Sign in

Jean Abou Samra

@jeanas.bsky.social
144 followers 13 following 3.1K posts

PhD student in theoretical computer science at Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest. Mainly here to chat about TCS/math. He/him

PostsRepliesMedia
Jean Abou Samra @jeanas.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
They should add mathematicians to the IUCN red list.
052
Jean Abou Samra @jeanas.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
“Obviously” you can construct finite colimits in an elementary topos using the internal language (which you can set up without assuming finite colimits using impredicative encodings as in Lambek & Scott). Is there a more reputable reference than math.stackexchange.com/a/5099815/ (for Wikipedia)?
math.stackexchange.com
topos have colimits
Define an (elementary) topos to be a cartesian closed category with all finite limits and subobject classifiers. I'm looking for a proof of the fact that a topos also has all finite colimits. I know
110
Jean Abou Samra @jeanas.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
It'd be helpful to get more voices (either way) on these Wikipedia deletion discussions: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikiped... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikiped...
en.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Adaptive representation - Wikipedia
111
Reposted by Jean Abou Samra
Gro-Tsen @gro-tsen.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Un billet de blog pour parler de la destruction en cours des mathématiques par les boîtes d'IA et leurs petites mains: www.madore.org/~david/weblo...
madore.org
Sur la destruction des maths par les boîtes d'IA
93217
Jean Abou Samra @jeanas.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Finally something heart-warming. www.ahmath.org
ahmath.org
AHM
240
Reposted by Jean Abou Samra
Gro-Tsen @gro-tsen.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
While I appreciate their eloquence, and agree with many of their take takes, when it comes to “AI and math” (or indeed anything), I wish people would listen a little less to Fields medalists and a little more to the ~99.95% of mathematicians who are NOT Fields medalists, … •1/4
44410
Reposted by Jean Abou Samra
Jean Abou Samra (new account) @jeanas.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 31/08/2026
Here's a little fun puzzle (that I didn't think very hard about). Let f, g : [0, 1]² ⇢ [0, 1] be *partial* functions, whose restrictions to their respective domains are continuous. Must there exist (x, y) ∈ [0, 1]² such that *if* f(x, y) is defined then it equals x and *if* g(x, y) is defined […]
mathstodon.xyz
Original post on mathstodon.xyz
111
Jean Abou Samra @jeanas.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
I uploaded to my website some notes on descriptive set theory, adapted from lectures I followed last semester: jean.abou-samra.fr/notes/DST.pdf
jean.abou-samra.fr
210
Jean Abou Samra @jeanas.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Screenshot of an AI overview from a Google search, with a section titled “When Can a Graph Be Non-Meager?“ containing the text “If you are looking at a specific context like Borel functions, destructive set theory, or a particular function definition, please share it so I can provide the exact category-theoretic proof or counterexample.”
131
Jean Abou Samra @jeanas.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
A question about realizability: mathoverflow.net/q/514634/519...
mathoverflow.net
What could be “Kleene's third algebra”?
In the category of assemblies over Kleene's first algebra $\mathcal{K}_1$ (or in the corresponding realizability topos, namely the effective topos), the natural numbers object $ℕ$ is carried by $ℕ$
031
Jean Abou Samra @jeanas.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
I'm hearing from reliable sources that OpenAI improved the bound on prime gaps and they are now withholding this result merely because they want to use it for marketing when the model that produced this is released. A reminder that the goals of AI companies diverge from those of the math community.
280
Reposted by Jean Abou Samra
Roger Mansuy @roger-mansuy.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
Le livre "Introduction aux graphes aléatoires" (Calvage-et-Mounet, 2020) est épuisé depuis plus d'un an. Comme je reçois régulièrement des courriers sur ce texte, j'ai rédigé une seconde édition que je place en accès libre sur: www.rogermansuy.fr/pdf/GraphesA... Bonne lecture!
