Information, Geometry & Physics Seminar
Together with Matilde Marcolli, I am co-organizing the Information, Geometry & Physics Seminar at Caltech.
| Time | Winter 2025, 15:00-16:00 on Wednesdays |
|---|---|
| Location | 310 Linde Hall |
Schedule
| Date | Speaker | Title | Abstract |
|---|---|---|---|
| June 18th 2025 | Leo Shaposhnik (Freie Universität Berlin) | TBA | TBA |
| June 4th 2025 | Yulia Alexandr (UCLA) | Maximum information divergence from linear and toric models (CANCELLED) |
I will revisit the problem of maximizing information divergence using logarithmic Voronoi polytopes. For linear models, the maximum is at the boundary of the probability simplex. For toric models, I describe an algorithm using the chamber complex and numerical algebraic geometry, with focus on reducible models and ML degree one models. Joint work with Serkan Hoşten. |
| May 28th 2025 | Matthew Heydeman (Harvard) | Quantum Black Hole Entropy from a Localization Integral | Describes a situation where, despite the non-linearity of General Relativity, the path integral can be computed exactly for low temperature black holes using a topological field theory and the Duistermaat–Heckman formula. This generalizes Hawking's area formula and classifies black holes by supersymmetry. |
| May 21st 2025 | Jane Panangaden (Pitzer College) | Reformulations of Furstenberg's $\times 2 \times 3$ conjecture. | Furstenberg’s conjecture involves ergodic measures invariant under $\times 2$ and $\times 3$ maps. Joint work with Peter Burton reformulates the conjecture in terms of Carathéodory functions and tracial states on a group $C^*$ algebra. |
| May 14th 2025 | Jonathan Beardsley (University of Reno) | A mysterious appearance of quantum probability in projective geometry | Discusses embedding projective geometry into ΓSet models, delooping constructions, and the connection to Dynkin systems and quantum probability. Based on joint work with S. Nakamura. |
| Apr. 30th 2025 | Svala Sverrisdóttir (UC Berkeley) | Algebraic Varieties arising from second quantization | Uses non-commutative algebra to study the Fermi-Dirac algebra, offers a new proof of Wick's theorem, and shows that coupled cluster eigenstates parameterize algebraic varieties like Grassmannians and spinor varieties. |
| Apr. 23rd 2025 | Colleen Delaney (Purdue) | An "efficient" classical algorithm for some 3-manifold TQFT invariants | Explains an efficient algorithm for computing Turaev-Viro-Barrett-Westbury invariants from Tambara-Yamagami categories, and how its efficiency depends on Betti numbers. Joint work with Clément Maria and Eric Samperton. |
| Feb. 26th 2025 | Terrence George (UCLA) | Electrical networks and Lagrangian Grassmannians | Describes how electrical networks relate to the totally nonnegative Grassmannian and form a linear slice that is isotropic under a symplectic form. Joint work with Sunita Chepuri and David Speyer. |