Monumental (if correct) advance in number theory posted to ArXiv by Yitang Zhang
795 by gavagai691 | 231 comments on Hacker News.
Yitang Zhang, the mathematician behind the 2013 breakthrough on bounded gaps in primes, posted to the arxiv today a result which (if correct) comes close to proving the nonexistence of Landau--Siegel zeros: https://ift.tt/p1uy2mY . To give a sense of the scale of this claim: If correct, Zhang's work is the most significant progress towards the Generalized Riemann Hypothesis in a century. Moreover, I think this result would not only be a more significant advance than Zhang's previous breakthrough, but also constitute a larger leap for number theory than Wiles' 1994 proof of Fermat's Last Theorem (which was, in my opinion, the greatest single achievement by an individual mathematician in the 20th century). Some discussion / explanation of Siegel zeros and Zhang's claim can be found here: https://ift.tt/SluPU4g... https://ift.tt/NTIWB5C... An account of Zhang's remarkable story (and his previous breakthrough) can be found here. Famously, prior to his breakthrough, he worked at Subway and lived in his car: https://ift.tt/W1QBd5A
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