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Mathematical Physics Webinar

Upcoming Events

  • Oct 14 2026

    M. Cristina Marchetti – Active nematic solids and morphogenesis

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    Wednesday, October 14, 2026 - Wednesday, October 14, 2026
    10:45 AM - 12:00 PM
    Zoom

    M. Cristina Marchetti – UC Santa Barbara

    Wednesday, October 14, 2026

    Zoom opens: 10:30AM EDT

    Seminar begins: 10:45AM EDT

    Active nematic solids and morphogenesis

    Orientational order of elongated cells or muscle fibers is observed ubiquitously in biology and is known to play an important role in the organization of biological tissue. While most previous work has modeled living tissue as active fluids, in many circumstances both cell neighbor exchanges and cell divisions are suppressed and the tissue behaves more like an active solid. A striking example of this is the freshwater polyp Hydra, where topological defects in the muscle fiber orientation have been shown to localize to key features of the body plan. In this talk I will examine the behavior of active nematic solids, where the feedback between alignment, elasticity and biochemical signaling controls shape and structure.

  • Oct 21 2026

    Lai-Sang Young - Neuroscience meets dynamical systems: building a model of primary visual cortex

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    Wednesday, October 21, 2026 - Wednesday, October 21, 2026
    10:45 AM - 12:00 PM
    Zoom

    Lai-Sang Young - NYU

    Wednesday, October 21, 2026

    Zoom opens: 10:30AM EDT

    Seminar begins: 10:45AM EDT

    "Neuroscience meets dynamical systems: building a model of primary visual cortex"

    In this talk, I would like to discuss some modeling work in which  simple mathematical ideas were used to shed light on neural mechanisms. The model in question simulates a small region of the primary visual cortex (V1) of the Macaque monkey, whose visual system is very similar to that of humans. Our model is a dynamical network of spiking neurons capable of reproducing dozens of V1 function and is (to a degree) built to "compute like the real brain". I will attempt to clarify/propose answers to some basic questions in visual neuroscience, such as how exactly orientation selectivity (OS) works, and the origin of direction selectivity (DS). OS and DS are visual functions enjoyed by neurons in V1 but not by their LGN afferents.

  • Oct 28 2026

    Sourav Chatterjee – Some exact calculations in timelike Liouville field theory

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    Wednesday, October 28, 2026 - Wednesday, October 28, 2026
    10:45 AM - 12:00 PM
    Zoom

    Sourav Chatterjee – Stanford University

    Wednesday, October 28, 2026

    Zoom opens: 10:30AM EDT

    Seminar begins: 10:45AM EDT

    Some exact calculations in timelike Liouville field theory

    Timelike Liouville field theory is a toy model of 2D gravity that has received attention in the recent literature. Most of the conjectures about this theory are currently beyond the reach of rigorous mathematics. I will present a recent work where I was able to perform some exact calculations for certain parameter values. No background is necessary.

 

Past Events

Nov 08 2023

Thomas Spencer - Phase transitions for spin systems with bond disorder.

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Wednesday, November 8, 2023
10:45 AM - 11:45 PM
Event Type: Mathematical Physics Webinar
Thomas Spencer - Institute for Advanced Study Wednesday, November 8th, 10:45AM EST (Zoom meeting starts at 10:30 EDT) CLICK HERE TO VIEW RECORDING Phase transitions for spin systems with bond disorder This talk will review Ising and XY models with
Nov 01 2023

Nima Arkani-Hamed - Scattering amplitudes as a counting problem and the combinatorial geometry of fundamental physics

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Wednesday, November 1, 2023
10:45 AM - 11:45 AM
Event Type: Mathematical Physics Webinar
Nima Arkani-Hamed - Institute for Advanced Study Wednesday, November 1st, 10:45AM EDT (Zoom meeting starts at 10:30 EDT) CLICK HERE TO VIEW RECORDING Scattering amplitudes as a counting problem and the combinatorial geometry of fundamental physics I will describe a
Oct 25 2023

Smitha Vishveshwara - From nano-constrictions to event horizons: facets of the inverted harmonic oscillator

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Wednesday, October 25, 2023
10:45 AM - 11:45 AM
Zoom
Event Type: Mathematical Physics Webinar
Smitha Vishveshwara - UIUC | Physics Wednesday, October 25th, 10:45AM EDT (Zoom meeting starts at 10:30 EDT) CLICK HERE TO VIEW RECORDING From nano-constrictions to event horizons: facets of the inverted harmonic oscillator Time and again, one encounters unifying physics
Oct 18 2023

