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Thomas C. Hales

Publications and source records attributed to Thomas C. Hales.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
arXiv2014

Developments in Formal Proofs

This report describes three particular technological advances in formal proofs. The HOL Light proof assistant will be used to illustrate the design of a highly reliable system. Today, proof assistants can verify large bodies of advanced mathematics; and as an example, we turn to the formal proof in Coq of the Feit-Thompson Odd Order theorem in group theory. Finally, we discuss advances in the automation of formal proofs, as implemented in proof assistants such as Mizar, Coq, Isabelle, and HOL Light.

cs.LO↗
arXiv2013

Formal Verification of Nonlinear Inequalities with Taylor Interval Approximations

We present a formal tool for verification of multivariate nonlinear inequalities. Our verification method is based on interval arithmetic with Taylor approximations. Our tool is implemented in the HOL Light proof assistant and it is capable to verify multivariate nonlinear polynomial and non-polynomial inequalities on rectangular domains. One of the main features of our work is an efficient implementation of the verification procedure which can prove non-trivial high-dimensional inequalities in several seconds. We developed the verification tool as a part of the Flyspeck project (a formal proof of the Kepler conjecture). The Flyspeck project includes about 1000 nonlinear inequalities. We successfully tested our method on more than 100 Flyspeck inequalities and estimated that the formal verification procedure is about 3000 times slower than an informal verification method implemented in C++. We also describe future work and prospective optimizations for our method.

cs.LO↗
arXiv2012

The Strong Dodecahedral Conjecture and Fejes Toth's Conjecture on Sphere Packings with Kissing Number Twelve

This article sketches the proofs of two theorems about sphere packings in Euclidean 3-space. The first is K. Bezdek's strong dodecahedral conjecture: the surface area of every bounded Voronoi cell in a packing of balls of radius 1 is at least that of a regular dodecahedron of inradius 1. The second theorem is L. Fejes Toth's contact conjecture, which asserts that in 3-space, any packing of congruent balls such that each ball is touched by twelve others consists of hexagonal layers. Both proofs are computer assisted. Complete proofs of these theorems appear in the author's book "Dense Sphere Packings" and a related preprint

math.MG↗
arXiv2011

On the Reinhardt Conjecture

In 1934, Reinhardt asked for the centrally symmetric convex domain in the plane whose best lattice packing has the lowest density. He conjectured that the unique solution up to an affine transformation is the smoothed octagon (an octagon rounded at corners by arcs of hyperbolas). This article offers a detailed strategy of proof. In particular, we show that the problem is an instance of the classical problem of Bolza in the calculus of variations. A minimizing solution is known to exist. The boundary of every minimizer is a differentiable curve with Lipschitz continuous derivative. If a minimizer is piecewise analytic, then it is a smoothed polygon (a polygon rounded at corners by arcs of hyperbolas). To complete the proof of the Reinhardt conjecture, the assumption of piecewise analyticity must be removed, and the conclusion of smoothed polygon must be strengthened to smoothed octagon.

math.MG↗
arXiv2011

The fundamental lemma and the Hitchin fibration [after Ngo Bao Chau]

This article is a Bourbaki seminar report on Ngo Bao Chau's proof of the fundamental lemma. About thirty years ago, R. P. Langlands conjectured a collection of identities to hold among integrals over conjugacy classes in reductive groups. Ngo Bao Chau has proved these identities (collectively called the fundamental lemma) by interpreting the integrals in terms of the cohomology of the fibers of the Hitchin fibration. The fundamental lemma has profound consequences for the theory of automorphic representations. Significant recent theorems in number theory use the fundamental lemma as an ingredient in their proofs.

math.RT↗
arXiv2010

The Work of Ngo Bao Chau

In August 2010, Ngo Bao Chau was awarded a Fields Medal for his deep work relating the Hitchin fibration to the Arthur-Selberg trace formula, and in particular for his proof of the Fundamental Lemma for Lie algebras. This article gives a brief introduction to his work for a general mathematical audience.

math.NT↗
arXiv2009

A revision of the proof of the Kepler conjecture

The Kepler conjecture asserts that no packing of congruent balls in three-dimensional Euclidean space has density greater than that of the face-centered cubic packing. The original proof, announced in 1998 and published in 2006, is long and complex. The process of revision and review did not end with the publication of the proof. This article summarizes the current status of a long-term initiative to reorganize the original proof into a more transparent form and to provide a greater level of certification of the correctness of the computer code and other details of the proof. A final part of this article lists errata in the original proof of the Kepler conjecture.

