lecture with a brief introduction to various flavors of the Langlands correspondence. I will then explain the setup of a new flavor: the analytic Langlands correspondence for complex curves which was recently fomulated by Pavel Etingof, David Kazhdan, and myself (see arXiv:1908.09677, 2103.01509, and 2106.0524). It can be interpreted in terms of a quantum integrable system, which is obtained by “doubling” the celebrated quantum Hitchin system.


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

    CMSA Algebraic Geometry in String Theory: Regularized integrals on Riemann surfaces and correlations functions in 2d chiral CFTs

    9:30 AM-10:30 AM
    April 5, 2022

     I will report a recent approach of regularizing divergent integrals on configuration spaces of Riemann surfaces, introduced by Si Li and myself in arXiv:2008.07503, with an emphasis on genus one cases where modular forms arise naturally. I will then talk about some applications in studying correlation functions in 2d chiral CFTs, holomorphic anomaly equations, etc. If time permits, I will also mention a more algebraic formulation of this notion of regularized integrals in terms of mixed Hodge structures.


    For information on how to join, please see:  https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/seminars-and-colloquium/

    CMSA General Relativity Conference

    9:30 AM-5:00 PM
    April 5, 2022-April 8, 2022

    The Harvard CMSA will be hosting a conference on General Relativity from April 4-8, 2022.
    This conference will be held virtually on Zoom. Registration is required.
    Webinar Registration A few talks will be held in hybrid formats, with talks given from the CMSA seminar room, G-10. Advanced registration for in-person components is required.
    In-Person Registration 

    For more information, please see: https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/gr-program/

     

    Regular centralizers and the wonderful compactification

    3:00 PM-4:00 PM
    April 5, 2022
    1 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 USA

    The universal centralizer of a complex semisimple adjoint group G is the family of regular centralizers in G, parametrized by the regular conjugacy classes. It has a natural symplectic structure which is inherited from the cotangent bundle of G. I will construct a smooth, log-symplectic relative compactification of this family using the wonderful compactification of G. Its compactified centralizer fibers are isomorphic to Hessenberg varieties, and its symplectic leaves are indexed by root system combinatorics. I will also explain how to produce a multiplicative analogue of this construction, by moving from the Poisson to the quasi-Poisson setting.


     

    Joint Harvard-CUHK-YMSC Differential Geometry Seminar: Gopakumar-Vafa type invariants of holomorphic symplectic 4-folds

    9:30 PM-10:30 PM
    April 5, 2022

    Gromov-Witten invariants of holomorphic symplectic 4-folds vanish and one can consider the corresponding reduced theory. In this talk, we will explain a definition of Gopakumar-Vafa type invariants for such a reduced theory. These invariants are conjectured to be integers and have alternative interpretations using sheaf theoretic moduli spaces. Our conjecture is proved for the product of two K3 surfaces, which naturally leads to a closed formula of Fujiki constants of Chern classes of tangent bundles of Hilbert schemes of points on K3 surfaces. On a very general holomorphic symplectic 4-folds of K3^[2] type, our conjecture provides a Yau-Zaslow type formula for the number of isolated genus 2 curves of minimal degree. Based on joint works with Georg Oberdieck and Yukinobu Toda.


    https://cuhk.zoom.us/j/92433760489

    (Meeting ID: 924 3376 0489; Passcode: 20220406)

  • 06
    April 6, 2022

    CMSA General Relativity Program Conference

    All day
    April 6, 2022-April 8, 2022

    Monday, April 4, 2022

    Time (ET)SpeakerTitle/Abstract
    9:30 am–10:30 amPieter Blue, University of Edinburgh, UK
    (virtual)
    Title: Linear stability of the Kerr spacetime in the outgoing radiation gauge

    Abstract: This talk will discuss a new gauge condition (i.e. coordinate condition) for the Einstein equation, the linearisation of the Einstein equation in this gauge, and the decay of solutions to the linearised Einstein equation around Kerr black holes in this gauge. The stability of the family of Kerr black holes under the evolution generated by the Einstein equation is a long-standing problem in mathematical relativity. In 1972, Teukolsky discovered equations governing certain components of the linearised curvature that are invariant under linearised gague transformations. In 1975, Chrzanowski introduced the “outgoing radiation gauge”, a condition on the linearised metric that allows for the construction of the linearised metric from the linearised curvature. In 2019, we proved decay for the metric constructed using Chrzanowski’s outgoing radiation gauge. Recently, using a flow along null geodesics, we have constructed a new gauge such that, in this gauge, the Einstein equation is well posed and such that the linearisation is Chrzanowski’s outgoing radiation gauge.

    This is joint work with Lars Andersson, Thomas Backdahl, and Siyuan Ma.

    10:30 am–11:30 amPeter Hintz, MIT
    (virtual)
    Title: Mode stability and shallow quasinormal modes of Kerr-de Sitter
    black holes

    Abstract: The Kerr-de Sitter metric describes a rotating black hole with mass $m$ and specific angular momentum $a$ in a universe, such as our own, with cosmological constant $\Lambda>0$. I will explain a proof of mode stability for the scalar wave equation on Kerr-de Sitter spacetimes in the following setting: fixing $\Lambda$ and the ratio $|a/m|<1$ (related to the subextremality of the black hole in question), mode stability holds for sufficiently small black hole mass $m$. We also obtain estimates for the location of quasinormal modes (resonances) $\sigma$ in any fixed half space $\Im\sigma>-C$. Our results imply that solutions of the wave equation decay exponentially in time to constants, with an explicit exponential rate. The proof is based on careful uniform estimates for the spectral family in the singular limit $m\to 0$ in which, depending on the scaling, the Kerr-de Sitter spacetime limits to a Kerr or the de Sitter spacetime.

    11:30 am–12:30 pmLars Andersson, Albert Einstein Institute, Germany
    (virtual)
    Title: Gravitational instantons and special geometry

    Abstract: Gravitational instantons are Ricci flat complete Riemannian 4-manifolds with at least quadratic curvature decay. In this talk, I will introduce some notions of special geometry, discuss known examples, and mention some open questions. The Chen-Teo gravitational instanton is an asymptotically flat, toric, Ricci flat family of metrics on $\mathrm{CP}^2 \setminus \mathrm{S}^1$, that provides a counterexample to the classical Euclidean Black Hole Uniqueness conjecture. I will sketch a proof that the Chen-Teo Instanton is Hermitian and non-Kähler. Thus, all known examples of gravitational instantons are Hermitian. This talks is based on joint work with Steffen Aksteiner, cf. https://arxiv.org/abs/2112.11863.

    12:30 pm–1:30 pmbreak
    1:30 pm–2:30 pmMartin Taylor, Imperial College London
    (virtual)
    Title: The nonlinear stability of the Schwarzschild family of black holes

    Abstract: I will present a theorem on the full finite codimension nonlinear asymptotic stability of the Schwarzschild family of black holes.  The proof employs a double null gauge, is expressed entirely in physical space, and utilises the analysis of Dafermos–Holzegel–Rodnianski on the linear stability of the Schwarzschild family.  This is joint work with M. Dafermos, G. Holzegel and I. Rodnianski.

    2:30 pm–3:30 pmPo-Ning Chen, University of California, Riverside
    (virtual)
    Title: Angular momentum in general relativity

    Abstract:
    The definition of angular momentum in general relativity has been a subtle issue since the 1960s, due to the ‘supertranslation ambiguity’. In this talk, we will discuss how the mathematical theory of quasilocal mass and angular momentum leads to a new definition of angular momentum at null infinity that is free of any supertranslation ambiguity.

    This is based on joint work with Jordan Keller, Mu-Tao Wang, Ye-Kai Wang, and Shing-Tung Yau.

    3:30 pm–4:00 pmbreak
    4:00 pm–5:00 pmDan Lee, Queens College (CUNY)
    (hybrid: in person & virtual)
    Title: Stability of the positive mass theorem

    Abstract: We will discuss the problem of stability for the rigidity part of the Riemannian positive mass theorem, focusing on recent work with Kazaras and Khuri, in which we proved that if one assumes a lower Ricci curvature bound, then stability holds with respect to pointed Gromov-Hausdorff convergence.

     

    Tuesday, April 5, 2022

    Time (ET)SpeakerTitle/Abstract
    9:30 am–10:30 amXinliang An, National University of Singapore
    (virtual)
    Title: Anisotropic dynamical horizons arising in gravitational collapse

    Abstract: Black holes are predicted by Einstein’s theory of general relativity, and now we have ample observational evidence for their existence. However theoretically there are many unanswered questions about how black holes come into being and about the structures of their inner spacetime singularities. In this talk, we will present several results in these directions. First, in a joint work with Qing Han, with tools from scale-critical hyperbolic method and non-perturbative elliptic techniques, with anisotropic characteristic initial data we prove that: in the process of gravitational collapse, a smooth and spacelike apparent horizon (dynamical horizon) emerges from general (both isotropic and anisotropic) initial data. This result extends the 2008 Christodoulou’s monumental work and it connects to black hole thermodynamics along the apparent horizon. Second, in joint works with Dejan Gajic and Ruixiang Zhang, for the spherically symmetric Einstein-scalar field system, we derive precise blow-up rates for various geometric quantities along the inner spacelike singularities. These rates obey polynomial blow-up upper bounds; and when it is close to timelike infinity, these rates are not limited to discrete finite choices and they are related to the Price’s law along the event horizon. This indicates a new blow-up phenomenon, driven by a PDE mechanism, rather than an ODE mechanism. If time permits, some results on fluid dynamics will also be addressed.

    10:30 am–11:30 amSergiu Klainerman, Princeton
    (virtual)
    Title: Nonlinear stability of slowly rotating Kerr solutions

    Abstract: I will talk about the status of the stability of Kerr conjecture in General Relativity based on recent results obtained in collaboration with Jeremie Szeftel and Elena Giorgi.

    11:30 am–12:30 pmSiyuan Ma, Sorbonne University
    (virtual)
    Title: Sharp decay for Teukolsky master equation

    Abstract: I will talk about joint work with L. Zhang on deriving the late time dynamics of the spin $s$ components that satisfy the Teukolsky master equation in Kerr spacetimes.