Ken Dill - Nonequilibrium Statistical Physics: The principle of Maximum Caliber

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Wednesday, October 18, 2023
10:45 AM - 11:30 PM
Zoom
Event Type: Mathematical Physics Webinar
Ken Dill – Stony Brook Wednesday, October 18th, 10:45AM EDT (Zoom meeting starts at 10:30 EDT) CLICK HERE TO VIEW RECORDING Nonequilibrium Statistical Physics: The principle of Maximum Caliber There has been an aspiration to find a principle of nonequilibrium
Oct 11 2023

Tomaž Prosen - Exactly solved models of chaotic dynamics in quantum spin systems

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Wednesday, October 11, 2023
10:30 AM - 11:30 AM
Event Type: Mathematical Physics Webinar
Tomaž Prosen – University of Ljubljana Wednesday, October 11th, 10:45AM EDT (Zoom meeting starts at 10:30 EDT) CLICK HERE TO VIEW RECORDING Exactly solved models of chaotic dynamics in quantum spin systems I will discuss the problem of 'unreasonable effectiveness'
Oct 04 2023

Carl Bender - Introduction to PT-symmetric quantum mechanics

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Wednesday, October 4, 2023
10:30 AM - 11:45 AM
Event Type: Mathematical Physics Webinar
Carl Bender – Washington University in St. Louis Wednesday, October 4th, 10:45AM EDT (Zoom meeting starts at 10:30 EDT) CLICK HERE TO VIEW RECORDING Introduction to PT-symmetric quantum mechanics The average quantum physicist on the street would say that a
Sep 27 2023

Andrea Liu - Learning about learning with physical networks 

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Wednesday, September 27, 2023
10:45 AM - 11:30 PM
Event Type: Mathematical Physics Webinar
Andrea Liu – University of Pennsylvania Wednesday, September 27th, 10:45AM EDT (Zoom meeting starts at 10:30 EDT) CLICK HERE TO VIEW RECORDING Learning about learning with physical networks Unlike artificial neural networks, the brain does not require a computer in
Sep 20 2023

Kirone Mallick - An exact solution of the macroscopic  fluctuation theory for symmetric exclusion

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Wednesday, September 20, 2023
10:45 AM - 11:45 AM
Event Type: Mathematical Physics Webinar
Kirone Mallick – Institut de Physique Theorique, CEA, Universite Paris-Saclay (France) Wednesday, September 20th, 10:45AM EDT (Zoom meeting starts at 10:30 EDT) An exact solution of the macroscopic fluctuation theory for symmetric exclusion Gianni Jona-Lasinio and his collaborators have proposed
Sep 13 2023

Thierry Bodineau –  Stochastic dynamics and the Polchinski equation: an introduction

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Wednesday, September 13, 2023
10:30 AM - 11:45 AM
Event Type: Mathematical Physics Webinar
Thierry Bodineau – Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques, France Wednesday, September 13th, 10:45AM EDT (Zoom meeting starts at 10:30 EDT) CLICK HERE TO VIEW RECORDING Stochastic dynamics and the Polchinski equation: an introduction I am going to present a renormalisation
Sep 06 2023

Marc Mézard -  Matrix Factorization with Neural Networks

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Wednesday, September 6, 2023
10:30 AM - 11:59 PM
Event Type: Mathematical Physics Webinar
Marc Mézard - Bocconi University, Milano Wednesday, September 6th, 10:45AM EDT (Zoom meeting starts at 10:30 EDT) CLICK HERE TO VIEW RECORDING Matrix Factorization with Neural Networks The factorization of a large matrix into the product of two matrices is
Aug 30 2023

Cristopher Moore - The physics of inference, phase transitions, and networks

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Wednesday, August 30, 2023
10:30 AM - 11:59 PM
Event Type: Mathematical Physics Webinar
Cristopher Moore - Santa Fe Institute Wednesday, August 30th, 10:45AM EDT (Zoom meeting starts at 10:30 EDT) CLICK HERE TO VIEW RECORDING The physics of inference, phase transitions, and networks Finding patterns in data is a lot like finding ground
Aug 23 2023

John Cardy - Dimensional reduction in the random field Ising model revisited

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Wednesday, August 23, 2023
10:30 AM - 11:30 AM
Event Type: Mathematical Physics Webinar
John Cardy - All Souls College, University of Oxford Wednesday, August 23rd, 10:45AM EDT (Zoom meeting starts at 10:30 EDT) CLICK HERE TO VIEW RECORDING Dimensional reduction in the random field Ising model revisited Many years ago, it was suggested
Aug 16 2023