math.MG↗
arXiv2008

A proof of the dodecahedral conjecture

The dodecahedral conjecture states that the volume of the Voronoi polyhedron of a sphere in a packing of equal spheres is at least the volume of a regular dodecahedron with inradius 1. The authors prove the conjecture following the methodology of the proof the Kepler conjecture. (See math.MG/9811071.)

math.MG↗
arXiv2005

What is Motivic Measure?

These notes give an exposition of the theory of arithmetic motivic integration, as developed by J. Denef and F. Loeser. An appendix by M. Fried gives some historical comments on Galois stratifications.

math.AG↗
arXiv2004

Good orbital integrals

This paper concerns a class of orbital integrals in Lie algebras over p-adic fields. The values of these orbital integrals at the unit element in the Hecke algebra count points on varieties over finite fields. The construction, which is based on motivic integration, works both in characteristic zero and in positive characteristic. As an application, the Fundamental Lemma for this class of integrals is lifted from positive characteristic to characteristic zero. The results are based on a formula for orbital integrals as distributions inflated from orbits in the quotient spaces of the Moy-Prasad filtrations of the Lie algebra. This formula is established by Fourier analysis on these quotient spaces.

math.RT↗
arXiv2003

A Statement of the Fundamental Lemma

These notes give a statement of the "fundamental lemma," which is a conjectural identity between p-adic integrals that arises as part of the Langlands program.

math.RT↗
arXiv2003

A computer verification of the Kepler conjecture

The Kepler conjecture asserts that the density of a packing of congruent balls in three dimensions is never greater than $π/\sqrt{18}$. A computer assisted verification confirmed this conjecture in 1998. This article gives a historical introduction to the problem. It describes the procedure that converts this problem into an optimization problem in a finite number of variables and the strategies used to solve this optimization problem.

math.MG↗
arXiv2002

Orbital Integrals are Motivic

This article shows that under general conditions, p-adic orbital integrals of definable functions are represented by virtual Chow motives. This gives an explicit example of the philosophy of Denef and Loeser, which predicts that all naturally occurring p-adic integrals are motivic.

math.RT↗
arXiv2002

Can p-adic integrals be computed?

This article gives an introduction to arithmetic motivic integration in the context of p-adic integrals that arise in representation theory. A special case of the fundamental lemma is interpreted as an identity of Chow motives.

math.RT↗
arXiv2002

The Honeycomb Problem on the Sphere

The honeycomb problem on the sphere asks for the perimeter-minimizing partition of the sphere into N equal areas. This article solves the problem when N=12. The unique minimizer is a tiling of 12 regular pentagons in the dodecahedral arrangement.

math.MG↗
arXiv2002

Virtual Transfer Factors

The Langlands-Shelstad transfer factor is a function defined on some reductive groups over a p-adic field. Near the origin of the group, it may be viewed as a function on the Lie algebra. For classical groups, its values have the form q^c s, where s is -1, 0, or 1, q is the cardinality of the residue field, and c is a rational number. The function s partitions the Lie algebra into three subsets. This article shows that this partition into three subsets is independent of the p-adic field in the following sense. We define three universal objects (virtual sets in the sense of Quine) such that for any p-adic field F of sufficiently large residue characteristic, the F-points of these three virtual sets form the partition. The theory of arithmetic motivic integration associates a virtual Chow motive with each of the three virtual sets. The construction in this article achieves the first step in a long program to determine the (still conjectural) virtual Chow motives that control the behavior of orbital integrals.

math.RT↗
arXiv2002

The Kepler conjecture

This is the eighth and final paper in a series giving a proof of the Kepler conjecture, which asserts that the density of a packing of congruent spheres in three dimensions is never greater than $π/\sqrt{18}\approx 0.74048...$. This is the oldest problem in discrete geometry and is an important part of Hilbert's 18th problem. An example of a packing achieving this density is the face-centered cubic packing. This paper completes the fourth step of the program outlined in math.MG/9811073: A proof that if some standard region has more than four sides, then the star scores less than $8 \pt$.

math.MG↗