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215 ニュース
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2022-12-05
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Four Perspectives on Neutron Stars, Pulsars, and Magnetars
The recent work [1] on X-ray bursts from the neutron stars led by our colleague, Akira Dohi (Visiting Scientist, iTHEMS), was featured in the article "Four Perspectives on Neutron Stars, Pulsars, and Magnetars" appeared in Research highlights from the Journals of the American Astronomical Society (see related link below).
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2022-11-10
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Naritaka Oshita presented his talk at the 12th Koshien of Science (Oita tournament) on November 3, 2022
The 12th Koshien of Science (Oita tournament), a scientific competition for high school students in Oita prefecture, was held on 3rd November 2022 at Oita city. Naritaka Oshita from iTHEMS presented his talk on “Black Holes Veiled in Mystery” after the competition. More than 200 high school students from Oita prefecture attended. Oshita talked about the history of science, recent progress, and remaining mysteries of black holes. A student asked a unique question “What if we fall into a black hole? Can our consciousness be recovered from the hole?”. Another student asked, “How can it be possible to detect the signal from a ringing black hole?”. The audience enjoyed the stimulating talk and questions from the students. During the competition, Oshita and an iTHEMS assistant Tomoko Iwanami observed the competition, where some students built their toy cars in each group and competed in a race.
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2022-11-04
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Science Agora 2022 is held November 4-6, 2022
Science Agora 2022 is held online and in person in the period Nov. 4-6, 2022. There will be many fun sessions that you can join in person or online. There are English sessions too. RIKEN will have a session "Envisioning Futures: Navigating the research landscape with senior women researchers" in which Tetsuo Hatsuda from iTHEMS is one of the speakers. Enjoy !
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2022-10-28
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Listening to Equation-of-State Changes
The collaborative work on the quark matter and gravitational wave [1] led by our iTHEMS colleague, Yongjia Huang, together with Shigehiro Nagataki, Tetsuo Hatsuda, Kentaro Takami, Hajime Soltani and others, was featured in the Physics Magazine published by the American Physical Society with the title "Listening to Equation-of-State Changes" (see related links below). See how the general relativistic simulations of the postmerger gravitational waves from coalescing neutron stars could allow us to hear the phase transitions between exotic states of matter.
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2022-10-25
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The RIKEN-Berkeley Center was featured in RIKEN Overseas Office Newsletter
The RIKEN-Berkeley Center was featured in the Oct. 2022 issue of "News from RIKEN's Overseas Offices". The title of the article written by Adam Phillips in the RIKEN International Affairs Division is "What makes institutional international collaborations work?". Enjoy the article!
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2022-10-06
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MACS-iTHEMS Study Group Members visited Wako on September 20-21, 2022
MACS Program in the Faculty of Science, Kyoto Univ. has several Study Groups (SG) and one of them is the MACS-iTHEMS SG. In 2022, Ryosuke Iritani and Jeffery Fawcett from iTHEMS are actively participating in this MACS-iTHEMS SG and interacting with the students in Kyoto Univ. On Sep.20 and 21, nine students (including undergraduate and graduate students in various fields at Kyoto Univ.) together with three faculty members (Kobayashi san, Tomida san and Itami san) from MACS Program visited RIKEN Wako Campus. On the afternoon of Sep.20, they visited Enoto lab. to learn Enoto san's thundercloud project and NinjaSat project. Then they moved to CBS to see Brain Box exhibition. After that, they had a scientific session to explain their own research to each other at the iTHEMS common room. On the morning of Sep.21, after a brief introduction to the iTHEMS activities and facilities, they had a tour of the gigantic accelerator complex (RIBF) in Nishina Center. On the afternoon of the same day, they visited the Chemical Biology Lab. in CSRS, followed by a visit to Toyoizumi Lab. in CBS to attend Toyoizumi san's lecture on neural learning theory. It was a very stimulating and intensive program for the students. In particular, the Scientific Session on the afternoon of September 20, from 5:00 to 8:30 p.m., featured lively questions and discussions between RIKEN researchers and students. We will continue this program and visit in the coming years.
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2022-09-27
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Farewell message from Dr. Michiya Mori
Our colleague Michiya Mori moves on to a new carrier at Graduate School of Mathematical Sciences, The University of Tokyo as of October 1st. We all will miss him and wish him the best of luck in his latest endeavor. Here is a message from Michiya Mori: I spent 1.5 years at iTHEMS as a special postdoctoral researcher. It was a very great experience for me (as a mathematician) to have an opportunity to communicate with scientistists from various backgrounds (not only mathematics). I am grateful to everyone. I can fortunately continue to be a member of iTHEMS as a visiting scientist. I hope to get closer to more iTHEMS members in the future. From October, I become a project assistant professor of The University of Tokyo at Komaba Campus. Luckily iTHEMS has a satellite office in Komaba (SUURI-COOL Komaba). Probably I will sometimes be there, and I hope to see you again there soon!
