RIKEN Interdisciplinary Theoretical and
Mathematical Sciences Program

iTHEMS Starter Meeting for FY 2024 on April 5, 2024

On April 5, 2024, the annual iTHEMS Starter Meeting was held in the iTHEMS Common Room. More than 80 people attended, including face-to-face and via Zoom. iTHEMS Programme Director Hatsuda gave an overview of iTHEMS, followed by self-introductions by new and current members. As the new academic year begins, we are looking forward to further interactions across disciplines and the development of great science.

2024-04-11

The annual S&T poster for everyone titlled “Mathematics: One S&T poster for Every Household” has been published

The theme for the 2024 edition of the annual S&T poster for everyone “One S&T poster for Every Household” produced by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) for Science and Technology Week in April each year, is "Mathematics Connecting to the World”, planned by the RIKEN Interdisciplinary Theoretical and Mathematical Sciences Program (iTHEMS). The image for downloading was published on the Science and Technology Week page of the MEXT on March 25, 2024. The poster has been distributed to elementary schools, junior high schools, high schools, and universities nationwide. The posters will also be distributed at science museums and museums in the future. A special website with more in-depth coverage of the poster's contents will also be made available. The theme is “mathematics", which is used as a tool to understand and answer questions about things in the world, and the paper introduces how mathematics is used in our daily lives based on various examples.

2024-04-02

RIKEN Research: How the genetic battle of the sexes plays out in species that can switch sex

A model developed by RIKEN researchers incorporates species that change sex during their life cycles for the first time1, promising new insights into genes affecting the reproductive success of males and females differently. Some genes that boost the reproductive success of females can be detrimental to that of males, and vice versa—a phenomenon dubbed ‘sexual antagonism’. Sometimes such genes can be silenced in individuals of the sex they are detrimental to. However, it may take a long time for these sexually antagonistic genes to be turned off, and so they may remain active in both sexes for generations. “Researchers have long been interested in how sexual antagonism may maintain genetic variation in populations, and whether variants favoring one sex are systematically preferred,” says Thomas Hitchcock of the RIKEN Interdisciplinary Theoretical and Mathematical Sciences. To read more, please visit the related link.

2024-03-29

Farewell message from Mizuki Oikawa

Our colleague Mizuki Oikawa will move on to a new carrier (JSPS Research fellow (PD)) at University of Tokyo as of April 1st. We all will miss him and wish him the best of luck in his latest endeavor. Here is a message from Mizuki Oikawa: <i>I spent three years at iTHEMS as a Junior Research Associate (JRA) for the first two years and a student trainee for the whole three years. It was a great experience that I could communicate with researchers with various backgrounds. Moreover, it was wonderful that iTHEMS gave me chances not only to talk about my research but also host some seminars. I am fortunately going to be a visiting researcher and looking forward to seeing you again soon. </i>

2024-03-27

Farewell message from Akira Harada

Our colleague Akira Harada will move to National Institute of Technology (KOSEN), Ibaraki College as an Assistant Professor, starting from April 1, 2024. We all will miss him and wish him success in his new affiliation! Here is a message from Akira Harada: <i> For these three years, I have had a very happy time as an SPDR in iTHEMS. It was an invaluable experience to talk with various people and diverse fields and topics. Events like public outreach and Super Smash Problem have been my good memories, and I feel they have provided me a good nourishment. Thanks to such opportunities and the environment for unrestricted research, I feel I have taken a step forward as a researcher. iTHEMS is very comfortable and hard to leave, but I will take further steps in my new workplace. I express my gratitude to the program coordinators, colleagues, and assistants who have engaged in various discussions and provided support. I would be grateful to keep in touch with iTHEMS members in the future.</i>

2024-03-23

Farewell message from Hidetoshi Taya

Our colleague Hidetoshi Taya will move to Department of Physics, Hiyoshi Campus, Keio University as an Assistant Professor, starting from April 1, 2024. We all will miss him and wish him success in his new affiliation! Here is a message from Hidetoshi Taya: <i>It was truly one of the greatest experiences in my whole life to be able to enjoy science at iTHEMS for four years (including the one year in 2017 as a JSPS posdoc, before joining as an SPDR from 2021). All iTHEMS researchers are so talented and have a broad interest in science, covering almost all topics of science, not only physics, but also mathematics, biology, computational science, etc. The scientific discussions in iTHEMS, therefore, have always been extremely interesting and useful. iTHEMS also gave me a unique opportunity to enhance collaborations through the Working/Study Group program, which I used with NEW (Non-Equilibrium Working Group) and the Theoretical Physics Study Group, and I have learned and enjoyed a lot through their activities. I would like to take this opportunity to express my deep gratitude to the director, Hatsuda-san, the deputy directors, and the assistants, who did/do/are making enormous efforts to achieve the great environment of iTHEMS. Finally, I sincerely hope that iTHEMS will continue to develop and expand its presence, and I look forward to continuing to collaborate and enjoy science with iTHEMS researchers. Thanks for the great four years!</i>

2024-03-13

RIKEN-Nara Women's University Joint Diversity Promotion Workshop 2024 was held

On February 29th and March 1st, a total of 23 students from various courses including mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, and environmental science at Nara Women's University (2nd to 4th year undergraduates, 1st and 2nd year master's students) visited different laboratories at RIKEN: the Azuma Laboratory (CPR), the Takeishi Laboratory (CBS), iTHEMS, the RIBF facility, and the Sako Laboratory (CPR). At each laboratory, they had the opportunity to glimpse cutting-edge research, and during the evening exchange sessions with RIKEN researchers, they were able to ask deeper questions about the research topics and learn about the researchers' daily lives. This diversity promotion activity is part of a joint initiative between the Faculty of Science at Nara Women's University and RIKEN iTHEMS, conducted in conjunction with a series of lectures at Nara Women's University, and is planned to continue in the coming years.

