Nov
13
to Nov 15

# Machine Learning and Statistical Physics

• The Science Center (Rm 4102) at The Graduate Center, CUNY (map)
• Google Calendar ICS

The recent surge of activity at the interface of statistical physics and machine learning has brought novel tools and ideas to both fields. Some examples include the information bottleneck appearing as a fundamental lens through which to view neural networks, the renormalization group as a conceptual basis for understanding deep learning, and the identification of phases of matter using methods of machine learning. This workshop brings together a number of researchers taking a statistical physics approach to machine learning with the intention of using insights from physics to understand learning systems.

For more info and to register, visit the event site here.

Tuesday, November 13th
9:00am - Coffee & Bagels
9:30am - A Universal Jeffreys Prior - Jordan Cotler
10:00am - Machine learning for many-body quantum physics - Guiseppe Carleo
10:30am - Break
11:00am - Layer-wise greedy optimization with an eye for RG - Zohar Ringel
11:30am - Neuroscience-based machine learning - Dmitri Chklovskii
12:00pm - Lunch
2:00pm - Density estimation using field theory - Justin Kinney
2:30pm - Discrete priors on simplified models optimize channel capacity from noisy experiments - Benjamin Machta
3:00pm - Break
3:30pm - Learning Quantum Emergence with AI - Eun-Ah Kim
4:00pm - Monte Carlo Study of Small Feedforward Neural Networks - Ariana Mann

Wednesday, November 14th
9:00am - Coffee & Bagels
9:30am - Manifold Tiling with an Unsupervised Neural Net - Anirvan Sengupta
10:00am - Reinforcement Learning to Prepare Quantum States Away from Equilibrium - Marin Bukov
10:30am - Break
11:00am - Quantum control landscapes and the limits of learning - Dries Sels
11:30am - Alex Alemi
12:00pm - Lunch
2:00pm - Entropy & mutual information in models of deep neural networks - Marylou Gabrié
2:30pm - Sloppy models, Differential geometry, and How Science Works - Jim Sethna
3:00pm - Break
3:30pm - Visualizing Probabilities: Intensive Principal Component Analysis - Katherine Quinn
4:00pm - Just do the best you can: statistical physics approaches to reinforcement learning Chris Wiggins
4:30pm - Break
5:00pm - Panel Discussion

Thursday, November 15th
9:00am - Coffee & Bagels
9:30am - Which ReLU Net Architectures Give Rise to Exploding and Vanishing Gradients? - Boris Hanin
10:00am - Neural networks as interacting particle systems - Grant Rotskoff
10:30am - Break
11:00am - SGD Implicitly Regularizes Generalization Error - Dan Roberts
11:30am - Expressiveness in Deep Learning via Tensor Networks and Quantum Entanglement - Nadav Cohen
12:00pm - Normalizing Flows and Canonical Transformations - Austen Lamacraft
12:30pm - Lunch
2:00pm - Discussion

Sponsored by Institute for Complex Adaptive Matter (ICAM) https://www.icam-i2cam.org/ and the Initiative for the Theoretical Sciences.

Nov
16
9:30 AM09:30

# Seeing beyond V1

• Skylight Room (Rm 9100), The Graduate Center, CUNY (map)
• Google Calendar ICS

F Nov 16 9:30am-6:15pm in the Skylight Room (Rm 9100)
Events begin at 9:30 AM with coffee and bagels, and conclude a bit after 6 PM. Lunch will be served.
Register here: https://goo.gl/forms/NMpuJjxwY81g8ETE2

Neural mechanisms for seeing without V1
Tony Ro, The Graduate Center, CUNY

How the brain signals memories of what we’ve seen
Nicole Rust, University of Pennsylvania

How high-order image statistics shape cortical visual processing
Jonathan Victor, Weill Cornell School of Medicine

Using goal-driven deep neural networks to understand the visual pathway
Daniel Yamins, Stanford University

Full series PDF here.

Sponsored by the Initiative for the Theoretical Sciences, and by the CUNY doctoral programs in Physics and Biology. Supported in part by the Center for the Physics of Biological Function, a joint effort of The Graduate Center and Princeton University. For more information see https://biophysics.princeton.edu.

Nov
16
11:00 AM11:00

# Quasiperiodically driven systems

• Room 5209, The Graduate Center, CUNY (map)
• Google Calendar ICS

F Nov 16 11am Room 5209

Ivar Martin, Argonne National Laboratory

Click here for full series printable PDF

Dec
7
11:00 AM11:00

# Elementary band representations as building blocks of chemistry

• Room 5209, The Graduate Center, CUNY (map)
• Google Calendar ICS

F Dec 7 11am Room 5209

Jennifer Cano, Stony Brook University and Flatiron Institute

Click here for full series printable PDF

Dec
14
9:30 AM09:30

# Exploring sequence space

• The Science Center (Rm 4102), The Graduate Center, CUNY (map)
• Google Calendar ICS

F Dec 14 9:30am-6:15pm in the Science Center (Rm 4102)
Events begin at 9:30 AM with coffee and bagels, and conclude a bit after 6 PM. Lunch will be served.
Register here: https://goo.gl/forms/WOaSDEb0aOcX7MFK2.