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2022-08-30
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Featured articles on iTHEMS published in "Sugaku Tsushin"
iTHEMS was featured in the August volume of "Sugaku Tsushin" (Japanese magazine published by The Mathematical Society of Japan). Our colleagues, Tetsuo Hatsuda, Ade Irma Suriajaya, Yosuke Kubota, Hiroyasu Miyazaki and Yukimi Goto, have written essays on iTHEMS in the volume. Let's see mathematicians' thoughts on the iTHEMS atmosphere.
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2022-08-22
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大分STEMフェスタが大分市で開催されました
2022年7月23日に大分STEMフェスタが大分市で開催され、iTHEMSから初田哲男ディレクターが参加し、（株）ADKと協力して、Bコース「ブラックホール・レコーダーで1000年後にメッセージを届けよう」において、５０名を越える大分県各地から集まった高校生にブラックホールの解説と、Useless Prototyping Studioで制作したブラックホールレコーダーの実演を行いました。 また、情報ストレージとしてのブラックホールに、未来に託す俳句を記録する内容を高校生同士で話し合い、最近撮像されたブラックホール写真に書き込んでもらいました。 大分STEMフェスタには１５０名を越える高校生が参加し、Aコース「月面ローバー体験をしよう！」、Bコース「ブラックホール・レコーダーで1000年後にメッセージを届けよう」、Cコース「VR技術×社会の課題解決×SDGs」、Dコース「大分の未来に必要な仕事を考えよう」に分かれて、たいへん有意義な一日を過ごしました。iTHEMSからは、初田プログラムディレクターに加えて、アシスタントの和田ひとみさんと太田千賀子さんが現地でBコース開催に貢献されました。
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2022-08-18
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瀧雅人氏著「これならわかる深層学習入門」が大槻東已氏によって日本物理学会誌のコラムで紹介されました
瀧雅人氏（iTHEMS客員研究員/立教大学)がiTHEMS在籍中に執筆された著書「これならわかる深層学習入門」が、日本物理学会誌（2022年8月号）のコラム“ラ・トッカータ“で、大槻東已氏（上智大学）により取り上げられています。この教科書の特徴として、1. 物理をバックグラウンドにした読者がつまずくところをわかっている、2. 例が簡単すぎず自明すぎず、例をよむことでわかった気になる、3. 分量が適度、 4. 各節が細かく区切られているのでゼミに最適、5. 付録も勉強になる。など絶賛 。深層学習を１から学びたい方、ゼミで輪講したい方にお薦めです。
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2022-08-08
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iTHEMS Science Outreach Workshop 2022 was held on July 29-31, 2022
On July 29-31, we had Meeting on Outreach of RIKEN iTHEMS 2022 @Kobe & Zoom. This year the meeting was hosted by Suuri Cool Kobe and the venue was the auditorium (8F) + the cafeteria (6F) of Kobe Integrated Innovation Building (IIB). This meeting was hit by the big growth of infected population by Covid-19 omicron BA.5. However, under careful preparation and precaution taken, 27 people participated at Kobe IIB and 24 more by zoom. There were 11 talks at the venue and 6 talks by zoom. 4 talks were by members of iTHEMS explaining recent development in various fields in sciences. 3 talkes were from universities on different aspects of research or fostering young researchers. 10 talks were given by journalists. There were also 3 posters (2 on research and 1 on a monthly academic magazine), in addition, the Black Hole Reacorder was exhibited at the cafeteria. The participants consist of 9+10 members from RIKEN, 6+4 from universities and 12+10 journalists (at venue + by zoom). By the success of this meeting, we hope the continuation of Journalist in residence program and this workshop next year.
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2022-07-26
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iTHEMS and RIKEN-Berkeley Center is featured in RIKEN at a Glance 2022
RIKEN's pamphlet "RIKEN at a Glance 2022" features iTHEMS and the newly opened RIKEN-Berkeley Center. Please see the related link for details.
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2022-06-09
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RIKEN-Berkeley Center was opened
RIKEN iTHEMS and N3AS Physics Frontier Center have started a joint research center, RIKEN-Berkeley Center (RBC), physically located on the 3rd floor of the physics building in Univ. California, Berkeley. This new Center aims to enhance the collaboration on nuclear astrophysics and quantum information science between the two institutions. On May 27-29, 2022, the first annual meeting of N3AS was held in Berkeley together with their international partners, RIKEN iTHEMS and CNRS Centre Pierre Binetruy. iTHEMS members are encouraged to use RBC as a base to interact with researchers in physics, mathematics, biology and related fields at Berkeley.
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2022-06-06
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Ryosuke Iritani was interviewed by The Big Issue of Japan
Ryosuke Iritani (Research Scientist, iTHEMS) is interviewed by The Big Issue Japan, and the latest volume (vol 432) is just published on 1st June. The Big Issue is a magazine dedicated to supporting people in difficult circumstances and helping them achieve self-reliance. Each issue costs 450 yen, out of which 230 yen is the direct income of the street sales staff. The content is about mathematical biology and is accessible for anyone. We hope as many people as possible take it a read and support the people!
