Cracking this mathematical mystery will make someone rich, but its value to all of us could be incalculable. New Scientist explains why it matters if P = NP
DEAR Fellow Researchers, I am pleased to announce a proof that P is not equal to NP, which is attached in 10pt and 12pt fonts." So began an email sent in August 2010 to a group of leading computer scientists by Vinay Deolalikar, a mathematician at Hewlett-Packard Labs in Palo Alto, California.
It was an incendiary claim. Deolalikar was saying he had cracked the biggest problem in computer science, a question concerning the complexity and fundamental limits of computation. Answer the question "Is P equal to NP?" with a yes, and you could be looking at a world transformed, where planes and trains run on time, accurate electronic translations are routine, the molecular mysteries of life are revealed at the click of ...
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