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The hidden language of light: Polarization signals in cuttlefish courtship

October 24 (Thu) 16:00 - 17:00, 2024

Arata Nakayama (Postdoctoral Fellow, Atmosphere and Ocean Research Institute, The University of Tokyo)

The most conspicuous signals are generally the most attractive; this principle underlies the evolution of sexual signal. While the sexual signal design and its exceptional diversity have primarily explored on the color (wavelength) of light, various animals utilize a different property of light for signaling: polarization. In short, polarization is a third physical property of light, alongside color and intensity, and refers to the orientation of light waves' vibrations. While most vertebrate species, including humans, cannot perceive polarized light, some invertebrate species, such as crustaceans and cephalopods (e.g., octopus, squid, and cuttlefish), can detect the polarization of light and reflect polarized light from their body surfaces, suggesting that the polarization of light might function as a communication signal. In our study, by focusing on the sexually ornamented trait and the courtship behavior of specific cephalopod species, we found an polarization courtship signal, which is extremely conspicuous from the perspective of cephalopod polarization vision. Additionally, we conducted morphological observations and optical analyses of their polarization-reflective body surfaces, uncovering a novel mechanism for generating complex polarization patterns. In this gethering, I will provide a general introduction to the role of polarization as a visual cue and signal, followed by an overview of our study on the unique courtship behavior involving polarization signaling in the cuttlefish Sepia andreana.

Venue: Hybrid Format (3F #359 and Zoom), Seminar Room #359

Event Official Language: English

Young's convolution inequality on locally compact groups

October 18 (Fri) 15:00 - 17:00, 2024

Takashi Satomi (Special Postdoctoral Researcher, RIKEN Interdisciplinary Theoretical and Mathematical Sciences Program (iTHEMS))

Young's convolution inequality is one of the elementary inequalities in functional and harmonic analysis, and this inequality is related to various theories in mathematics, physics, and computer theory. In addition, it is known that Young's inequality can be generalized to any locally compact group. In this talk, we introduce the definition of locally compact groups and the statement of Young's inequality with several examples. Finally, we see the speaker's recent results about refining Young's inequality for several locally compact groups, including the special linear groups.

Venue: Seminar Room #359 (Main Venue) / via Zoom

Event Official Language: English

Open Effective Field Theories for primordial cosmology

October 18 (Fri) 13:30 - 15:00, 2024

Thomas Colas (Postdoc, Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, University of Cambridge, UK)

Imprints of new physics on observable cosmology may require the modelling of dissipation and noise. In this talk, I will present an open effective field theory for primordial cosmology where the inflaton sector interacts with an unknown environment. The approach recovers the usual effective field theory of inflation in a certain limit and extends it to account for local dissipation and noise. Non-Gaussianities are generated that peak in the equilateral configuration for large dissipation and in the folded configurations for small dissipation. The construction provides an embedding for local dissipative models of inflation and a framework to study dissipative and stochastic effects in cosmology.

Venue: Hybrid Format (3F #359 and Zoom), Seminar Room #359

Event Official Language: English

Digital Twinning of Plant Internal Clocks for Robotics and Virtual Reality Enhancements in Agriculture

October 17 (Thu) 16:00 - 17:00, 2024

Hirokazu Fukuda (Professor, Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka Metropolitan University)

Digital twinning, widely used in fields like industrial and agricultural engineering, creates digital replicas of physical systems. When applied to plant circadian clocks, these digital twins simulate physiological processes governed by circadian rhythms. This technology aids in predicting and optimizing plant growth and productivity in controlled environments, such as greenhouses and plant factories (vertical farms). By understanding key processes like photosynthesis and nutrient uptake, researchers can more effectively manage environmental factors, boosting crop yields and reducing waste. The integration of robotics and virtual reality further enhances these systems, enabling precise automation and real-time optimization. This presentation will explore these advancements, with a focus on mathematical models for controlling circadian clocks.