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2022-04-25
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iTHEMS x academist online event was held on April 24, 2022
As the alternative for the lectures at RIKEN’s annual open house, iTHEMS held another online lecture event for the general public with the help of Academist Inc., on April 24th, 2022. This year, the lectures were Masaki Taniguchi, Hidetoshi Taya, Akira Harada, Yingying and Euki Yazaki, who all gave splendid public lectures accessible even to junior-high school students. Each lecturer also served as a commentator to another lecture, asking questions on behalf of the audience. During the lunch break, Program Director Hatsuda showed the offices of iTHEMS and around. The event was moderated by Ms. Michibayashi from Academist; Her facilitation with a wit kept the event lively. At one time during the event, more than two hundred audiences participated.
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2022-04-11
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iTHEMS Starter Meeting for FY2022 on April 8, 2022
The iTHEMS Starter Meeting for FY 2021 was held over Zoom as past two years’ meeting to kick off its activity for FY 2022. Over seventy iTHEMS members, frequent visitors and colleagues from other institute got together and introduced each other.
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2022-03-31
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iTHEMS NOW & NEXT FY2021 was held on March 25, 2022
The annual in-house gathering entitled iTHEMS NOW and NEXT FY2021 was held on March 25th online. The gathering is an occasion that we discuss the current status and future perspectives on our research and organization. The event started with five keynote talks given by Takeru Yokota, Yalong Cao, Ryosuke Iritani, Ryo Namba, Keita Mikami. After a short break a session on the proper practices in conducting scientific researches followed during lunch time. In the session, the participants discussed their research practices in small groups and later shared their discussions with all. In the afternoon, each working group and study group made their progress reports. Program Director Hatsuda’s remarks concluded the gathering.
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2022-03-22
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Farewell message from Dr. Akinori Tanaka
Our colleague Akinori Tanaka moves on to a new carrier at RIKEN AIP 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 Akinori Tanaka: First of all, I would like to thank my colleagues, assistants, and all the people for sharing time in iTHEMS. I really enjoyed discussing and chatting, even though I spent a lot of time online. In fact, this is the 2nd time for me to leave here. When I started my research as a member of iTHES, not iTHEMS at that time, I was working on theoretical physics. But, in addition to my own research, I also enjoyed chatting with my colleagues and getting new concepts: machine learning and related topics, and it opened up my next career. As a result, I returned to iTHEMS as a machine learning researcher, as you know. It was very surprising for me that all the activities were really sophisticated compared to the ones in iTHES, and I was happy to participate in the activities in information theory study group, SSP workshop, and chatting after the coffee meeting. Now I leave this message as if this was farewell, but it's not. I will move to RIKEN AIP from this April as a senior research scientist, but hold a post in iTHEMS also. I would like to deepen my thoughts on machine learning from mathematical, biological, and physical perspectives, so I'm happy if all of you discuss/chat with me as I have so far, even after April.
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2022-03-22
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Farewell message from Dr. Kanato Goto
Our colleague Kanato Goto moves on to a new carrier at Kyoto University 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 Kanato Goto: I am leaving iTHEMS to move to Yukawa Institute for Theoretical Physics at Kyoto University. I have been very happy to have had the opportunity to work with you all for the past three years. The experience of discussing with scientists from various fields at iTHEMS is invaluable for my research carrier. The first year I joined iTHEMS, I stayed in the U.S. Regrettably, the Corona disaster struck during my stay, and I was deprived of the opportunity to interact with you all in person, even after returning to Japan. I hope to visit iTHEMS in the near future and discuss you again. I cannot thank the assistants enough for their great help. Thanks to them, I could devote myself to my research without any inconvenience. Thank you very much, all the iTHEMS members! See you again soon!
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2022-03-22
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Farewell message from Dr. Naomi Tsuji
Our colleague Naomi Tsuji moves on to a new carrier at Kanagawa University as of April 1st. We all will miss her and wish her the best of luck in her latest endeavor. Here is a message from Naomi Tsuji: Since I joined iTHEMS in April 2020, my research life at iTHEMS completely overlapped with the pandemic. At first, I found it difficult to get to know each other and communicate with the other iTHEMS members through online meeting systems, but gradually it became possible and comfortable to me. I have been working on mainly data analysis of X-ray or gamma-ray observations from astrophysical objects at iTHEMS, a group of theorists. I was glad that some members showed their interest in my study, and it was so exciting and stimulating to discuss about it. I wish I could have more discussion with many of the iTHEMS members in person and hope those days will come in the near future. Until then, let us stay healthy and have good science!