Joseph Avron - A Quantum game: The Mermin-Peres magic square

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Wednesday, August 16, 2023
10:30 AM - 11:30 AM
Event Type: Mathematical Physics Webinar
Joseph Avron - Technion Wednesday, August 16th, 10:45AM EDT (Zoom meeting starts at 10:30 EDT) CLICK HERE TO VIEW RECORDING A Quantum game: The Mermin-Peres magic square I shall present a tutorial on a quantum game based on Mermin-Peres magic
Aug 09 2023

Joel Moore -  Hydrodynamic limits of integrable and near-integrable spin chains in theory and experiment

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Wednesday, August 9, 2023
10:30 AM - 11:30 AM
Event Type: Mathematical Physics Webinar
Joel Moore - University of California, Berkeley Wednesday, August 9th, 10:45AM EDT (Zoom meeting starts at 10:30 EDT) CLICK HERE TO VIEW RECORDING Hydrodynamic limits of integrable and near-integrable spin chains in theory and experiment The ground states and thermodynamics
Aug 02 2023

David Pine - Self-assembly of colloidal diamond: Prospects for 3D photonic band gaps and localization

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Wednesday, August 2, 2023
10:30 AM - 11:30 AM
Event Type: Mathematical Physics Webinar
David Pine – New York University Wednesday, August 2nd, 10:45AM EDT (Zoom meeting starts at 10:30 EDT) CLICK HERE TO VIEW RECORDING Self-assembly of colloidal diamond: Prospects for 3D photonic band gaps and localization The self-assembly of colloidal particles into
Jul 26 2023

Valerio Lucarini - Statistical Mechanical Foundations of the Detection and Attribution of Climate Change

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Wednesday, July 26, 2023
10:30 AM - 11:30 PM
Event Type: Mathematical Physics Webinar
Valerio Lucarini – University of Reading Wednesday, July 26, 10:45AM EDT (Zoom meeting starts at 10:30 EDT) CLICK HERE TO VIEW RECORDING Statistical Mechanical Foundations of the Detection and Attribution of Climate Change Detection and attribution studies have played a
Jul 19 2023

Simon A. Levin –  Ecosystems and the Biosphere as Complex Adaptive Systems: Scaling, collective phenomena and governance

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Wednesday, July 19, 2023
10:45 AM - 11:45 AM
Event Type: Mathematical Physics Webinar
Simon A. Levin – Princeton University Wednesday, July 19, 10:45AM EDT (Zoom meeting starts at 10:30 EDT) CLICK HERE TO VIEW RECORDING Ecosystems and the Biosphere as Complex Adaptive Systems: Scaling, collective phenomena and governance Phil Anderson, in a landmark
Jul 12 2023

Wojciech De Roeck - Spreading of Wavepackets for nonlinear wave equations with disorder

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Wednesday, July 12, 2023
10:45 AM - 11:45 AM
Event Type: Mathematical Physics Webinar
Wojciech De Roeck - KU Leuven Wednesday, July 12, 10:45AM EDT (Zoom meeting starts at 10:30 EDT) CLICK HERE TO VIEW RECORDING Spreading of wavepackets for nonlinear wave equations with disorder We discuss disordered nonlinear wave equations with a Hamiltonian
Jul 05 2023

James P. Sethna - Using Universal Scaling Functions

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Wednesday, July 5, 2023
10:45 AM - 11:45 AM
Event Type: Mathematical Physics Webinar
James P. Sethna - Cornell University Wednesday, July 5, 10:45AM EDT (Zoom meeting starts at 10:30 EDT) Using Universal Scaling Functions Half a century ago, Ken Wilson and Leo Kadanoff introduced the renormalization-group framework for understanding systems with emergent, fractal
Jun 28 2023

Edward Ott - Emergent Behavior in Large Systems of Many Coupled Oscillatory Dynamical Units

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Wednesday, June 28, 2023
10:45 AM - 11:45 AM
Event Type: Mathematical Physics Webinar
Edward Ott - UMD Wednesday, June 28, 10:45AM EDT (Zoom meeting starts at 10:30 EDT) Emergent Behavior in Large Systems of Many Coupled Oscillatory Dynamical Units We consider a class of models in which many heterogeneous oscillatory dynamical systems are