
Ask HN: Math subfields important to become a distributed systems researcher? - lucas-piske
Hi,<p>I intend to start a master&#x27;s degree in distributed systems(more specifically in permissionless distributed ledgers scalability) and would like to know which math subfields are important to develop meaningful work in this field.
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iwakuralain
It may surprise you, but you might consider algebraic topology. See Maurice
Herlihy's marvellous little book, _Distributed Computing through Combinatorial
Topology_.

The idea is that the state of a distributed computation can be represented as
a simplicial complex (think "graph" only in higher dimensions), and that steps
in a protocol correspond to continuous transformations applied to the complex.

The result is that significant distributed computing problems get reduced to
well-known results from combinatorial topology, and they "just fall out".

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agentultra
Logic, predicate calculus, and temporal logic for a start.

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Digg_mov
ok

