Calendar

In the talk I will discuss the possibility and the obstructions of finding non-supersymmetric dualities for 4d gauge theories. I will review consistency conditions based on Weingarten inequalities, anomalies and large N, and clarify some subtle points and misconceptions about them. Later I will go over some old and new examples of candidates for non-supersymmetric dualities. The will be based on 2208.07842

For more information on how to join, please see: https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event_category/quantum-matter-seminar/

Arithmetic quotients of Type IV Hermitian symmetric domains have cohomology-valued modular forms whose coefficients are special cycles, by work of Borcherds. These can be interpreted as non-compact period spaces for K3-type Hodge structures. I will describe recent results (joint with P. Engel and S. Tayou) that give mock modular forms whose coefficients are compactified special cycles in a simplicial toroidal compactification. Next, I will discuss an application to the geometry of Severi curves associated to a rational elliptic surface.

One question in the study of topological phases is to identify the topological data from the ground state wavefunction without accessing the Hamiltonian. Since local measurement is not enough, entanglement becomes an indispensable tool. Here, we use modular Hamiltonian (entanglement Hamiltonian) and modular flow to rephrase previous studies on topological entanglement entropy and motivate a natural generalization, which we call the entanglement linear response. We will show how it embraces a previous work by Kim&Shi et al on the chiral central charge, and furthermore, inspires a new formula for the quantum Hall conductance.

This seminar will be held in person, for more information, please see: https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/tech-in-math/

This seminar will be held in Science Center 530 at 4:00pm on Wednesday, September 28th.

Please see the seminar page for more details: https://math.harvard.edu/~ctm/sem/.

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 relativity 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 comprehensive 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.

For information on how to join, please see:  https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event_category/general-relativity/

Kuznetsov’s Homological projective duality (HPD) in algebraic geometry is a powerful theorem that allows to extract information about semiorthogonal decompositions of derived categories of certain varieties. I will give a GLSMs perspective based on categories of B-branes. I will focus mostly on the case of Fano (hypersurfaces) manifolds. In general, for such cases the HPD can be interpreted as a non-commutative (nc) resolution of a compact variety. I will give a physical interpretation of this fact and present some conjectures.

For information on how to join, please see: https://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/event_category/algebraic-geometry-in-string-theory/

Teachers change lives – and you can be part of that change by becoming a teacher at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. HGSE’s new Teaching and Teacher Leadership master’s program will prepare you to lead transformative learning experiences that expand opportunity, fuel student success, and make a positive deep impact on young people and their communities. TTL builds on the successes of HGSE’s former teacher education programs, including the Harvard Teacher Fellows, and is committed to welcoming Harvard College undergraduates into meaningful careers in education. The program offers two pathways: a residency model, where you’ll jump into the classroom right away as a teacher of record, and an internship model for those seeking to ramp up teaching responsibility more gradually. TTL is committed to supporting new teachers – with extensive funding to minimize student debt, mentors to learn from, and field experiences that will fuel your professional growth.

 

Learn more about becoming a math teacher through TTL at our Math Info Session Friday, September 30 at 3pm in SC105. Register here.  

In this talk, we will discuss bordered aspects of the Heegaard Floer surgery formulas of  Ozsvath–Szabo and Manolescu–Ozsvath. In particular, we will explain how their theories naturally define bordered invariants for manifolds with toroidal boundary components. Time permitting, we will discuss applications of the theory. One application is a proof of the equivalence of lattice homology and Heegaard Floer homology. Another application is a description of the link Floer complexes of algebraic links, which is parallel to Ozsvath and Szabo’s description of the knot Floer complex of an L-space link. The latter application is joint with M. Borodzik and B. Liu.