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2022-03-22
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Farewell message from Dr. Yukimi Goto
Our colleague Yukimi Goto moves on to a new carrier at Kyushu University as of April 1st. We all will miss her and wish her the best of luck in her latest endeavor. Here is a message from Yukimi Goto: It may not be obvious to those in other fields, but iTHEMS is a unique place for Japanese mathematicians. Japanese mathematicians do not have many opportunities to talk with researchers in fields other than their own. I am an applied mathematician, but I did not have a chance to talk casually with physicists at university. After coming to iTHEMS and talking with physicists and biologists, I found that they are very interested in and expect a lot from mathematics. When I talked about my research, they always tried to understand it and asked me what kind of problems we could solve in mathematics. I enjoyed discussing with them, and it motivated me to do research. Although it was only two years and I met most of them online, I am grateful that I had such a wonderful time with them.
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2022-03-22
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Farewell message from Dr. Takashi Okada
Our colleague Takashi Okada moves on to a new carrier at Kyoto University 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 Takashi Okada: I joined iTHEMS in 2018. My main workplace was in Hallatschek group, UC Berkeley. I researched on biophysics & evolutionary dynamics and learned a lot of things there. I also enjoyed working with iTHEMS members on interdisciplinary projects. I believe that some projects were made possible only by collaboration with wonderful iTHEMS members. I really appreciate iTHEMS' support during my long-term stay in Berkeley. Thanks to iTHEMS support, I could focus on work without any problems during this pandemic. From this spring, I am moving to Mochizuki Lab (Kyoto Univ) as a Program-Specific Associate Professor. The scientific atmosphere of ITHEMS is so great, and I hope that I can continue to collaborate with great members in iTHEMS. Let's keep in touch!
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2022-02-22
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Farewell message from Dr. Hiroyasu Miyazaki
Our colleague Hiroyasu Miyazaki moves on to a new carrier at NTT Communication Science Laboratories as of March 1st. We all will miss him and wish him the best of luck in his latest endeavor. Here is a message from Hiroyasu Miyazaki: My academic life is full of precious memories with iTHES and iTHEMS members. When I first joined the group, I was a bit worried since there were only a few mathematicians in RIKEN. But that was unnecessary. Everybody was very kind to me and every communication was really enjoyable. And the pleasure kept becoming larger and larger. I will certainly miss you and the heart-warming atmosphere in iTHEMS, but the life never stops. I am moving to a private research institute called NTT-IFM (Institute for Fundamental Mathematics) on March 1st. I am supposed to work as a mathematician. So there will still be a lot of opportunities for discussion with you. If you will find me wandering in Wako campus (or anywhere else), please catch me and talk to me! Of course you are very welcome to visit NTT-IFM if you are interested. Let’s keep in touch and see you again soon!
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2022-02-22
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What’s inside a black hole? U-M physicist uses quantum computing, machine learning to find out
Dr. Enrico Rinaldi (iTHEMS Visiting Scientist) has been featured in institutional website. "Dude, what if everything around us was just … a hologram? The thing is, it could be—and a University of Michigan physicist is using quantum computing and machine learning to better understand the idea, called holographic duality." See related links for details.
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2022-02-16
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The Mysterious Forces Inside the Nucleus Grow a Little Less Strange
In the recent article posted in "Quanta magazine”, iTHEMS Director Tetsuo Hatsuda, visiting researcher Tetsuo Hyodo and their collaborator Laura Fabbietti in Munich are interviewed about the ongoing studies on the mysteries of nuclear forces using the Japanese supercomputers and the European Large Hadron Collider (LHC). See related links for details.
