About:
In 2012, the Japanese mathematician Shinichi Mochizuki released a series of four papers, 'Interuniversal Teichmueller Theory I,II,III,IV', totalling over 500 pages in length (and relying on several thousand pages of priori work) that claimed to prove the ABC-conjecture, a subtle statement about the simplest of possible equations
A+B=C
To this day, the correctness of the proof is not completely settled, in spite of heated debate, publication, and media attention:
https://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/18/science/possible-breakthrough-in-maths-abc-conjecture.html
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-00998-2
How could this happen in a subject with as clear criteria of correctness and a high degree of valuative consensus as mathematics? Some have even claimed that East-West cultural tensions have contributed to the impasse.
This lecture will present for the general public a brief review of this perplexing ‘social problem’ of our mathematical times together with what some commentary on mathematical truth, proof, and practice.
Brief Biography:
Minhyong Kim is Director and Sir Edmund Whittaker Professor of Mathematical Sciences at the International Centre for Mathematical Sciences in Edinburgh. He works on arithmetic geometry, the study of spaces built out of finitely-generated systems of numbers, employing ideas of mathematical physics, especially topological quantum field theory. Minhyong studied mathematics at Seoul National University, then received his Ph.D. in Mathematics at Yale University. He has held professorships at many institutions on three continents, including Purdue University, the Korea Institute for Advanced Study, University College London, and the University of Oxford, where he was head of the number theory research group. Before moving to Edinburgh, Minhyong was Christopher Zeeman Professor of Algebra, Geometry, and Public Understanding of Mathematics at the University of Warwick.
Minhyong is a keen communicator of mathematics and has published 12 books in Korea for the general public. His latest project is a series of illustrated children's books featuring a mathematician (who quickly disappears), his family (who search for him), and Schroedinger's cat (who does both).
Drawings by Hong Seung Woo and Son Yein.