DIMACS - RUTGERS EXPERIMENTAL MATHEMATICS SEMINAR

Sponsored by the Rutgers University Department of Mathematics and the
Center for Discrete Mathematics and Theoretical Computer Science (DIMACS)

Co-organizers:

Drew Sills, Rutgers University, asills {at} math [dot] rutgers [dot] edu

Doron Zeilberger, Rutgers University, zeilberg {at} math [dot] rutgers [dot] edu

Title: Why proofs count, and why to count proofs

Speaker: Noam Zeilberger, Carnegie-Mellon University

Date: November 3, 2005 5:00pm

Location: Hill Center, Room 705, Rutgers University, Busch Campus, Piscataway, NJ

Abstract:

Few people get excited by rigorous proofs of logical tautologies. After this talk I hope you will be one of them. I will give an introduction to structural proof theory and present a few of its important results, stressing a view of proofs in logic as not just confirmations of empty truths, but rather as mathematical objects with deep computational significance and possessing elegant symmetries. Then I will describe one of the products of modern proof theory -- linear logic -- and argue that linear logic proofs are particularly interesting from the standpoint of combinatorics. No prior background will be assumed.