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2022-02-09
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「理研AIP-数理女子ジョイントセミナー」が1月29日開催されました
On 29th January, a joint seminar of RIKEN AIP and Suri-Joshi took place and Ryosuke Iritani served as one of the guest speakers (including the iTHEMS affiliates Drs. Motoko Kato and Ade Irma Suriajaya). Unfortunately, the overwhelming COVID-19 situation in Tokyo did not allow for an in-person seminar as had been originally planned, which was indeed a bit disappointing for me. Nevertheless, thanks to the huge effort of AIP staff as well as Suri-Joshi organizers, we had a very successful talk session as well as Q&A session. I found the high diversity among the speakers considerably enriched our discussion. In this pandemic era, I can easily imagine many students struggling how to find dreams or what they want to be, which would have been already difficult even under normal circumstances. We emphasized that learning what you are interested in is a precious experience, which is the best motivating factor to work as a scientist. I hope the audience enjoyed our discussion, but as usual, I bet it was me who enjoyed best as-if one of the audience. I cannot thank too much to Suri-Joshi organizers and AIP staff for inviting me, to the speakers whom I was not able to meet in person this time but look forward to meeting in the near future, to the mathematically enthusiastic, professional announcer Naoko Shinozaki for her moderation of the sessions, and of course to the promising students who are deeply interested in learning and studying, for attending the seminar and asking excellent questions! Reported by Ryosuke Iritani
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2022-02-08
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SSH Seminar "When high-school mathematics is useful in biology" was held on February 4, 2022
On February 4th, 2022, Ryosuke Iritani gave an online lecture on mathematical biology, entitled “高校で学ぶ数学が生物研究で活きるとき”（“when high-school mathematics is useful in biology”） for a Super Science High-school program at Takatsuki Junior and Senior High School. I started off with how a scientific career develops and what it is like to work as a scientist. I then delved into a scientific world, and demonstrated high school mathematics is a powerful tool to research in biology, drawing examples from the Fibonacci series in genetics, Price equation using recursive equations, game theory with matrix algebra, and kin selection theory for ants' society. I closed the talk with an encouragement for the motivated, budding scientists, that learning and studying are both extremely fun. I thank Kanda-sensei for inviting me to such a fantastic opportunity, as well as Suri-Joshi for giving me the opportunity to write an article that made this lecture possible by drawing Kanda-sensei's attention! Reported by Ryosuke Iritani
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2022-01-17
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「数理の窓から世界を読みとく」若手研究者たちの感性に注目
「数理の窓から世界を読みとく」についてのコラム記事がイマジニア社のテンミニッツTVに掲載されました。 iTHEMSの若手研究者たちが執筆陣を担った共著「数理の窓から世界を読みとく: 素数・AI.生物・宇宙をつなぐ」 (初田哲男・柴藤亮介編著、岩波書店)をもとに数理の魅力が紹介されています。 詳細は関連リンクをご覧下さい。
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2021-11-16
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Farewell message from Dr. Jason Chang
Our colleague Jason Chang moves on to a new carrier at LinkedIn as of November 14th. We all will miss him and wish him the best of luck in his latest endeavor. Here is a message from Jason: It was truly a pleasure to be part of iTHEMS. I have matured so much during this time through all the opportunities that have been made available to me because of how much iTHEMS has supported me in the decisions that I made. I certainly will miss everyone as well. I will move on to a data science position at LinkedIn. If anyone from iTHEMS is curious or has interest in transitioning to some industry position especially around the Bay Area, feel free to reach out to me. I will be more than happy to help with the process and introduce the person to the right recruiters as well. I believe I can convince LinkedIn to let me continue research in quantum algorithms for around 1 day / week as well. So perhaps in the end, I am not going away as far as one might think. The world is quite small after all. My direct manager at LinkedIn was Aida’s postdoc when I was her graduate student. One never knows which doors life decides to open. Kind Regards, Jason
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2021-11-04
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Can social issues be solved by mathematical science? -attempts and challenges