Page de titre de la seconde édition du livre "Introduction aux graphes aléatoires"
67729
Reposted by Jean Abou Samra
Gro-Tsen @gro-tsen.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
I posted a question on MathOverflow about understanding Kleene's construction of a computable tree with an infinite branch but no infinite hyperarithmetical branch: mathoverflow.net/q/513712/17064
mathoverflow.net
Unwrapping the proof of the fact that an infinite branch of a computable tree can fail to be hyperarithmetical
(Experts can skip the following two paragraphs, which are written for the sake of completeness of MathOverflow.) Standard definitions (recalled for convenience): In this question, a tree means a su...
151
Jean Abou Samra @jeanas.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
mathstodon.xyz/@jeanas/1169...
mathstodon.xyz
Jean Abou Samra (new account) (@jeanas@mathstodon.xyz)
Attached: 1 image @jpoiret@types.pl I wonder if this comment will make it through moderation… (CC @antoinechambertloir and @patrick_massot)
131
Jean Abou Samra @jeanas.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
I hope you are sitting down… mathoverflow.net/a/513385/
mathoverflow.net
Could the Jacobian conjecture be undecidable?
Most of us know the Jacobian conjecture. Here's a version below for fixed positive integers $d$ and $n$: $J(d,n)$: If $f: C^n \rightarrow C^n$ is a polynomial map of degree $d$, and if the Jacob...
251
Jean Abou Samra @jeanas.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
This had me in fits of laughter: www.math.columbia.edu/~woit/wordpr... “Gross started off the talk by complaining that he had had to work hard for the few days before his talk, since he had found that his slides were so old that the file formats now had compatibility problems with current software.”
math.columbia.edu
Various and Sundry
Some things that might be of interest: The ICM is starting next week in Philadelphia. One traditional aspect of the ICM is the announcement of the Fields Medal winners. This year there won’t …
010
Jean Abou Samra @jeanas.bsky.social · 12/07/2026
People told me that the small wiki I run (https:// wiki.lilypond.community) was regularly down or unresponsive. After peeking into the request log, I blocked the crawler that feeds Meta's AI. Load average instantly down from around 50 to under 0.5.
wiki.lilypond.community
LilyPond wiki
140
Jean Abou Samra @jeanas.bsky.social · 05/07/2026
Article bouleversant. www.lemonde.fr/internationa...
lemonde.fr
« Si on m’attrape, c’est la fin pour moi » : au Sénégal, l’effroi quotidien des homosexuels sous le coup de la répression
Alors qu’en mars, une loi a durci les peines encourues pour relations homosexuelles, les Sénégalais LGBT+ vivent dans la peur. Sous le couvert de l’anonymat, plusieurs d’entre eux témoignent d’un quot...
021
Jean Abou Samra @jeanas.bsky.social · 05/07/2026
I just signed the TCS4F manifesto tcs4f.org . This is the text I added to my website: I am panicked about climate change, and so should you be. I have signed the Theoretical Computer Scientists for Future (TCS4F) pledge for sustainable research in theoretical computer science. …
tcs4f.org
TCS4F Manifesto - Theoretical Computer Scientists for Future
TCS4F is an initiative aimed at theoretical computer scientists for a significant reduction of carbon emissions and evolve towards more sustainable practices.
151
Jean Abou Samra @jeanas.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
mathstodon.xyz/@jeanas/1168...
mathstodon.xyz
Jean Abou Samra (new account) (@jeanas@mathstodon.xyz)
I thought of a fun-looking little problem in constructive analysis, but I don't have much interest in this myself, so I'll drop it here in case someone enjoys solving it. It's a well-know fact that t...
110
Jean Abou Samra @jeanas.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
The standard encoding of pairs in the untyped λ-calculus is pair := λ x y f ⋅ f x y, fst := λ p ⋅ p (λ x y ⋅ x), snd := p (λ x y ⋅ y). This validates the β-rules fst (pair x y) = x and snd (pair x y) = y but not the η-rule p = pair (fst p) (snd p). Is there another encoding with η?
