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Researchers Refute a Widespread Belief About Online Algorithms
Three computer scientists have disproved a long-standing conjecture about a fundamental problem involving imperfect information.
The Quest to Quantify Quantumness
What makes a quantum computer more powerful than a classical computer? It’s a surprisingly subtle question that physicists are still grappling with, decades into the quantum age.
Thirty Years Later, a Speed Boost for Quantum Factoring
Shor’s algorithm will enable future quantum computers to factor large numbers quickly, undermining many online security protocols. Now a researcher has shown how to do it even faster.
Alan Turing and the Power of Negative Thinking
Mathematical proofs based on a technique called diagonalization can be relentlessly contrarian, but they help reveal the limits of algorithms.
Risky Giant Steps Can Solve Optimization Problems Faster
New results break with decades of conventional wisdom for the gradient descent algorithm.
To Move Fast, Quantum Maze Solvers Must Forget the Past
Quantum algorithms can find their way out of mazes exponentially faster than classical ones, at the cost of forgetting the path they took. A new result suggests that the trade-off may be inevitable.
How to Build a Big Prime Number
A new algorithm brings together the advantages of randomness and deterministic processes to reliably construct large prime numbers.
Computer Scientists Inch Closer to Major Algorithmic Goal
A new paper finds a faster method for determining when two mathematical groups are the same.
The Most Important Machine That Was Never Built
When he invented Turing machines in 1936, Alan Turing also invented modern computing.