On Oct.26, the symposium "Can social issues be solved by mathematical science? -attempts and challenges" was held under the leadership of Takashi Sakajo (Kyoto Univ.) and Shingo Iwami (Nagoya Univ.) who are also iTHEMS colleagues. The symposium was held in a hybrid matter with more than 220 participants. After the presentations on various approaches to bridge the academia and industry, there were lively discussions on how to cross the valley between the mathematical science and social needs.
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2021-10-28
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森重文特別顧問が文化勲章に選出されました
この度、京都大学高等研究院院長で理研iTHEMSの特別顧問でもある森重文さんが、「数学、とりわけ代数幾何学の分野において、代数多様体の極小モデル理論である「森理論」を創造し、数理科学の広範な分野に大きな影響を与える顕著な業績を上げ、斯学の発展に多大な貢献をした」功績を認められ、文化勲章を授与されることになりました。森重文さんのご専門は数学、特に代数幾何学です。当該分野の中心的テーマである「代数多様体の分類問題」における大きな業績により1990年の国際数学者会議でフィールズ賞を受賞された後も、関連領域の研究を精力的に牽引し続けてこられました。 代数多様体とは、大雑把には、代数方程式の解集合として表される幾何学的な対象（の一般化）です。例えば、x2 + y2 = 1という代数方程式の（実数範囲での）零点集合は原点を中心とする単位円ですが、これは代数多様体の一種です。代数多様体を考えることで、代数に関する問題を幾何学の問題に変換することができます。 代数多様体の性質を調べることは代数幾何学の重要な使命ですが、一つ一つの代数多様体について逐一調べていてはきりがありません。そこで、よく似ている代数多様体は同じ「生物種」と見なして、それを「生物図鑑」のように分類しようというのが「代数多様体の分類問題」です。ここで「よく似ている」とは、「双有理変換」と呼ばれる操作によって互いに移りあうことを意味します。双有理変換とは、代数多様体の低次元の部分のみを変形する操作です。双有理変換を行っても、代数多様体のほとんどの部分は変わらないので、この操作でうつりあうものは自然に同じ種類と思うことができます。 では、そのような「生物種」の中で、一体どの「個体」を図鑑の中に代表例として載せるべきでしょうか？こういう時「可能な限りシンプルな代表例」を持ってきたいというのが数学者の考えることです。そのような「可能な限りシンプルな代表例」のことを代数多様体の「極小モデル」と呼びます。 例えば、１次元の代数多様体（曲線）は一般には特異点を持ちますが、双有理変換により、特異点のない曲線に変換できます（そして、同じ「生物種」の中に特異点のない曲線はただ１つしかありません）。これが曲線の場合の極小モデルです。２次元の代数多様体（曲面）も、やはり双有理変換により特異点のない滑らかな曲面に変換できますが、実はこの場合には、同じ「生物種」の中に、特異点のない曲面が無数に存在します。そこで、曲面の中に存在する「(-1)-曲線」と呼ばれる余分な膨らみを次々に潰していくと、それ以上は小さくできない滑らかな曲面に到達します。こうして得られた最も無駄のない曲面、すなわち極小モデルを、「生物種」の代表例とするわけです。 では、３次元以上の、高次元の代数多様体についてはどうでしょうか？この場合にも、双有理変換により特異点のない滑らかな代数多様体に変換できます（これは同じくフィールズ賞受賞者である広中平祐氏の重要な業績です）。しかし、３次元以上の場合には、代数多様体の中の余分な膨らみを潰していく過程で、どうしても特異点が出現してしまうケースを排除できないため、問題がより難しくなります。しかし森さんは「端末特異点」と呼ばれる緩やかな特異点のみを許せば、３次元の代数多様体の極小モデルを構成できることを証明しました。特異点の悪さを最小限に抑えつつ、余分な膨らみを潰し切ることは大変難しいのですが、森さんはそれを可能にする理論を構築したのです。森さんが２次元と３次元の間の分厚い壁を突破したことにより、現在では４次元以上の分類理論も大きく進展しています。また最近では、整数論などへの応用も広がりつつあり、これからもますます目が離せません。 森重文さんの偉大な業績のごく一部をご紹介させていただきました。 森さんの受賞と高次元極小モデル理論の進展をお慶び申し上げるとともに、森理論の更なる進展と数理科学振興へのますますのご活躍をiTHEMS一同祈念しております。 宮﨑弘安 (iTHEMSを代表して)
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2021-10-25
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小谷元子客員主管研究員が国際学術会議の次期会長に選出されました
10月14日に開催された国際学術会議（ISC：International Science Council）総会で、小谷元子客員主管研究員が、国際学術会議の次期会長（President-elect）に選出されました。任期は2024年から3年間です。 詳細は、関連リンクをご覧ください。
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2021-09-22
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数学と物理 ―トポロジーと絶縁体と私の研究生活
小澤知己客員研究員が「数理女子」サイトでトポロジカル絶縁体や研究生活、日常生活などについて執筆しています。記事は関連リンクからご覧ください。
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2021-08-27
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RIKEN-Vancouver Joint Workshop on Quantum Computing was held on August 24-25, 2021
RIKEN-Vancouver Joint Workshop on Quantum Computing was held online on August 24-25. The main aim of this workshop is that the quantum people in RIKEN (iTHEMS and RQC) and Vancouver (Quantum BC) get together online to discuss scientific activities and explore future collaborations. There were altogether 164 registrations (90 from Japan, 62 from Canada and 12 from other countries). 12 scientific talks were presented together with 3 introduction to iTHEMS, RQC and Quantum BC. From iTHEMS, Jason Chang, Etsuko Itou, and Takumi Doi gave talks respectively on the Schroedinger equation, the U(1) gauge theory and combinatorial optimization. After each session, there were one-hour breakout sessions, so that people can ask further questions to the speakers, which worked very well. The workshop was an excellent first step toward a close tie between RIKEN quantum activities and Vancouver quantum activities.
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2021-08-23
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日本経済新聞朝刊: 量子の威力、併用で生かす
入江 広隆 客員研究員（企業）のインタビュー記事が日本経済新聞のテクノロジストの時代に掲載されました。 従来のコンピューターと量子コンピューターの良いところを組み合わせた「ハイブリッド型」について答えています。 詳細は関連リンクをご覧下さい。
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2021-07-15
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iTHEMS Science Outreach Workshop 2021 was held on July 11-12, 2021
On July 11 and 12, we had Journalist in Residence Workshop 2021 on Zoom. This year as last year, Tambara Institute of Mathematical Sciences of the University of Tokyo is closed because of COVID-19 and we again organized it on Zoom. The participants included more than 20 journalists, more than 20 participants from RIKEN and 10 from universities. 9 iTHEMS members mainly explained their working field and recent important achievements to the nonspecialists. There were 24 talks in total in a variety of fields. The discussion among the participants continued with joy in the evening of July 11 in ZOOM. We hope to organize it next year, in principle face to face and including remote participants by online.
