arXiv subjects

Piotr Błaszczyk

Publications and source records attributed to Piotr Błaszczyk.

9 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

It's a TRAP! Task-Redirecting Agent Persuasion Benchmark for Web Agents

Web-based agents powered by large language models are increasingly used for tasks such as email management or professional networking. Their reliance on dynamic web content, however, makes them vulnerable to prompt injection attacks: adversarial instructions hidden in interface elements that persuade the agent to divert from its original task. We introduce the Task-Redirecting Agent Persuasion Benchmark (TRAP), a benchmark for studying how persuasion techniques misguide autonomous web agents on realistic tasks. Across six frontier models, agents are susceptible to prompt injection in 25% of tasks on average (13% for GPT-5 to 43% for DeepSeek-R1), with small interface or contextual changes often doubling success rates and revealing systemic, psychologically driven vulnerabilities in web-based agents. We also provide a modular social-engineering injection framework with controlled experiments on high-fidelity website clones, allowing for further benchmark expansion.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2025

Bridging Classical and Modern Approaches to Thales' Theorem

In this paper, we reconstruct Euclid's theory of similar triangles, as developed in Book VI of the \textit{Elements}, along with its 20th-century counterparts, formulated within the systems of Hilbert, Birkhoff, Borsuk and Szmielew, Millman and Parker, as well as Hartshorne. In the final sections, we present recent developments concerning non-Archimedean fields and mechanized proofs. Thales' theorem (VI.2) serves as the reference point in our comparisons. It forms the basis of Euclid's system and follows from VI.1 the only proposition within the theory of similar triangles that explicitly applies the definition of proportion. Instead of the ancient proportion, modern systems adopt the arithmetic of line segments or real numbers. Accordingly, they adopt other propositions from Euclid's Book VI, such as VI.4, VI.6, or VI.9, as a basis. In §\,10, we present a system that, while meeting modern criteria of rigor, reconstructs Euclid's theory and mimics its deductive structure, beginning with VI.1. This system extends to automated proofs of Euclid's propositions from Book VI. Systems relying on real numbers provide the foundation for trigonometry as applied in modern mathematics. In §\,9, we prove Thales' theorem in geometry over the hyperreal numbers. Just as Hilbert managed to prove Thales' theorem without referencing the Archimedean axiom, so do we by applying the arithmetic of the non-Archimedean field of hyperreal numbers.

math.HO↗

arXiv2023

New model of non-Euclidean plane

We present a new model of a non-Euclidean plane, in which angles in a triangle sum up to $π$. It is a subspace of the Cartesian plane over the field of hyperreal numbers $\mathbb{R}^*$. The model enables one to represent the negation of equivalent versions of the parallel axiom, such as the existence of the circumcircle of a triangle, and Wallis' or Lagendre's axioms, as well as the difference between non-Euclidean and hyperbolic planes. The model has unique educational advantages as expounding its crucial ideas requires only the basics of Cartesian geometry and non-Archimedean fields.

math.HO↗

arXiv2022

Euler's Series for Sine and Cosine. An Interpretation in Nonstandard Analysis

In chapter VIII of Introductio in analysin infinitorum, Euler derives a series for sine, cosine, and the formula $e^{iv}=\cos v+i\sin v$ His arguments employ infinitesimal and infinitely large numbers and some strange equalities. We interpret these seemingly inconsistent objects within the field of hyperreal numbers. We show that any non-Archimedean field provides a framework for such an interpretation. Yet, there is one implicit lemma underlying Euler's proof, which requires specific techniques of non-standard analysis. Analyzing chapter III of Institutiones calculi differentialis reveals Euler's appeal to the rules of an ordered field which includes infinitesimals -- the same ones he applies deriving series for $\sin v$, $\cos v$, and $e^{v}$.

math.HO↗

arXiv2022

On diagrams accompanying reductio ad absurdum proofs in Euclid's Elements book I. Reviewing Hartshorne and Manders

