SCIENCE & EDUCATION

Japanese mathematician Shinichi Mochizuki at Kyoto University has released a document on the Internet that claims to provide proof for the abc conjecture in number theory, said to be the most important unresolved problem in modern mathematics, causing a stir among peers.

The abc conjecture provides immediate proofs for other theorems including even Fermat's famous last theorem, a vexing issue in number theory that took roughly 350 years to be demonstrated, and Mochizuki's 500-page document, if it withstands scrutiny, will represent "one of the most astounding achievements of mathematics of the 21st Century," Dorian Goldfeld, a mathematician at Columbia University in New York, was quoted as saying by Nature magazine in its Sept. 10 online edition.

The abc conjecture, proposed by European mathematicians in 1985, is about a simple equation of three integers -- described as mathematical variables a, b and c, where a + b = c, and considers each number's prime factors, which can be divided by 1 or themselves.

Source: NewsOnJapan