Michael Atiyah has announced that he has solved the Riemann hypothesis. Experts, however, are skeptical

Renowned mathematician Sir Michael Atiyah presented at the Heidelberg Laureate Forum earlier this week a solution to the Riemann hypothesis – a problem involving the distribution of prime numbers that has remained unsolved for nearly 160 years. However, experts remain skeptical of Atiyah’s claims.

During a 45-minute lecture, a retired mathematician from the University of Edinburgh presented, as he described the, „simple dowod using a radical new approach”. It is based on the work of dwoch leading 20th century mathematiciansow, John von Neumann and Friedrich Hirzebruch, and physicist Paul Dirac. Combining their observations and assuming that the Riemann hypothesis is false, Atiyah says he reaches a logical contradiction, meaning that the hypothesis must be true.

– It looks wonderful – mowished during Atiyah’s speech – but in fact all the hard work was done 70 years ago – added. The mathematician also admitted that he actually wanted to calculate the subtle structure constant „alpha” – physical parameter, whichory describes the strength and nature of the electromagnetic interaction between charged particles. Dowod on the Riemann hypothesis has appeared by the way. It was also published online.

However, experts remain skeptical about their colleague’s revelations. – What he showed in the presentation is unlikely to be anything like a proof of the Riemann hypothesis as we know it – said Jørgen Veisdal of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, ktory spent years studying the Riemann hypothesis. – His presentation is too ogolar and unclear – Veisdal added, while pointing out that it is necessary to carefully examine the dowod Atiyaha to make the final judgment.

The Riemann hypothesis is one of the last great unsolved problems of theoin Mathematical. It was first proposed in 1859 by German mathematician Bernhard Riemann. The problem concerns prime numbers, that is, numbers greater than 1, whichore divisible only by 1 and by itself. Such numbers may include: 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23…

As Riemann stated, the distribution of prime numbers is not random. The key to understanding their distribution on the numerical axis is the patternoThe r described in the Riemann dzet function. All the prime numbers found so far (there are 10 trillion of themow, and the largest of them has more than 23 million digits, its skrotowa name is M77232917) are consistent with rownation, but there is no proof that they will all be consistent.

89-year-old Atiyah is a giant in his field. Wnioff huge contributions to geometry, topology and theoretical physics. He received the largest wyromathematical awards – the Fields Medal in 1966 and the Abel Prize in 2004. Despite a long and prolific career, the alleged dowod on Riemann’s hypothesis follows in the footsteps of his recent, unsuccessful efforts to.

In 2017, Atiyah said in an interview with the „The Times”, that he turned Feit-Thompson’s 255-page theorem, an abstract theory about groups of numbers, into a vastly simplified 12-page document. Sent it to 15 expertoin and was met with skepticism or silence, and a simplified dowod has never been printed.

A year earlier, Atiyah claimed to have solved a famous problem in geometry roThe heatmap in an article published in the preprint repositoryoin ArXiv, but his wspohe researchers were quick to point out inaccuracies in this approach, and the dowod has never been officially published.

Journalists „Science” have contacted several of Atiyah’s colleagues. All expressed concern about his push to end the retirement of the. They said it was unlikely that his dowod on Riemann’s hypothesis will succeed. But no one wanted to publicly criticize their mentor or colleague.

– People will whine and complain, but that’s because they are resistant to the idea that the old man moheads to come up with a completely new method – said Atiyaha even before the presentation in Hamburg. And the presentation of the evidence itself, whichohe recording is below, contained on several slides. Most of Atiyah’s lecture discussed the contributions of dwoch great mathematiciansow – Neumann and Hirzebruch.

However, if the hypothesis proves correct, mathematicians will be armed with a map to locate all prime numbers. It will be a breakthrough with far-reaching consequences in the field.

The correct solution would also bring its author a prize of $1 millionow from the Clay Mathematics Institute in Cambridge. This institute puts the Riemann hypothesis among theod of the seven unsolved so-called “problems”. „problemoin the millennium”. There is a $1 million prize for solving each of themow.

SourceoSource: Science, New Scientist, fot. Heidelberg Laureate Forum Foundation