セミナー

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

2024年10月2日(水) 16:00 - 17:00

カトゥリン・ボシゥメン (数理創造プログラム 副プログラムディレクター)

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.

会場: via Zoom / セミナー室 (359号室) 3階 359号室とZoomのハイブリッド開催

イベント公式言語: 英語

Organizational meeting 4

2024年9月26日(木) 16:00 - 17:00

This the semi-regular opportunity for iTHEMS Biology members to discuss their current research progress and/or difficulties and/or research questions. Anyone is welcome to join. It will be held in hybrid form.

会場: via Zoom / セミナー室 (359号室) 3階 359号室とZoomのハイブリッド開催

イベント公式言語: 英語

Renormalization Group Approach for Machine Learning Hamiltonian

2024年9月10日(火) 15:00 - 17:00

尾澤 岬 (CNRS Researcher, Laboratory for Interdisciplinary Physics (LIPhy), Université Grenoble Alpes, France)

We develop a multiscale approach to estimate high-dimensional probability distributions. Our approach applies to cases in which the energy function (or Hamiltonian) is not known from the start. Using data acquired from experiments or simulations we can estimate the underlying probability distribution and the associated energy function. Our method—the wavelet-conditional renormalization group (WCRG)—proceeds scale by scale, estimating models for the conditional probabilities of “fast degrees of freedom” conditioned by coarse-grained fields, which allows for fast sampling of many-body systems in various domains, from statistical physics to cosmology. Our method completely avoids the “critical slowing-down” of direct estimation and sampling algorithms. This is explained theoretically by combining results from RG and wavelet theories, and verified numerically for the Gaussian and φ4-field theories, as well as weak-gravitational-lensing fields in cosmology. Misaki Ozawa obtained his Ph.D. in 2015 from the University of Tsukuba. He did his first postdoc at the University of Montpellier in France. He then moved to Ecole Normale Supérieure (ENS) Paris as the second postdoc. Currently, he is a CNRS permanent researcher at Grenoble Alpes Univeristy in France. His background is in the physics of disordered systems such as glasses and spin glasses. He is also working on interdisciplinary studies between statistical physics and machine learning.

会場: セミナー室 (359号室) 3階 359号室 / via Zoom

イベント公式言語: 英語

A model to unify the theory of speciation

2024年9月5日(木) 16:00 - 17:00

ホセ サイード・グティエレス オルテガ (数理創造プログラム 基礎科学特別研究員)

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.

会場: via Zoom / セミナー室 (359号室)

イベント公式言語: 英語

Chromatophore patterns, packing, and scaling on a growing squid

2024年8月20日(火) 16:00 - 17:00

ロバート・ロス (沖縄科学技術大学院大学 (OIST) 生物複雑性ユニット / 計算行動神経科学ユニット 学際研究員)

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.

会場: セミナー室 (359号室) 3階 359号室とZoomのハイブリッド開催

イベント公式言語: 英語

Social behavior and social engineering in bacteria

2024年8月1日(木) 16:00 - 17:00

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.

会場: セミナー室 (359号室) / via Zoom

イベント公式言語: 英語

Algebraic curves and parametric resurgence

2024年7月29日(月) 16:30 - 17:45

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.

会場: 研究本館 3階 359号室とZoomのハイブリッド開催

イベント公式言語: 英語

Lectures on Black Holes, Holography and Quantum Gravity

2024年7月29日(月) - 8月1日(木)

野村 泰紀 (Director, Berkeley Center for Theoretical Physics, University of California, Berkeley, USA)

The information problem of black holes has evolved modern physics and led to the holographic principle, considered the fundamental principle of quantum gravity. Through a series of four lectures (blackboard style), including naive questions from the audience and lively discussions, I will introduce these fundamental ideas as well as the current state of the art and problems in cutting-edge research. Lecture 1: July 29 (Mon) 13:30~15:00 (Lecture 2: July 30 (Tue) 13:30~15:00 was canceled) Lecture 3: July 31 (Wed) 13:30~15:00 Lecture 4: Aug 1 (Thu) 13:30~15:00 (+ A possible lecture )

会場: セミナー室 (359号室) 3階 359号室とZoomのハイブリッド開催

イベント公式言語: 英語

Stringy Nonlocality: Operator Formalism and Implications

2024年7月26日(金) 14:00 - 15:30

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.

