Volume 235

iTHEMS Weekly News Letter

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Shou Yoshikawa thumbnail

Farewell message from Dr. Shou Yoshikawa

2023-01-25

Our colleague Shou Yoshikawa will move to the Tokyo Institute of Technology as an assistant professor from February 1st. We all will miss him and wish him the best of luck in his latest endeavor. Here is a message from Shou Yoshikawa:

I spent almost a year at iTHEMS as an SPDR. I have had several opportunities to speak about my research at iTHEMS events and they have all been wonderful experiences. People from various fields actively asked me questions, which was a valuable experience. I would like to thank all the iTHEMS researchers and the iTHEMS desk staff for giving me a good environment in which I could concentrate on my research, even if it was only for a short time. 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.

Book

Become a scientist who studies what you love !! [Chapter of Universe] thumbnail

Become a scientist who studies what you love !! [Chapter of Universe]

2023-01-24

Cooperation / RIKEN
Language: Japanese
Five scientists explain the fascinating aspects of cutting-edge space research!
Shigehiro Nagataki (Deputy Program Director, iTHEMS) and Naritaka Oshita (Special Postdoctoral Researcher, iTHEMS) are among the authors.

Seminar Report

iTHEMS Colloquium by Dr. Gabriel Peyré on January 24, 2023

2023-01-25

Prof. Gabriel Peyré, a CNRS research director and professor at Ecole Normale Supérieure (France) gave an iTHEMS-AIP joint colloquium entitled "Scaling Optimal Transport for High dimensional Learning" on January 24th. He started his talk with the old Monge's problem and moved to modern concept of the optimal transport by Kantorovich with historical stories behind it. He showed us that there have been many efforts of various mathematicians, economists, and physicists behind the developments of the optimal transport theory. In the later part of his talk, Prof. Gabriel Peyré focused on optimal transport problems in extremely high dimensions looking ahead various potential scientific applications like imaging, natural language processing, and biology. He introduced the key concept, entoropic term, with the historical quotation from Schrödinger, and showed us how it enables approximately solving optimal transport problems in high dimensions. He made his talk with a lot of beautiful figures and detailed explanations. We have many discussions during/after the talk, and enjoyed the colloquium.

Reported by Akinori Tanaka

Scaling Optimal Transport for High dimensional Learning image

Seminar Report

iTHEMS Math Seminar by Dr. Nobuo Iida on January 20, 2023

2023-01-24

On January 20, Nobuo Iida from the Tokyo Institute of Technology gave a talk titled “Math and Physics of Seiberg-Witten theory” at the iTHEMS math seminar. He started by explaining a wide range of reviews in physics such as classical theory, relativity, quantum mechanics, and quantum field theory. Specially, these explanations were prepared for non-physicists and stimulated discussions.
Also, his explanation of these theories contained many instructive examples of such theories which enable us to understand his talk easily.
At the end of the first part, he focused on three kinds of QFTs: free theory, perturbative theory, and more general QFT, and introduced renormalization which gives interactions between high energy theory and low energy theory.
Secondly, he started to explain general motivational questions in geometry on the mathematical side. This part is also prepared for non-mathematician.
After reviewing the history of topology, he introduces Donaldson’s theory and Donaldson’s polynomial invariant, and Witten’s field-theoretic interpretation (topological twist of N=2 SUSY Yang-Mills theory) of the invariant. As the low energy effective theory of N=2 SUSY Yang-Mills theory, a family of gauge theories parametrized by so-called u-plane was introduced.
By analyzing the family and using duality and topological twist, an idea of the Witten conjecture was shared, which relates Donaldson’s polynomial invariant with the Seiberg-Witten invariant on the mathematical side.
His talk was very interesting and stimulated many questions and discussions. I believe it was a very worthwhile time for many participants.

