Biggest mystery in mathematics in limbo after cryptic meeting
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Re: Biggest mystery in mathematics in limbo after cryptic meeting
#2I remember at university how, when attending the few multi-disciplinary meetings or get-togethers, I would marvel that these people - on the same campus! - didn't get together more often in order to share and stimulate growth or share strategies, which inevitably occurred during these meetings.
I wonder why a handful of qualified mathematicians couldn't get together and go to Japan to sort this proof out...
Re: Biggest mystery in mathematics in limbo after cryptic meeting
#3> True to form, Mochizuki himself did not attend, although he did answer participants’ questions through Skype
Why not present his papers through skype? If the problem is just a dislike of travelling. It could also help with any issues related to public speaking or that type of thing.
Re: Biggest mystery in mathematics in limbo after cryptic meeting
#4I remember at university how, when attending the few multi-disciplinary meetings or get-togethers, I would marvel that these people - on the same campus! - didn't get together more often in order to share and stimulate growth or share strategies, which inevitably occurred during these meetings. I wonder why a handful of qualified mathematicians couldn't get together and go to Japan to sort this proof out...
There is literally only a handful of mathematicians that are qualified and they have gone to Oxford to sort it out - bar mochizuki.
Re: Biggest mystery in mathematics in limbo after cryptic meeting
#5I remember at university how, when attending the few multi-disciplinary meetings or get-togethers, I would marvel that these people - on the same campus! - didn't get together more often in order to share and stimulate growth or share strategies, which inevitably occurred during these meetings. I wonder why a handful of qualified mathematicians couldn't get together and go to Japan to sort this proof out...
There is literally only a handful of mathematicians that are qualified and they have gone to Oxford to sort it out - bar mochizuki.
Yes, part of what I was trying to say is why not get that handful of folks together and go to Japan, to the source. Logistics? Ego? Funding? Perhaps a trip is in the cards...
Re: Biggest mystery in mathematics in limbo after cryptic meeting
#6Here's a detailed report on the situation from one Brian Conrad, who attended the meeting: http://mathbabe.org/2015/12/15/notes-on-the-oxford-iut-works...
Re: Biggest mystery in mathematics in limbo after cryptic meeting
#7I remember at university how, when attending the few multi-disciplinary meetings or get-togethers, I would marvel that these people - on the same campus! - didn't get together more often in order to share and stimulate growth or share strategies, which inevitably occurred during these meetings. I wonder why a handful of qualified mathematicians couldn't get together and go to Japan to sort this proof out...
Having worked in a university mathematics department I noticed that the pure mathematicians tended to keep themselves to themselves, for instance not attending talks by visiting mathematicians unless it was of direct relevance to their research. In contrast, we theoretical physicists would listen to any visiting speaker just for fun - even on occasion experimental particle physicists, applied mathematicians or computing specialists.
Perhaps pure maths is just more deeply specialised and leaves no possibility of such dilettanteism.
Re: Biggest mystery in mathematics in limbo after cryptic meeting
#8I don't understand how something, that anyone understands, can be this cryptic. Someone some time ago mentioned that all of Einstein's major papers on special and general relativitiy can be covered in a semester or two.
Isn't the hard part discovering this stuff?
How can anyone discover mathematical proofs but it is so impossible to communicate them that nobody in the world can follow your train of thought? I mean people are really, really good at communicating. It's kind of what we do.
I don't understand how anyone can publish proofs that don't succumb easily to understanding by experts who concentrate on them for a long time, perhaps with tiny hints by the author.
It's not as though we're looking at fragments written in a long-lost language we have no access to, from a culture nobody has access to, on unknown subjects, and with the authors dead hundreds of years ago! The author is right there. The subject isn't even art (like poetry criticism or something), it's fully rigorous.
Understanding someone's proof (for devoted experts) should be easy, right? What gives?
Re: Biggest mystery in mathematics in limbo after cryptic meeting
#9Not mentioned: Kedlaya was Mochizuki's student and then later his teaching assistant back in '92-'94 (for a tough course[1]). Mochizuki hasn't had that many students; Kedlaya might be one of a few to have an advantage in understanding his approach.
The bad news is that the new participants seem to have made no progress on the IUT papers themselves. But the good news is that some substantial progress was made on the background material, and that there are some folks still interested in continuing.
Re: Biggest mystery in mathematics in limbo after cryptic meeting
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
There is literally only a handful of mathematicians that are qualified and they have gone to Oxford to sort it out - bar mochizuki.
Yes, part of what I was trying to say is why not get that handful of folks together and go to Japan, to the source. Logistics? Ego? Funding? Perhaps a trip is in the cards...
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