220
Jean Abou Samra @jeanas.bsky.social · 22/06/2026
The page en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semanti... is taking shape. Feedback very much appreciated, especially on pedagogy (I don't find this topic very easy to explain).
en.wikipedia.org
Semantics of type theory - Wikipedia
320
Jean Abou Samra @jeanas.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
mathstodon.xyz/@jeanas/1167...
mathstodon.xyz
Jean Abou Samra (new account) (@jeanas@mathstodon.xyz)
Constructively: The MacNeille reals are uncountable, by @iblech and Matthias Hutzler's paper https://arxiv.org/abs/1902.07366 The Dedekind reals may be countable, by @andrejbauer and @jameshanson's ...
220
Jean Abou Samra @jeanas.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
“There's a semantics for graded students — it's the constant function ‘fail’.” (Viktor Bense)
010
Reposted by Jean Abou Samra
Gro-Tsen @gro-tsen.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
I asked a question on MathOverflow about category theory, requesting help in clarifying a confusion of mine regarding the reg/lex and ex/lex constructions on the category of assemblies and how they relate to “extensional realizability”: mathoverflow.net/q/511959/17064
mathoverflow.net
Confusion concerning the reg/lex and ex/lex constructions on the category of assemblies
While trying to gain some understanding on how extensional realizability relates to the reg/lex and ex/lex completions of assemblies, I came to believe the following mutually contradictory statemen...
141
Jean Abou Samra @jeanas.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
Looks interesting: arxiv.org/abs/2606.00861
arxiv.org
The Axiom of Double Complement and its opposites
Powell introduced the Axiom of Double Complement ($\mathsf{DCom}$) to give his double-negation interpretation of $\mathsf{ZF}$ into $\mathsf{IZF_{Rep}}$. However, the consistency, strength, and compat...
010
Reposted by Jean Abou Samra
Jean Abou Samra @jeanas.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
I completely disagree 🙂 If you are lucky enough to take a course in the beautiful area of descriptive set theory (as I recently did), one thing it teaches you is that expanding your view to spaces beyond just the reals practically doesn't complicate matters and gives many new interesting examples.
131
Jean Abou Samra @jeanas.bsky.social · 31/05/2026
A descriptive set theory question: mathstodon.xyz/@jeanas/1166...
mathstodon.xyz
Jean Abou Samra (new account) (@jeanas@mathstodon.xyz)
I have in my mind two conflicting definitions of “f : X → Y has the Baire property (BP)”. (X and Y are topological spaces which I'm happy to assume Polish.) The first is that the preimage of an open s...
120
Jean Abou Samra @jeanas.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
Here's a question I've meant to ask for a long time: mathoverflow.net/q/511737/
mathoverflow.net
How bad can papering over universe issues be?
Many introductions to category theory brush over size issues (by which I mean paying attention to which categories are small, locally small, dealing with facts like there being no category of all
120
Jean Abou Samra @jeanas.bsky.social · 25/05/2026
I added a definition of the effective topos to Wikipedia. I think it's incomprehensible for a newcomer (as it was to me two years ago), but since I ran out of time, pedagogy will have to wait for later or someone else. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effecti...
en.wikipedia.org
Effective topos - Wikipedia
120
Reposted by Jean Abou Samra
Trish Greenhalgh @trishgreenhalgh.bsky.social · 23/05/2026
Every summer I repost this article on how to spot drowning. Please read it and pass on. In the last few years I’ve had SIX messages from people who saved a kid’s life after clicking on the link from my feed. slate.com/technology/2...
slate.com
Drowning Doesn’t Look Like Drowning
Drowning is not the violent, splashing call for help that most people expect.
253133989736
Jean Abou Samra @jeanas.bsky.social · 22/05/2026
The Budapest type theory group is hiring a postdoc to work on higher observational type theory. lists.seas.upenn.edu/pipermail/ty...
lists.seas.upenn.edu
[TYPES/announce] Postdoc position in type theory
045
Reposted by Jean Abou Samra
David Monniaux @monniauxd.bsky.social · 22/05/2026
19 juin, colloque en l'honneur de feu Gilles Dowek deducteam.gitlabpages.inria.fr/colloque-gil... M. le ministre passera honorer notre ancien collègue.
deducteam.gitlabpages.inria.fr
Colloque en hommage à Gilles Dowek
1105
Jean Abou Samra @jeanas.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
I promise to keep this account mostly mathematical, but since there is so little to rejoice about in global politics at the moment, let me share some pictures that I took two weeks ago at the parliament in Budapest.