Venue: via Zoom

Event Official Language: English

The laser light shed on Darwin’s ‘Abominable mystery’

October 10 (Thu) 16:00 - 17:00, 2024

Chiharu Kato (Ph.D. Student, Department of Biological Sciences, Graduate School of Science, The University of Tokyo)

Reproductive isolation is the inability of a species to breed with related species and thus is a key to evolution of new species in flowering plants. In interspecific crosses between closely related species, a stage of pollen tube reception by female tissues of the pistil act as a pivotal hybridization barrier. Within the genus Arabidopsis, pistils of Arabidopsis thaliana can be fertilized by pollen from its relative species, but about half of the ovules reject the release of sperm from heterospecific pollen tubes and these rejected pollen tubes continue growing inside the embryo sacs (referred to as pollen tube overgrowth). A loss-of function mutant line of ARTUMES gene, encoding a subunit of the oligosaccharyltransferase complex, pollinated with heterospecific pollen shows a higher overgrowth rate than the wild type, suggesting that ARTUMES is involved in interspecific pollen tube reception. However, its molecular mechanism is largely unknown. Here, we report that some knockout lines of receptor kinases show ARTUMES mutant-like impairment in interspecific pollen tube reception, indicating that these receptor kinases might be potentially the target proteins of ARTUMES. We anticipate these receptors recognize the ligands from conspecific (self) pollen and heterospecific pollen either in the presence of ARTUMES, thus they can lead successful interspecific fertilization. We also identified ARTUMES mutant shows abnormal calcium dynamics in their female tissue during pollen tube reception. In this talk, I would like to briefly mention about how mathematical modeling can be promoting to pursue the questions regarding calcium dynamics reflecting male-female communication during fertilization. We anticipate these mechanisms that enable interspecific fertilization contribute to rapid development and diversification of flowering plants in recent geological time.

Venue: via Zoom

Event Official Language: English

Joint Seminar on cosmology and related topics

October 10 (Thu) 14:00 - 18:00, 2024

Koki Tokeshi (Postdoctoral Researcher, Institute for Cosmic Ray Research (ICRR), The University of Tokyo)
Misako Tatsuuma (Research Scientist, RIKEN Interdisciplinary Theoretical and Mathematical Sciences Program (iTHEMS))
Puttarak Jai-akson (Postdoctoral Researcher, RIKEN Interdisciplinary Theoretical and Mathematical Sciences Program (iTHEMS))

Joint Seminar is a seminar series that is held regularly in Tokyo and its vicinity. The topics are on cosmology and related areas. The seminar venue alternates among the universities and research institutes in the Kanto area, and this time it is held at RIKEN. Among the 3 speakers in the event, Dr. Misako Tatsuuma and Dr. Puttarak Jai-akson from iTHEMS will give talks, together with an external speaker Dr. Koki Tokeshi (ICRR, U. Tokyo). The time table of the event is as follows: Date: October 10th (Thu), 14:30. (room will open at 14:00) Place: RIKEN iTHEMS Wako Campus, Okochi Hall Program: 14:00 Room open 14:30 Koki Tokeshi’s talk（ICRR, 45 min） 15:15 Break & free discussion（15 min） 15:30 Misako Tatsuuma’s talk（RIKEN iTHEMS, 45 min） 16:15 Break & free discussion（15 min） 16:30 Puttarak Jai-akson’s talk（RIKEN iTHEMS, 45 min） 17:15 Free Discussion（15 min） 17:30 Close (go to dinner) Titles and abstracts: 1st Speaker: Koki Tokeshi (ICRR) Title: Exact solutions in stochastic inflation Abstract: The stochastic formalism of inflation, or stochastic inflation for short, enables us to study the dynamics of large-scale primordial fluctuations in a non-perturbative way. I will present a class of all the possible exact expressions for statistical quantities such as distribution and correlation functions of a test field in the expanding universe, given that the significance of exact solutions in cosmology cannot be overemphasised. To this aim, a sequence of isospectral Hamiltonians and an underlying symmetry called shape invariance are exploited. 2nd Speaker: Misako Tatsuuma (RIKEN iTHEMS) Title: Numerical Simulations of the Strengths of Dust Aggregates in Planet Formation Abstract: Planet formation is the growth process from sub-micrometer-sized dust grains to planets larger than 10,000 km. This growth process can be broadly divided into two phases: the initial growth to kilometer-sized planetesimals, which involves the adhesion of dust grains through intermolecular forces such as van der Waals forces and hydrogen bonds, and the subsequent growth to planets, driven by gravitational forces. Currently, no unified planetesimal formation theory can fully explain both observations of protoplanetary disks, where planet formation takes place, and the exploration results of small bodies in the solar system, such as asteroids and comets, which are considered remnants of planetesimals. Constructing such a theory is the ultimate goal of planet formation studies. To investigate planetesimal formation based on the exploration results of small solar system bodies, we have used the discrete element method (DEM) to calculate the tensile and compressive strengths of dust aggregates, constructing their physically-based models that we have compared to the properties of small solar system bodies. This talk will focus on the methodologies used in these studies. 3rd Speaker: Puttarak Jai-akson (RIKEN iTHEMS) Title: Null Surfaces Through The Looking-Glass Abstract: Carrollian physics has recently become a prominent topic in theoretical physics, especially in gravitational studies and flat-space holography. Understanding Carrollian geometries and symmetries is essential to the modern interpretation of null surfaces, whether at finite distances or asymptotic infinities. In this talk, I will introduce Carrollian geometries as intrinsic to any generic null surface, and highlight the profound analogy between gravitational dynamics on null surfaces and Carrollian hydrodynamics. Additionally, I will discuss the phase space structure and symmetries associated with these geometries, shedding light on their implications for gravitational theories and potentially for holographic dualities.

