Mathematical Sciences annual Christmas Lecture: The million-dollar shuffle: symmetry and complexity
Presented By Colva Roney-Dougal, University of St Andrews
Abstract:
The codebreaker Alan Turing kicked off the study of what problems can be solved by computers. Many of them become easier when they have symmetries: finding a route is easier in a city with a grid of streets than in one with a chaotic layout. Colva Roney-Dougal, who is the Director of the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Computational Algebra at St Andrews and a prominent expert in group theory, explores how mathematics can be used to crack symmetrical problems, and shows that sometimes symmetry itself is the issue.
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