Introduction to Spin Glass Theory

Seminar: 
Special Guest Lecture
Event time: 
Wednesday, January 14, 2026 - 10:00am
Location: 
KT 801
Speaker: 
Yuxin Zhou
Speaker affiliation: 
University of Chicago
Event description: 

Abstract: Spin glasses are disordered magnetic systems that display remarkably complex collective behavior. Understanding these systems has challenged both physicists and mathematicians for decades. In the late 1970s, Giorgio Parisi proposed a revolutionary solution to the Sherrington–Kirkpatrick model. At the heart of his theory is the Parisi measure, an object that reveals the hidden organization of disorder. In this talk, I will survey what is now rigorously known about the Parisi measure and highlight the ​major open problems in the field.