Reported by Masaki Taniguchi

Seminar Report

ABBL-iTHEMS Joint Astro Seminar by Dr. Nanae Domoto on January 20, 2023

2023-01-20

Binary neutron star (NS) merger is a promising site for the rapid neutron capture nucleosynthesis (r-process). The radioactive decay of newly synthesized elements powers electromagnetic radiation, as called kilonova. The detection of gravitational wave from a NS merger GW170817 and the observation of the associated kilonova AT2017gfo have provided with us the evidence that r-process happens in the NS merger. However, the abundance pattern synthesized in this event, which is important to understand the origin of the r-process elements, is not yet clear. In this talk, Ms. Domoto first introduced an overview and current understanding of kilonova. Then, she discussed her recent findings of elemental features in photospheric spectra of kilonova toward identification of elements.

Reported by Shigehiro Nagataki

Upcoming Events

Seminar

iTHEMS Biology Seminar

Universal Biology in Adaptation and Evolution: Dimensional Reduction and Fluctuation-Response Relationship

February 2 (Thu) at 16:00 - 17:00, 2023

Kunihiko Kaneko (Professor, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Denmark)

A macroscopic theory for adaptive changes of cells is presented, based on consistency between cellular growth and molecular replication, as well as robustness of fitted phenotypes against perturbations. Adaptive changes in high-dimensional phenotypes are shown to be restricted within a low-dimensional slow manifold, from which a macroscopic law for cellular states is derived, as is confirmed by adaptation experiments of bacteria under stress. The theory is extended to phenotypic evolution, leading to proportionality between phenotypic responses against genetic evolution and by environmental adaptation, which also explains the evolutionary fluctuation-response relationship previously uncovered. Relevance of statistical-physics and dynamical-systems approach is discussed.

References

  1. Kaneko K., Life: An Introduction to Complex Systems Biology, Springer (2006)
  2. K. Kaneko, C.Furusawa, T. Yomo, Macroscopic phenomenology for cells in steady-growth state, Phys.Rev.X, 011014 (2015)
  3. C. Furusawa, K. Kaneko, Global Relationships in Fluctuation and Response in Adaptive Evolution, J of Royal Society Interface 12, 20150482 (2015)
  4. C. Furusawa, K. Kaneko, Formation of Dominant Mode by Evolution in Biological Systems, Phys. Rev. E 97, 042410 (2018)
  5. K. Kaneko, C. Furusawa, Macroscopic Theory for Evolving Biological Systems Akin to Thermodynamics, Annual Rev. Biophys. 47, 273-290 (2018)
  6. A.Sakata and K. Kaneko, Dimensional Reduction in Evolving Spin-Glass Model: Correlation of Phenotypic Responses to Environmental and Mutational Changes, Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 218101 (2020)
  7. Q-Y. Tang and K. Kaneko, Dynamics-evolution correspondence in protein structures, Phys. Rev. Lett. 127, 098103 (2021)

Venue: via Zoom

Event Official Language: English

Seminar

NEW WG Seminar

Thermodynamic inequalities: motivation, foundations, and applications

February 7 (Tue) at 13:30 - 15:00, 2023

Andreas Dechant (Lecturer, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University)

In this talk, I will introduce the topic of thermodynamic inequalities. One motivation for studying inequalities is that they can provide universal constraints on what can and cannot happen in physical systems. From a more practical point of view, they can be used to estimate physical observables even in situations where no equality is available. I will highlight a few recent examples of thermodynamic inequalities in the form of uncertainty relations and speed limits.

In the main part of the talk, I will explain a general technique for deriving new inequalities, by starting from information-theoretic bounds and considering “virtual perturbations” of a physical system. I will show how this method can be used to derive and generalize the so-called “thermodynamic uncertainty relation”. An interesting application of such uncertainty relations is to estimate the dissipation in biological systems such as molecular motors.

The second main topic is how to relate inequalities to equalities. When using inequalities to estimate physical quantities, it is crucial to understand the conditions under which the inequality can be tight. One way to achieve this is to “promote” the inequality into an equality via a variational principle. On the one hand, this provides conditions for obtaining a tight bound. On the other hand, variational expressions can also serve as a starting point to derive new inequalities.