    12:30 pm–1:30 pmBreak
    1:30 pm–2:30 pmJonathan Luk, Stanford
    (virtual)
    Title: A tale of two tails

    Abstract: Motivated by the strong cosmic censorship conjecture, we introduce a general method for understanding the late-time tail for solutions to wave equations on asymptotically flat spacetimes in odd spatial dimensions. A particular consequence of the method is a re-proof of Price’s law-type results, which concern the sharp decay rate of the late-time tails on stationary spacetimes. Moreover, we show that the late-time tails are in general different from the stationary case in the presence of dynamical and/or nonlinear perturbations. This is a joint work with Sung-Jin Oh (Berkeley).

    2:30 pm–3:30 pmGary Horowitz, University of California Santa Barbara
    (virtual)
    Title: A new type of extremal black hole

    Abstract: I describe a family of four-dimensional, asymptotically flat, charged black holes that develop (charged) scalar hair as one increases their charge at fixed mass. Surprisingly, the maximum charge for given mass is a nonsingular hairy black hole with a nondegenerate event horizon. Since the surface gravity is nonzero, if quantum matter is added, Hawking radiation does not appear to stop when this new extremal limit is reached. This raises the question of whether Hawking radiation will cause the black hole to turn into a naked singularity. I will argue that does not occur.

    3:30 pm–4:00 pmBreak
    4:00 pm–5:00 pmLydia Bieri, University of Michigan
    (virtual)
    Title: Gravitational radiation in general spacetimes

    Abstract: Studies of gravitational waves have been devoted mostly to sources such as binary black hole mergers or neutron star mergers, or generally sources that are stationary outside of a compact set. These systems are described by asymptotically-flat manifolds solving the Einstein equations with sufficiently fast decay of the gravitational field towards Minkowski spacetime far away from the source. Waves from such sources have been recorded by the LIGO/VIRGO collaboration since 2015. In this talk, I will present new results on gravitational radiation for sources that are not stationary outside of a compact set, but whose gravitational fields decay more slowly towards infinity. A panorama of new gravitational effects opens up when delving deeper into these more general spacetimes. In particular, whereas the former sources produce memory effects that are finite and of purely electric parity, the latter in addition generate memory of magnetic type, and both types grow. These new effects emerge naturally from the Einstein equations both in the Einstein vacuum case and for neutrino radiation. The latter results are important for sources with extended neutrino halos.

     

    Wednesday, April 6, 2022

    Time (ET)SpeakerTitle/Abstract
    9:30 am–10:30 amGerhard Huisken, Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach
    (virtual)
    TBA
    10:30 am–11:30 amCarla Cederbaum, Universität Tübingen, Germany
    (virtual)
    Title: Coordinates are messy

    Abstract: Asymptotically Euclidean initial data sets $(M,g,K)$ are characterized by the existence of asymptotic coordinates in which the Riemannian metric $g$ and second fundamental form $K$ decay to the Euclidean metric $\delta$ and to $0$ suitably fast, respectively. Provided their matter densities satisfy suitable integrability conditions, they have well-defined (ADM-)energy, (ADM-)linear momentum, and (ADM-)mass. This was proven by Bartnik using harmonic coordinates. To study their (ADM-)angular momentum and (BORT-)center of mass, one usually assumes the existence of Regge—Teitelboim coordinates on the initial data set $(M,g,K)$ in question. We will give examples of asymptotically Euclidean initial data sets which do not possess any Regge—Teitelboim coordinates We will also show that harmonic coordinates can be used as a tool in checking whether a given asymptotically Euclidean initial data set possesses Regge—Teitelboim coordinates. This is joint work with Melanie Graf and Jan Metzger. We will also explain the consequences these findings have for the definition of the center of mass, relying on joint work with Nerz and with Sakovich.

    11:30 am–12:30 pmStefanos Aretakis, University of Toronto
    (virtual)
    Title: Observational signatures for extremal black holes

    Abstract: We will present results regarding the asymptotics of scalar perturbations on black hole backgrounds. We will then derive observational signatures for extremal black holes that are based on global or localized measurements on null infinity. This is based on joint work with Gajic-Angelopoulos and ongoing work with Khanna-Sabharwal.

    12:30 pm–1:30 pmBreak
    1:30 pm–2:30 pmJared Speck, Vanderbilt University
    (virtual)
    Title: The mathematical theory of shock waves in multi-dimensional relativistic and non-relativistic compressible Euler flow

    Abstract: In the last two decades, there have been dramatic advances in the rigorous mathematical theory of shock waves in solutions to the relativistic Euler equations and their non-relativistic analog, the compressible Euler equations. A lot of the progress has relied on techniques that were developed to study Einstein’s equations. In this talk, I will provide an overview of the field and highlight some recent progress on problems without symmetry or irrotationality assumptions. I will focus on results that reveal various aspects of the structure of the maximal development of the data and the corresponding implications for the shock development problem, which is the problem of continuing the solution weakly after a shock. I will also describe various open problems, some of which are tied to the Einstein–Euler equations. Various aspects of this program are joint with L. Abbrescia, M. Disconzi, and J. Luk.

    2:30 pm–3:30 pmLan-Hsuan Huang, University of Connecticut
    (hybrid: in person & virtual)
    Title: Null perfect fluids, improvability of dominant energy scalar, and Bartnik mass minimizers

    Abstract: We introduce the concept of improvability of the dominant energy scalar, and we derive strong consequences of non-improvability. In particular, we prove that a non-improvable initial data set without local symmetries must sit inside a null perfect fluid spacetime carrying a global Killing vector field. We also show that the dominant energy scalar is always almost improvable in a precise sense. Using these main results, we provide a characterization of Bartnik mass minimizing initial data sets which makes substantial progress toward Bartnik’s stationary conjecture.

    Along the way we observe that in dimensions greater than eight there exist pp-wave counterexamples (without the optimal decay rate for asymptotically flatness) to the equality case of the spacetime positive mass theorem. As a consequence, we find counterexamples to Bartnik’s stationary and strict positivity conjectures in those dimensions. This talk is based on joint work with Dan A. Lee.

    3:30 pm–4:00 pmBreak
    4:00 pm–5:00 pmDemetre Kazaras, Duke University
    (virtual)
    Title: Comparison geometry for scalar curvature and spacetime harmonic functions

    Abstract: Comparison theorems are the basis for our geometric understanding of Riemannian manifolds satisfying a given curvature condition. A remarkable example is the Gromov-Lawson toric band inequality, which bounds the distance between the two sides of a Riemannian torus-cross-interval with positive scalar curvature by a sharp constant inversely proportional to the scalar curvature’s minimum. We will give a new qualitative version of this and similar band-type inequalities in dimension 3 using the notion of spacetime harmonic functions, which recently played the lead role in our recent proof of the positive mass theorem. This is joint work with Sven Hirsch, Marcus Khuri, and Yiyue Zhang.

     

    Thursday, April 7, 2022

    Time (ET)SpeakerTitle/Abstract
    9:30 am–10:30 amPiotr Chrusciel, Universitat Wien
    (virtual)
    Title: Maskit gluing and hyperbolic mass

    Abstract: “Maskit gluing” is a gluing construction for asymptotically locally hyperbolic (ALH) manifolds with negative cosmological constant. I will present a formula for the mass of Maskit-glued ALH manifolds and describe how it can be used to construct general relativistic initial data with negative mass.

    10:30 am–11:30 amGreg Galloway, University of Miami (virtual)Title:  Initial data rigidity and applications

    Abstract:  We present a result from our work with Michael Eichmair and Abraão Mendes concerning initial data rigidity results (CMP, 2021), and look at some consequences.  In a note with Piotr Chruściel (CQG 2021), we showed how to use this result, together with arguments from Chruściel and Delay’s proof of the their hyperbolic PMT result, to obtain a hyperbolic PMT result with boundary.  This will also be discussed.

    11:30 am–12:30 pmPengzi Miao, University of Miami
    (virtual)
    Title: Some remarks on mass and quasi-local mass

    Abstract: In the first part of this talk, I will describe how to detect the mass of asymptotically flat and asymptotically hyperbolic manifolds via large Riemannian polyhedra. In the second part, I will discuss an estimate of the Bartnik quasi-local mass and its geometric implications. This talk is based on several joint works with A. Piubello, and with H.C. Jang.

    12:30 pm–1:30 pmBreak
    1:30 pm–2:30 pmYakov Shlapentokh Rothman, Princeton
    (hybrid: in person & virtual)
    Title: Self-Similarity and Naked Singularities for the Einstein Vacuum Equations

    Abstract: We will start with an introduction to the problem of constructing naked singularities for the Einstein vacuum equations, and then explain our discovery of a fundamentally new type of self-similarity and show how this allows us to construct solutions corresponding to a naked singularity. This is joint work with Igor Rodnianski.

    2:30 pm–3:30 pmMarcelo Disconzi, Vanderbilt University
    (virtual)
    Title: General-relativistic viscous fluids.

    Abstract: The discovery of the quark-gluon plasma that forms in heavy-ion collision experiments provides a unique opportunity to study the properties of matter under extreme conditions, as the quark-gluon plasma is the hottest, smallest, and densest fluid known to humanity. Studying the quark-gluon plasma also provides a window into the earliest moments of the universe, since microseconds after the Big Bang the universe was filled with matter in the form of the quark-gluon plasma. For more than two decades, the community has intensely studied the quark-gluon plasma with the help of a rich interaction between experiments, theory, phenomenology, and numerical simulations. From these investigations, a coherent picture has emerged, indicating that the quark-gluon plasma behaves essentially like a relativistic liquid with viscosity. More recently, state-of-the-art numerical simulations strongly suggested that viscous and dissipative effects can also have non-negligible effects on gravitational waves produced by binary neutron star mergers. But despite the importance of viscous effects for the study of such systems, a robust and mathematically sound theory of relativistic fluids with viscosity is still lacking. This is due, in part, to difficulties to preserve causality upon the inclusion of viscous and dissipative effects into theories of relativistic fluids. In this talk, we will survey the history of the problem and report on a new approach to relativistic viscous fluids that addresses these issues.

