Nike Sun (nsun at mit dot edu)

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.

Brice Huang (jointly advised by Guy Bresler and myself) is on the job market in fall 2024!


Teaching:

Past courses at MIT (since 2018):
18.06 Linear Algebra (F21).
18.103 Fourier Analysis (F22).
18.676 Stochastic Calculus (S20-24).
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.:

(2024-) MIT Mathematics Department (professor).
(2018-2024) 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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