Venue: Okochi Hall

Event Official Language: English

Dynamics of Phase Transitions: Between First and Second Order

October 8 (Tue) 16:00 - 17:30, 2024

Fumika Suzuki (CNLS Postdoctoral Research Associate, T4 / Center for Nonlinear Studies, Los Alamos National Laboratory, USA)

Phase transitions are typically classified as either first-order or second-order. The formation of topological defects in second-order phase transitions is well described by the Kibble-Zurek mechanism, while nucleation theory addresses first-order phase transitions. However, certain systems, such as superconductors and liquid crystals, can exhibit “weakly first-order” phase transitions that do not fit into these established frameworks. In this presentation, I introduce a new theoretical approach that combines the Kibble-Zurek mechanism with nucleation theory to explain topological defect formation in weakly first-order phase transitions. Additionally, I will discuss nonlinear quantum phase transitions that exhibit behaviors similar to weakly first-order transitions, which can be related to experiments with ultra-cold Rydberg atoms.

Venue: Hybrid Format (3F #359 and Zoom), Seminar Room #359 (Main Venue) / via Zoom

Event Official Language: English

Application of Complex Scaling Method to Scattering Calculations of Atomic Systems

October 8 (Tue) 13:30 - 15:00, 2024

Taishi Sano (Master's Student, Waseda University)

Based on our paper [1], this presentation will show the application of complex scaling method(CSM) to scattering calculations of atomic systems. While CSM has been extensively used to study resonance states, the application of CSM to scattering calculations was proposed recently with applications in nuclear physics. In our study, we apply the CSM scattering calculation to atomic systems and propose an effective correction to avoid the problem of slow convergence to the number of complex eigen energies. Our results with the effective correction agree well with those reported in the literature for positron scattering with the targets Ne, Ar, Kr, Xe, H, He, He+, and Li2+. In this presentation, we introduce the framework of phase-shift calculation using the CSM together with the examples of the positron scattering, and advantages and features of this approach. [This seminar is co-hosted by Few-body Systems in Physics Laboratory, RIKEN Nishina Center.]

Venue: Hybrid Format (3F #359 and Zoom), Seminar Room #359

Event Official Language: English

Dense Matter Physics and Exotic States in Neutron Stars

October 7 (Mon) 14:00 - 15:15, 2024

Vivek Thapa (Assistant Professor, Bhawanipur Anchalik College, India)

In the presentation, I will discuss the exploration of neutron star matter using phenomenological models, focusing on how exotic particles like antikaons, hyperons as well as Delta-resonances influence the neutron star equation of state (EoS). The discussion will cover how antikaon optical potentials and kaon condensation affect the stability and structure of neutron stars, as well as the potential for hadron-quark phase transitions leading to quark matter cores in massive stars. I will also highlight the study of non-radial oscillation modes which provide insights into the internal structure and composition of neutron stars. These oscillation modes are essential for understanding neutron star asteroseismology and interpreting gravitational wave signals from neutron star mergers. By comparing theoretical predictions with observational data, including mass, radius, cooling rates, and gravitational wave detections, the presentation aims to refine constraints on the EoS and enhance our understanding of dense matter in compact stars.