    3:30 pm–4:00 pmBreak
    4:00 pm–5:00 pmMaxime van de Moortel, Princeton
    (hybrid: in person & virtual)
    Title: Black holes: the inside story of gravitational collapse

    Abstract: What is inside a dynamical black hole? While the local region near time-like infinity is understood for various models, the global structure of the black hole interior has largely remained unexplored.
    These questions are deeply connected to the nature of singularities in General Relativity and celebrated problems such as Penrose’s Strong Cosmic Censorship Conjecture.
    I will present my recent resolution of these problems in spherical gravitational collapse, based on the discovery of a novel phenomenon: the breakdown of weak singularities and the dynamical formation of a strong singularity.

     

    Friday, April 8, 2022

    Time (ET)SpeakerTitle/Abstract
    9:30 am–10:30 amYe-Kai Wang, National Cheng Kun University, Taiwan
    (virtual)
    Title: Supertranslation invariance of angular momentum at null infinity in double null gauge

    Abstract: This talk accompanies Po-Ning Chen’s talk on Monday with the results described in the double null gauge rather than Bondi-Sachs coordinates. Besides discussing
    how Chen-Wang-Yau angular momentum resolves the supertranslation ambiguity, we also review the definition of angular momentum defined by A. Rizzi. The talk is based on the joint work with Po-Ning Chen, Jordan Keller, Mu-Tao Wang, and Shing-Tung Yau.

    10:30 am–11:30 amZoe Wyatt, King’s College London
    (virtual)
    Title: Global Stability of Spacetimes with Supersymmetric Compactifications

    Abstract: Spacetimes with compact directions which have special holonomy, such as Calabi-Yau spaces, play an important role in
    supergravity and string theory. In this talk I will discuss a recent work with Lars Andersson, Pieter Blue and Shing-Tung Yau, where we show the global, nonlinear stability a spacetime which is a cartesian product of a high dimensional Minkowski space with a compact Ricci flat internal space with special holonomy. This stability result is related to a conjecture of Penrose concerning the validity of string theory. Our proof uses the intersection of methods for quasilinear wave and Klein-Gordon equations, and so towards the end of the talk I will also comment more generally on coupled wave–Klein-Gordon equations.

    11:30 am–12:30 pmElena Giorgi, Columbia University
    (hybrid: in person & virtual)
    Title: The stability of charged black holes

    Abstract: Black hole solutions in General Relativity are parametrized by their mass, spin and charge. In this talk, I will motivate why the charge of black holes adds interesting dynamics to solutions of the Einstein equation thanks to the interaction between gravitational and electromagnetic radiation. Such radiations are solutions of a system of coupled wave equations with a symmetric structure which allows to define a combined energy-momentum tensor for the system. Finally, I will show how this physical-space approach is resolutive in the most general case of Kerr-Newman black hole, where the interaction between the radiations prevents the separability in modes.

    12:30 pm–1:30 pmBreak
    1:30 pm–2:30 pmMarcus Khuri, Stony Brook University
    (virtual)
    Title: The mass-angular momentum inequality for multiple black holes

    Abstract
    : Consider a complete 3-dimensional initial data set for the Einstein equations which has multiple asymptotically flat or asymptotically cylindrical ends. If it is simply connected, axisymmetric, maximal, and satisfies the appropriate energy condition then the ADM mass of any of the asymptotically flat ends is bounded below by the square root of the total angular momentum. This generalizes previous work of Dain, Chrusciel-Li-Weinstein, and Schoen-Zhou which treated either the single black hole case or the multiple black hole case without an explicit lower bound. The proof relies on an analysis of the asymptotics of singular harmonic maps from
    R^3 \ \Gamma –>H^2   where \Gamma is a coordinate axis. This is joint work with Q. Han, G. Weinstein, and J. Xiong.
    2:30 pm–3:30 pmMartin Lesourd, Harvard
    (hybrid: in person & virtual)
    Title:  A Snippet on Mass and the Topology and Geometry of Positive Scalar Curvature

    Abstract:  I will talk about a small corner of the study of Positive Scalar Curvature (PSC) and questions which are most closely related to the Positive Mass Theorem. The classic questions are ”which topologies allow for PSC?” and ”what is the geometry of manifolds with PSC?”. This is based on joint work with Prof. S-T. Yau, Prof. D. A. Lee, and R. Unger.

    3:30 pm–4:00 pmBreak
    4:00 pm–5:00 pmGeorgios Moschidis, Princeton
    (virtual)
    Title: Weak turbulence for the Einstein–scalar field system.

    Abstract: In the presence of confinement, the Einstein field equations are expected to exhibit turbulent dynamics. In the presence of a negative cosmological constant, the AdS instability conjecture claims the existence of arbitrarily small perturbations to the initial data of Anti-de Sitter spacetime which, under evolution by the vacuum Einstein equations with reflecting boundary conditions at conformal infinity, lead to the formation of black holes after sufficiently long time.
    In this talk, I will present a rigorous proof of the AdS instability conjecture in the setting of the spherically symmetric Einstein-scalar field system. The construction of the unstable initial data will require carefully designing a family of initial configurations of localized matter beams and estimating the exchange of energy taking place between interacting beams over long periods of time, as well as estimating the decoherence rate of those beams.

     

    For the full schedule, please see: https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/gr-program/


    This conference will be held virtually on Zoom. Registration is required.
    Webinar Registration

    A few talks will be held in hybrid formats, with talks given from the CMSA seminar room, G-10. Advanced registration for in-person components is required.
    In-Person Registration

    For more information, please see https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/gr-program/

     

    CMSA General Relativity Conference

    9:30 AM-5:00 PM
    April 6, 2022-April 8, 2022

    The Harvard CMSA will be hosting a conference on General Relativity from April 4-8, 2022.
    This conference will be held virtually on Zoom. Registration is required.
    Webinar Registration A few talks will be held in hybrid formats, with talks given from the CMSA seminar room, G-10. Advanced registration for in-person components is required.
    In-Person Registration 

    For more information, please see: https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/gr-program/

     

    CMSA Colloquium: What is Mathematical Consciousness Science?

    9:30 AM-10:30 AM
    April 6, 2022

     In the last three decades, the problem of consciousness – how and why physical systems such as the brain have conscious experiences – has received increasing attention among neuroscientists, psychologists, and philosophers. Recently, a decidedly mathematical perspective has emerged as well, which is now called Mathematical Consciousness Science. In this talk, I will give an introduction and overview of Mathematical Consciousness Science for mathematicians, including a bottom-up introduction to the problem of consciousness and how it is amenable to mathematical tools and methods.


    For information on how to join, please see:  https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/seminars-and-colloquium/

    CMSA Quantum Matter in Mathematics and Physics: Late time von Neumann entropy and measurement-induced phase transition

    10:30 AM-11:30 AM
    April 6, 2022

    Characterizing many-body entanglement is one of the most important problems in quantum physics. We present our studies on the steady state von Neumann entropy and its transition in Brownian SYK models. For unitary evolution, we show that the correlations between different replicas account for the Page curve at late time, and a permutation group structure emerges in the large-N calculation. In the presence of measurements, we find a transition of von Neumann entropy from volume-law to area-law by increasing the measurement rate. We show that a proper replica limit can be taken, which shows that the transition occurs at the point of replica symmetry breaking.


    For information on how to join, please see:  https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/seminars-and-colloquium/

    Number Theory: Isolated points on modular curves

    3:00 PM-4:00 PM
    April 6, 2022
    1 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 USA

    Let C be an algebraic curve over a number field. Faltings’s theorem on rational points on subvarieties of abelian varieties implies that all algebraic points on C arise in algebraic families, with finitely many exceptions.  These exceptions are known as isolated points. We study how isolated points behave under morphisms and then specialize to the case of modular curves.  We show that isolated points on X_1(n) push down to isolated points on a modular curve whose level is bounded by a constant that depends only on the j-invariant of the isolated point.  This is joint work with A.
    Bourdon, O. Ejder, Y. Liu, and F. Odumodu.


     

    MIT-Harvard-MSR Combinatorics Seminar: Optimal Mixing of Glauber Dynamics for Spin Systems via Spectral Independence

    4:15 PM-5:15 PM
    April 6, 2022

    Consider the Gibbs distribution of the hardcore model over all independent sets of a given graph, where the probability density of each independent set J is proportional to lambda^|J| where lambda is a parameter. We study the single-site update Markov chain known as the Glauber dynamics for generating independent sets from this distribution. In each step, the dynamics picks a vertex uniformly at random and updates its status (inside or outside the independent set) conditional on the status of all other vertices. We prove optimal (nearly linear) mixing time bounds of the Glauber dynamics on bounded-degree graphs when lambda < lambda_c, beyond which it is known the dynamics can be exponentially slow. To establish our
    result, we utilize and improve the spectral independence approach of Anari, Liu, and Oveis Gharan (2020) and show optimal mixing time of the Glauber dynamics for spin systems when the maximum eigenvalues of
    associated influence matrices are bounded.

    The mathematics of misinformation

    4:30 PM-5:30 PM
    April 6, 2022
    1 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 USA

    In this talk I’ll gently survey various roles mathematics (often, but not always, in the form of machine learning) plays in our information ecosystem. I’ll discuss the math behind YouTube’s recommendation algorithm and Facebook’s News Feed algorithm and the impact the choice of objective function has on what society sees and thinks. I’ll explain how graph theory is used to quantitatively study the spread of news and misinformation on social media, and also how it is used to detect bot accounts. And I’ll explain the math behind deepfake photos and videos and text generating AI. No prior knowledge of machine learning or data science will be assumed, and the math will be accessible to all undergraduates.


     

    Joint Harvard-CUHK-YMSC Differential Geometry Seminar: Gopakumar-Vafa type invariants of holomorphic symplectic 4-folds

    9:30 PM-10:30 PM
    April 6, 2022

    Gromov-Witten invariants of holomorphic symplectic 4-folds vanish and one can consider the corresponding reduced theory. In this talk, we will explain a definition of Gopakumar-Vafa type invariants for such a reduced theory. These invariants are conjectured to be integers and have alternative interpretations using sheaf theoretic moduli spaces. Our conjecture is proved for the product of two K3 surfaces, which naturally leads to a closed formula of Fujiki constants of Chern classes of tangent bundles of Hilbert schemes of points on K3 surfaces. On a very general holomorphic symplectic 4-folds of K3^[2] type, our conjecture provides a Yau-Zaslow type formula for the number of isolated genus 2 curves of minimal degree. Based on joint works with Georg Oberdieck and Yukinobu Toda.


