"Therapy dogs at Mugar Library" May 2017 poster

These posters were made by the Mugar Greene Scholars to advertise a destressing opportunity for students, which includes therapy dogs

Rainbow "happy new year" poster

These posters were created to celebrate a new year

"Mary Baker Eddy Library" -- libraries outside of the BU bubble posters

An advertisement to visit the Maparium at the Mary Baker Eddy Library in order to escape the BU "bubble.

New Lower Bounds for van der Waerden Numbers Using Distributed Computing

This paper provides new lower bounds for van der Waerden numbers. The number $W(k,r)$ is defined to be the smallest integer $n$ for which any $r$-coloring of the integers $0 \ldots, n-1$ admits monochromatic arithmetic progression of length $k$; its existence is implied by van der Waerden's Theorem. We exhibit $r$-colorings of $0\ldots n-1$ that do not contain monochromatic arithmetic progressions of length $k$ to prove that $W(k, r)>n$. These colorings are constructed using existing techniques. Rabung's method, given a prime $p$ and a primitive root $\rho$, applies a color given by the discrete logarithm base $\rho$ mod $r$ and concatenates $k-1$ copies. We also used Herwig et al's Cyclic Zipper Method, which doubles or quadruples the length of a coloring, with the faster check of Rabung and Lotts. We were able to check larger primes than previous results, employing around 2 teraflops of computing power for 12 months through distributed computing by over 500 volunteers. This allowed us to check all primes through 950 million, compared to 10 million by Rabung and Lotts. Our lower bounds appear to grow roughly exponentially in $k$. Given that these constructions produce tight lower bounds for known van der Waerden numbers, this data suggests that exact van der Waerden Numbers grow exponentially in $k$ with ratio $r$ asymptotically, which is a new conjecture, according to Graham.Comment: 8 pages, 1 figure. This version reflects new results and reader comment

Welcome to BU Libraries bookmark

Bookmark welcoming students to BU Libraries

Free Speech 2018: Free At Last sculpture

Illustration of the Free at Last sculpture on Marsh Plaza at Boston University

07. Richard Richards is a Gay Scientist

A little recognized and under-appreciated fact about the august Richard Richards is that he is a gay scientist. I know what you may be thinking—Richard’s never shagged dudes, and if he has, it’s shitty to out him in an essay that’s meant to honor him. That’s strictly his business. Or you may be thinking that that Richard identifies as a philosopher, not a physicist, biologist, or even (egads!) a psychologist. As far as I know, you would be right in both cases—and it would be terrible to call him out--despite the fact that this will hardly rise to the level of an essay. No, what I mean is that Richard Richards practices the sort of approach to philosophy that Nietzsche prescribes in The Gay Science. Now, I won’t pretend to know fuckall about Nietzsche—but that’s okay because there are roughly 7,500 budding philosophy majors lurking in coffee shops, craft breweries, and organic grocery stores around the country who’ve got him figured out and would be delighted to expound on my ignorance. If you are genuinely curious about whether I’ve got Nietzsche right, ask one of them. Or read some Nietzsche. In any case, I’m not entirely convinced that getting philosophers “right” is the point; rather, good philosophers plunder brilliant ideas from better philosophers or scientists, looting those concepts for their own ends–just ask Schopenhauer—and I think Richard might agree with this (c.f., his devotion to Provine and incongruity theory). [excerpt

"Biased Sources? Ghosts" Library Horror Stories posters

These posters were created to make students aware of library resources during the month of October's "Library Horror Stories" media campaign

Dense ideals and cardinal arithmetic

From large cardinals we show the consistency of normal, fine, $\kappa$-complete $\lambda$-dense ideals on $\mathcal{P}_\kappa(\lambda)$ for successor $\kappa$. We explore the interplay between dense ideals, cardinal arithmetic, and squares, answering some open questions of Foreman

Self care tip: Get some rest, you deserve it

Poster with self care tips for students