120
Jean Abou Samra @jeanas.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
After postponing looking into the numbers for a long time because there is already more to be depressed about in the news these days than I can handle, I finally just started reading about AI's environmental impact and… man. This is obscene. www.wired.com/story/new-ga...
wired.com
New Gas-Powered Data Centers Could Emit More Greenhouse Gases Than Entire Nations
A WIRED review of permits for data center projects using natural gas and linked to OpenAI, Meta, Microsoft, and xAI shows they could emit more than 129 million tons of greenhouse gases per year.
011
Jean Abou Samra @jeanas.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
Exciting news from Agda: types.pl/@amy/1165222...
types.pl
Amélia Liao (@amy@types.pl)
We're announcing **[Mikan]: a proof assistant for cubical type theory,** forked from the Agda codebase. *Note: you can also read this announcement [as a Gist].* [Mikan]: https://codeberg.org/1lab/mi...
021
Reposted by Jean Abou Samra
arXiv cs.LO Logic in Computer Science @cslo-bot.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
Evan Cavallo, Jonas H\"ofer: Univalence without function extensionality arxiv.org/abs/2605.00812 arxiv.org/pdf/2605.00812 arxiv.org/html/2605.00812
001
Jean Abou Samra @jeanas.bsky.social · 24/04/2026
I just created a Wikipedia page about cubical type theory. For now this is a stub with just keyword-dropping and reference-dropping. Help to augment it is very welcome, we really need a readable first introduction to cubical type theory written down somewhere. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cubical...
en.wikipedia.org
Cubical type theory - Wikipedia
233
Reposted by Jean Abou Samra
Gro-Tsen @gro-tsen.bsky.social · 23/04/2026
Un billet de blog où j'essaie de raconter de façon pas trop interminable et j'espère pas trop incompréhensible de quoi parle le texte que j'ai écrit récemment avec @jeanas.bsky.social, et ce que sont ces «degrés d'Arthur-Nimué-Merlin». www.madore.org/~david/weblo...
madore.org
Premier article en calculabilité ?
131
Jean Abou Samra @jeanas.bsky.social · 19/04/2026
Breaking mathematical news: recent events have formally disproved the claim that adults are adults, refuting a nearly 350 years old conjecture of Leibniz. This is the first fully automated contribution to mathematics by autonomous geopolitical agents.
130
Jean Abou Samra @jeanas.bsky.social · 18/04/2026
In French mathematics, families are tied into tribes living on separated spaces.
030
Jean Abou Samra @jeanas.bsky.social · 10/04/2026
I asked on MathOverflow whether a certain corollary of the Cayley-Hamilton theorem can be interpreted from the point of view of algebraic geometry. Help appreciated, this would be very useful for a research project. mathoverflow.net/q/510112/
mathoverflow.net
131
Reposted by Jean Abou Samra
Gro-Tsen @gro-tsen.bsky.social · 08/04/2026
I asked on MathOverflow a very nice elementary algebraic geometry question that was posted here by @wildverzweigt.bsky.social: mathoverflow.net/q/510023/17064
mathoverflow.net
The inclusion of $\{x^2+y^2=1\}$ in $\mathbb{A}^2\setminus\{(0,0)\}$ does not extend to $\mathbb{A}^2$ (over which fields?)
Let $k$ be a field and $h := x^2 + y^2 - 1 \in k[x,y]$. Consider the following purely algebraic statement (★): There do not exist $P,Q \in k[x,y]$, generating the unit ideal in $k[x,y]$, such that...