    For more information, please see: http://www.ims.cuhk.edu.hk/cgi-bin/SeminarAdmin/bin/Web

  • 07
    April 7, 2022

    CMSA General Relativity Program Conference

    All day
    April 7, 2022-April 8, 2022

    Monday, April 4, 2022

    Time (ET)SpeakerTitle/Abstract
    9:30 am–10:30 amPieter Blue, University of Edinburgh, UK
    (virtual)
    Title: Linear stability of the Kerr spacetime in the outgoing radiation gauge

    Abstract: This talk will discuss a new gauge condition (i.e. coordinate condition) for the Einstein equation, the linearisation of the Einstein equation in this gauge, and the decay of solutions to the linearised Einstein equation around Kerr black holes in this gauge. The stability of the family of Kerr black holes under the evolution generated by the Einstein equation is a long-standing problem in mathematical relativity. In 1972, Teukolsky discovered equations governing certain components of the linearised curvature that are invariant under linearised gague transformations. In 1975, Chrzanowski introduced the “outgoing radiation gauge”, a condition on the linearised metric that allows for the construction of the linearised metric from the linearised curvature. In 2019, we proved decay for the metric constructed using Chrzanowski’s outgoing radiation gauge. Recently, using a flow along null geodesics, we have constructed a new gauge such that, in this gauge, the Einstein equation is well posed and such that the linearisation is Chrzanowski’s outgoing radiation gauge.

    This is joint work with Lars Andersson, Thomas Backdahl, and Siyuan Ma.

    10:30 am–11:30 amPeter Hintz, MIT
    (virtual)
    Title: Mode stability and shallow quasinormal modes of Kerr-de Sitter
    black holes

    Abstract: The Kerr-de Sitter metric describes a rotating black hole with mass $m$ and specific angular momentum $a$ in a universe, such as our own, with cosmological constant $\Lambda>0$. I will explain a proof of mode stability for the scalar wave equation on Kerr-de Sitter spacetimes in the following setting: fixing $\Lambda$ and the ratio $|a/m|<1$ (related to the subextremality of the black hole in question), mode stability holds for sufficiently small black hole mass $m$. We also obtain estimates for the location of quasinormal modes (resonances) $\sigma$ in any fixed half space $\Im\sigma>-C$. Our results imply that solutions of the wave equation decay exponentially in time to constants, with an explicit exponential rate. The proof is based on careful uniform estimates for the spectral family in the singular limit $m\to 0$ in which, depending on the scaling, the Kerr-de Sitter spacetime limits to a Kerr or the de Sitter spacetime.

    11:30 am–12:30 pmLars Andersson, Albert Einstein Institute, Germany
    (virtual)
    Title: Gravitational instantons and special geometry

    Abstract: Gravitational instantons are Ricci flat complete Riemannian 4-manifolds with at least quadratic curvature decay. In this talk, I will introduce some notions of special geometry, discuss known examples, and mention some open questions. The Chen-Teo gravitational instanton is an asymptotically flat, toric, Ricci flat family of metrics on $\mathrm{CP}^2 \setminus \mathrm{S}^1$, that provides a counterexample to the classical Euclidean Black Hole Uniqueness conjecture. I will sketch a proof that the Chen-Teo Instanton is Hermitian and non-Kähler. Thus, all known examples of gravitational instantons are Hermitian. This talks is based on joint work with Steffen Aksteiner, cf. https://arxiv.org/abs/2112.11863.

    12:30 pm–1:30 pmbreak
    1:30 pm–2:30 pmMartin Taylor, Imperial College London
    (virtual)
    Title: The nonlinear stability of the Schwarzschild family of black holes

    Abstract: I will present a theorem on the full finite codimension nonlinear asymptotic stability of the Schwarzschild family of black holes.  The proof employs a double null gauge, is expressed entirely in physical space, and utilises the analysis of Dafermos–Holzegel–Rodnianski on the linear stability of the Schwarzschild family.  This is joint work with M. Dafermos, G. Holzegel and I. Rodnianski.

    2:30 pm–3:30 pmPo-Ning Chen, University of California, Riverside
    (virtual)
    Title: Angular momentum in general relativity

    Abstract:
    The definition of angular momentum in general relativity has been a subtle issue since the 1960s, due to the ‘supertranslation ambiguity’. In this talk, we will discuss how the mathematical theory of quasilocal mass and angular momentum leads to a new definition of angular momentum at null infinity that is free of any supertranslation ambiguity.

    This is based on joint work with Jordan Keller, Mu-Tao Wang, Ye-Kai Wang, and Shing-Tung Yau.

    3:30 pm–4:00 pmbreak
    4:00 pm–5:00 pmDan Lee, Queens College (CUNY)
    (hybrid: in person & virtual)
    Title: Stability of the positive mass theorem

    Abstract: We will discuss the problem of stability for the rigidity part of the Riemannian positive mass theorem, focusing on recent work with Kazaras and Khuri, in which we proved that if one assumes a lower Ricci curvature bound, then stability holds with respect to pointed Gromov-Hausdorff convergence.

     

    Tuesday, April 5, 2022

    Time (ET)SpeakerTitle/Abstract
    9:30 am–10:30 amXinliang An, National University of Singapore
    (virtual)
    Title: Anisotropic dynamical horizons arising in gravitational collapse

    Abstract: Black holes are predicted by Einstein’s theory of general relativity, and now we have ample observational evidence for their existence. However theoretically there are many unanswered questions about how black holes come into being and about the structures of their inner spacetime singularities. In this talk, we will present several results in these directions. First, in a joint work with Qing Han, with tools from scale-critical hyperbolic method and non-perturbative elliptic techniques, with anisotropic characteristic initial data we prove that: in the process of gravitational collapse, a smooth and spacelike apparent horizon (dynamical horizon) emerges from general (both isotropic and anisotropic) initial data. This result extends the 2008 Christodoulou’s monumental work and it connects to black hole thermodynamics along the apparent horizon. Second, in joint works with Dejan Gajic and Ruixiang Zhang, for the spherically symmetric Einstein-scalar field system, we derive precise blow-up rates for various geometric quantities along the inner spacelike singularities. These rates obey polynomial blow-up upper bounds; and when it is close to timelike infinity, these rates are not limited to discrete finite choices and they are related to the Price’s law along the event horizon. This indicates a new blow-up phenomenon, driven by a PDE mechanism, rather than an ODE mechanism. If time permits, some results on fluid dynamics will also be addressed.

    10:30 am–11:30 amSergiu Klainerman, Princeton
    (virtual)
    Title: Nonlinear stability of slowly rotating Kerr solutions

    Abstract: I will talk about the status of the stability of Kerr conjecture in General Relativity based on recent results obtained in collaboration with Jeremie Szeftel and Elena Giorgi.

    11:30 am–12:30 pmSiyuan Ma, Sorbonne University
    (virtual)
    Title: Sharp decay for Teukolsky master equation

    Abstract: I will talk about joint work with L. Zhang on deriving the late time dynamics of the spin $s$ components that satisfy the Teukolsky master equation in Kerr spacetimes.

    12:30 pm–1:30 pmBreak
    1:30 pm–2:30 pmJonathan Luk, Stanford
    (virtual)
    Title: A tale of two tails

    Abstract: Motivated by the strong cosmic censorship conjecture, we introduce a general method for understanding the late-time tail for solutions to wave equations on asymptotically flat spacetimes in odd spatial dimensions. A particular consequence of the method is a re-proof of Price’s law-type results, which concern the sharp decay rate of the late-time tails on stationary spacetimes. Moreover, we show that the late-time tails are in general different from the stationary case in the presence of dynamical and/or nonlinear perturbations. This is a joint work with Sung-Jin Oh (Berkeley).

    2:30 pm–3:30 pmGary Horowitz, University of California Santa Barbara
    (virtual)
    Title: A new type of extremal black hole

    Abstract: I describe a family of four-dimensional, asymptotically flat, charged black holes that develop (charged) scalar hair as one increases their charge at fixed mass. Surprisingly, the maximum charge for given mass is a nonsingular hairy black hole with a nondegenerate event horizon. Since the surface gravity is nonzero, if quantum matter is added, Hawking radiation does not appear to stop when this new extremal limit is reached. This raises the question of whether Hawking radiation will cause the black hole to turn into a naked singularity. I will argue that does not occur.

    3:30 pm–4:00 pmBreak
    4:00 pm–5:00 pmLydia Bieri, University of Michigan
    (virtual)
    Title: Gravitational radiation in general spacetimes

    Abstract: Studies of gravitational waves have been devoted mostly to sources such as binary black hole mergers or neutron star mergers, or generally sources that are stationary outside of a compact set. These systems are described by asymptotically-flat manifolds solving the Einstein equations with sufficiently fast decay of the gravitational field towards Minkowski spacetime far away from the source. Waves from such sources have been recorded by the LIGO/VIRGO collaboration since 2015. In this talk, I will present new results on gravitational radiation for sources that are not stationary outside of a compact set, but whose gravitational fields decay more slowly towards infinity. A panorama of new gravitational effects opens up when delving deeper into these more general spacetimes. In particular, whereas the former sources produce memory effects that are finite and of purely electric parity, the latter in addition generate memory of magnetic type, and both types grow. These new effects emerge naturally from the Einstein equations both in the Einstein vacuum case and for neutrino radiation. The latter results are important for sources with extended neutrino halos.

