EVENT DETAILS AND ABSTRACT

Title: UG Awards Celebration
Speaker: Bjorn Poonen, MIT
Speaker Info:
Brief Description: Undecidability in Number Theory
Special Note:
Abstract:

Hilbert's tenth problem asked for an algorithm that, given a multivariable polynomial equation with integer coefficients, would decide whether there exists a solution in integers. Around 1970, Matiyasevich, building on earlier work of Davis, Putnam, and Robinson, showed that no such algorithm exists. But the answer to the analogous question with integers replaced by rational numbers is still unknown, and there is not even agreement among experts as to what the answer should be.