From Diophantus to Bitcoin: why are elliptic curves everywhere?

Name: From Diophantus to Bitcoin: why are elliptic curves everywhere?
Start: 2022-10-26T16:30:00-04:00
End: 2022-10-26T17:30:00-04:00
Location: Science Center 507

SEMINARS: OPEN NEIGHBORHOOD

When: October 26, 2022

4:30 pm - 5:30 pm

Where: Science Center 507

Address: 1 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, United States

Speaker: Alvaro Lozano-Robledo - University of Connecticut

Elliptic curves are ubiquitous in number theory, algebraic geometry, complex analysis, cryptography, physics, and beyond. They were present in Diophantus’ Arithmetica (3rd century AD) and, nowadays, they are more relevant than ever as a key ingredient in the algorithms that, for instance, secure Bitcoin transactions or encrypt WhatsApp messages. In this talk, we will introduce elliptic curves, explain their central role in mathematics, and discuss related open problems and applications.