Category Archives: Physics

My Argument Against Quantum Computers: An Interview with Katia Moskvitch on Quanta Magazine

Posted on February 8, 2018 by

Quanta Magazine published an interview with me about quantum computers. It was a pleasure discussing this issue with Katia Moskvitch and I enjoyed also the photo session with David Vaaknin who also took a video of me explaining the importance of … Continue reading →

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

Third third of my ICM 2018 paper – Three Puzzles on Mathematics, Computation and Games. Corrections and comments welcome

Posted on December 20, 2017 by

Update: Here is a combined version of all three parts: Three puzzles on mathematics computations and games. Thanks for the remarks and corrections. More corrections and comments welcome. Dear all, here is the draft of the third third of my … Continue reading →

Posted in Combinatorics, Computer Science and Optimization, Open problems, Physics, Quantum | Tagged , | 3 Comments

My Very First Book “Gina Says”, Now Published by “World Scientific”

Posted on November 20, 2017 by

I just received an advanced copy of my very first book: “Gina Says: Adventures in the Blogsphere String War” published by Word Scientific. It is a much changed version compared to the Internet version of 8 years ago and it … Continue reading →

Posted in Academics, Combinatorics, Mathematics over the Internet, Physics, Updates | Tagged , | 3 Comments

If Quantum Computers are not Possible Why are Classical Computers Possible?

Posted on October 16, 2017 by

As most of my readers know, I regard quantum computing as unrealistic. You can read more about it in my Notices AMS paper and its extended version (see also this post) and in the discussion of Puzzle 4 from my … Continue reading →

Posted in Computer Science and Optimization, Physics, Quantum | Tagged , | 4 Comments

The Race to Quantum Technologies and Quantum Computers (Useful Links)

Posted on April 3, 2017 by

One of my main research directions in the last decade is  quantum information theory and quantum computers. (See this post and this one.) It is therefore a pleasure to report and give many links on the massive efforts carried out these … Continue reading →

Posted in Computer Science and Optimization, Physics, Quantum | Tagged , , , , , | 17 Comments

The Simplex, the Cyclic polytope, the Positroidron, the Amplituhedron, and Beyond

Posted on February 16, 2015 by

A quick schematic road-map to these new geometric objects. The  positroidron can be seen as a cellular structure on the nonnegative Grassmanian – the part of the real Grassmanian G(m,n) which corresponds to m by n matrices with all m by … Continue reading →

Posted in Algebra and Number Theory, Combinatorics, Convex polytopes, Physics | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

BosonSampling and (BKS) Noise Sensitivity

Posted on August 1, 2013 by

Update (Nov 2014): Noise sensitivity of BosonSampling and computational complexity of noisy BosonSampling are studied in this paper by Guy Kindler and me. Some of my predictions from this post turned out to be false. In particular the noisy BosonSampling … Continue reading →

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

The Kadison-Singer Conjecture has beed Proved by Adam Marcus, Dan Spielman, and Nikhil Srivastava

Posted on June 19, 2013 by

…while we keep discussing why mathematics is possible… The news Adam Marcus, Dan Spielman, and Nikhil Srivastava posted a paper entitled “Interlacing Families II: Mixed Characteristic Polynomials and the Kadison-Singer Problem,” where they prove the 1959 Kadison-Singer conjecture. (We discussed part … Continue reading →

Posted in Analysis, Computer Science and Optimization, Physics, Updates | Tagged , , , , , | 49 Comments

Answer: Lord Kelvin, The Age of the Earth, and the Age of the Sun

Posted on May 12, 2013 by

            Yeshu Kolodni and Lord Kelvin The question In 1862, the physicist William Thomson (who later became Lord Kelvin) of Glasgow published calculations that fixed the age of Earth at between 20 million and 400 … Continue reading →

Posted in Geology, Physics, Test your intuition | 7 Comments

Test your Intuition/Knowledge: What was Lord Kelvin’s Main Mistake?

Posted on May 8, 2013 by

The age of the earth (Thanks to Yeshu Kolodny) We now know that the age of the earth is 4.54±1% Billion years. From Wikipedea: In 1862, the physicist William Thomson (who later became Lord Kelvin) of Glasgow published calculations that … Continue reading →

Posted in Controversies and debates, Geology, Physics, Test your intuition | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment