Nike Sun (nsun at mit dot edu)

Associate Professor, MIT Mathematics Department.
2-432, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139-4307.

Hello! I am interested in probability theory and statistical physics, especially in high-dimensional settings.


Teaching:

Spring 2024 18.676 Stochastic Calculus: see Canvas website.

Past courses at MIT (since 2018):
18.06 Linear Algebra (F21).
18.103 Fourier Analysis (F22).
18.676 Stochastic Calculus (S23, S22, S21, S20).
18.675 Theory of Probability (F19).
18.125 Measure Theory and Analysis (S19).
18.177 Topics in Stochastic Processes (F18).

Past courses at Berkeley (before 2018):
Stat 205a (Math 218a) Probability Theory (F17).
Stat 155 Game Theory (F17).
Stat 134 Concepts of Probability (F16).


Short c.v.:

(2018-) MIT Mathematics Department (associate professor).
(2018-2019) Berkeley Statistics Department (associate professor).
(2016-2018) Berkeley Statistics Department (assistant professor).
(2014-2015) MSR New England and MIT Mathematics Department (Schramm/NSF postdoc).
(2010-2014) Stanford University (Ph.D. Statistics, advised by Amir Dembo).
(2009-2010) University of Cambridge (M.A.St. Mathematics).
(2005-2009) Harvard University (B.A. Mathematics, M.A. Statistics).
2017 Rollo Davidson Prize; 2020 Wolfgang Doeblin Prize.
Research is supported by NSF CAREER grant DMS-1940092, NSF-Simons collaboration grant DMS-2031883, and the Solomon Buchsbaum Research Fund at MIT.


Meetings, seminars, etc.:

Workshop on probability and statistics of discrete structures, MSRI Jan. 23-24, 2025.
Workshop on computational complexity of statistical inference, FODSI MIT June 14-16 2023.
Probability, Geometry, and Computation in High Dimensions, Berkeley Simons Institute fall 2020.
Advances in Asymptotic Probability, Stanford Dec. 13-17 2018, in honor of Amir Dembo's 60th birthday.
Workshop on phase transitions in randomized computational problems, AIM June 12-16 2017.
I currently serve as an associate editor for Annals of Probability.
Program committee service: SODA 2018, FOCS 2020, FOCS 2022.


Publications and preprints:

Sharp thresholds in inference of planted subgraphs.
[arXiv] With Elchanan Mossel, Jonathan Niles-Weed, Youngtak Sohn, and Ilias Zadik.

Locality of critical percolation on expanding graph sequences.
[arXiv] With Michael Ren.

A second moment proof of the spread lemma.
[arXiv] With Elchanan Mossel, Jonathan Niles-Weed, and Ilias Zadik.

On the second Kahn--Kalai conjecture.
[arXiv] With Elchanan Mossel, Jonathan Niles-Weed, and Ilias Zadik.

Sharp threshold sequence and universality for Ising perceptron models.
[arXiv] With Shuta Nakajima.
Proceedings of 34th SODA (2023).

Gardner formula for Ising perceptron models at small densities.
[arXiv] With Erwin Bolthausen, Shuta Nakajima, and Changji Xu.
Proc. Mach. Learn. Res. 178 (2022), pp. 1787-1911.

Proof of the satisfiability conjecture for large k.
[arXiv] [conference] [journal] With Jian Ding and Allan Sly.
Conference version in proceedings of 47th STOC (2015), pp. 59-68.
Ann. Math 196:1 (2022), 1-388.

Breaking of 1RSB in random regular MAX-NAE-SAT.
[arXiv] With Zsolt Bartha and Yumeng Zhang.
Conference version in proceedings of 60th FOCS (2019).

Capacity lower bound for the Ising perceptron.
[arXiv] With Jian Ding.
Conference version in proceedings of 51st STOC (2019).

Spectral algorithms for tensor completion.
[arXiv] [journal] With Andrea Montanari.
Comm. Pure Appl. Math. 71:11 (2018), pp. 2381-2425.

The number of solutions for random regular NAE-SAT.
[arXiv] [conference] With Allan Sly and Yumeng Zhang.
Conference version in proceedings of 57th FOCS (2016), pp. 724-731.
Probab. Theory. Rel. Fields (to appear).

Shotgun assembly of random regular graphs.
[arXiv] With Elchanan Mossel.

Supercritical minimum mean-weight cycles.
[arXiv] With Jian Ding and David B. Wilson.
Trans. Amer. Math. Soc. (to appear).

Maximum independent sets on random regular graphs.
[arXiv] [journal] With Jian Ding and Allan Sly.
Acta Math. 217:2 (2016), pp. 263-340.

Satisfiability threshold for random regular NAE-SAT.
[arXiv] [conference] [journal] With Jian Ding and Allan Sly. Comm. Math. Phys. 341:2 (2016), pp. 435-489.
Conference version in proceedings of 46th STOC (2014), pp. 814-822.

On the asymptotics of dimers on tori.
[arXiv] [journal] With Richard W. Kenyon and David B. Wilson.
Probab. Theory Rel. Fields 166:3 (2016), pp. 971-1023.

The replica symmetric solution for Potts models on d-regular graphs.
[arXiv] [journal] With Amir Dembo, Andrea Montanari, and Allan Sly.
Comm. Math. Phys. 327:2 (2014), pp. 551-575.

The Hausdorff dimension of the CLE gasket.
[arXiv] [journal] With Jason Miller and David B. Wilson. Ann. Probab., 42:4 (2014), pp. 1644-1665.

Counting in two-spin models on d-regular graphs.
[arXiv] [journal] [conference] With Allan Sly. Ann. Probab. 42:6 (2014), pp. 2383-2416.
Conference version in proceedings of 53rd FOCS (2012), pp. 361-369.

Factor models on locally tree-like graphs.
[arXiv] [journal] With Amir Dembo and Andrea Montanari. Ann. Probab. 41:6 (2013), pp. 4162-4213.

Central limit theorem for biased random walk on multi-type Galton-Watson trees.
[arXiv] [journal] With Amir Dembo. Elect. J. Probab. 17:75 (2012), pp. 1-40.

Strong path convergence from Loewner driving convergence.
[arXiv] [journal] With Scott Sheffield. Ann. Probab. 40:2 (2012), pp. 578-610.

Expository:

Rigorous results: random constraint satisfaction problems.
[book] With Amin Coja-Oghlan and Allan Sly. Chapter in Spin Glass Theory and Far Beyond (2023).

Conformally invariant scaling limits in planar critical percolation.
[arXiv] [journal] Probab. Surveys 8 (2011), pp. 155-209.


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