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Kahn–Kalai Conjecture
The Kahn–Kalai conjecture, also known as the expectation threshold conjecture, is a conjecture in the field of graph theory In mathematics, graph theory is the study of ''graphs'', which are mathematical structures used to model pairwise relations between objects. A graph in this context is made up of '' vertices'' (also called ''nodes'' or ''points'') which are conn ... and statistical mechanics, proposed by Jeff Kahn and Gil Kalai in 2006. Background This conjecture concerns the general problem of estimating when phase transitions occur in systems. For example, in a random network with N nodes, where each edge is included with probability p, it is unlikely for the graph to contain a Hamiltonian cycle if p is less than a threshold value (\log N)/N, but highly likely if p exceeds that threshold. Threshold values are often difficult to calculate, but a lower bound for the threshold, the "expectation threshold", is generally easier to calculate. The Kahn–Kalai conjecture i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Conjecture
In mathematics, a conjecture is a conclusion or a proposition that is proffered on a tentative basis without proof. Some conjectures, such as the Riemann hypothesis (still a conjecture) or Fermat's Last Theorem (a conjecture until proven in 1995 by Andrew Wiles), have shaped much of mathematical history as new areas of mathematics are developed in order to prove them. Important examples Fermat's Last Theorem In number theory, Fermat's Last Theorem (sometimes called Fermat's conjecture, especially in older texts) states that no three positive integers a, ''b'', and ''c'' can satisfy the equation ''a^n + b^n = c^n'' for any integer value of ''n'' greater than two. This theorem was first conjectured by Pierre de Fermat in 1637 in the margin of a copy of '' Arithmetica'', where he claimed that he had a proof that was too large to fit in the margin. The first successful proof was released in 1994 by Andrew Wiles, and formally published in 1995, after 358 years of effort by mathe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Graph Theory
In mathematics, graph theory is the study of ''graphs'', which are mathematical structures used to model pairwise relations between objects. A graph in this context is made up of '' vertices'' (also called ''nodes'' or ''points'') which are connected by '' edges'' (also called ''links'' or ''lines''). A distinction is made between undirected graphs, where edges link two vertices symmetrically, and directed graphs, where edges link two vertices asymmetrically. Graphs are one of the principal objects of study in discrete mathematics. Definitions Definitions in graph theory vary. The following are some of the more basic ways of defining graphs and related mathematical structures. Graph In one restricted but very common sense of the term, a graph is an ordered pair G=(V,E) comprising: * V, a set of vertices (also called nodes or points); * E \subseteq \, a set of edges (also called links or lines), which are unordered pairs of vertices (that is, an edge is associated with t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Statistical Mechanics
In physics, statistical mechanics is a mathematical framework that applies statistical methods and probability theory to large assemblies of microscopic entities. It does not assume or postulate any natural laws, but explains the macroscopic behavior of nature from the behavior of such ensembles. Statistical mechanics arose out of the development of classical thermodynamics, a field for which it was successful in explaining macroscopic physical properties—such as temperature, pressure, and heat capacity—in terms of microscopic parameters that fluctuate about average values and are characterized by probability distributions. This established the fields of statistical thermodynamics and statistical physics. The founding of the field of statistical mechanics is generally credited to three physicists: *Ludwig Boltzmann, who developed the fundamental interpretation of entropy in terms of a collection of microstates *James Clerk Maxwell, who developed models of probability distr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jeff Kahn
Jeffry Ned Kahn is a professor of mathematics at Rutgers University notable for his work in combinatorics. Education Kahn received his Ph.D. from Ohio State University in 1979 after completing his dissertation under his advisor Dijen K. Ray-Chaudhuri. Research In 1980 he showed the importance of the bundle theorem for ovoidal Möbius planes. In 1993, together with Gil Kalai, he disproved Borsuk's conjecture. In 1996 he was awarded the Pólya Prize (SIAM). Awards and honors He was an invited speaker at the 1994 International Congress of Mathematicians in Zurich. In 2012, he was awarded the Fulkerson Prize (jointly with Anders Johansson and Van H. Vu) for determining the threshold of edge density above which a random graph can be covered by disjoint copies of a given smaller graph. Also in 2012, he became a fellow of the American Mathematical Society The American Mathematical Society (AMS) is an association of professional mathematicians dedicated to the interests of math ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gil Kalai
Gil Kalai (born 1955) is the Henry and Manya Noskwith Professor Emeritus of Mathematics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel, Professor of Computer Science at the Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya, and adjunct Professor of mathematics and of computer science at Yale University, United States. Biography Kalai received his PhD from Hebrew University in 1983, under the supervision of Micha Perles, and joined the Hebrew University faculty in 1985 after a postdoctoral fellowship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.Profile at the Technical University of Eindhoven as an instructor of a minicourse on polyhedral combinatorics. He was the recipient of the Pólya Prize ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Phase Transition
In chemistry, thermodynamics, and other related fields, a phase transition (or phase change) is the physical process of transition between one state of a medium and another. Commonly the term is used to refer to changes among the basic states of matter: solid, liquid, and gas, and in rare cases, plasma. A phase of a thermodynamic system and the states of matter have uniform physical properties. During a phase transition of a given medium, certain properties of the medium change as a result of the change of external conditions, such as temperature or pressure. This can be a discontinuous change; for example, a liquid may become gas upon heating to its boiling point, resulting in an abrupt change in volume. The identification of the external conditions at which a transformation occurs defines the phase transition point. Types of phase transition At the phase transition point for a substance, for instance the boiling point, the two phases involved - liquid and vapor, have identic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Random Network
