2024/03/28: 9h30
Speaker : Pablo Arrighi (LMF, Université Paris-Saclay)
Title : Past, future, what’s the difference?
Abstract: The laws of Physics are time-reversible, making no qualitative distinction between the past and the future—yet we can only go towards the future. This apparent contradiction is known as the ‘arrow of time problem’. Its current resolution states that the future is the direction of increasing entropy. But entropy can only increase towards the future if it was low in the past, and past low entropy is a very strong assumption to make, because low entropy states are rather improbable, non-generic. Recent works from the Physics literature suggest, however, we may do away with this so-called ‘past hypothesis’, in the presence of reversible dynamical laws featuring expansion. We prove that this is the case, for a synchronous graph rewriting-based toy model. It consists in graphs upon which particles circulate and interact according to local reversible rules. Some rules locally shrink or expand the graph. Generic states always expand; entropy always increases—thereby providing a local explanation for the arrow of time. This discrete setting allows us to deploy the full rigour of theoretical Computer Science proof techniques.
Pause Cafe : 10:30 — 11:00
11h00
Speaker : Pierre Ohlmann (MoVe, LIS)
Title : FO-model checking over monadically stable graphs classes
Abstract: In this talk, we will survey recent results (mostly not by me) about efficient model-checking of first-order logic sentences over graphs. We will aim to give a general overview of this very active field, and discuss the different ingredients that come into play. Time allowing, we will go into more details about one of these ingredients: the Flipper game for characterizing monadically stable classes.