Timeline for Examples of non-rigorous but efficient mathematical methods in physics
Current License: CC BY-SA 2.5
2 events
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| Dec 13, 2010 at 3:42 | comment | added | Mike Spivey | My favorite example of this is the use of the replica method by Mezard and Parisi in the mid-1980s to "prove" that the expected optimal value of the assignment problem (with costs chosen randomly from the uniform [0,1] distribution) is $\zeta(2) = \pi^2/6$. It wasn't until 2000 that Aldous published a rigorous proof. | |
| Dec 13, 2010 at 3:33 | history | answered | Peter Shor | CC BY-SA 2.5 |