Bio

Maxim’s main goal is to construct the fundamental theory of physics. Since he cannot figure how real numbers can fit into such a theory (because for some of them, no algorithm exists that computes their digits, so if we construct a theory with them, it would not be predictive), he is mostly interested in discrete models of space-time, specifically, causal set theory. That is why he is starting the PhD program in physics at Northeastern University in Boston right after the Summer School to work with Dima Krioukov and his group.

Maxim’s other interests include everything related to networks, for example, internet routing (specifically the question of how to construct a distributed auto-configurable algorithm, which would replace what we have today for the internet), machine intelligence, running, piano playing and composition.

Finally, Maxim is a vegan, so he is always happy to talk about animal rights issues.

Project: Deterministic Planar Network Systems

The ultimate goal is to find a computational system which generates the Universe. That is, figure out the fundamental law of physics. This year I was exploring network rewrite systems which are planar and deterministic, and was trying to find interacting particles in such systems. I did not find any interacting particles, but I found particles which always move in the same direction on an anisotropic grid.

Rule which generates a particle on an anisotropic grid:

Results

• There are particles which always move in the same direction on anisotropic grids
• There are no particles on a hexagonal grid in rules with up to 8 vertices
• Complete rule bases of non-overlapping rules only produce nested behaviour

Future directions

• Develop an industrial level package for networks
• Study networks, which have numbers attached to vertices or edges
• Study hypergraph systems