     

    Wednesday, April 6, 2022

    Time (ET)SpeakerTitle/Abstract
    9:30 am–10:30 amGerhard Huisken, Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach
    (virtual)
    TBA
    10:30 am–11:30 amCarla Cederbaum, Universität Tübingen, Germany
    (virtual)
    Title: Coordinates are messy

    Abstract: Asymptotically Euclidean initial data sets $(M,g,K)$ are characterized by the existence of asymptotic coordinates in which the Riemannian metric $g$ and second fundamental form $K$ decay to the Euclidean metric $\delta$ and to $0$ suitably fast, respectively. Provided their matter densities satisfy suitable integrability conditions, they have well-defined (ADM-)energy, (ADM-)linear momentum, and (ADM-)mass. This was proven by Bartnik using harmonic coordinates. To study their (ADM-)angular momentum and (BORT-)center of mass, one usually assumes the existence of Regge—Teitelboim coordinates on the initial data set $(M,g,K)$ in question. We will give examples of asymptotically Euclidean initial data sets which do not possess any Regge—Teitelboim coordinates We will also show that harmonic coordinates can be used as a tool in checking whether a given asymptotically Euclidean initial data set possesses Regge—Teitelboim coordinates. This is joint work with Melanie Graf and Jan Metzger. We will also explain the consequences these findings have for the definition of the center of mass, relying on joint work with Nerz and with Sakovich.

    11:30 am–12:30 pmStefanos Aretakis, University of Toronto
    (virtual)
    Title: Observational signatures for extremal black holes

    Abstract: We will present results regarding the asymptotics of scalar perturbations on black hole backgrounds. We will then derive observational signatures for extremal black holes that are based on global or localized measurements on null infinity. This is based on joint work with Gajic-Angelopoulos and ongoing work with Khanna-Sabharwal.

    12:30 pm–1:30 pmBreak
    1:30 pm–2:30 pmJared Speck, Vanderbilt University
    (virtual)
    Title: The mathematical theory of shock waves in multi-dimensional relativistic and non-relativistic compressible Euler flow

    Abstract: In the last two decades, there have been dramatic advances in the rigorous mathematical theory of shock waves in solutions to the relativistic Euler equations and their non-relativistic analog, the compressible Euler equations. A lot of the progress has relied on techniques that were developed to study Einstein’s equations. In this talk, I will provide an overview of the field and highlight some recent progress on problems without symmetry or irrotationality assumptions. I will focus on results that reveal various aspects of the structure of the maximal development of the data and the corresponding implications for the shock development problem, which is the problem of continuing the solution weakly after a shock. I will also describe various open problems, some of which are tied to the Einstein–Euler equations. Various aspects of this program are joint with L. Abbrescia, M. Disconzi, and J. Luk.

    2:30 pm–3:30 pmLan-Hsuan Huang, University of Connecticut
    (hybrid: in person & virtual)
    Title: Null perfect fluids, improvability of dominant energy scalar, and Bartnik mass minimizers

    Abstract: We introduce the concept of improvability of the dominant energy scalar, and we derive strong consequences of non-improvability. In particular, we prove that a non-improvable initial data set without local symmetries must sit inside a null perfect fluid spacetime carrying a global Killing vector field. We also show that the dominant energy scalar is always almost improvable in a precise sense. Using these main results, we provide a characterization of Bartnik mass minimizing initial data sets which makes substantial progress toward Bartnik’s stationary conjecture.

    Along the way we observe that in dimensions greater than eight there exist pp-wave counterexamples (without the optimal decay rate for asymptotically flatness) to the equality case of the spacetime positive mass theorem. As a consequence, we find counterexamples to Bartnik’s stationary and strict positivity conjectures in those dimensions. This talk is based on joint work with Dan A. Lee.

    3:30 pm–4:00 pmBreak
    4:00 pm–5:00 pmDemetre Kazaras, Duke University
    (virtual)
    Title: Comparison geometry for scalar curvature and spacetime harmonic functions

    Abstract: Comparison theorems are the basis for our geometric understanding of Riemannian manifolds satisfying a given curvature condition. A remarkable example is the Gromov-Lawson toric band inequality, which bounds the distance between the two sides of a Riemannian torus-cross-interval with positive scalar curvature by a sharp constant inversely proportional to the scalar curvature’s minimum. We will give a new qualitative version of this and similar band-type inequalities in dimension 3 using the notion of spacetime harmonic functions, which recently played the lead role in our recent proof of the positive mass theorem. This is joint work with Sven Hirsch, Marcus Khuri, and Yiyue Zhang.

     

    Thursday, April 7, 2022

    Time (ET)SpeakerTitle/Abstract
    9:30 am–10:30 amPiotr Chrusciel, Universitat Wien
    (virtual)
    Title: Maskit gluing and hyperbolic mass

    Abstract: “Maskit gluing” is a gluing construction for asymptotically locally hyperbolic (ALH) manifolds with negative cosmological constant. I will present a formula for the mass of Maskit-glued ALH manifolds and describe how it can be used to construct general relativistic initial data with negative mass.

    10:30 am–11:30 amGreg Galloway, University of Miami (virtual)Title:  Initial data rigidity and applications

    Abstract:  We present a result from our work with Michael Eichmair and Abraão Mendes concerning initial data rigidity results (CMP, 2021), and look at some consequences.  In a note with Piotr Chruściel (CQG 2021), we showed how to use this result, together with arguments from Chruściel and Delay’s proof of the their hyperbolic PMT result, to obtain a hyperbolic PMT result with boundary.  This will also be discussed.

    11:30 am–12:30 pmPengzi Miao, University of Miami
    (virtual)
    Title: Some remarks on mass and quasi-local mass

    Abstract: In the first part of this talk, I will describe how to detect the mass of asymptotically flat and asymptotically hyperbolic manifolds via large Riemannian polyhedra. In the second part, I will discuss an estimate of the Bartnik quasi-local mass and its geometric implications. This talk is based on several joint works with A. Piubello, and with H.C. Jang.

    12:30 pm–1:30 pmBreak
    1:30 pm–2:30 pmYakov Shlapentokh Rothman, Princeton
    (hybrid: in person & virtual)
    Title: Self-Similarity and Naked Singularities for the Einstein Vacuum Equations

    Abstract: We will start with an introduction to the problem of constructing naked singularities for the Einstein vacuum equations, and then explain our discovery of a fundamentally new type of self-similarity and show how this allows us to construct solutions corresponding to a naked singularity. This is joint work with Igor Rodnianski.

    2:30 pm–3:30 pmMarcelo Disconzi, Vanderbilt University
    (virtual)
    Title: General-relativistic viscous fluids.

    Abstract: The discovery of the quark-gluon plasma that forms in heavy-ion collision experiments provides a unique opportunity to study the properties of matter under extreme conditions, as the quark-gluon plasma is the hottest, smallest, and densest fluid known to humanity. Studying the quark-gluon plasma also provides a window into the earliest moments of the universe, since microseconds after the Big Bang the universe was filled with matter in the form of the quark-gluon plasma. For more than two decades, the community has intensely studied the quark-gluon plasma with the help of a rich interaction between experiments, theory, phenomenology, and numerical simulations. From these investigations, a coherent picture has emerged, indicating that the quark-gluon plasma behaves essentially like a relativistic liquid with viscosity. More recently, state-of-the-art numerical simulations strongly suggested that viscous and dissipative effects can also have non-negligible effects on gravitational waves produced by binary neutron star mergers. But despite the importance of viscous effects for the study of such systems, a robust and mathematically sound theory of relativistic fluids with viscosity is still lacking. This is due, in part, to difficulties to preserve causality upon the inclusion of viscous and dissipative effects into theories of relativistic fluids. In this talk, we will survey the history of the problem and report on a new approach to relativistic viscous fluids that addresses these issues.

    3:30 pm–4:00 pmBreak
    4:00 pm–5:00 pmMaxime van de Moortel, Princeton
    (hybrid: in person & virtual)
    Title: Black holes: the inside story of gravitational collapse

    Abstract: What is inside a dynamical black hole? While the local region near time-like infinity is understood for various models, the global structure of the black hole interior has largely remained unexplored.
    These questions are deeply connected to the nature of singularities in General Relativity and celebrated problems such as Penrose’s Strong Cosmic Censorship Conjecture.
    I will present my recent resolution of these problems in spherical gravitational collapse, based on the discovery of a novel phenomenon: the breakdown of weak singularities and the dynamical formation of a strong singularity.

     

    Friday, April 8, 2022

    Time (ET)SpeakerTitle/Abstract
    9:30 am–10:30 amYe-Kai Wang, National Cheng Kun University, Taiwan
    (virtual)
    Title: Supertranslation invariance of angular momentum at null infinity in double null gauge

    Abstract: This talk accompanies Po-Ning Chen’s talk on Monday with the results described in the double null gauge rather than Bondi-Sachs coordinates. Besides discussing
    how Chen-Wang-Yau angular momentum resolves the supertranslation ambiguity, we also review the definition of angular momentum defined by A. Rizzi. The talk is based on the joint work with Po-Ning Chen, Jordan Keller, Mu-Tao Wang, and Shing-Tung Yau.

    10:30 am–11:30 amZoe Wyatt, King’s College London
    (virtual)
    Title: Global Stability of Spacetimes with Supersymmetric Compactifications

    Abstract: Spacetimes with compact directions which have special holonomy, such as Calabi-Yau spaces, play an important role in
    supergravity and string theory. In this talk I will discuss a recent work with Lars Andersson, Pieter Blue and Shing-Tung Yau, where we show the global, nonlinear stability a spacetime which is a cartesian product of a high dimensional Minkowski space with a compact Ricci flat internal space with special holonomy. This stability result is related to a conjecture of Penrose concerning the validity of string theory. Our proof uses the intersection of methods for quasilinear wave and Klein-Gordon equations, and so towards the end of the talk I will also comment more generally on coupled wave–Klein-Gordon equations.

    11:30 am–12:30 pmElena Giorgi, Columbia University
    (hybrid: in person & virtual)
    Title: The stability of charged black holes

    Abstract: Black hole solutions in General Relativity are parametrized by their mass, spin and charge. In this talk, I will motivate why the charge of black holes adds interesting dynamics to solutions of the Einstein equation thanks to the interaction between gravitational and electromagnetic radiation. Such radiations are solutions of a system of coupled wave equations with a symmetric structure which allows to define a combined energy-momentum tensor for the system. Finally, I will show how this physical-space approach is resolutive in the most general case of Kerr-Newman black hole, where the interaction between the radiations prevents the separability in modes.

