All Upcoming Events

On Friday, May 6, at 11:00 in C2, a seminar in the Arithmetic Geometry series:
Damian Rössler ((Oxford University))
The cotangent complex I
Further information: This is the first talk of the workshop organised by F. Brown, M. Kim and D. Rössler on Beilinson's approach to p-adic Hodge theory.  In this talk, we shall give the definition and recall various properties of the cotangent complex, which was originally defined by L. Illusie in his monograph 'Complexe cotangent et déformations' (Springer LNM 239, 1971).
On Monday at 12:00 in L3, a seminar in the String Theory series:
Daniel Prins (CEA/Saclay)
Mirror symmetry, supersymmetry and generalized geometry on SU(4)-structure vacua
Further information: >Recently, there has been some progress in examining mirror symmetry beyond >Calabi-Yau threefolds. I will discuss how this is related to flux vacua of >type II supergravity on eight-dimensional manifolds equipped with >SU(4)-structure. It will be shown that the natural framework to describe >such vacua is generalized complex geometry. Two classes of type IIB >solutions will be given, one of which is complex, the other symplectic, and >I will describe in what sense these are mirror to one another.
On Monday at 14:15 in L4, a seminar in the Geometry and Analysis series:
Susan Sierra (Edinburgh)
Contracting (-1) curves on noncommutative surfaces
Further information: We give a noncommutative analogue of Castelnuovo's classic theorem that (-1) lines on a smooth surface can be contracted, and show how this may be used to construct an explicit birational map between a noncommutative P^2 and a noncommutative quadric surface. This has applications to the classification of noncommutative projective surfaces, one of the major open problems in noncommutative algebraic geometry. We will not assume a background in noncommutative ring theory.  The talk is based on joint work with Rogalski and Staffor
On Tuesday at 12:00 in L4, a seminar in the Relativity series:
Dr Hadi Godazgar (Cambridge DAMTP)
Quantum corrections to Hawking radiation
Further information: Black holes are one of the few available laboratories for testing theoretical ideas in fundamental physics. Since Hawking's result that they radiate a thermal spectrum, black holes have been regarded as thermodynamic objects with associated temperature, entropy, etc. While this is an extremely beautiful picture it has also lead to numerous puzzles. In this talk I will describe the two-loop correction to scalar correlation functions due to \phi^4 interactions and explain why this might have implications for our current view of semi-classical black holes.
On Tuesday at 15:30 in L4, a seminar in the Algebraic and Symplectic Geometry series:
Ben Davison (EPFL)
Cohomological DT theory beyond the integrality conjecture
Further information: The integrality conjecture is one of the central conjectures of the DT theory of quivers with potential, which itself is a key tool in understanding the local calculation of DT invariants on moduli spaces of coherent sheaves, as well as having deep links to geometric representation theory, noncommutative geometry and algebraic combinatorics.  I will explain some of the ingredients of the proof of this conjecture by myself and Sven Meinhardt.  In fact the proof gives much more than the original conjecture, which ultimately concerns identities in a Grothendieck ring of mixed Hodge structures associated to moduli spaces of representations, and proves that these equalities categorify to isomorphisms in the category of mixed Hodge structures.  I'll explain what this all means, as well as giving some applications of the categorified version of the theory.
On Wednesday at 12:00 in L4, a seminar in the Strings Junior series:
Andrea Ferrari
2D non-linear Sigma Models
On Wednesday at 14:00 in C4, a seminar in the Twistor Workshop series:
Dr Eduardo Casali (Oxford)
The pure spinor string and twistors in 10 dimensions after Berkovits
On Thursday at 11:30 in BIPAC seminar room, DWB, a seminar in the Cosmology series:
Florian Kuhnel (Stockholm)
Primordial Black Holes, Critical Collapse, and Corpuscular Physics
On Thursday at 13:00 in Dalitz Institute, DWB, a seminar in the Particle Phenomenology Forum series:
Jessica Turner (IPPP Durham)
TBD
On Thursday at 16:00 in L6, a seminar in the Number Theory series:
Norbert A’Campo (University of Basel)
(Joint with logic) Two models for the hyperbolic plane and existence of the Poincaré metric on compact Riemann surfaces
Further information: An implicite definition for the hyperbolic plane $H=H_I$ is in: ${\rm Spec}(\mathbb{R}[X]) = H_I \cup \mathbb{R}$. All geometric hyperbolic features will follow from this definition in an elementary way.   A second definition is $H=H_J=\{J \in {\rm End}(R^2) \mid J^2=-Id, dx \wedge dy(u,Ju) \geq 0 \}$. Working with $H=H_J$ allows to prove rather directly main theorems about Riemann surfaces.
