Previous Conferences & Workshops

Dec
03
2012

Members’ Seminar

Quantum Mechanics -- a Primer for Mathematicians
Juerg Froehlich
2:00pm|S-101

A general algebraic formalism for the mathematical modeling of physical systems is sketched. This formalism is sufficiently general to encompass classical and quantum-mechanical models. It is then explained in which way quantum theory differs in an...

Dec
03
2012

Computer Science/Discrete Mathematics Seminar I

Information Complexity and Exact Communication Bounds
11:15am|S-101

In this talk we will discuss information complexity -- a measure of the amount of information Alice and Bob need to exchange to solve a problem over distributed inputs. We will present an information-theoretically optimal protocol for computing the...

Nov
30
2012

Mathematical Conversations

Eliciting Higher-Order Beliefs Under Proper Higher-Order Rationality
6:00pm|Dilworth Room

Higher-order beliefs are of great importance in reasoning about agents’ strategic behavior, and have been long studied in epistemic game theory. Yet it was unclear whether eliciting such beliefs from the agents can help a social planner to better...

Nov
30
2012

Analysis Seminar

Magnetic Vortices, Nielsen-Olesen-Nambu Strings and Theta Functions
Israel M. Sigal
3:15pm|S-101

The Ginzburg-Landau theory was first developed to explain magnetic and other properties of superconductors, but had a profound influence on physics well beyond its original area. It had the first demonstration of the Higgs mechanism and it became a...

Nov
30
2012

Joint IAS/Princeton University Symplectic Geometry Seminar

Gromov-Witten Theory and Cycle-Valued Modular Forms
Yefeng Shen
1:30pm|Fine Hall 401

A remarkable phenomenon in Gromov-Witten theory is the appearance of (quasi)-modular forms. For example, Gromov-Witten generating functions for elliptic curve, local $\mathbb{P}^2$, elliptic orbifold $\mathbb{P}^1$ are all (quasi)-modular forms. In...