    12:30 pm–1:30 pmBreak
    1:30 pm–2:30 pmMarcus Khuri, Stony Brook University
    (virtual)
    Title: The mass-angular momentum inequality for multiple black holes

    Abstract
    : Consider a complete 3-dimensional initial data set for the Einstein equations which has multiple asymptotically flat or asymptotically cylindrical ends. If it is simply connected, axisymmetric, maximal, and satisfies the appropriate energy condition then the ADM mass of any of the asymptotically flat ends is bounded below by the square root of the total angular momentum. This generalizes previous work of Dain, Chrusciel-Li-Weinstein, and Schoen-Zhou which treated either the single black hole case or the multiple black hole case without an explicit lower bound. The proof relies on an analysis of the asymptotics of singular harmonic maps from
    R^3 \ \Gamma –>H^2   where \Gamma is a coordinate axis. This is joint work with Q. Han, G. Weinstein, and J. Xiong.
    2:30 pm–3:30 pmMartin Lesourd, Harvard
    (hybrid: in person & virtual)
    Title:  A Snippet on Mass and the Topology and Geometry of Positive Scalar Curvature

    Abstract:  I will talk about a small corner of the study of Positive Scalar Curvature (PSC) and questions which are most closely related to the Positive Mass Theorem. The classic questions are ”which topologies allow for PSC?” and ”what is the geometry of manifolds with PSC?”. This is based on joint work with Prof. S-T. Yau, Prof. D. A. Lee, and R. Unger.

    3:30 pm–4:00 pmBreak
    4:00 pm–5:00 pmGeorgios Moschidis, Princeton
    (virtual)
    Title: Weak turbulence for the Einstein–scalar field system.

    Abstract: In the presence of confinement, the Einstein field equations are expected to exhibit turbulent dynamics. In the presence of a negative cosmological constant, the AdS instability conjecture claims the existence of arbitrarily small perturbations to the initial data of Anti-de Sitter spacetime which, under evolution by the vacuum Einstein equations with reflecting boundary conditions at conformal infinity, lead to the formation of black holes after sufficiently long time.
    In this talk, I will present a rigorous proof of the AdS instability conjecture in the setting of the spherically symmetric Einstein-scalar field system. The construction of the unstable initial data will require carefully designing a family of initial configurations of localized matter beams and estimating the exchange of energy taking place between interacting beams over long periods of time, as well as estimating the decoherence rate of those beams.

     

    For the full schedule, please see: https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/gr-program/


    This conference will be held virtually on Zoom. Registration is required.
    Webinar Registration

    A few talks will be held in hybrid formats, with talks given from the CMSA seminar room, G-10. Advanced registration for in-person components is required.
    In-Person Registration

    For more information, please see https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/gr-program/

     

    CMSA Interdisciplinary Science: The space of vector bundles on spheres: algebra, geometry, topology

    9:00 AM-10:00 AM
    April 7, 2022

    Bott periodicity relates vector bundles on a topological space X to vector bundles on X “times a sphere”.   I’m not a topologist, so I will try to explain an algebraic or geometric incarnation, in terms of vector bundles on the Riemann sphere.   I will attempt to make the talk introductory, and (for the most part) accessible to those in all fields, at the expense of speaking informally and not getting far.   This relates to recent work of Hannah Larson, as well as joint work with (separately) Larson and Jim Bryan.


    For information on how to join, please see:  https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/seminars-and-colloquium/

    Math Picture Language Seminar: A Natural Limitation for Properly Human Scientific Progress

    9:30 AM-10:30 AM
    April 7, 2022

    It follows rather directly from Gödel that mathematical progress per mathematician should diminish with time. The real problem is what relation there is between human mathematics and the set of consequences of the ZFC axioms.


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

    CMSA Quantum Matter in Mathematics and Physics: Lattice Gauge Theory View of Toric Codes, X-cube, and More

    9:30 AM-11:00 AM
    April 7, 2022

    Exactly solvable spin models such as toric codes and X-cube model have heightened our understanding of spin liquids and topological matter in two and three dimensions. Their exact solvability, it turns out, is rooted in the existence of commuting generators in their parent lattice gauge theory (LGT). We can understand the toric codes as Higgsed descendants of the rank-1 U(1) LGT in two and three dimensions, and the X-cube model as that of rank-2 U(1) LGT in three dimensions. Furthermore, the transformation properties of the gauge fields in the respective LGT is responsible for, and nearly determines the structure of the effective field theory (EFT) of the accompanying matter fields. We show how to construct the EFT of e and m particles in the toric codes and of fractons and lineons in the X-cube model by following such an idea. Recently we proposed some stabilizer Hamiltonians termed rank-2 toric code (R2TC) and F3 model (3D). We will explain what they are, and construct their EFTs using the gauge principle as guidance. The resulting field theory of the matter fields are usually highly interacting and exhibit unusual conservation laws. Especially for the R2TC, we demonstrate the existence of what we call the “dipolar braiding statistics” and outline the accompanying field theory which differs from the usual BF field theory of anyon braiding.


    For information on how to join, please see:  https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/seminars-and-colloquium/

    CMSA General Relativity Conference

    9:30 AM-5:00 PM
    April 7, 2022-April 8, 2022

    The Harvard CMSA will be hosting a conference on General Relativity from April 4-8, 2022.
    This conference will be held virtually on Zoom. Registration is required.
    Webinar Registration A few talks will be held in hybrid formats, with talks given from the CMSA seminar room, G-10. Advanced registration for in-person components is required.
    In-Person Registration 

    For more information, please see: https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/gr-program/

     

    Algebraic Dynamics: Torsion points of elliptic curves via Berkovich spaces over Z

    10:00 AM-12:00 PM
    April 7, 2022

    Berkovich spaces over Z may be seen as fibrations containing complex analytic spaces as well as p-adic analytic spaces, for every prime number p. We will give an introduction to those spaces and explain how they may be used in an arithmetic context to prove height inequalities. As an application, following a strategy by DeMarco-Krieger-Ye, we will give a proof of a conjecture of Bogomolov-Fu-Tschinkel on uniform bounds on the number of common images on P^1 of torsion points of two elliptic curves.


    CMSA Active Matter: Theories of branching morphogenesis

    1:00 PM-2:00 PM
    April 7, 2022

    The morphogenesis of branched tissues has been a subject of long-standing debate. Although much is known about the molecular pathways that control cell fate decisions, it remains unclear how macroscopic features of branched organs, including their size, network topology and spatial pattern are encoded. Based on large-scale reconstructions of the mouse mammary gland and kidney, we begin by showing that statistical features of the developing branched epithelium can be explained quantitatively by a local self-organizing principle based on a branching and annihilating random walk (BARW). In this model, renewing tip-localized progenitors drive a serial process of ductal elongation and stochastic tip bifurcation that terminates when active tips encounter maturing ducts. Then, based on reconstructions of the developing mouse salivary gland, we propose a generalisation of BARW model in which tips arrested through steric interaction with proximate ducts reactivate their branching programme as constraints become alleviated through the expansion of the underlying mesenchyme. This inflationary branching-arresting random walk model offers a more general paradigm for branching morphogenesis when the ductal epithelium grows cooperatively with the tissue into which it expands.


    For information on how to join, please see:  https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/seminars-and-colloquium/

  • 08
    April 8, 2022

    CMSA General Relativity Program Conference

    All day
    April 8, 2022-April 8, 2022

    Monday, April 4, 2022

    Time (ET)SpeakerTitle/Abstract
    9:30 am–10:30 amPieter Blue, University of Edinburgh, UK
    (virtual)
    Title: Linear stability of the Kerr spacetime in the outgoing radiation gauge

    Abstract: This talk will discuss a new gauge condition (i.e. coordinate condition) for the Einstein equation, the linearisation of the Einstein equation in this gauge, and the decay of solutions to the linearised Einstein equation around Kerr black holes in this gauge. The stability of the family of Kerr black holes under the evolution generated by the Einstein equation is a long-standing problem in mathematical relativity. In 1972, Teukolsky discovered equations governing certain components of the linearised curvature that are invariant under linearised gague transformations. In 1975, Chrzanowski introduced the “outgoing radiation gauge”, a condition on the linearised metric that allows for the construction of the linearised metric from the linearised curvature. In 2019, we proved decay for the metric constructed using Chrzanowski’s outgoing radiation gauge. Recently, using a flow along null geodesics, we have constructed a new gauge such that, in this gauge, the Einstein equation is well posed and such that the linearisation is Chrzanowski’s outgoing radiation gauge.

    This is joint work with Lars Andersson, Thomas Backdahl, and Siyuan Ma.

    10:30 am–11:30 amPeter Hintz, MIT
    (virtual)
    Title: Mode stability and shallow quasinormal modes of Kerr-de Sitter
    black holes

    Abstract: The Kerr-de Sitter metric describes a rotating black hole with mass $m$ and specific angular momentum $a$ in a universe, such as our own, with cosmological constant $\Lambda>0$. I will explain a proof of mode stability for the scalar wave equation on Kerr-de Sitter spacetimes in the following setting: fixing $\Lambda$ and the ratio $|a/m|<1$ (related to the subextremality of the black hole in question), mode stability holds for sufficiently small black hole mass $m$. We also obtain estimates for the location of quasinormal modes (resonances) $\sigma$ in any fixed half space $\Im\sigma>-C$. Our results imply that solutions of the wave equation decay exponentially in time to constants, with an explicit exponential rate. The proof is based on careful uniform estimates for the spectral family in the singular limit $m\to 0$ in which, depending on the scaling, the Kerr-de Sitter spacetime limits to a Kerr or the de Sitter spacetime.

    11:30 am–12:30 pmLars Andersson, Albert Einstein Institute, Germany
    (virtual)
    Title: Gravitational instantons and special geometry

    Abstract: Gravitational instantons are Ricci flat complete Riemannian 4-manifolds with at least quadratic curvature decay. In this talk, I will introduce some notions of special geometry, discuss known examples, and mention some open questions. The Chen-Teo gravitational instanton is an asymptotically flat, toric, Ricci flat family of metrics on $\mathrm{CP}^2 \setminus \mathrm{S}^1$, that provides a counterexample to the classical Euclidean Black Hole Uniqueness conjecture. I will sketch a proof that the Chen-Teo Instanton is Hermitian and non-Kähler. Thus, all known examples of gravitational instantons are Hermitian. This talks is based on joint work with Steffen Aksteiner, cf. https://arxiv.org/abs/2112.11863.

