Tue, 11 Mar 2025
13:00
L5

Topological Quantum Dark Matter via Standard Model's Global Gravitational Anomaly Cancellation

Juven Wang
(LIMS)
Abstract
In this talk, we propose that topological order can replace sterile neutrinos as dark matter candidates 
to cancel the Standard Model’s global gravitational anomalies. Standard Model (SM) with 15 Weyl fermions per family 
(lacking the 16th, the sterile right-handed neutrino νR) suffers from mixed gauge-gravitational anomalies tied to baryon number plus or minus
lepton number B±L symmetry. Including νR per family can cancel these anomalies, but when B±L
symmetry is preserved as discrete finite subgroups rather than a continuous U(1), the perturbative
local anomalies become nonperturbative global anomalies. We systematically enumerate
these gauge-gravitational global anomalies involving discrete B ± L that are enhanced from the
fermion parity ZF2 to ZF2N , with N = 2, 3, 4, 6, 9, etc. The discreteness of B ± L is constrained by
multi-fermion deformations beyond-the-SM and the family number Nf . Unlike the free quadratic
νR Majorana mass gap preserving the minimal ZF2 , we explore novel scenarios canceling (B ± L)-gravitational anomalies 
while preserving the ZF2N discrete symmetries, featuring 4-dimensional interacting gapped topological orders 
or gapless sectors (e.g., conformal field theories). We propose symmetric anomalous sectors as 
quantum dark matter to cancel SM’s global anomalies. We find the uniqueness
of the family number at Nf = 3, such that when the representation of ZF2N from the faithful B + L
for baryons at N = Nf = 3 is extended to the faithful Q + NcL for quarks at N = NcNf = 9, this
symmetry extension ZNc=3 → ZNcNf =9 → ZNf =3 matches with the topological order dark matter
construction. Key implications include: (1) a 5th force mediating between SM and dark matter via
discrete B±L gauge fields, (2) dark matter as topological order quantum matter with gapped anyon
excitations at ends of extended defects, and (3) Ultra Unification and topological leptogenesis.
Mon, 26 May 2025
14:15
L5

Towards a gauge-theoretic approximation of codimension-three area

Alessandro Pigati
(Bocconi University)
Abstract

In the last three decades, a fruitful way to approximate the area functional in low codimension is to interpret submanifolds as the nodal sets of maps (or sections of vector bundles), critical for suitable physical energies or well-known lagrangians from gauge theory. Inspired by the situation in codimension two, where the abelian Higgs model has provided a successful framework, we look at the non-abelian SU(2) model as a natural candidate in codimension three. In this talk we will survey the new key difficulties and some recent partial results, including a joint work with D. Parise and D. Stern and another result by Y. Li.

Fri, 28 Feb 2025
12:00
L5

Extreme horizons and Hitchin equations

Maciej Dunajski
(Cambridge)
Abstract
We establish the rigidity theorem for black hole extremal horizons, and prove that their compact cross-sections must admit a Killing vector field. The intrinsic Riemannian geometry of extremal horizons admits a quasi-Einstein structure. We shall discuss another class of such structures  corresponding to projective metrizability, where global results can be obtained. In this case the quasi-Einstein structure is governed by the Hitchin equations.
 

 

Fri, 21 Feb 2025
12:00
L5

Tubings of rooted trees: resurgence and multiple insertion places

Karen Yeats
(University of Waterloo)
Abstract

I will explain about how tubings of rooted trees can solve Dyson-Schwinger equations, and then summarize the two newer results in this direction, how to incorporate distinct insertion places and how when the Mellin transform is a reciprocal of a polynomial with rational roots, then one can use combinatorial techniques to obtain a system of differential equations that is perfectly suited to resurgent analysis.

Based on arXiv:2408.15883 (with Michael Borinsky and Gerald Dunne) and arXiv:2501.12350 (with Nick Olson-Harris).

Thu, 06 Mar 2025

11:00 - 12:00
L5

Translation varieties (part 2)

Ehud Hrushovski
(University of Oxford)
Abstract

In algebraic geometry, the technique of dévissage reduces many questions to the case of curves. In difference and differential algebra, this is not the case, but the obstructions can be closely analysed. In difference algebra, they are difference varieties defined by equations of the form \si(𝑥)=𝑔𝑥\si(x)=gx, determined by an action of an algebraic group and an element g of this group. This is joint work with Zoé Chatzidakis.