On Thursday at 16:15 in Sciama Lecture Theatre, a seminar in the Particles and fields series:
Enrico Pajer (ITP Utrecht)
On the origin of adiabatic perturbations
On Friday, May 13, at 14:00 in Dennis Sciama Lecture Theatre, a seminar in the Theoretical Physics Colloquia series:
Christophe Pichon (Paris)
tba
On Monday, May 16, at 14:15 in L4, a seminar in the Geometry and Analysis series:
Luc Nguyen (Oxford)
Quantitative Liouville theorems for equations of the Schouten tensor in conformal geometry.
Further information: The classical Yamabe problem asks to find in a given conformal class a metric of constant scalar curvature. In fully nonlinear analogues, the scalar curvature is replaced by certain functions of the eigenvalue of the Schouten curvature tensor. I will report on quantitative Liouville theorems and fine blow-up analysis for these problems. Joint work with Yanyan Li.
On Wednesday, May 18, at 12:00 in L4, a seminar in the Strings Junior series:
Marc-Antoine Fiset
Matrix Models
On Thursday, May 19, at 13:00 in Dalitz Institute, DWB, a seminar in the Particle Phenomenology Forum series:
Nabarun Chakrabarty (Harish-Chandra Research Institute)
High-scale validity of two and three higgs doublet scenarios
On Thursday, May 19, at 14:15 in BIPAC seminar room, DWB, a seminar in the Cosmology series:
Clotilde Laigle (Paris)
New insights on galaxy evolution at high redshift from the joint analysis of observed and simulated lightcones
On Thursday, May 19, at 16:00 in L6, a seminar in the Number Theory series:
Roger Baker (Brigham Young University)
On the distribution modulo one of $\alpha p^k$
Further information: For $k \geq 3$ we give new values of $\rho_k$ such that $$\| \alpha p^k + \beta \| < p^{-\rho_k}$$ has infinitely many solutions in primes whenever $\alpha$ is irrational and $\beta$ is real. The mean value results of Bourgain, Demeter, and Guth are useful for $k \geq 6$; for all $k$, the results also depend on bounding the number of solutions of a congruence of the form $$\left\| \frac{sy^k}{q} \right\| < \frac{1}{Z} \ \ (1 \leq y \leq Y < q)$$ where $q$ is a given large natural number.
On Thursday, May 19, at 16:15 in Sciama Lecture Theatre, a seminar in the Particles and fields series:
Diederik Roest (University of Groningen)
Galileons as the scalar analogue of general relativity
On Monday, May 23, at 14:15 in L4, a seminar in the Geometry and Analysis series:
Vasilisa Shramchenko (Universite de Sherbrooke)
Poncelet's theorem and Painleve VI
Further information: In 1995 N. Hitchin constructed explicit algebraic solutions to the Painlevé VI (1/8,-1/8,1/8,3/8) equation starting with any Poncelet trajectory, that is a closed billiard trajectory inscribed in a conic and circumscribed about another conic. In this talk I will show that Hitchin's construction is the Okamoto transformation between Picard's solution and the general solution of the Painlevé VI (1/8,-1/8,1/8,3/8) equation. Moreover, this Okamoto transformation can be written in terms of an Abelian differential of the third kind on the associated elliptic curve, which allows to write down solutions to the corresponding Schlesinger system in terms of this differential as well. This is a joint work with V. Dragovic.
