Category Archives: Computer Science and Optimization

The story of Poincaré and his friend the baker

Posted on October 13, 2019 by

Google’s supremacy stone soup Here is a little update on the Google supremacy claims that we discussed in this earlier post (see especially this remark). Don’t miss our previous post on combinatorics. Recall that a quantum supremacy demonstration would be … Continue reading →

Posted in Combinatorics, Computer Science and Optimization, Probability, Quantum, Statistics | Tagged , , | 9 Comments

Gérard Cornuéjols’s baker’s eighteen 5000 dollars conjectures

Posted on October 13, 2019 by

Gérard Cornuéjols Gérard Cornuéjols‘s beautiful (and freely available) book from 2000 Optimization: Packing and Covering is about an important area of combinatorics which is lovely described in the preface to the book The integer programming models known as set packing … Continue reading →

Posted in Combinatorics, Computer Science and Optimization, Open problems | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Noisy quantum circuits: how do we know that we have robust experimental outcomes at all? (And do we care?)

Posted on October 3, 2019 by

In a recent post we discussed Google’s claim of achieving “quantum supremacy” and my reasons to think that these claims will not stand. (See also this comment for necessary requirements from a quantum supremacy experiment.) This debate gives a good … Continue reading →

Posted in Computer Science and Optimization, Quantum | Tagged , , | 9 Comments

Quantum computers: amazing progress (Google & IBM), and extraordinary but probably false supremacy claims (Google).

Posted on September 23, 2019 by

A 2017 cartoon from this post. Update (October, 18, 2019): To the best of my judgement the results on quantum supremacy in the Google paper are fundamentally flawed. The researchers apparently calibrated parameters of the quantum computer as to improve … Continue reading →

Posted in Combinatorics, Computer Science and Optimization, Quantum, Updates | Tagged | 57 Comments

Computer Science and its Impact on our Future

Posted on September 4, 2019 by

A couple of weeks ago I told you about Avi Wigderson’s vision on the connections between the theory of computing and other areas of mathematics on the one hand and between computer science and other areas of science, technology and … Continue reading →

Posted in Academics, Computer Science and Optimization, Quantum, Updates | Tagged | 1 Comment

The Argument against Quantum Computers – a CERN Colloquium and a New Paper

Posted on August 21, 2019 by

Let me announce my CERN colloquium this Thursday, August 22, 2019, 16:30-17:30 entitled “The argument against quantum computers.” If you are at CERN or the neighborhood, please please come to the lecture. (Tea and coffee will be served at 16:00. … Continue reading →

Posted in Computer Science and Optimization, Physics, Quantum | Tagged , | 8 Comments

Two Important Quantum Announcements!

Posted on August 9, 2019 by

I am very happy to announce two quantum events. First, I would like to announce a course “Computation, quantization, symplectic geometry, and information” in the first 2019/2020 semester  at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI). The course will by on … Continue reading →

Posted in Computer Science and Optimization, Conferences, Quantum, Teaching | Tagged , , , , | 8 Comments

Avi Wigderson’s: “Integrating computational modeling, algorithms, and complexity into theories of nature, marks a new scientific revolution!” (An invitation for a discussion.)

Posted on August 4, 2019 by

  The cover of Avi Wigderson’s book “Mathematics and computation” as was first exposed to the public in Avi’s Knuth Prize videotaped lecture. (I had trouble with 3 of the words: What is EGDE L WONK 0?  what is GCAAG?GTAACTC … Continue reading →

Posted in Academics, Combinatorics, Computer Science and Optimization, Open discussion, Philosophy, What is Mathematics | Tagged | 16 Comments

An interview with Noga Alon

Posted on August 1, 2019 by

Update: and here is a great interview of Noga in English and the interviewer is Narkis Alon, Noga’s youngest daughter and Amalya Duek. I was very happy to interview my academic doctoral  twin and long-time friend Noga Alon.  The interview … Continue reading →

Posted in Combinatorics, Computer Science and Optimization, People | Tagged | 6 Comments

Amazing: Hao Huang Proved the Sensitivity Conjecture!

Posted on July 2, 2019 by

Today’s arXived amazing paper by Hao Huang Induced subgraphs of hypercubes and a proof of the Sensitivity Conjecture Contains an amazingly short and beautiful proof of a famous open problem from the theory of computing – the sensitivity conjecture posed … Continue reading →

Posted in Combinatorics, Computer Science and Optimization | Tagged , | 22 Comments