Venue: Hybrid Format (3F #359 and Zoom), Seminar Room #359

Event Official Language: English

Clinical trials and standards of care: How doctors decide your medical treatment

October 2 (Wed) 16:00 - 17:00, 2024

Catherine Beauchemin (Deputy Program Director, RIKEN Interdisciplinary Theoretical and Mathematical Sciences Program (iTHEMS))

Ever wondered what data is considered sufficient for approval of a new drug or vaccine? In this talk, I will talk about some of the errors and shortcomings with how clinical trials are run and regulated. I will also show how the data and analyses behind clinical trials can be very poorly done. I will show one example of very bad data and analysis, but I will also show an example of the valuable information that can come out of doing a good job in presenting, interpreting, and following the data. I will highlight how the over-reliance on summarizing measures like averages and the Gaussian assumption can lead to overlooking therapies that could otherwise have been extremely effective. This talk should be of critical importance to those working in the fields of health, medical and clinical research. But this talk is about data and its analysis, and as such is also very relevant to physicists and other scientists who generate, present or analyse data as part of their research.

Venue: via Zoom / Hybrid Format (3F #359 and Zoom), Seminar Room #359

Event Official Language: English

iTHEMS Cosmology Forum #2 - Stochastic gravitational waves: fossils from the early universe

September 27 (Fri) 9:00 - 18:00, 2024

Keitaro Takahashi (Professor, Faculty of Advanced Science and Technology, Kumamoto University)
Kazuyuki Sugimura (Assistant Professor, Graduate School of Science, Hokkaido University)
Ryusuke Jinno (Associate Professor, Graduate School of Science, Kobe University)
Yuichiro Tada (Designated Assistant Professor, C-Lab, Department of Physics, Institute for Advanced Research, Nagoya University)

iTHEMS Cosmology Forum Workshop is a series of short workshops, each focused on an emerging topics in cosmology. The targeted audience is cosmologists, high-energy physicists and astronomers interested in learning about the subject, not just those who have already worked on the topic. The goal of the workshop is to provide working knowledge of the topic and leave dedicated time for discussions to encourage mutual interactions among participants. The second workshop is devoted to explanations of the stochastic gravitational wave background (SGWB). The SGWB is a significant detection of GW from pulsar timing arrays. The origin of this background could be either supermassive black holes or primordial. Surprisingly, both of these early Universe mechanisms are not well understood. This one-day workshop gathers both the observational and theoretical aspects of this growing topic. The workshop will be in English. The workshop venue will be either at Main Research Building #435-437 or at Okochi Hall, and we will decide and announce which one will be actually used after the registration is closed. The workshops are organised by the iTHEMS Cosmology Forum working group, which is the successor of the Dark Matter Working Group at RIKEN iTHEMS. Invited Speakers: Keitaro Takahashi (Kumamoto University) TBA Kazuyuki Sugimura (Hokkaido University) Supermassive black hole formation Ryusuke Jinno (Kobe University) First-order phase transitions and gravitational wave production in the early Univers Yuichiro Tada (Nagoya University) Scalar-induced gravitational waves as a cosmological phonograph Time table: 09:00-09:30 -- Opening remarks and coffee 09:30-10:45 -- Takahashi (keynote) 10:45-11:45 -- Sugimura 11:45-13:30 -- Lunch time 13:30-14:30 -- Jinno 14:30-15:30 -- Discussion and coffee 15:30-16:30 -- Tada 16:30-17:30 -- Panel Discussion Organisers: Kohei Hayashi, Nagisa Hiroshima, Derek Inman, Amaury Micheli, Ryo Namba

Venue: #435-437, 4F, Main Research Building

Event Official Language: English

A model to unify the theory of speciation

September 5 (Thu) 16:00 - 17:00, 2024

José Said Gutiérrez-Ortega (Special Postdoctoral Researcher, RIKEN Interdisciplinary Theoretical and Mathematical Sciences Program (iTHEMS))