In mathematics, random graph is the general term to refer to probability distributions over graphs. Random graphs may be described simply by a probability distribution, or by a random process which generates them. The theory of random graphs lies at the intersection between graph theory and probability theory. From a mathematical perspective, random graphs are used to answer questions about the properties of ''typical'' graphs. Its practical applications are found in all areas in which complex networks need to be modeled – many random graph models are thus known, mirroring the diverse types of complex networks encountered in different areas. In a mathematical context, ''random graph'' refers almost exclusively to the Erdős–Rényi random graph model. In other contexts, any graph model may be referred to as a ''random graph''. Models A random graph is obtained by starting with a set of ''n'' isolated vertices and adding successive edges between them at random. The aim ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hamiltonian Cycle
In the mathematical field of graph theory, a Hamiltonian path (or traceable path) is a path in an undirected or directed graph that visits each vertex exactly once. A Hamiltonian cycle (or Hamiltonian circuit) is a cycle that visits each vertex exactly once. A Hamiltonian path that starts and ends at adjacent vertices can be completed by adding one more edge to form a Hamiltonian cycle, and removing any edge from a Hamiltonian cycle produces a Hamiltonian path. Determining whether such paths and cycles exist in graphs (the Hamiltonian path problem and Hamiltonian cycle problem) are NP-complete. Hamiltonian paths and cycles are named after William Rowan Hamilton who invented the icosian game, now also known as ''Hamilton's puzzle'', which involves finding a Hamiltonian cycle in the edge graph of the dodecahedron. Hamilton solved this problem using the icosian calculus, an algebraic structure based on roots of unity with many similarities to the quaternions (also invented by Hami ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mathematical Constant
A mathematical constant is a key number whose value is fixed by an unambiguous definition, often referred to by a symbol (e.g., an alphabet letter), or by mathematicians' names to facilitate using it across multiple mathematical problems. Constants arise in many areas of mathematics, with constants such as and occurring in such diverse contexts as geometry, number theory, statistics, and calculus. What it means for a constant to arise "naturally", and what makes a constant "interesting", is ultimately a matter of taste, with some mathematical constants being notable more for historical reasons than for their intrinsic mathematical interest. The more popular constants have been studied throughout the ages and computed to many decimal places. All named mathematical constants are definable numbers, and usually are also computable numbers (Chaitin's constant being a significant exception). Basic mathematical constants These are constants which one is likely to encounter ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maximal And Minimal Elements
In mathematics, especially in order theory, a maximal element of a subset ''S'' of some preordered set is an element of ''S'' that is not smaller than any other element in ''S''. A minimal element of a subset ''S'' of some preordered set is defined dually as an element of ''S'' that is not greater than any other element in ''S''. The notions of maximal and minimal elements are weaker than those of greatest element and least element which are also known, respectively, as maximum and minimum. The maximum of a subset S of a preordered set is an element of S which is greater than or equal to any other element of S, and the minimum of S is again defined dually. In the particular case of a partially ordered set, while there can be at most one maximum and at most one minimum there may be multiple maximal or minimal elements. Specializing further to totally ordered sets, the notions of maximal element and maximum coincide, and the notions of minimal element and minimum coincide. As an exa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jinyoung Park (mathematician)
Jinyoung Park (; born 1982) is a South Korean mathematician at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at New York University working in combinatorics and graph theory. In 2022, she released a preprint, joint with Huy Tuan Pham, containing a proof of the Kahn–Kalai conjecture. Their paper was published in the Journal of the American Mathematical Society in 2024. Education and career Park entered Seoul National University in 2001 and received her B.S. in Mathematics Education in 2004. She worked as a mathematics teacher in secondary schools in Seoul from 2005 to 2011. She began her graduate studies at Rutgers University in 2014, where she received her Ph.D. in 2020 under the supervision of Jeff Kahn. Her doctoral work earned the 2022 Dissertation Prize from the Association for Women in Mathematics. She was a Member of the Institute for Advanced Study from 2020 to 2021. From 2021 to 2022 she was a Szegö Assistant Professor at Stanford University, where her postd ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Percolation Theory
In statistical physics and mathematics, percolation theory describes the behavior of a network when nodes or links are added. This is a geometric type of phase transition, since at a critical fraction of addition the network of small, disconnected clusters merge into significantly larger connected, so-called spanning clusters. The applications of percolation theory to materials science and in many other disciplines are discussed here and in the articles network theory and percolation. Introduction A representative question (and the source of the name) is as follows. Assume that some liquid is poured on top of some porous material. Will the liquid be able to make its way from hole to hole and reach the bottom? This physical question is modelled mathematically as a three-dimensional network of vertices, usually called "sites", in which the edge or "bonds" between each two neighbors may be open (allowing the liquid through) with probability , or closed with probability , and th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