111
Jean Abou Samra @jeanas.bsky.social · 06/04/2026
@pianocktailiste.bsky.social J'ai pensé à toi en constatant que dans le livre de Pierre Colmez « Éléments d'analyse et d'algèbre », le théorème de Mahler sur l'expression d'une fonction analytique p-adique comme somme de sa série de Newton figure dans la partie « Vocabulaire mathématique ».
241
Jean Abou Samra @jeanas.bsky.social · 03/04/2026
After provoking the philosophers who dismiss univalent foundations, this time I feel like provoking the type theorists who dismiss set theory 🙂 mathstodon.xyz/@jeanas/1163...
mathstodon.xyz
Jean Abou Samra (new account) (@jeanas@mathstodon.xyz)
I realize this will sound odd to many of my followers, but I'd like to defend material set theory a bit. Bluntly speaking, if we type theorists are going to criticize some parts of the Lean community...
142
Jean Abou Samra @jeanas.bsky.social · 27/03/2026
I just signed the “No free view? No review!" pledge to refuse reviewing papers for closed-access venues, and I encourage all researchers to do the same. nofreeviewnoreview.org
nofreeviewnoreview.org
No free view? No review!
Sign the pledge not to review for closed-access publications!
020
Jean Abou Samra @jeanas.bsky.social · 25/03/2026
meta.mathoverflow.net/q/6446/
meta.mathoverflow.net
Is MathOverflow at risk of being let down by StackExchange Inc?
This is the number of questions asked each month on StackOverflow, the most active site of the StackExchange network. The data is directly sourced from StackExchange, which helpfully provides a ser...
163
Reposted by Jean Abou Samra
Gro-Tsen @gro-tsen.bsky.social · 23/03/2026
🔽 So, @jeanas.bsky.social and I are please to announce a new preprint in computability, in which we show that the Turing degrees can be embedded upside down in (what we call) the “Arthur-Nimue-Merlin degrees”. The paper opens with a riddle, which I hope will be of interest!
First page of the paper titled “An order-reversing embedding of Turing degrees into Arthur–Nimue–Merlin degrees” by Jean Abou Samra & David Alexander Madore, arXiv:2603.19946v1 [math.LO] 20 Mar 2026. Abstract reads as follows: «The Arthur–Nimue–Merlin degrees are a generalization of the Turing degrees introduced by Kihara as a tangible description of the partially ordered set of Lawvere–Tierney topologies on the effective topos (equivalently, subtoposes of the effective topos). They are defined in terms of a three-player game that introduces both angelic and demonic non-determinism into oracle queries. We construct an order embedding of the Turing degrees with their order reversed into the Arthur–Nimue–Merlin degrees, whose image we call the “co-Turing degrees”; we then study the order relationship of these co-Turing degrees with the (naturally embedded) Turing degrees within the Arthur–Nimue–Merlin degrees.» The opening paragraph of the introduction reads: «We begin with a riddle. King Arthur is desperate to know whether the Grail is in a particular French castle. He can ask arbitrary questions to the all-knowing mage Merlin, who promises to answer truthfully, but with a twist. Instead of merely answering “yes” or “no” in plain English, the mischievous Merlin provides a Turing machine, which halts if and only if the answer is “yes”. Can Arthur, a mere mortal limited by the Church–Turing thesis, find the Grail’s location before the end of days?»
1244
Jean Abou Samra @jeanas.bsky.social · 22/03/2026
A curious question. math.stackexchange.com/q/5129689/
math.stackexchange.com
Fields with strongly connected algebras should not exist?
Is there a field $K$ with the following (weird) property? For all commutative $K$-algebras $A,B$ there is a homomorphism $A \to B$ or a homomorphism $B \to A$. I suspect the answer is No. But I ca...
050
Reposted by Jean Abou Samra
Michael Barany @mjb.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 15/03/2026
Because we care deeply about international mathematics and its mathematicians, we must recognize the threat to both that the upcoming ICM poses. Please read and consider signing: Move the 2026 ICM out of the United States […]
mathstodon.xyz
Original post on mathstodon.xyz
2721