On Tuesday, May 24, at 12:00 in L4, a seminar in the Quantum Field Theory series:
Keith Hannabuss
T-duality and the condensed matter bulk-boundary correspondence
On Wednesday, May 25, at 12:00 in L4, a seminar in the Strings Junior series:
Stefan Nekovar
Loop Operators
On Thursday, May 26, at 13:00 in Dalitz Institute, DWB, a seminar in the Particle Phenomenology Forum series:
Robert Lasenby (Perimeter Institute)
Searching for ultra-light bosons with black holes
Further information: http://inspirehep.net/search?p=exactauthor:R.Lasenby.1&sf=earliestdate
On Thursday, May 26, at 14:15 in BIPAC seminar room, DWB, a seminar in the Cosmology series:
David Wands (Portsmouth)
A relativistic approach to large-scale structure
On Thursday, May 26, at 16:00 in L6, a seminar in the Number Theory series:
Trevor Wooley (University of Bristol)
TBD
On Thursday, May 26, at 16:15 in Sciama Lecture Theatre, a seminar in the Particles and fields series:
Alexander Lenz (IPPP Durham)
Flavour physics 2016: Quo vadis?
On Friday, May 27, at 14:00 in Dennis Sciama Lecture Theatre, a seminar in the Theoretical Physics Colloquia series:
Massimo Porrati (New York)
tba
On Monday, May 30, at 14:15 in L4, a seminar in the Geometry and Analysis series:
Ugo Bruzzo (SISSA)
tba
On Tuesday, May 31, at 15:45 in L4, a seminar in the Algebraic and Symplectic Geometry series:
Greg Berczi (Oxford)
Non-reductive GIT for graded groups and curve counting
Further information: I will start with a short report on recent progress in constructing quotients by actions of non-reductive algebraic groups and extending Mumford's geometric invariant theory to a wide class of non-reductive linear algebraic groups which we call graded groups. I will then explain how certain components of the Hilbert scheme of points on smooth varieties can be described as non-reductive quotients and why this description is especially efficient to study the topology of Hilbert schemes. In particular I will explain how equivariant localisation can be used to develop iterated residue formulae for tautological integrals on geometric subsets of Hilbert schemes and I present new formulae counting curves on surfaces (and more generally hypersurfaces in smooth varieties) with given singularity classes. This talk is based on joint works with Frances Kirwan, Thomas Hawes, Brent Doran and Andras Szenes.
On Wednesday, June 1, at 12:00 in L4, a seminar in the Strings Junior series:
Dr Andreas Braun
Topological String Theory
On Thursday, June 2, at 13:00 in Dalitz Institute, DWB, a seminar in the Particle Phenomenology Forum series:
Frederic Dreyer (LPTHE/CERN)
TBC
On Thursday, June 2, at 14:15 in BIPAC seminar room, DWB, a seminar in the Cosmology series:
Patricia Larsen (Cambridge)
Topics in weak lensing
On Thursday, June 2, at 16:00 in L6, a seminar in the Number Theory series:
Rachel Newton (Institut des Hautes Etudes Scientifiques)
TBD
On Thursday, June 2, at 16:15 in Sciama Lecture Theatre, a seminar in the Particles and fields series:
Frank Close (Oxford)
Half Life: the divided life of Bruno Maximovich Pontecorvo
On Friday, June 3, at 16:00 in L1, a seminar in the Math Colloquium series:
Bernd Sturmfels (UC Berkeley)
tba
On Monday, June 6, at 14:15 in L4, a seminar in the Geometry and Analysis series:
Thomas Schick (Gottingen)
Obstructions to positive scalar curvature via submanifolds of different codimension
Further information: Question: Given a smooth compact manifold $M$ without boundary, does $M$  admit a Riemannian metric of positive scalar curvature?  We focus on the case of spin manifolds. The spin structure, together with a  chosen Riemannian metric, allows to construct a specific geometric  differential operator, called Dirac operator. If the metric has positive  scalar curvature, then 0 is not in the spectrum of this operator; this in  turn implies that a topological invariant, the index, vanishes.   We use a refined version, acting on sections of a bundle of modules over a  $C^*$-algebra; and then the index takes values in the K-theory of this  algebra. This index is the image under the Baum-Connes assembly map of a  topological object, the K-theoretic fundamental class.  The talk will present results of the following type:  If $M$ has a submanifold $N$ of codimension $k$ whose Dirac operator has  non-trivial index, what conditions imply that $M$ does not admit a metric of  positive scalar curvature? How is this related to the Baum-Connes assembly  map?   We will present previous results of Zeidler ($k=1$), Hanke-Pape-S. ($k=2$),  Engel and new generalizations. Moreover, we will show how these results fit  in the context of the Baum-Connes assembly maps for the manifold and the  submanifold.
