Category Archives: Physics

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 | Tagged , , , | 4 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 , , , , , | 30 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 | 4 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

QSTART

  Physics, Computer Science, Mathematics, and Foundations’ views on quantum information Inauguration conference for the Quantum Information Science Center (QISC), Hebrew university of Jerusalem Update: The news of our conference have made it to a big-league blog. Update (July 2013): QStart … Continue reading →

Image | Posted on April 12, 2013 by | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

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