Sequence diversity in the adaptive immune system
Curtis Callan, Princeton University

Deep learning and proteins
Lucy Colwell, Cambridge University

Learning protein constitutive motifs from sequence data
Remi Monasson, École Normale Supérieure

The evolutionary “design” of proteins
Rama Ranganathan, The University of Chicago

Full series PDF here.

Sponsored by the Initiative for the Theoretical Sciences, and by the CUNY doctoral programs in Physics and Biology. Supported in part by the Center for the Physics of Biological Function, a joint effort of The Graduate Center and Princeton University. For more information see https://biophysics.princeton.edu.

Nov
12
to Nov 13

# Quantum and Classical Light-Matter Interactions

• The Graduate Center, CUNY, Rm 9204 (map)
• Google Calendar ICS

M Nov. 12 & T Nov. 13 (Rm 9204)

The interaction of light and matter has played a pivotal role since the early days of quantum mechanics. Experimental advances together with theoretical simulations in the past decade have led to the control of the dynamics of molecules, even at the attosecond time-scale, and in turn, using matter to generate light pulses with desired features. Strong light-matter coupling can be achieved by confining the system to a cavity, where even the vacuum field can modify molecular properties. The burgeoning field of “polaritonic chemistry” requires a full accounting of the correlated dynamics of electrons, nuclei, and photons. Experts will discuss state-of-the-art developments in fundamentals and applications of both quantum and classical light-matter interactions.

Register here.

MONDAY NOVEMBER 12

9:00-9:30 Coffee and bagels

9:30-10:45 How photons change the properties of matter: QEDFT a first principles framework for modeling light-matter interactions
Angel Rubio, MPI-Hamburg and the Simons Institute, NY

11:00-12:15 Ab initio descriptions of non-perturbative light-matter interactions
Prineha Narang, Harvard University

12:15-1:30 Lunch

1:30-2:45 Strong light-matter interaction in low-dimensional systems
Vinod Menon, City College, CUNY

3:00-4:15 The emergent photochemistry & photophysics of molecular polaritons
Joel Yuen-Zhou, University of California, San Diego

4:30-5:45 Understanding light-matter interactions with quantum-classical intuition: Lessons from Nonadiabatic Dynamics
Joseph Subotnik, U. Penn

TUESDAY NOVEMBER 13

9:00-9:30 Coffee and bagels

9:30-10:45 Circularly polarized attosecond pulse generation and applications to ultrafast magnetism
Andre Bandrauk, U. Sherbrooke, Canada

11:00-12:15 Expanded Theory of Molecular J- and H-aggregates
Frank Spano, Temple University

12:15-1:30 Lunch

1:30-2:45 Time resolved spectroscopy of molecular dynamics: Comparing different approaches
Thomas Weinacht, SUNY Stonybrook University

3:00-4:15 Superradiant quantum materials in QED cavities
Antoine Georges, the Simons Institute, NY

4:30-5:00 Closing Remarks

Sponsored by the Initiative for the Theoretical Sciences, and by the CUNY doctoral programs in Chemistry and Physics. Please email nmaitra@hunter.cuny.edu with any questions.

Nov
2
11:00 AM11:00

# Superconductivity and charge density waves in twisted bilayer graphene

• Room 5209, The Graduate Center, CUNY (map)
• Google Calendar ICS

F Nov 2 11am Room 5209

Liang Fu, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Click here for full series printable PDF

Oct
26
9:00 AM09:00

# Entanglement, Chaos, and Complexity in Field Theory and Gravity

• Elebash Hall, The Graduate Center, CUNY (map)
• Google Calendar ICS

F Oct 26 9am-6pm in Elebash Hall

Recent years have seen an explosion of interest in the role of quantum information in physical theories. Tools from quantum information such as complexity and entanglement are being used to understand and even formulate the behavior of quantum field theories and quantum gravity. Conversely these physical theories provide new settings where concepts from quantum information can be calculated and understood. This workshop will be devoted to recent developments in this area. Topics to be covered include:

Entanglement entropy in quantum field theory
Holography and entanglement entropy
Toy models of holography
Quantum chaos
Complexity

Friday 26 October 2018
9:30 AM Coffee and bagels

10:00 AM Title TBA
Robert Myers, Perimeter Institute

11:30 AM Coffee

12:00 PM dS/dS, T-Tbar and EE
Eva Silverstein, Stanford University

1:30 PM Lunch

3:00 PM Open Strings at the Rindler Horizon
Edward Witten, Institute for Advanced Study

4:30 PM Coffee

5:00 PM Universal scrambling dynamics and quantum gravity
Brian Swingle, University of Maryland

Sponsored by the Initiative for the Theoretical Sciences, and by the CUNY doctoral program in Physics. Organized by Vijay Balasubramanian, Sebastian Franco (CCNY),
and Daniel Kabat (Lehman College)