On Tuesday, June 7, at 12:00 in L4, a seminar in the Relativity series:
Dr Nima Doroud (Cambridge DAMTP)
Superconformal Anyons
On Tuesday, June 7, at 14:00 in DWB 501 Fisher Room, a seminar in the Holography series:
Ehsan Hatefi (Queen Mary)
Black Hole Formation and Critical Collapse in the Axion- Dilaton System in Diverse Dimensions
On Wednesday, June 8, at 12:00 in L4, a seminar in the Strings Junior series:
Wenzhe Yang
Topological Quantum Field Theory
On Thursday, June 9, at 13:00 in Dalitz Institute, DWB, a seminar in the Particle Phenomenology Forum series:
Marco Nardecchia (Cambridge)
TBD
On Thursday, June 9, at 14:15 in BIPAC seminar room, DWB, a seminar in the Cosmology series:
Anze Slozar (Brookhaven)
Here Be Dragons: exploring the redshift 2 to 6 universe
On Thursday, June 9, at 16:00 in L6, a seminar in the Number Theory series:
Joni Teräväinen (University of Turku)
TBD
On Thursday, June 9, at 16:15 in Sciama Lecture Theatre, a seminar in the Particles and fields series:
Guilherme Milhano (IST Lisbon)
Sense and sensitivity: from in-medium parton dynamics to QGP and jets
On Friday, June 10, at 14:00 in Dennis Sciama Lecture Theatre, a seminar in the Theoretical Physics Colloquia series:
M J Perry (Cambridge)
tba
On Monday, June 13, at 14:15 in L3, a seminar in the Geometry and Analysis series:
Wolfgang Ziller (University of Pennsylvania)
tba
On Tuesday, June 14, at 12:00 in L4, a seminar in the Quantum Field Theory series:
Klaas Landsman (Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen)
Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking in lattice spin systems
On Tuesday, June 14, at 15:45 in L4, a seminar in the Algebraic and Symplectic Geometry series:
Alexandru Oancea (Jussieu)
TBA
On Wednesday, June 15, at 12:00 in L4, a seminar in the Strings Junior series:
Pietro Benetti Genolini
RG flows and functions along RG trajectories
On Thursday, June 16, at 13:00 in Dalitz Institute, DWB, a seminar in the Particle Phenomenology Forum series:
Simon Kast (KIT)
Top-Flavoured Dark Matter in Dark Minimal Flavour Violation
On Thursday, June 16, at 14:15 in BIPAC seminar room, DWB, a seminar in the Cosmology series:
Daan Meerburg (CITA)
The holiest grail
On Thursday, June 16, at 16:00 in L6, a seminar in the Number Theory series:
Roger Heath-Brown (Oxford University)
TBD
On Thursday, June 16, at 16:15 in Sciama Lecture Theatre, a seminar in the Particles and fields series:
Jernej Kamenik (Jozef Stefan Institute, Ljubljana)
Theory perspective on the LHC di-photon excess
On Friday, June 17, at 16:00 in L1, a seminar in the Math Colloquium series:
David Vogan (MIT)
tbc
On Monday, June 20, at 01:00 , a seminar in the Math Colloquium series:
Jacob Lurie (Hardy Lecture Tour) Time/venue tbc (Harvard University)
'Formal Moduli Problems'
Further information: Abstract tba
On Thursday, July 14, at 13:00 in Dalitz Institute, DWB, a seminar in the Particle Phenomenology Forum series:
Carsten Rott (Sungkyunkwan University)
TBD