Exploring selected reductio ad absurdum proofs in Book 1 of the Elements, we show they include figures that are not constructed. It is squarely at odds with Hartshorne's claim that "in Euclid's geometry, only those geometrical figures exist that can be constructed with ruler and compass". We also present diagrams questioning Manders' distinction between exact and co-exact attributes of a diagram, specifically, a model of semi-Euclidean geometry which satisfies straightness of lines and equality of angles and does not satisfy the parallel postulate.

math.HO↗

arXiv2022

On automatic calibration of the SIRD epidemiological model for COVID-19 data in Poland

We propose a novel methodology for estimating the epidemiological parameters of a modified SIRD model (acronym of Susceptible, Infected, Recovered and Deceased individuals) and perform a short-term forecast of SARS-CoV-2 virus spread. We mainly focus on forecasting number of deceased. The procedure was tested on reported data for Poland. For some short-time intervals we performed numerical test investigating stability of parameter estimates in the proposed approach. Numerical experiments confirm the effectiveness of short-term forecasts (up to 2 weeks) and stability of the method. To improve their performance (i.e. computation time) GPU architecture was used in computations.

stat.ME↗

arXiv2020

Phenomenology of diagrams in Book II of the Elements

In this paper, we provide an interpretation of Book II of the Elements from the perspective of figures which are represented and not represented on the diagrams. We show that Euclid's reliance on figures not represented on the diagram is a proof technique which enables to turn his diagrams II.11--14 into ideograms of a kind. We also discuss interpretations of Book II developed by J. Baldwin and A. Mueller, L. Corry, D. Fowler, R. Hartshorne, I. Mueller, K. Saito, and the so-called geometric algebraic interpretation in B. van der Waerden's version.

math.HO↗

arXiv2018

Klein vs Mehrtens: restoring the reputation of a great modern

Historian Herbert Mehrtens sought to portray the history of turn-of-the-century mathematics as a struggle of modern vs countermodern, led respectively by David Hilbert and Felix Klein. Some of Mehrtens' conclusions have been picked up by both historians (Jeremy Gray) and mathematicians (Frank Quinn). We argue that Klein and Hilbert, both at Goettingen, were not adversaries but rather modernist allies in a bid to broaden the scope of mathematics beyond a narrow focus on arithmetized analysis as practiced by the Berlin school. Klein's Goettingen lecture and other texts shed light on Klein's modernism. Hilbert's views on intuition are closer to Klein's views than Mehrtens is willing to allow. Klein and Hilbert were equally interested in the axiomatisation of physics. Among Klein's credits is helping launch the career of Abraham Fraenkel, and advancing the careers of Sophus Lie, Emmy Noether, and Ernst Zermelo, all four surely of impeccable modernist credentials. Mehrtens' unsourced claim that Hilbert was interested in production rather than meaning appears to stem from Mehrtens' marxist leanings. Mehrtens' claim that [the future SS-Brigadefuehrer] "Theodor Vahlen ... cited Klein's racist distinctions within mathematics, and sharpened them into open antisemitism" fabricates a spurious continuity between the two figures mentioned and is thus an odious misrepresentation of Klein's position. Keywords: arithmetized analysis; axiomatisation of geometry; axiomatisation of physics; formalism; intuition; mathematical realism; modernism; Felix Klein; David Hilbert; Karl Weierstrass

math.HO↗

arXiv2015

A Purely Algebraic Proof of the Fundamental Theorem of Algebra

Proofs of the fundamental theorem of algebra can be divided up into three groups according to the techniques involved: proofs that rely on real or complex analysis, algebraic proofs, and topological proofs. Algebraic proofs make use of the fact that odd-degree real polynomials have real roots. This assumption, however, requires analytic methods, namely, the intermediate value theorem for real continuous functions. In this paper, we develop the idea of algebraic proof further towards a purely algebraic proof of the intermediate value theorem for real polynomials. In our proof, we neither use the notion of continuous function nor refer to any theorem of real and complex analysis. Instead, we apply techniques of modern algebra: we extend the field of real numbers to the non-Archimedean field of hyperreals via an ultraproduct construction and explore some relationships between the subring of limited hyperreals, its maximal ideal of infinitesimals, and real numbers.

math.HO↗