Speciation, the process by which new species originate, occurs due to geographic (physical distance), ecological (different background environments), and historical (divergence time) factors that promote reproductive isolation among lineages. However, we don’t know how these factors interplay; therefore, our empirical and theoretical knowledge about speciation is limited, fragmented, and lacks unification. To fill this knowledge gap, I propose a model and an experiment that treats speciation as a continuum of the interplay between geographic and ecological factors. Empirical evidence has shown that the extremes of this continuum produce high evolutionary rate (faster speciation), while I expect that intermediate values in the interplay continuum would produce reduced evolutionary rates. I expect this seminar can open opportunities for collaboration.

Venue: via Zoom / Seminar Room #359

Event Official Language: English

NCTS-iTHEMS Joint Workshop on Matters to Spacetime: Symmetries and Geometry

August 26 (Mon) - 29 (Thu) 2024

The National Center for Theoretical Sciences (NCTS) and the Interdisciplinary Theoretical and Mathematical Sciences Program (iTHEMS) at RIKEN have long maintained a collaborative relationship, even before the Memorandum of Understanding was signed in December, 2022. This partnership has successfully facilitated joint activities in high energy physics over recent years. As the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic wanes, we are excited to announce the inaugural joint workshops focusing on condensed matter physics and (quantum) gravity. These workshops are designed to foster international collaborations and stimulate interdisciplinary research. We are pleased to invite you to the 2024 NCTS-iTHEMS Workshop on Matters to Spacetime: Symmetries and Geometry, to be held from August 26 (Monday) to August 29 (Thursday), at the National Center for Theoretical Sciences, located on the campus of National Taiwan University (NTU) in Taipei, Taiwan. This workshop will feature presentations on the latest research findings, foster discussions to spark new ideas, and provide opportunities for initiating collaborative projects. While we strongly encourage in-person attendance to maximize engagement and interaction, an online platform will also be available to accommodate participants who are unable to attend physically.

Venue: NCTS Physics Lecture Hall, 4th Floor, Cosmology Hall, National Taiwan University

Event Official Language: English

Chromatophore patterns, packing, and scaling on a growing squid

August 20 (Tue) 16:00 - 17:00, 2024

Robert Ross (Interdisciplinary Postdoctoral Researcher, Biological Complexity Unit / Computational Neuroethology Unit, Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST))

Many biological patterns are formed during growth, and various modeling approaches have repeatedly shown that growth can substantially impact pattern formation. However, experimental testing of these ideas has been limited, largely due to the difficulty in precisely measuring organism growth while simultaneously tracking the dynamics of pattern formation. To address this, we turned to the skin of the oval squid. The oval squid grows rapidly, hatching with a length of approximately 16mm and reaching 90mm within 3 months. Throughout development, its skin is populated by pigment-filled cells called chromatophores. Following insertion into the skin, chromatophores do not move. This means that squid chromatophores, besides being the constitutive elements of a point pattern, can also function as reference points to precisely determine skin growth. For the more biologically-minded, I will explain how the chromatophore pattern emerges through the interplay of growth and decreasing chromatophore growth rates. For those who lean physics, I will talk about how due to the combination of volume exclusion and growth, chromatophores exhibit a scaling in which relative density fluctuations grow with spatial scale, akin to a critical system.

Venue: Hybrid Format (3F #359 and Zoom), Seminar Room #359

Event Official Language: English

Social behavior and social engineering in bacteria

August 1 (Thu) 16:00 - 17:00, 2024

Ashleigh Griffin (Professor, Department of Biology, University of Oxford, UK)

This year is the 60th anniversary of WD Hamilton’s seminal paper in which he outlined his theory of inclusive fitness and showed how it could be used to understand altruism in the social insects. In this talk, I will describe efforts made to use his theory to understand social behavior in bacteria. And I’ll go on to explore the potential of using these insights to tackle problems of antibiotic resistance in infections.