会場: セミナー室 (359号室) 3階 359号室とZoomのハイブリッド開催

イベント公式言語: 英語

Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning for Exploring Collective Behavior

2024年7月25日(木) 16:00 - 17:00

筒井 和詩 (東京大学 大学院総合文化研究科 助教)

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.

会場: セミナー室 (359号室) 3階 359号室とZoomのハイブリッド開催

イベント公式言語: 英語

Symmetries and Generalization for Machine Learning on a Lattice

2024年7月23日(火) 15:00 - 16:30

Andreas Ipp (Senior Scientist, Institute for Theoretical Physics, TU Wien, Austria)

Symmetries such as translations and rotations are crucial in physics and machine learning. The global symmetry of translations leads to convolutional neural networks (CNNs), while the much larger space of local gauge symmetry has driven us to develop lattice gauge equivariant convolutional neural networks (L-CNNs). This talk will discuss how the challenges of simulating the earliest stage of heavy ion collisions led us to use machine learning and how these innovations could improve lattice simulations in the future. Andreas Ipp is a Senior Scientist at the Institute for Theoretical Physics at TU Wien. He received his PhD in 2003 and held postdoctoral positions at ECT* in Trento and the Max-Planck-Institute in Heidelberg before returning to TU Wien in 2009. He completed his habilitation on "Yoctosecond dynamics of the quark-gluon plasma" in 2014. His current research focuses on symmetries in machine learning for applications in lattice gauge theory and heavy ion collisions.

会場: セミナー室 (359号室) (メイン会場) / via Zoom

イベント公式言語: 英語

Probing Majorana excitations in the Kitaev magnet α-RuCl3 through bulk heat capacity measurements

2024年7月22日(月) 10:30 - 11:45

今村 薫平 (東京大学 大学院工学系研究科 物理工学専攻 博士課程／日本学術振興会 特別研究員 DC)

Recently, the layered honeycomb material α-RuCl3 exhibits several anomalous features that are consistent with expectations of the Kitaev quantum spin liquid (KQSL) under in-plane magnetic field. Most remarkably, finite planar thermal Hall conductivity has been observed, whose magnitude is close to the half-integer quantization value expected for the chiral edge currents of Majorana fermions[1]. However, it has been reported that the thermal Hall conductivity shows strong sample dependence. Also, there are attempts to offer a different explanation by the bosonic edge excitations due to topological magnons or phonon. A key to distinguishing between fermionic and bosonic origins of unusual features in the high-field state of α-RuCl3 is the difference in the field angle dependence of the excitation gap. Therefore, we distinguish these origins from combined low-temperature measurements of high-resolution specific heat and thermal Hall conductivity with rotating magnetic fields within the honeycomb plane. A distinct closure of the low-energy bulk gap is observed for the fields in the Ru-Ru bond direction, and the gap opens rapidly when the field is tilted. Notably, this change occurs concomitantly with the sign reversal of the Hall effect. General discussions of topological bands show that this is the hallmark of an angle rotation–induced topological transition of fermions, providing conclusive evidence for the Majorana-fermion origin of the thermal Hall effect in α-RuCl3[2]. Furthermore, to understand the nature of the high-field state, it is crucial to elucidate the effects of disorder, which inevitably exists in real materials. We artificially introduce point defects by electron irradiation and compare the low-energy excitations in the pristine and irradiated sample by high-resolution specific heat measurements. We observed an additional in-gap T-linear term in C/T, whose coefficient shows distinct field-sensitive behaviors suggestive of Majorana physics in the KSL. This can be interpreted by the weak localization of Majorana fermions, which is induced by the disorder[3]. Moreover, recently, we succeed in synthesizing very high-quality crystals of α-RuCl3[4].

会場: via Zoom / セミナー室 (359号室) 3階 359号室とZoomのハイブリッド開催

イベント公式言語: 英語