Triangle Computer Science Distinguished Lecturer Series

12:00 PM – 1:00 PM ET

Watch Online

This talk will also be broadcast live in Sitterson Hall room 011

Title: The Value of Errors in Proofs

Host School: Duke

Abstract: A few years ago, a group of theoretical computer scientists posted a paper on the Arxiv with the strange-looking title “MIP* = RE”, surprising and impacting not only complexity theory but also some areas of math and physics. Specifically, it resolved, in the negative, the “Connes’ embedding conjecture” in the area of von-Neumann algebras, and the “Tsirelson problem” in quantum information theory. It further connects Turing’s seminal 1936 paper which defined algorithms, to Einstein’s 1935 paper with Podolsky and Rosen which challenged quantum mechanics. You can find the paper here.

As it happens, both acronyms MIP* and RE represent proof systems, of a very different nature. To explain them, we’ll take a meandering journey through the classical and modern definitions of proof. I hope to explain how the methodology of computational complexity theory, especially modeling and classification (of both problems and proofs) by algorithmic efficiency, naturally leads to the generation of new such notions and results (and more acronyms, like NP). A special focus will be on notions of proof which allow interaction, randomness, and errors, and their surprising power and magical properties.

Dates and titles are subject to change.