Xian-Jin Li claims to have proven the Riemann hypothesis, one of the most famous open problems in math. His paper is posted arXiv.
The Riemann hypothesis is no obscure conjecture. It’s a natural question and central to number theory. For years mathematicians have been proving theorems of the form “If the Riemann hypothesis is true, then …” and so if Li’s result is correct, many other new results follow. Also, if the proof holds up, Li wins a $1,000,000 prize from the Clay Institute for solving one of the Millennium Problems.
Hat tip: Isabel Lugo
Update: Looks like there’s a flaw in the proof.
Update 5 Feb 2009: Another proposed proof.
{ 1 trackback }
{ 0 comments… add one now }