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2021-06-01
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The work of a research group, including Dr. Maria Dainotti and Enrico Rinaldi, has been featured in several institutional press releases and websites
The work of a research group, including Dr. Maria Dainotti and Enrico Rinaldi, has been featured in several institutional press releases and websites. One of the most famous open problems of modern cosmology is the Hubble constant (H0) tension. This consists in the discrepancy (>4 sigma) between the values of H0 measured with the late universe local probes, namely the Supernovae Ia (SNe Ia), and the early universe observations, the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiation. With our investigation we found that a slow evolution with redshift is present in this constant thus allowing to alleviate this discrepancy. The study is published in ApJ. The investigation started when Dr. Maria Dainotti (now Assistant Professor at NAOJ) and Enrico Rinaldi (now Research Fellow at Michigan University) were Senior Research Scientist and Visiting Scientist both at iTHEMS, respectively. See related links for details.
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2021-05-19
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『「役に立たない」研究の未来』刊行記念イベント
2021年4月28日、下北沢の本屋B＆Bにて、オンラインイベント≪西田藍×初田哲男×隠岐さや香×柴藤亮介「研究者と市民との幸福な関係のために、いま私たちが話しておきたいこと」≫がおこなわれました。4月14日に発売となった『「役に立たない」研究の未来』の刊行を記念したものです。 詳細は関連リンクをご覧ください。
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2021-04-19
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iTHEMS x academist online public event was held on April 18, 2021
Following last year’s precedent, iTHEMS held an online lecture event for the general public with the help of Academist Inc., on April 18th, 2021. The event was planned as an alternative for the lectures at RIKEN’s annual open house. The event was started by Kanato Goto with his talk on Blackhole and its information problem. His compelling narrative evoked a lot of questions from high school students; some of them were very sharp. Next, Jeffery Fawcett talked about genome science. Among other topics he studied, he also mentioned the mutation of COVID-19 virus. During the lunch break, Program Director Hatsuda talked with Mr. Shibato from Academist about related books, the exhibition of Black Hole Recorder at Miraikan, and the attempts with RIKEN SUURI. In the afternoon, Sugiura-san talked about the supercomputers and the analysis of subatomic physics, followed by Naomi Tsuji's talk on supernovae and their remnants. The talk included several polls from the audience. Keita Mikami concluded the event with his talk on Mathematics, in particular inequality and differential equations. All the talks were compered by Ms. Michibayashi from Academist; Her facilitation with a wit kept the talks accessible even to high school students. The event was viewed by as many as more than three hundred audiences at one time.
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2021-04-15
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iTHEMS Starter Meeting for FY 2021 on April 9, 2021
iTHEMS officially kicked off its activity for FY 2021 by the iTHEMS Starter Meeting for FY 2021, on April 9th 2021. The meeting was held over Zoom as last year's meeting. Over sixty iTHEMS members gathered together as well as several frequent visitors and colleagues from other institute, and introduced themselves to other members.
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2021-04-02
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New faces in April 2021
April is the season when we have new faces. Yesterday, 10 people have joined us. Welcome to iTHEMS and let's have fun in science together!
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2021-03-26
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Message from the Director at the end of FY2020
I would like to thank all the iTHEMS members and iTHEMS supporting staff for your great efforts to keep iTHEMS very active during FY2020 even under the Covid-19. Our iTHEMS mission is very simple. Good science under the environment of interdisciplinary interactions: "A+B --> A*, A+ B --> B*, A+B --> C" are all in line with this mission. We will have many newcomers joining iTHEMS from FY2021, and let us keep moving forward without boundaries. Now, I would like to congratulate the two iTHEMS students: Toshihiro Ota (student trainee from Osaka Univ.) and Keisuke Fujii (student trainee from Tokyo Institute of Technology) who successfully defended their Ph.D. and are going to graduate from their Universities and from iTHEMS. I hope you have enjoyed your stay in iTHEMS and let us keep in touch for further interactions. Last but not the least, I would like to thank our assistant Izumi Nagasawa who has made tremendous support for the web page, seminars, colloquiums etc and is leaving iTHEMS at the end of this March. Although we could not see her so frequently in person under Covid-19 situation, she has been really helping our activities from behind. We send her our heartfelt gratitude.
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2021-03-25
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Exhibition of "Black Hole Recorder"
At the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation (Miraikan) located in Tokyo, iTHEMS exhibition of "Black Hole Recorder" was held last week (March 14-15, March 17-21). Details of this outreach activity (Black Hole Recorder) and the general concept behind (UselessPrototyping Studio) can be seen from the URLs below.
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2021-03-12
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iTHEMS NOW & NEXT FY2020 was held on March 11, 2021
The annual in-house gathering entitled iTHEMS NOW and NEXT FY2020 was held on March 11th via zoom. The gathering is the occasion we share the current status and future perspectives on our research and organization. In the morning, keynote overview talks were given by Takashi Okada, Hiroyasu Miyazaki, Akinori Tanaka, and Ching-Kai Chiu, followed by the interdisciplinary talk which Don Warren and Catherine Beauchemin jointly presented. During subsequent lunchtime, a special session on the proper practices in conducting scientific researches was taken place. In the session, the participants discussed their research practices in small groups and later shared their discussions with all. The afternoon session was devoted to the progress reports from the working groups and the study groups. This time, we observed a moment of silence in honor of those affected by the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami during these presentations since it just marked precisely ten years from the calamity. Program Director Hatsuda's remarks concluded the gathering.
