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Category Archives: Probability
The Argument Against Quantum Computers – A Very Short Introduction
Left: Gowers’s book Mathematics a very short introduction. Right C. elegans; Boson Sampling can be seen as the C. elegans of quantum computing. (See, this paper.) Update (January 6, 2021): Tomorrow January, 7, 8:30 AM Israel time, I give a … Continue reading
Posted in Combinatorics, Computer Science and Optimization, Physics, Probability, Quantum
Tagged Guy Kindler, quantum supremacy
7 Comments
Open problem session of HUJI-COMBSEM: Problem #4, Eitan Bachmat: Weighted Statistics for Permutations
This is a continuation of our series of posts on the HUJI seminar 2020 open problems. This time the post was kindly written by Eitan Bachmat who proposed the problem. My summary: understanding of the distribution of largest increasing subsequences … Continue reading
Open problem session of HUJI-COMBSEM: Problem #3, Ehud Friedgut – Independent sets and Lionel Levine’s infamous hat problem.
Here are the two problems presented by Ehud Friedgut. The first arose by Friedgut, Kindler, and me in the context of studying Lionel Levine’s infamous hat problem. The second is Lionel Levine’s infamous hat problem. Ehud Friedgut with a few … Continue reading
Posted in Combinatorics, Computer Science and Optimization, Probability
Tagged Ehud Friedgut, Guy Kindler, Lionel Levine
7 Comments
Photonic Huge Quantum Advantage ???
This is a quick and preliminary post about a very recent announcement in a Science Magazine paper: Quantum computational advantage using photons by a group of researchers leaded by Jianwei Pan and Chao-Yang Lu. (Most of the researchers are from … Continue reading
Posted in Combinatorics, Physics, Probability, Quantum
Tagged BosonSampling, quantum supremacy
12 Comments
Benjamini and Mossel’s 2000 Account: Sensitivity of Voting Schemes to Mistakes and Manipulations
Here is a popular account by Itai Benjamini and Elchanan Mossel from 2000 written shortly after the 2000 US presidential election. Elchanan and Itai kindly agreed that I will publish it here, for the first time, 20 years later! I … Continue reading
Posted in Combinatorics, Games, Probability, Rationality
Tagged Elchanan Mossel, Itai Benjamini
6 Comments
Test Your Intuition (46): What is the Reason for Maine’s Huge Influence?
Very quick updates: Corona: Israel is struggling with the pandemic with some successes, some failures, and much debate. Peace: We have peace agreements now with several Arab countries, most recently with Sudan. This is quite stunning. Internal politics: As divided … Continue reading
Posted in Games, Probability, Statistics, Test your intuition
Tagged Nate Silver, Test your intuition
6 Comments
This question from Tim Gowers will certainly cheeer you up! and test your intuition as well!
I've rolled a die and not looked at it yet. The statement, "If the number I rolled equals 2+2 then it equals 5," is … — Timothy Gowers (@wtgowers) October 18, 2020 Here is a tweet from Tim Gowers It … Continue reading
Cheerful Test Your Intuition (#45): Survey About Sisters and Brothers
You survey many many school children and ask each one: Do you have more brothers than sisters? or more sisters than brothers? or the same number? Then you separate the boys’s answers from the girls’s answers Which of the following … Continue reading
Posted in Combinatorics, Probability, Riddles, Statistics, Test your intuition
Tagged Test your intuition
7 Comments
To Cheer you up in Difficult Times 8: Nathan Keller and Ohad Klein Proved Tomaszewski’s Conjecture on Randomly Signed Sums
Today we talk about the paper, Proof of Tomaszewski’s Conjecture on Randomly Signed Sums, by Nathan Keller and Ohad Klein. Consider a unit vector That is . Consider all () signed sums where each is either 1 or -1. Theorem … Continue reading
Posted in Analysis, Combinatorics, Probability
Tagged Boguslav Tomaszewski, Nathan Keller, Ohad Klein
11 Comments