2024-03-07

iTHEMS held exchange event with members of the Masason Foundation

RIKEN Interdisciplinary Theoretical and Mathematical Sciences Program (iTHEMS) held its first exchange event with members of the Masason Foundation on Thursday, December 7th, 2023, as part of its efforts to nurture young talent for the future. Thirteen Foundation members, ranging in age from 9 to 26 years old, with interests in mathematics, physics, biology, AI, etc., and ten iTHEMS researchers participated in the event, engaging in high-level discussions and stimulating exchanges. For more details, please see the main text below.

2024-01-30

“Quantum-like Modeling” in Biology, Cognitive & Social Sciences on January 26, 2024

A workshop titled "Quantum-like modeling in biology, cognitive & social sciences", jointly organized by iTHEMS, RIKEN Quantum, and JST-CREST "Multi-sensing" area, was held on Jan. 26 (Fri), 2024 from 9:30 to 17:00 in Okochi Memorial Hall and Zoom. At the beginning of the workshop, Atsushi Iriki (RIKEN), research supervisor of JST-CREST "Multi-sensing" area, explained the purpose of the workshop, followed by Tetsuo Hatsuda (RIKEN) introducing the several quantum computers available in RIKEN Quantum. After that, Hayato Saigo (Nagahama Institute of Bio-Science and Technology) gave a talk on "Overview of open quantum systems focusing on JST-CREST projects", and there was a discussion on the possibilities and expectations for modeling and interpretation of general phenomena using quantum theoretical mathematics. Then, Masanao Ozawa (Chubu Univ.) gave a talk on "Theory of non-commutative ordering effects and new mathematical theory in breakthroughs", and there was a discussion on the design of complementary collaboration between experimentalists and mathematicians, and the creation of "new mathematics”. After a lunch break, Takuya Isomura (RIKEN) gave a talk on "Path integral methods in Bayesian inference variational free energy principle", and there was a discussion on the quantum interpretation in biochemistry, neuroscience, cognitive science, and psychiatry. Following this, Shogo Tanaka (Tokai Univ.) gave a talk on "From an atomistic view of humanity to understanding human beings and society through quantum metaphors", and there was a discussion on the possibilities of social implementation of quantum phenomena and quantum computations in the humanities and social sciences. Finally, there was a general discussion on “quantum-like modeling” and the path integral/quantum interpretation of the evolution/history of "human phenomena". About 70 participants, both onsite and online, had an enthusiastic discussion on the quantum interpretation of various phenomena in the humanities and social sciences, and on the possibilities of quantum computation.

2024-01-30

Seoul National University student group visited iTHEMS on January 10, 2024

On Wednesday, January 10, a group of 22 undergraduate students part of a student group called GLEAP from Seoul National University (SNU) came to visit iTHEMS, accompanied by Professor Ji-Young Lee, Associate Dean of the College of Natural Sciences in the School of Biological Sciences at SNU. The students were from various years (2nd to 4th year undergraduates) and a wide range of scientific fields, including mathematics, chemistry, biology, physics, and statistics. Their visit to iTHEMS was part of a several days' tour of various Japanese universities and research institutes, to consider their future career opportunities and research directions. Upon arriving at RIKEN, the group was greeted by iTHEMS members Dongwook Ghim and Catherine Beauchemin, and were first taken on a tour of the Nishina Center ion beam accelerators. They then enjoyed very brief, casual conversation in the iTHEMS common rooms with some snacks. Catherine Beauchemin gave a 5-min introduction of the various opportunities for SNU students to become iTHEMS members in the future (e.g., JRA, IPA, SPDR, RS/SRS). Then 6 different iTHEMS researchers (Dongwook Ghim, Misako Tatsuuma, Akinori Tanaka, Catherine Beauchemin, Steffen Backes, Ryo Namba) gave great 12 min talks about their research, and some additional iTHEMS members also joined. After that, several additional iTHEMS members joined and each of the students and iTHEMS members briefly introduced themselves and their research interests. This was followed by interesting, casual discussions between iTHEMS members and the SNU students over light food. The students told me they thoroughly enjoyed their visit to iTHEMS and learning about the wide range of research our members conduct. Overall, this provided a great opportunity to showcase iTHEMS members' research to young researchers considering their future academic career. Many thanks for the amazing support provided by all the iTHEMS assistants without whom this event would not have been possible, to the iTHEMS researchers who took their time to take part in this event and make it so interesting for the students, and with special thanks to Dongwook Ghim, himself is a graduate of SNU, for all his help and for being such an inspiring role model for these students of his alma mater. Reported by Catherine Beauchemin

2024-01-26

Theoretical Physicist Tetsuo Hatsuda Interview Vol.1: About RIKEN iTHEMS

What about climate change in actuality?

Odd couples of interdisciplinary research

Khovanov homology theory - an introduction to categorification by Dr. Taketo Sano on May 13, 2022

Fundamentals Fest, mini Pre-event on Science "Exploring and Bridging: The Potential of Basic Science"

In Search of Pc pentaquark - Simulate Hadron Interactions with FUGAKU

AAS Journal Author Series: Hirotaka Ito on 2021ApJ…918...59I

Will Useless Knowledge Change the Future? - What is the Black Hole Recorder?

RIKEN 2019 (in Japanese)

Resurgence: making sense out of non-convergent series

How can we use a quantum computer to study the ground state of the hydrogen molecule?