When computer scientists hang out at cocktail parties, they're apt to chat, among other things, about the single most important unsolved problem in computer science: the question, Does P = NP?

In computational complexity theory, P and NP are two classes of problems. P is the class of decision problems that a deterministic Turing machine can solve in polynomial time. In useful terms, any ...

Last week, HP Labs mathematician Vinay Deolalikar started circulating a startling paper that claims to have solved the preeminent open problem in computer science, known as P = NP. Er, more accurately ...

A new proof, published to the Web less than one week ago, purports to finally demonstrate that, in complexity theory, P != NP. As fast as the proof went up though, people found some potential issues ...

A major advance reveals deep connections between the classes of problems that computers can — and can’t — possibly do. At first glance, the big news coming out of this summer’s conference on the ...

Source: Darren Edwards What if one of the biggest unsolved problems in mathematics is not just about numbers or computers, but about observers like you and me? This isn’t a proposed solution to P vs ...