A four-part series focusing on the fundamental physics concept of "mass" and the historical evolution of its understanding will be broadcast on Sunday, April 24, on the Open University of Japan (BS 231ch).
Tetsuo Hatsuda (Program Director, iTHEMS), Koichi Yazaki (Research Consultant, iTHEMS), and Gordon Baym (Senior Visiting Scientist, iTHEMS) will appear in "Part 4: Do we now know the origin of mass of matter?." The broadcast will air on Sunday, May 15 at 20:15 and Sunday, June 26 at 8:15 (rebroadcast).

For more information, please see the related links.

¡Hola! This is José (ホセ). I am a Mexican biologist in search of knowledge and interactions with scientists in all disciplines. I obtained my bachelor's degree in Mexico and completed my graduate studies in Japan: two countries where I grew up as a researcher, and where I also had great experiences working in science education. I joined iTHEMS as a SPDR in April 2022, and this transition represented an extraordinary chance for me to expand my research lines and interests.

My scientific background is in evolutionary biology and ecology. Therefore, the main questions that motivate my studies are “how is the origin of the species?”, “why are species the way they are?”, “why do species change over time?”, “how do species interact with the environment and other species?”. To answer that kind of questions, I have gained abilities in phylogenetics, phylogeography, population genetics, plant systematics, botany, taxonomy, and population ecology. If these prior skills are useful for your research, or if you want to start something completely new, I am always available to work together with you.

よろしくおねがいします！

Quantum field theory is a physical theory that describes a wide range of phenomena from the subatomic world to the cosmic scale, and can be regarded as a fruit of human wisdom. However, quantum field theory has not yet been mathematically formulated. This problem perhaps asks us, "How do we formulate space?"
According to the philosophy of algebraic geometry, "space and algebra" are almost the same thing. Here, the algebra is a collection of functions (classical fields). So let us consider the algebra consisting of quantum fields. The "classical algebra" is associative, whereas the "quantum algebra" is non-associative. What should be the corresponding space?

I am currently studying this algebra of quantum fields in the case of two-dimensional quantum field theory. In my previous research, I have worked mathematically on (1) a formulation of the algebra of two-dimensional conformal field theory, (2) constructions of examples, and (3) a construction of non-perturbative deformations. More recently, I have returned to the question of "space" a bit, studying the axioms (consistency) of quantum field theory from a viewpoint of an operad structure of moduli spaces and higher categories.

I was originally a pure mathematician studying representation theory. Crossing the field into physics has been fruitful for my life, although there is still a lot I don't understand. I am very happy to be here at iTHEMS and hope to have good interactions and co-evolution with many researchers.

My name is Shou Yoshikawa. I joined RIKEN iTHEMS as an SPDR in April 2022. I am a mathematician studying algebraic geometry. I am interested in an analog of the existence of Kähler-Einstein metric to positive characteristic. Algebraic geometry in positive characteristic is a purely mathematical subject, however, the Einstein metric is deeply related to Physics. I hope that we find a new relation between mathematics and other sciences studying such analogies.

My name is Daiki Kumakura. I joined iTHEMS as JRA (Junior Research Associate) in April 2022. My research fields are microbial evolutionary ecology and mathematical biology. Still undergraduate, I researched the metabolism of deep marine microbes with transcriptome analysis and comparative genome analysis. Because I am interested in the evolutionary process of microbes with the ecological interactions, I currently have researched the coevolution of microbes with theoretical analysis. Then, I do interdisciplinary research of fieldwork and theoretical simulation. The main field is a hot spring (Japanese is an onsen). I sample the sediments and water at each location and do bioinformatics. In the theoretical analysis, I construct mathematical modeling and simulation.
I have the unique experience of discussing with theoretical researchers in various fields at iTHEMS. Through this interdisciplinary research and discussion, I hope to make my doctoral course meaningful.

My name is Taketo Sano. I joined iTHEMS as a special postdoctoral researcher in April 2022 after I got the Ph.D. in mathematical sciences from the University of Tokyo. My research area is in low-dimensional topology and knot theory.

I am interested in the intersection of (or interaction between) topology and combinatorics. Spaces are inherently infinite and beyond direct computations, while their algebraic images (under some nice mappings) are usually more tractable, and in some cases algorithmically computable.

When one finds nice properties in the algebraic level, it is natural to expect that they are reflections of some hidden structures in the spacial level. My aim is to investigate the nature of the unseeable spaces through their algebraic images, by using theoretical tools (from algebraic topology, homotopy theory and category theory) together with computer powers.

Title: GRB Prompt Emission: Observed Correlations and Their Interpretations
Author: Tyler Parsotan, Hirotaka Ito
arXiv: http://arxiv.org/abs/2204.09729v1

Title: Fedder type criteria for quasi-$F$-splitting
Author: Tatsuro Kawakami, Teppei Takamatsu, Shou Yoshikawa
arXiv: http://arxiv.org/abs/2204.10076v1