Mon, 09 Jun 2025
14:15
L5

$3$-$(\alpha,\delta)$-Sasaki manifolds and strongly positive curvature

Ilka Agricola
(Philipps-Universität Marburg)
Abstract
$3$-$(\alpha,\delta)$-Sasaki manifolds are a natural generalisation of $3$-Sasaki manifolds, which in dimension $7$ are intricately related to $G_2$ geometry. We show how these are closely related to various types of quaternionic Kähler orbifolds via connections with skew-torsion and an interesting canonical submersion. Making use of this relation we discuss curvature operators and show that in dimension 7 many such manifolds have strongly positive curvature, a notion originally introduced by Thorpe. 

 
Tue, 03 Jun 2025
14:00
L5

A geometric approach to Nichols algebras and their approximations

Giovanna Carnovale
(University of Padova)
Abstract

Nichols algebras, also known as small shuffle algebras, are a family of graded bialgebras including the symmetric algebras, the exterior algebras, the positive parts of quantized enveloping algebras, and, conjecturally, Fomin-Kirillov algebras. As the case of Fomin-Kirillov algebra shows, it can be very
difficult to determine the maximum degree of a minimal generating set of relations of a Nichols algebra. 

Building upon Kapranov and Schechtman’s equivalence between the category of perverse sheaves on Sym(C) and the category of graded connected bialgebras,  we describe the geometric counterpart of the maximum degree of a generating set of relations of a graded connected bialgebra, and we show how this specialises to the case o Nichols algebras.

The talk is based on joint work with Francesco Esposito and Lleonard Rubio y Degrassi.
 

Fri, 31 Jan 2025
12:00
L5

Holomorphic-topological theories: gauge theory applied to integrability

Lewis Cole
(Swansea)
Abstract

In recent years, a novel approach to studying integrable models has emerged which leverages a higher-dimensional gauge theory, specifically a holomorphic-topological theory. This new framework provides alternative methods for investigating quantum aspects of integrability and for constructing integrable models in more than two dimensions. This talk will review the foundations of this approach, its applications, and the exciting possibilities it opens up for future research in the field of integrable systems. 


 
Mon, 16 Jun 2025
14:15
L5

BPS polynomials and Welschinger invariants

Pierrick Bousseau
(University of Georgia)
Abstract
For any smooth projective surface $S$, we introduce BPS polynomials — Laurent polynomials in a formal variable $q$ — derived from the higher genus Gromov–Witten theory of the 3-fold $S \times {\mathbb P}^1$. When $S$ is a toric del Pezzo surface, we prove that these polynomials coincide with the Block–Göttsche polynomials defined in terms of tropical curve counts. Beyond the toric case, we conjecture that for surfaces $S_n$ obtained by blowing up ${\mathbb P}^2$ at $n$ general points, the evaluation of BPS polynomials at $q=-1$ yields Welschinger invariants, given by signed counts of real rational curves. We verify a relative version of this conjecture for all the surfaces $S_n$, and prove the main conjecture for n less than or equal to 6. This establishes a surprising link between real and complex curve enumerations, going via higher genus Gromov-Witten theory. Additionally, we propose a conjectural relationship between BPS polynomials and refined Donaldson–Thomas invariants. This is joint work with Hulya Arguz.



 

Thu, 20 Feb 2025
16:00
L5

E-Gamma Divergence: Its Properties and Applications in Differential Privacy and Mixing Times

Behnoosh Zamanlooy
(McMaster University)
Further Information

Please join us outside the lecture room from 15:30 for refreshments.

Abstract

We investigate the strong data processing inequalities of contractive Markov Kernels under a specific f-divergence, namely the E-gamma-divergence. More specifically, we characterize an upper bound on the E-gamma-divergence between PK and QK, the output distributions of contractive Markov kernel K, in terms of the E-gamma-divergence between the corresponding input distributions P and Q. Interestingly, the tightest such upper bound turns out to have a non-multiplicative form. We apply our results to derive new bounds for the local differential privacy guarantees offered by the sequential application of a privacy mechanism to data and we demonstrate that our framework unifies the analysis of mixing times for contractive Markov kernels.

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