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[quant-ph/0502072] NP-complete Problems and Physical Reality
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Quantum Physics
Title: NP-complete Problems and Physical Reality
Authors: Scott Aaronson
(Submitted on 12 Feb 2005 (v1), last revised 21 Feb 2005 (this version, v2))
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.
| ----- |
| Comments: | 23 pages, minor corrections |
| Subjects: | Quantum Physics (quant-ph); Computational Complexity (cs.CC); General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc) |
| Journal reference: | ACM SIGACT News, March 2005 |
| Cite as: | arXiv:quant-ph/0502072 |
| | (or arXiv:quant-ph/0502072v2 for this version) |
Submission history
From: Scott Aaronson [view email]
[v1] Sat, 12 Feb 2005 15:14:11 GMT (50kb)
[v2] Mon, 21 Feb 2005 10:19:21 GMT (50kb)
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