    12:30 pm–1:30 pmbreak
    1:30 pm–2:30 pmMartin Taylor, Imperial College London
    (virtual)
    Title: The nonlinear stability of the Schwarzschild family of black holes

    Abstract: I will present a theorem on the full finite codimension nonlinear asymptotic stability of the Schwarzschild family of black holes.  The proof employs a double null gauge, is expressed entirely in physical space, and utilises the analysis of Dafermos–Holzegel–Rodnianski on the linear stability of the Schwarzschild family.  This is joint work with M. Dafermos, G. Holzegel and I. Rodnianski.

    2:30 pm–3:30 pmPo-Ning Chen, University of California, Riverside
    (virtual)
    Title: Angular momentum in general relativity

    Abstract:
    The definition of angular momentum in general relativity has been a subtle issue since the 1960s, due to the ‘supertranslation ambiguity’. In this talk, we will discuss how the mathematical theory of quasilocal mass and angular momentum leads to a new definition of angular momentum at null infinity that is free of any supertranslation ambiguity.

    This is based on joint work with Jordan Keller, Mu-Tao Wang, Ye-Kai Wang, and Shing-Tung Yau.

    3:30 pm–4:00 pmbreak
    4:00 pm–5:00 pmDan Lee, Queens College (CUNY)
    (hybrid: in person & virtual)
    Title: Stability of the positive mass theorem

    Abstract: We will discuss the problem of stability for the rigidity part of the Riemannian positive mass theorem, focusing on recent work with Kazaras and Khuri, in which we proved that if one assumes a lower Ricci curvature bound, then stability holds with respect to pointed Gromov-Hausdorff convergence.

     

    Tuesday, April 5, 2022

    Time (ET)SpeakerTitle/Abstract
    9:30 am–10:30 amXinliang An, National University of Singapore
    (virtual)
    Title: Anisotropic dynamical horizons arising in gravitational collapse

    Abstract: Black holes are predicted by Einstein’s theory of general relativity, and now we have ample observational evidence for their existence. However theoretically there are many unanswered questions about how black holes come into being and about the structures of their inner spacetime singularities. In this talk, we will present several results in these directions. First, in a joint work with Qing Han, with tools from scale-critical hyperbolic method and non-perturbative elliptic techniques, with anisotropic characteristic initial data we prove that: in the process of gravitational collapse, a smooth and spacelike apparent horizon (dynamical horizon) emerges from general (both isotropic and anisotropic) initial data. This result extends the 2008 Christodoulou’s monumental work and it connects to black hole thermodynamics along the apparent horizon. Second, in joint works with Dejan Gajic and Ruixiang Zhang, for the spherically symmetric Einstein-scalar field system, we derive precise blow-up rates for various geometric quantities along the inner spacelike singularities. These rates obey polynomial blow-up upper bounds; and when it is close to timelike infinity, these rates are not limited to discrete finite choices and they are related to the Price’s law along the event horizon. This indicates a new blow-up phenomenon, driven by a PDE mechanism, rather than an ODE mechanism. If time permits, some results on fluid dynamics will also be addressed.

    10:30 am–11:30 amSergiu Klainerman, Princeton
    (virtual)
    Title: Nonlinear stability of slowly rotating Kerr solutions

    Abstract: I will talk about the status of the stability of Kerr conjecture in General Relativity based on recent results obtained in collaboration with Jeremie Szeftel and Elena Giorgi.

    11:30 am–12:30 pmSiyuan Ma, Sorbonne University
    (virtual)
    Title: Sharp decay for Teukolsky master equation

    Abstract: I will talk about joint work with L. Zhang on deriving the late time dynamics of the spin $s$ components that satisfy the Teukolsky master equation in Kerr spacetimes.

    12:30 pm–1:30 pmBreak
    1:30 pm–2:30 pmJonathan Luk, Stanford
    (virtual)
    Title: A tale of two tails

    Abstract: Motivated by the strong cosmic censorship conjecture, we introduce a general method for understanding the late-time tail for solutions to wave equations on asymptotically flat spacetimes in odd spatial dimensions. A particular consequence of the method is a re-proof of Price’s law-type results, which concern the sharp decay rate of the late-time tails on stationary spacetimes. Moreover, we show that the late-time tails are in general different from the stationary case in the presence of dynamical and/or nonlinear perturbations. This is a joint work with Sung-Jin Oh (Berkeley).

    2:30 pm–3:30 pmGary Horowitz, University of California Santa Barbara
    (virtual)
    Title: A new type of extremal black hole

    Abstract: I describe a family of four-dimensional, asymptotically flat, charged black holes that develop (charged) scalar hair as one increases their charge at fixed mass. Surprisingly, the maximum charge for given mass is a nonsingular hairy black hole with a nondegenerate event horizon. Since the surface gravity is nonzero, if quantum matter is added, Hawking radiation does not appear to stop when this new extremal limit is reached. This raises the question of whether Hawking radiation will cause the black hole to turn into a naked singularity. I will argue that does not occur.

    3:30 pm–4:00 pmBreak
    4:00 pm–5:00 pmLydia Bieri, University of Michigan
    (virtual)
    Title: Gravitational radiation in general spacetimes

    Abstract: Studies of gravitational waves have been devoted mostly to sources such as binary black hole mergers or neutron star mergers, or generally sources that are stationary outside of a compact set. These systems are described by asymptotically-flat manifolds solving the Einstein equations with sufficiently fast decay of the gravitational field towards Minkowski spacetime far away from the source. Waves from such sources have been recorded by the LIGO/VIRGO collaboration since 2015. In this talk, I will present new results on gravitational radiation for sources that are not stationary outside of a compact set, but whose gravitational fields decay more slowly towards infinity. A panorama of new gravitational effects opens up when delving deeper into these more general spacetimes. In particular, whereas the former sources produce memory effects that are finite and of purely electric parity, the latter in addition generate memory of magnetic type, and both types grow. These new effects emerge naturally from the Einstein equations both in the Einstein vacuum case and for neutrino radiation. The latter results are important for sources with extended neutrino halos.

     

    Wednesday, April 6, 2022

    Time (ET)SpeakerTitle/Abstract
    9:30 am–10:30 amGerhard Huisken, Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach
    (virtual)
    TBA
    10:30 am–11:30 amCarla Cederbaum, Universität Tübingen, Germany
    (virtual)
    Title: Coordinates are messy

    Abstract: Asymptotically Euclidean initial data sets $(M,g,K)$ are characterized by the existence of asymptotic coordinates in which the Riemannian metric $g$ and second fundamental form $K$ decay to the Euclidean metric $\delta$ and to $0$ suitably fast, respectively. Provided their matter densities satisfy suitable integrability conditions, they have well-defined (ADM-)energy, (ADM-)linear momentum, and (ADM-)mass. This was proven by Bartnik using harmonic coordinates. To study their (ADM-)angular momentum and (BORT-)center of mass, one usually assumes the existence of Regge—Teitelboim coordinates on the initial data set $(M,g,K)$ in question. We will give examples of asymptotically Euclidean initial data sets which do not possess any Regge—Teitelboim coordinates We will also show that harmonic coordinates can be used as a tool in checking whether a given asymptotically Euclidean initial data set possesses Regge—Teitelboim coordinates. This is joint work with Melanie Graf and Jan Metzger. We will also explain the consequences these findings have for the definition of the center of mass, relying on joint work with Nerz and with Sakovich.

    11:30 am–12:30 pmStefanos Aretakis, University of Toronto
    (virtual)
    Title: Observational signatures for extremal black holes

    Abstract: We will present results regarding the asymptotics of scalar perturbations on black hole backgrounds. We will then derive observational signatures for extremal black holes that are based on global or localized measurements on null infinity. This is based on joint work with Gajic-Angelopoulos and ongoing work with Khanna-Sabharwal.

    12:30 pm–1:30 pmBreak
    1:30 pm–2:30 pmJared Speck, Vanderbilt University
    (virtual)
    Title: The mathematical theory of shock waves in multi-dimensional relativistic and non-relativistic compressible Euler flow

    Abstract: In the last two decades, there have been dramatic advances in the rigorous mathematical theory of shock waves in solutions to the relativistic Euler equations and their non-relativistic analog, the compressible Euler equations. A lot of the progress has relied on techniques that were developed to study Einstein’s equations. In this talk, I will provide an overview of the field and highlight some recent progress on problems without symmetry or irrotationality assumptions. I will focus on results that reveal various aspects of the structure of the maximal development of the data and the corresponding implications for the shock development problem, which is the problem of continuing the solution weakly after a shock. I will also describe various open problems, some of which are tied to the Einstein–Euler equations. Various aspects of this program are joint with L. Abbrescia, M. Disconzi, and J. Luk.

    2:30 pm–3:30 pmLan-Hsuan Huang, University of Connecticut
    (hybrid: in person & virtual)
    Title: Null perfect fluids, improvability of dominant energy scalar, and Bartnik mass minimizers

    Abstract: We introduce the concept of improvability of the dominant energy scalar, and we derive strong consequences of non-improvability. In particular, we prove that a non-improvable initial data set without local symmetries must sit inside a null perfect fluid spacetime carrying a global Killing vector field. We also show that the dominant energy scalar is always almost improvable in a precise sense. Using these main results, we provide a characterization of Bartnik mass minimizing initial data sets which makes substantial progress toward Bartnik’s stationary conjecture.

    Along the way we observe that in dimensions greater than eight there exist pp-wave counterexamples (without the optimal decay rate for asymptotically flatness) to the equality case of the spacetime positive mass theorem. As a consequence, we find counterexamples to Bartnik’s stationary and strict positivity conjectures in those dimensions. This talk is based on joint work with Dan A. Lee.

    3:30 pm–4:00 pmBreak
    4:00 pm–5:00 pmDemetre Kazaras, Duke University
    (virtual)
    Title: Comparison geometry for scalar curvature and spacetime harmonic functions

    Abstract: Comparison theorems are the basis for our geometric understanding of Riemannian manifolds satisfying a given curvature condition. A remarkable example is the Gromov-Lawson toric band inequality, which bounds the distance between the two sides of a Riemannian torus-cross-interval with positive scalar curvature by a sharp constant inversely proportional to the scalar curvature’s minimum. We will give a new qualitative version of this and similar band-type inequalities in dimension 3 using the notion of spacetime harmonic functions, which recently played the lead role in our recent proof of the positive mass theorem. This is joint work with Sven Hirsch, Marcus Khuri, and Yiyue Zhang.

