Israeli ex-security guard solves 38-year-old math problem

[Behind the Aegis]

A mathematical mystery that has baffled top minds in the field of symbolic dynamics for nearly four decades was cracked last year by a 63-year-old former Israeli security guard.

Avraham Trakhtman, a mathematician who worked as a laborer after immigrating to Israel from Russia, succeeded in solving the elusive Road Coloring Problem. The conjecture assumes that it is possible to create a universal map that would direct people to arrive at a certain destination, at the same time, regardless of their original location. Experts say this proposition, which seems to defy logic, could actually have real-life applications in the fields of mapping and computer science.

"In math circles, we talk about beautiful results. This is beautiful and it is unexpected. Even in layman's terms it is completely counterintuitive, but somehow it works," said Stuart Margolis, a colleague who recruited Trakhtman to Bar Ilan University near Tel Aviv.

"The first time I met him he was wearing a night watchman's uniform," said Margolis.

The Road Coloring Problem was first posed in 1970 by Benjamin Weiss, an Israeli-American mathematician, and a colleague, Roy Adler, who worked at IBM at the time.

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[rockymountaindem]

1. That's so confusing, I have no idea what he's talking about

Good for him!

[MaryCeleste]

2. Damn, thats a major breakthrough

There were ways to brute force the issue, but a provably correct approach is awesome.