Oct
15
1:00 PM13:00

# PT-symmetric quantum field theory with Carl Bender

• The Graduate Center, CUNY (Rm 5209) (map)
• Google Calendar ICS

1-3pm in Rm 5209

PT-symmetric quantum mechanics began with a study of the Hamiltonian $$H=p^2+x^2(ix)^\epsilon.$$ A surprising feature of this non-Hermitian Hamiltonian is that its eigenvalues are discrete, real, and positive when $\epsilon\geq0$. This talk examines the corresponding quantum-field-theoretic Hamiltonian $$H=\half(\nabla\phi)^2+\half\phi^2(i\phi)^\epsilon$$
in D-dimensional spacetime, where $\phi$ is a pseudoscalar field. It is shown how to calculate the Green's functions as series in powers of $\epsilon$ directly from the Euclidean partition function. Exact finite expressions for the vacuum energy density, all of the connected n-point Green's functions, and the renormalized mass to order $\epsilon$ are derived for $0\leq D<2$. For $D\geq2$ the one-point Green's function and the renormalized mass are divergent but perturbative renormalization can be performed. The remarkable spectral properties of PT-symmetric quantum mechanics appear to persist in PT-symmetric quantum field theory.

Co-sponsored by Physics Ph.D. program and Initiative for the Theoretical Sciences at the Graduate Center of CUNY

Oct
12
9:30 AM09:30

# Evolutionary dynamics and influenza

• The Science Center (Rm 4102), The Graduate Center, CUNY (map)
• Google Calendar ICS

F Oct 12 9:30am-6:15pm in the Science Center (Rm 4102)
Register

9:30am Coffee & Bagels

10:30am What the 1918 flu taught us about adaptation to self
Benjamin Greenbaum,  Mount Sinai School of Medicine

11:30am Coffee

12:00pm Minimal fitness models for evolutionary predictions
Marta Łuksza, Mount Sinai School of Medicine

1:30pm Lunch

2:30pm Universality in rapidly adapting populations
Richard Neher, University of Basel

4:00pm Coffee

4:30pm Learning influenza infection dynamics from genetic data
Daniel Weissman, Emory University

Full series PDF here.

Oct
11
6:30 PM18:30

# The Spanish flu, one hundred years on: Lessons for science and society

• Martin E. Segal Theatre, The Graduate Center, CUNY (map)
• Google Calendar ICS

Th Oct 11 6:30pm in the Martin E Segal Theatre
Free and open to the public
Register
HERE

The 1918 flu pandemic killed up to five per cent of the world’s population, making it one of the deadliest events in human history. On this centennial, we look at what made it so deadly, how society responded to this unprecedented emergency, and at the evolution of the flu virus itself.

Laura Spinney and Benjamin Greenbaum

Sep
21
11:00 AM11:00

# Semiclassical limit of chaos

• Room 5209, The Graduate Center, CUNY (map)
• Google Calendar ICS

F Sept 21 11am Room 5209

Thomas Scaffidi, University of California at Berkeley

Click here for full series printable PDF

Sep
21
9:00 AM09:00

# Machine learning in the molecular sciences

• The Science Center (Rm 4102), The Graduate Center, CUNY (map)
• Google Calendar ICS

F Sept. 21 9am-6pm in the Science Center (Rm 4102)
Register
here.

Machine learning (ML) and data-driven computational approaches have recently emerged as promising new tools to tackle complex optimization and computational problems. This workshop offers exciting new developments in applying such approaches to address challenging theoretical and computational issues in molecular sciences. Experts in quantum calculations, dynamics, molecular reactions, and materials design will share unique ideas and challenges.

Sep
14
11:00 AM11:00

# Universal level statistics of the out-of-time-ordered operator

• Room 5209, The Graduate Center, CUNY (map)
• Google Calendar ICS

F Sept. 14 11am Room 5209

Sriram Ganeshan, City College of New York

Click here for full series printable PDF

Sep
12
to Sep 14

# Bits and Biology

• The Science Center (Rm 4102), The Graduate Center, CUNY (map)
• Google Calendar ICS

W Sept. 12 - F Sept. 14, in the Science Center (Rm 4102)

Much of the business of life is about the transmission and processing of information, but it is less clear what the full mathematical structure of information theory teaches us about the mechanisms at work in living systems. We use the 70th anniversary of Shannon’s foundational papers as an opportunity to address this question, across all scales from the folding of individual protein molecules to the dynamics of learning. We will explore the amount of information that is conveyed in these different processes, and the nature of its representation, using information theory as a tool for the characterization of biological systems. More deeply, we will explore examples where optimization of information transmission has been used as a principle from which aspects of biological function can be derived. Presentations will start with pedagogical background, and there will be ample opportunity for discussion.

Sep
7
11:00 AM11:00

# Non-equilibrium dynamics of Fractional Quantum Hall states

• Room 5209, The Graduate Center, CUNY (map)
• Google Calendar ICS

F Sept. 7, 11am in Room 5209

Andrey Gromov, The University of Chicago

Click here for full series printable PDF