Monthly Archives: March 2013

Another Forgotten Bet: Is Don Zagier About to Owe Me 1000 Shekels For The Proof of the ABC Conjecture?

Posted on March 28, 2013 by

      Like everybody else I heard with great interest the news about the attempted solution of the ABC conjecture by Shinichi Mochizuki. (See, e.g.,  here, here, here, and here.) I did not think that this has much to with me … Continue reading →

Posted in Number theory, Rationality | Tagged , , | 8 Comments

Erdős’ Birthday

Posted on March 27, 2013 by

Paul Erdős was born on March 26, 1913 2013 a hundred years ago. This picture (from Ehud Friedgut’s homepage) was taken in September ’96 in a Chinese restaurant in Warsaw, a few days before Paul Erdős passed away. The other diners are Svante Janson, Tomasz Łuczack and … Continue reading →

Posted in Combinatorics | Tagged | 3 Comments

My Quantum Debate with Aram III

Posted on March 25, 2013 by

This is the third and last post giving a timeline and some non technical highlights from my debate with Aram Harrow.   Where were we After Aram Harrow and I got in touch in June 2011, and decided to have … Continue reading →

Posted in Computer Science and Optimization, Controversies and debates, Physics | Tagged , , , , | 6 Comments

Mittag-Leffler Institute and Yale, Winter 2005; Test your intuition: Who Played the Piano?

Posted on March 21, 2013 by

This is a little “flashback” intermission in my posts about my debate with Aram Harrow. This time I try to refer to Cris Moore’s question regarding  the motivation for my study. For the readers it gives an opportunity to win a … Continue reading →

Posted in Computer Science and Optimization, Controversies and debates, Physics, Test your intuition | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

My Quantum Debate with Aram II

Posted on March 19, 2013 by

This is the second of three posts giving few of the non-technical highlights of my debate with Aram Harrow. (part I) After Aram Harrow and I got in touch in June 2011, and decided to have a blog debate about … Continue reading →

Posted in Computer Science and Optimization, Controversies and debates, Physics | Tagged , , , | 6 Comments

My Quantum Debate with Aram Harrow: Timeline, Non-technical Highlights, and Flashbacks I

Posted on March 16, 2013 by

How the debate came about     (Email from Aram Harrow, June 4,  2011) Dear Gil Kalai, I am a quantum computing researcher, and was wondering about a few points in your paper… (Aram’s email was detailed and thoughtful and at the … Continue reading →

Posted in Computer Science and Optimization, Controversies and debates, Physics | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

Test Your Intuition (17): What does it Take to Win Tic-Tac-Toe

Posted on March 15, 2013 by

(A few more quantum posts are coming. But let’s have a quick break for games.) Tic Tac Toe is played since anciant times. For the common version, where the two players X and O take turns in marking the empty squares … Continue reading →

Posted in Games, Test your intuition | Tagged , , | 40 Comments

A Few Slides and a Few Comments From My MIT Lecture on Quantum Computers

Posted on March 13, 2013 by

I gathered a few of the comments made by participants of my lecture “Why quantum computers cannot work and how”, and a few of my answers. Here they are along with some of the lecture’s slides. Here is the link … Continue reading →

Posted in Computer Science and Optimization, Physics | Tagged , , | 222 Comments

Meeting with Aram Harrow, and my Lecture on Why Quantum Computers Cannot Work.

Posted on March 1, 2013 by

Last Friday, I gave a lecture at the quantum information seminar at MIT entitled “Why quantum computers cannot work and how.” It was a nice event with lovely participation during the talk, and a continued discussion after it. Many very … Continue reading →

Posted in Computer Science and Optimization, Controversies and debates, Physics, Updates | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment