Title: A simple RL setup to find counterexamples to open conjectures in mathematics
Abstract: In this talk we will leverage a reinforcement learning method, specifically the cross-entropy method, to search for counterexamples to several conjectures in graph theory and combinatorics. We will present a very simplistic setup, in which only minimal changes need to be made (namely the reward function used for RL) in order to successfully attack a wide variety of problems. As a result we will resolve several open problems, and find more elegant counterexamples to previously disproved ones.
Speaker bio: I am a mathematician, working in graph theory / combinatorics. I did my Bachelor's and Master's studies at the University of Cambridge under the mentorship of Andras Zsak and Imre Leader. Until June 2018 I was a PhD student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where my advisor was Jozsef Balogh. I did a postdoc at ETH Zurich with Benny Sudakov, and currently I am a postdoc at Tel Aviv University. - Link to profile
Date & Time:
Thursday May 12, 2022
1:00PM - 2:30PM EDT
YouTube Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lw48GMyjczE&feature=youtu.be