     

    Thursday, April 7, 2022

    Time (ET)SpeakerTitle/Abstract
    9:30 am–10:30 amPiotr Chrusciel, Universitat Wien
    (virtual)
    Title: Maskit gluing and hyperbolic mass

    Abstract: “Maskit gluing” is a gluing construction for asymptotically locally hyperbolic (ALH) manifolds with negative cosmological constant. I will present a formula for the mass of Maskit-glued ALH manifolds and describe how it can be used to construct general relativistic initial data with negative mass.

    10:30 am–11:30 amGreg Galloway, University of Miami (virtual)Title:  Initial data rigidity and applications

    Abstract:  We present a result from our work with Michael Eichmair and Abraão Mendes concerning initial data rigidity results (CMP, 2021), and look at some consequences.  In a note with Piotr Chruściel (CQG 2021), we showed how to use this result, together with arguments from Chruściel and Delay’s proof of the their hyperbolic PMT result, to obtain a hyperbolic PMT result with boundary.  This will also be discussed.

    11:30 am–12:30 pmPengzi Miao, University of Miami
    (virtual)
    Title: Some remarks on mass and quasi-local mass

    Abstract: In the first part of this talk, I will describe how to detect the mass of asymptotically flat and asymptotically hyperbolic manifolds via large Riemannian polyhedra. In the second part, I will discuss an estimate of the Bartnik quasi-local mass and its geometric implications. This talk is based on several joint works with A. Piubello, and with H.C. Jang.

    12:30 pm–1:30 pmBreak
    1:30 pm–2:30 pmYakov Shlapentokh Rothman, Princeton
    (hybrid: in person & virtual)
    Title: Self-Similarity and Naked Singularities for the Einstein Vacuum Equations

    Abstract: We will start with an introduction to the problem of constructing naked singularities for the Einstein vacuum equations, and then explain our discovery of a fundamentally new type of self-similarity and show how this allows us to construct solutions corresponding to a naked singularity. This is joint work with Igor Rodnianski.

    2:30 pm–3:30 pmMarcelo Disconzi, Vanderbilt University
    (virtual)
    Title: General-relativistic viscous fluids.

    Abstract: The discovery of the quark-gluon plasma that forms in heavy-ion collision experiments provides a unique opportunity to study the properties of matter under extreme conditions, as the quark-gluon plasma is the hottest, smallest, and densest fluid known to humanity. Studying the quark-gluon plasma also provides a window into the earliest moments of the universe, since microseconds after the Big Bang the universe was filled with matter in the form of the quark-gluon plasma. For more than two decades, the community has intensely studied the quark-gluon plasma with the help of a rich interaction between experiments, theory, phenomenology, and numerical simulations. From these investigations, a coherent picture has emerged, indicating that the quark-gluon plasma behaves essentially like a relativistic liquid with viscosity. More recently, state-of-the-art numerical simulations strongly suggested that viscous and dissipative effects can also have non-negligible effects on gravitational waves produced by binary neutron star mergers. But despite the importance of viscous effects for the study of such systems, a robust and mathematically sound theory of relativistic fluids with viscosity is still lacking. This is due, in part, to difficulties to preserve causality upon the inclusion of viscous and dissipative effects into theories of relativistic fluids. In this talk, we will survey the history of the problem and report on a new approach to relativistic viscous fluids that addresses these issues.

    3:30 pm–4:00 pmBreak
    4:00 pm–5:00 pmMaxime van de Moortel, Princeton
    (hybrid: in person & virtual)
    Title: Black holes: the inside story of gravitational collapse

    Abstract: What is inside a dynamical black hole? While the local region near time-like infinity is understood for various models, the global structure of the black hole interior has largely remained unexplored.
    These questions are deeply connected to the nature of singularities in General Relativity and celebrated problems such as Penrose’s Strong Cosmic Censorship Conjecture.
    I will present my recent resolution of these problems in spherical gravitational collapse, based on the discovery of a novel phenomenon: the breakdown of weak singularities and the dynamical formation of a strong singularity.

     

    Friday, April 8, 2022

    Time (ET)SpeakerTitle/Abstract
    9:30 am–10:30 amYe-Kai Wang, National Cheng Kun University, Taiwan
    (virtual)
    Title: Supertranslation invariance of angular momentum at null infinity in double null gauge

    Abstract: This talk accompanies Po-Ning Chen’s talk on Monday with the results described in the double null gauge rather than Bondi-Sachs coordinates. Besides discussing
    how Chen-Wang-Yau angular momentum resolves the supertranslation ambiguity, we also review the definition of angular momentum defined by A. Rizzi. The talk is based on the joint work with Po-Ning Chen, Jordan Keller, Mu-Tao Wang, and Shing-Tung Yau.

    10:30 am–11:30 amZoe Wyatt, King’s College London
    (virtual)
    Title: Global Stability of Spacetimes with Supersymmetric Compactifications

    Abstract: Spacetimes with compact directions which have special holonomy, such as Calabi-Yau spaces, play an important role in
    supergravity and string theory. In this talk I will discuss a recent work with Lars Andersson, Pieter Blue and Shing-Tung Yau, where we show the global, nonlinear stability a spacetime which is a cartesian product of a high dimensional Minkowski space with a compact Ricci flat internal space with special holonomy. This stability result is related to a conjecture of Penrose concerning the validity of string theory. Our proof uses the intersection of methods for quasilinear wave and Klein-Gordon equations, and so towards the end of the talk I will also comment more generally on coupled wave–Klein-Gordon equations.

    11:30 am–12:30 pmElena Giorgi, Columbia University
    (hybrid: in person & virtual)
    Title: The stability of charged black holes

    Abstract: Black hole solutions in General Relativity are parametrized by their mass, spin and charge. In this talk, I will motivate why the charge of black holes adds interesting dynamics to solutions of the Einstein equation thanks to the interaction between gravitational and electromagnetic radiation. Such radiations are solutions of a system of coupled wave equations with a symmetric structure which allows to define a combined energy-momentum tensor for the system. Finally, I will show how this physical-space approach is resolutive in the most general case of Kerr-Newman black hole, where the interaction between the radiations prevents the separability in modes.

    12:30 pm–1:30 pmBreak
    1:30 pm–2:30 pmMarcus Khuri, Stony Brook University
    (virtual)
    Title: The mass-angular momentum inequality for multiple black holes

    Abstract
    : Consider a complete 3-dimensional initial data set for the Einstein equations which has multiple asymptotically flat or asymptotically cylindrical ends. If it is simply connected, axisymmetric, maximal, and satisfies the appropriate energy condition then the ADM mass of any of the asymptotically flat ends is bounded below by the square root of the total angular momentum. This generalizes previous work of Dain, Chrusciel-Li-Weinstein, and Schoen-Zhou which treated either the single black hole case or the multiple black hole case without an explicit lower bound. The proof relies on an analysis of the asymptotics of singular harmonic maps from
    R^3 \ \Gamma –>H^2   where \Gamma is a coordinate axis. This is joint work with Q. Han, G. Weinstein, and J. Xiong.
    2:30 pm–3:30 pmMartin Lesourd, Harvard
    (hybrid: in person & virtual)
    Title:  A Snippet on Mass and the Topology and Geometry of Positive Scalar Curvature

    Abstract:  I will talk about a small corner of the study of Positive Scalar Curvature (PSC) and questions which are most closely related to the Positive Mass Theorem. The classic questions are ”which topologies allow for PSC?” and ”what is the geometry of manifolds with PSC?”. This is based on joint work with Prof. S-T. Yau, Prof. D. A. Lee, and R. Unger.

    3:30 pm–4:00 pmBreak
    4:00 pm–5:00 pmGeorgios Moschidis, Princeton
    (virtual)
    Title: Weak turbulence for the Einstein–scalar field system.

    Abstract: In the presence of confinement, the Einstein field equations are expected to exhibit turbulent dynamics. In the presence of a negative cosmological constant, the AdS instability conjecture claims the existence of arbitrarily small perturbations to the initial data of Anti-de Sitter spacetime which, under evolution by the vacuum Einstein equations with reflecting boundary conditions at conformal infinity, lead to the formation of black holes after sufficiently long time.
    In this talk, I will present a rigorous proof of the AdS instability conjecture in the setting of the spherically symmetric Einstein-scalar field system. The construction of the unstable initial data will require carefully designing a family of initial configurations of localized matter beams and estimating the exchange of energy taking place between interacting beams over long periods of time, as well as estimating the decoherence rate of those beams.

     

    For the full schedule, please see: https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/gr-program/


    This conference will be held virtually on Zoom. Registration is required.
    Webinar Registration

    A few talks will be held in hybrid formats, with talks given from the CMSA seminar room, G-10. Advanced registration for in-person components is required.
    In-Person Registration

    For more information, please see https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/gr-program/

     

    CMSA General Relativity Conference

    9:30 AM-5:00 PM
    April 8, 2022-April 8, 2022

    The Harvard CMSA will be hosting a conference on General Relativity from April 4-8, 2022.
    This conference will be held virtually on Zoom. Registration is required.
    Webinar Registration A few talks will be held in hybrid formats, with talks given from the CMSA seminar room, G-10. Advanced registration for in-person components is required.
    In-Person Registration 

    For more information, please see: https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/gr-program/

     

    Gauge Theory: 4-manifolds with boundary and fundamental group Z

    3:30 PM-4:30 PM
    April 8, 2022
    1 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 USA

    In this talk I will discuss work in progress in which we classify topological 4-manifolds with boundary and fundamental group Z, under some mild assumptions on the boundary. We apply this classification to provide an algebraic classification of surfaces in simply-connected 4-manifolds with 3-sphere boundary, where the fundamental group on the surface complement is Z. We also compare these homeomorphism classifications with the smooth setting, showing for example that every Hermitian form over the ring of integer Laurent polynomials arises as the equivariant intersection form of a pair of exotic smooth 4-manifolds with boundary and fundamental group Z. This work is joint with Anthony Conway and Mark Powell.


     

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    April 9, 2022
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