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2021-03-02
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Biology and mathematics: What it would be like to be crazy about both
Dr. Ryosuke Iritani (Research Scientist, iTHEMS) writes frankly on the website SURI-JOSHI about why he chose his current field. Don't miss it!
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2021-03-02
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オンライン座談会「『役に立たない』科学が役に立つ」開催レポート
昨年8月22日、アカデミストと理化学研究所数理創造プログラムは、これからの基礎研究のありかたについて議論することを目的に「初田哲男×大隅良典×隠岐さや香 オンライン座談会 ～「役に立たない」科学が役に立つ～」を開催しました。当日のオンライン座談会の様子は関連リンクをご参照ください。
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2021-01-15
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小澤准教授のインタビュー記事がイスラエルの雑誌「Epoch」に掲載
AIMRジュニア主任研究者の小澤知己准教授のインタビュー記事が、イスラエルの一般向け雑誌「Epoch」の2020年12月号に掲載されました。 記事では、小澤准教授が進めている「人工次元」に関する研究が詳しく紹介されています。私たちは３次元空間に住んでいますが、最近通常の次元とは違って人工的に次元に相当するものを作り出し、それに関する実験・研究ができるようになってきました。 小澤准教授は原子のふるまいであるスピンを例に挙げて説明しています。スピンが取る状態を次元とみなせば、４次元量子ホール効果など高次元空間に関する物理現象などを実験的に研究できるようになるとの見解を述べています。 記事は高次元に関する最新の研究を、SFのような並行宇宙（パラレル・ユニバース）などとも関連させて解説した一般向けの内容ですが、人工次元という新しい概念もわかりやすく解説されており、非常に興味深い内容となっています。人工次元に関する研究が物性物理から素粒子物理まで様々な分野に影響を与えることが期待されます。
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2020-12-14
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Season's Greetings from Dr. Tetsuo Hatsuda, iTHEMS Director
Season's Greetings and Best Wishes for the New Year Thank you very much for sharing the joys of excellent science as well as your patience under COVID-19 during 2020. We wish you a good holiday season and a safe new year 2021 with happiness, prosperity, and novel scientific perspectives. Tetsuo Hatsuda, iTHEMS Director
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2020-12-11
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「君は本当にブラックホールを知っているか？」が12月6日開催されました
アカデミスト主催イベント「君は本当にブラックホールを知っているか？」が12月6日YouTubeを通して開催され、iTHEMSに所属する長瀧 重博（副プログラムディレクター）、井上 芳幸（客員主管研究員）、横倉 祐貴（上級研究員）が、ブラックホールの生まれ方、ブラックホールの探し方、ブラックホールの内側について、2020年のノーベル物理学賞の業績にも触れながらわかりやすく解説しています。関連リンクより、配信動画をぜひご覧ください。
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2020-12-03
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Farewell message from Dr. Martin Skrodzki
When my scholarship program first notified me that I would be able to spend a year, working in the RIKEN iTHEMS program, I was extremely happy for this great interdisciplinary and intercultural opportunity. Now, this year has ended and I will return to Germany to continue my research there and possibly at other locations in Europe. I arrived at RIKEN iTHEMS on January 20. While I expected the year to be very exciting, I did not at all imagine what 2020 had in store for all of us. After my first talk in the math seminar, we went to an Izakaya and had a Nomikai there. From the current perspective, this appears quite unreal to me. The Covid-19 pandemic caused this year to be run quite different from any other year. We all had to get used to working from home, working online, and even enjoying each other’s company during online coffee as well as online parties. Despite these restrictions, I tremendously enjoyed my stay in Wako and in Japan in general. Several aspects at iTHEMS contribute to a very friendly and positive atmosphere in the program. For instance, the coffee afternoons were a great way throughout my first couple of weeks to get to know many members of the workgroup. Also the all-hands coffee meetings on Friday are a great installment to stay in touch with each other. Furthermore, the dedicated math seminars were great for me to get new input, learn new mathematics, and chat with the colleagues. The organizers of the math seminar, but also all other chairs and the speakers, made the seminars very enjoyable events. Aside from these events, I was very happy to pursue my own research projects. As I am in the first phase of my postdoctoral career, this was a great opportunity to sharpen my research foci. Thus, I would like to close by thanking everyone for making my stay at RIKEN iTHEMS as enjoyable as it was. Once the global situation has settled down, I would love to return for a short visit or even another extended research stay. Let’s stay in touch!
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