Talk 1: TBA
Talk 2: Falor's exact, forward, differentiable solution to the quadruply lensed quasar problem
MIT undergrad Chirag Falor has come up with an exact, forward, differentiable solution to a problem that, for the past 45 years, has only been solved iteratively, backward, from observer to source. The method is elegant and is faster than comparable software by a factor that has been called "astonishing". Goodbye MCMC. En passant, it gives solutions for the flashes that occur on rare occasions when planets with atmospheres completely occult stars.
