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NP-complete problems and physical reality (2005)
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| Venue: | ACM SIGACT News Complexity Theory Column, March. ECCC |
| Citations: | 55 - 6 self |
BibTeX
@ARTICLE{Aaronson05np-completeproblems,
author = {Scott Aaronson},
title = {NP-complete problems and physical reality},
journal = {ACM SIGACT News Complexity Theory Column, March. ECCC},
year = {2005},
pages = {05--026}
}
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Abstract
Can NP-complete problems be solved efficiently in the physical universe? I survey proposals including soap bubbles, protein folding, quantum computing, quantum advice, quantum adiabatic algorithms, quantum-mechanical nonlinearities, hidden variables, relativistic time dilation, analog computing, Malament-Hogarth spacetimes, quantum gravity, closed timelike curves, and “anthropic computing. ” The section on soap bubbles even includes some “experimental ” results. While I do not believe that any of the proposals will let us solve NP-complete problems efficiently, I argue that by studying them, we can learn something not only about computation but also about physics. 1
Keyphrases
np-complete problem physical reality soap bubble quantum-mechanical nonlinearities hidden variable quantum adiabatic algorithm protein folding relativistic time dilation malament-hogarth spacetimes survey proposal quantum computing physical universe experimental result quantum advice quantum gravity timelike curve
