Jean Bourgain

Zaremba's 1971 conjecture predicts that every integer appears as the denominator of a finite continued fraction whose partial quotients are bounded by an absolute constant. We confirm this conjecture for a set of density one.

This lecture was part of the Institute for Advanced Study’s celebration of its eightieth anniversary, and took place during the events related to the Schools and Mathematics and Natural Sciences.

Although the concept of randomness is ubiquitous, it turns out to be difficult to generate a truly random sequence of events. The need for “pseudorandomness” in various parts of modern science, ranging from numerical simulation to cryptography, has...