Venue: via Zoom

Event Official Language: English

Workshop

Kyoto Univ. MACS Program x RIKEN iTHEMS Collaborative Research Forum thumbnail

Kyoto Univ. MACS Program x RIKEN iTHEMS Collaborative Research Forum

February 13 (Mon) at 13:00 - 18:00, 2023

RIKEN iTHEMS and the SACRA Interdisciplinary Research Division of the Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University signed a joint research agreement on the task "Creation of new fields and solution of various problems in science using mathematical-based interdisciplinary methods", which started in 2018, and the two institutions have been strengthening collaboration over the past five years. During this period, various collaborative activities in both research and education have been carried out and results have been achieved, including the holding of research symposia, joint lectures across universities, the establishment of visiting lectures, and educational activities in the MACS Study Group. At this forum, we would like to present the results of these five years of joint research and to link them to the start of further collaboration in the future. In particular, many undergraduate and graduate students have participated in the "MACS Study Group 2022-SG5 Pipeline Connecting RIKEN and MACS", and have been actively engaged in research activities with RIKEN researchers. The results of these SG5 activities will be presented by the students.

Venue: 4F, South Tower, School of Science Bldg. No.6, Kyoto University / via Zoom

Event Official Language: Japanese

Seminar

iTHEMS Math Seminar

Coherent sheaves, quivers, and quantum groups

February 17 (Fri) at 14:00 - 16:00, 2023

Gufang Zhao (Senior Lecturer, University of Melbourne, Australia)

This talk aims to illustrate symmetries in geometry. The first half surveys a few examples of parametrizing coherent sheaves on a variety and how quantum groups control the symmetry of parametrization space. The second half aims to illustrate some special cases when the variety is a local toric 3-Calabi-Yau.

Venue: Hybrid Format (Common Room 246-248 and Zoom)

Event Official Language: English

Seminar

ABBL-iTHEMS Joint Astro Seminar

Cosmic magnetism and its effects on the observed properties of ultra high-energy cosmic rays

March 10 (Fri) at 14:00 - 15:00, 2023

Ellis Owen (JSPS International Research Fellow, Theoretical Astrophysics Group, Department of Earth and Space Science, Graduate School of Science, Osaka University)

Ultra high-energy (UHE) cosmic rays (CRs) from distant sources interact with intergalactic radiation fields, leading to their spallation and attenuation through photo-hadronic processes. Their deflection and diffusion in large scale intergalactic magnetic fields (IGMFs), in particular those associated with Mpc-scale structures, alter the cumulative cooling and interactions of a CR ensemble to modify their spectral shape and composition observed on Earth. In this talk, I will demonstrate the extent to which IGMFs can affect observed UHE CRs, and show that source population models are degenerate with IGMF properties. Interpretation of observations, including the endorsement or rejection of any particular UHE CR source classes, needs careful consideration of the structural properties and evolution of IGMFs. Future observations providing tighter constraints on IGMF properties will significantly improve confidence in assessing UHE CR sources and their intrinsic CR production properties.

Venue: via Zoom / Common Room #246-248, 2F Main Research Building, RIKEN

Event Official Language: English

Workshop

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Supported by iTHEMS

6th Workshop on Virus Dynamics

July 4 (Tue) - 6 (Thu), 2023

Catherine Beauchemin (Deputy Program Director, iTHEMS)
Shingo Iwami (Professor, Graduate School of Science, Nagoya University)

The Workshop on Virus Dynamics is an international meeting held every 2 years. It brings virologists, immunologists, and microbiologists together with mathematical and computational modellers, bioinformaticians, bioengineers, virophysicists, and systems biologists to discuss current approaches and challenges in modelling and analyzing different aspects of virus and immune system dynamics, and associated vaccines and therapeutics. This 6th version of the workshop builds on the success of previous ones held in Frankfurt (2013), Toronto (2015), Heidelberg (2017), Paris (2019) and virtually (2021). It is supported by the Interdisciplinary Theoretical and Mathematical Sciences (iTHEMS) program at RIKEN, by Nagoya University, and by the Japan Science and Technology Agency. Up-to-date information and registration is available via the website. The workshop is for in-person participation only (no virtual or hybrid option).

Venue: Noyori Conference Hall, Higashiyama Campus, Nagoya University

Event Official Language: English

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