Talks

We study the effective BV quantization theory for chiral deformation of two dimensional conformal field theories. We establish an exact correspondence between renormalized quantum master equations for effective functionals and Maurer-Cartan equations for chiral vertex operators. The generating functions are proven to be quasi-modular forms. As an application, we construct an exact solution of quantum B-model (BCOV theory) in complex one dimension that solves the higher genus mirror symmetry conjecture on elliptic curves. The talk is based on arXiv: 1612.01292[math.QA]

Anomalies are a ubiquitous phenomenon in quantum mechanics whereby a classical
symmetry is irrevocably violated by quantization. Anomalies not only constrain the
space of classical theories than are consistent with quantum mechanics but are
responsible for rich, surprising and experimentally tested physical phenomena.
In this talk I will give a non-technical, bird's eye introduction to anomalies.

CHIME is a new interferometric telescope at radio frequencies 400-800 MHz.  The mapping speed (or total statistical power) of CHIME is among the largest of any radio telescope in the world, and the technology powering CHIME could be used to build telescopes which are orders of magnitude more powerful.  This breakthrough sensitivity has the power to revolutionize radio astronomy, but meeting the computational challenges will require breakthroughs on the algorithmic side.  I'll give a status update on CHIME, with an emphasis on new algorithms being developed to search for fast radio bursts and pulsars.

We will describe a formulation of the Batalin-Vilkovisky formalism using derived symplectic geometry.  In this setting, the classical master equation of the BV formalism describes a space of coisotropic structures.  Using this approach, we resolve a conjecture of Felder-Kazhdan regarding BRST cohomology.  Time permitting, we will also describe applications of these ideas to more general quantization problems.