computational complexity – Quanta Magazine https://www.quantamagazine.org Illuminating science Mon, 16 Sep 2024 14:10:47 -0400 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.2 How Does Math Keep Secrets? https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-does-math-keep-secrets-20240801/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-does-math-keep-secrets-20240801/#respond Thu, 01 Aug 2024 13:30:04 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=139467 The post How Does Math Keep Secrets? first appeared on Quanta Magazine

]]> Can you keep a secret? Modern techniques for maintaining the confidentiality of information are based on mathematical problems that are inherently too difficult for anyone to solve without the right hints. Yet what does that mean when quantum computers capable of solving many problems astronomically faster are on the horizon? In this episode, host Janna Levin talks with computer scientist Boaz...

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]]> https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-does-math-keep-secrets-20240801/feed/ 0 The Question of What’s Fair Illuminates the Question of What’s Hard https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-question-of-whats-fair-illuminates-the-question-of-whats-hard-20240624/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-question-of-whats-fair-illuminates-the-question-of-whats-hard-20240624/#respond Mon, 24 Jun 2024 14:50:15 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=138677 The post The Question of What’s Fair Illuminates the Question of What’s Hard first appeared on Quanta Magazine

]]> Theoretical computer scientists deal with complicated ideas. But whenever possible, they’d prefer to work with simpler ones. A 2009 tool known as the regularity lemma gives them a great way to do this. It effectively lets them break a given computational problem or function into simpler pieces. For computational complexity theorists, who study the relative hardness of different problems...

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]]> https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-question-of-whats-fair-illuminates-the-question-of-whats-hard-20240624/feed/ 0 Cryptographers Discover a New Foundation for Quantum Secrecy https://www.quantamagazine.org/cryptographers-discover-a-new-foundation-for-quantum-secrecy-20240603/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/cryptographers-discover-a-new-foundation-for-quantum-secrecy-20240603/#respond Mon, 03 Jun 2024 15:45:06 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=138291 The post Cryptographers Discover a New Foundation for Quantum Secrecy first appeared on Quanta Magazine

]]> Say you want to send a private message, cast a secret vote or sign a document securely. If you do any of these tasks on a computer, you’re relying on encryption to keep your data safe. That encryption needs to withstand attacks from codebreakers with their own computers, so modern encryption methods rely on assumptions about what mathematical problems are hard for computers to solve.

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]]> https://www.quantamagazine.org/cryptographers-discover-a-new-foundation-for-quantum-secrecy-20240603/feed/ 0 Cryptography Tricks Make a Hard Problem a Little Easier https://www.quantamagazine.org/cryptography-tricks-make-a-hard-problem-a-little-easier-20240418/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/cryptography-tricks-make-a-hard-problem-a-little-easier-20240418/#respond Thu, 18 Apr 2024 14:56:12 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=137277 The post Cryptography Tricks Make a Hard Problem a Little Easier first appeared on Quanta Magazine

]]> What’s the best way to solve hard problems? That’s the question at the heart of a subfield of computer science called computational complexity theory. It’s a hard question to answer, but flip it around and it becomes easier. The worst approach is almost always trial and error, which involves plugging in possible solutions until one works. But for some problems, it seems there simply are no...

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]]> https://www.quantamagazine.org/cryptography-tricks-make-a-hard-problem-a-little-easier-20240418/feed/ 0 Avi Wigderson, Complexity Theory Pioneer, Wins Turing Award https://www.quantamagazine.org/avi-wigderson-complexity-theory-pioneer-wins-turing-award-20240410/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/avi-wigderson-complexity-theory-pioneer-wins-turing-award-20240410/#respond Wed, 10 Apr 2024 08:57:40 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=136979 The post Avi Wigderson, Complexity Theory Pioneer, Wins Turing Award first appeared on Quanta Magazine

]]> For more than 40 years, Avi Wigderson has studied problems. But as a computational complexity theorist, he doesn’t necessarily care about the answers to these problems. He often just wants to know if they’re solvable or not, and how to tell. “The situation is ridiculous,” said Wigderson, a computer scientist at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. No matter how hard a...

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