Venue: Seminar Room #359 / via Zoom

Event Official Language: English

Algebraic curves and parametric resurgence

July 29 (Mon) 16:30 - 17:45, 2024

Samuel Crew (Postdoctoral Fellow, Imperial College London, UK)

In this talk I will discuss recent work together with Ines Aniceto (Southampton) on algebraic examples of parametric resurgence. We discuss a simple example to elucidate the so-called higher order Stokes phenomena and discuss how a Borel inner-outer matching procedure allows us to view parametric resurgence as a series of non-parametric resurgence problems.

Venue: Hybrid Format (3F #359 and Zoom), Main Research Building

Event Official Language: English

RIKEN iTHEMS & AIPmath Special Lecture: Contact geometry in 3-dimensional space and higher

July 29 (Mon) 15:30 - 16:30, 2024

Emmy Murphy (Professor, Princeton University, USA)

In mathematics, contact geometry is a type of geometry describing a variety of dynamical systems. They are the phase spaces of systems arising in geometric optics, semi-classical quantum systems, classical dynamics, and control theory. On the mathematical side, contact geometry relates to a variety of other geometric structures, such as Kahler geometry, smooth topology, and foliation theory. It can be especially interesting to look at contact geometry in 3-dimensional space, because we can explicitly visualize the spaces. Additionally, by connecting contact geometry with our understanding of 3-D topology, mathematicians have the ability to understand the large-scale structure of these spaces like never before. The talk will introduce the basics of contact geometry and its applications. We'll particularly focus on the 3-dimensional case, while also mentioning some of the unique properties of higher-dimensional spaces which are recently being explored. Registration required: Register before Wednesday, July 24, 15:00.

Venue: RIKEN Tokyo Liaison Office (Nihonbashi) (Main Venue) / via Zoom

Event Official Language: English

Stringy Nonlocality: Operator Formalism and Implications

July 26 (Fri) 14:00 - 15:30, 2024

Wei-Hsiang Shao (Ph.D. Student, Department of Physics, National Taiwan University, Taiwan)

Nonlocality is a fundamental property of string theory, where point-like particles are replaced by extended strings. This feature is especially evident in string field theories, where field components interact through form factors containing spacetime derivatives of infinite order. The usual approach to canonical quantization is no longer applicable, and thus a non-perturbative treatment of nonlocal effects at the quantum level remains unclear. In this seminar, I will discuss a recent attempt to construct an operator formalism for stringy nonlocal field theories, and explore the potential implications for black hole radiation and primordial fluctuations in the early universe.

Venue: Hybrid Format (3F #359 and Zoom), Seminar Room #359

Event Official Language: English

Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning for Exploring Collective Behavior

July 25 (Thu) 16:00 - 17:00, 2024

Kazushi Tsutsui (Assistant Professor, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, The University of Tokyo)

Humans and other organisms develop collective behaviors through interactions with diverse environments and various species. These behaviors are significant topics across multiple research fields, including evolutionary biology, behavioral ecology, and animal sociology. Unraveling the decision-making mechanisms of individuals in groups within cooperative and competitive contexts has captured the attention of many researchers but remains a complex challenge. This seminar will present research cases that employ multi-agent reinforcement learning, a machine learning technique, to investigate the decision-making processes underlying collective behavior. Through this approach, we aim to provide deeper insights into the dynamics and mechanisms that drive group behaviors in various biological systems.

Venue: Hybrid Format (3F #359 and Zoom), Seminar Room #359

Event Official Language: English

iTHEMS NOW & NEXT 2024

July 19 (Fri) 9:30 - 18:00, 2024

9:30-10:00 Keynote by Lucy Mcneill 10:00-10:30 Keynote by Jose Said Gutierrez Ortega 10:35-11:05 Keynote by Puttarak Jai-akson 11:05-11:35 Keynote by Kannaka Kazuki 11:35-12:30 Lunch Time Session 12:30-13:30 Working Group / Study Group Report 
13:30-15:30 Flash Talk & Poster Presentation Part 1 
15:30-17:30 Flash Talk & Poster Presentation Part2 17:30 Concluding Remarks by the Director 18:00 reception

Venue: 2F Large Conference Room, Administrative Headquarters, RIKEN Wako Campus (Main Venue) / via Zoom

Event Official Language: English