Unsolved problems in Number Theory and Prizes

U NSOLVED PROBLEMS IN N UMBER T HEORY

AND P RIZES – A S HORT H ISTORY

Swadesh Kumar Sahoo

swadesh[at]iiti.ac.in

Discipline of Mathematics
Indian Institute of Technology Indore

December 21, 2016

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Unsolved problems in Number Theory and Prizes

I N THE BRIGHT MEMORY OF

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Unsolved problems in Number Theory and Prizes

I N 1913
The English mathematician G. H. Hardy received a strange
letter (ten-page) from Ramanujan.

··· →

The ten-page letter contained about 120 statements of

theorems in mathematics (mostly on infinite series, improper
integrals, continued fractions, and number theory).

Some of the problems are ...

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Unsolved problems in Number Theory and Prizes

D ISCUSSION BETWEEN H ARDY AND L ITTLEWOOD

Hardy shows the letter of Ramanujan to his collaborator J. E.
Littlewood.

G. H. Hardy (1877-1947) J. E. Littlewood (1885-1977)

C ONCLUSION
After a few hours, they concluded that the results "must be true
because, if they were not true, no one would have had the
imagination to invent them".
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Unsolved problems in Number Theory and Prizes

H ARDY-R AMANUJAN COLLABORATION

One remarkable result of the Hardy-Ramanujan collaboration
was a formula for the number p(n) of partitions of a number n.
A partition of a positive integer n is just an expression for n as a
sum of positive integers, regardless of order. Thus p(4) = 5
because 4 can be written as 1 + 1 + 1 + 1, 1 + 1 + 2, 2 + 2,
1 + 3, or 4.

H ARDY-R AMANUJAN ’ S A SYMPTOTIC S OLUTION (1918)

1 √
p(n) ≈ √ eπ 2n/3 .
4n 3

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Unsolved problems in Number Theory and Prizes

D EGREE AND H ONOR

Cambridge granted Ramanujan a Bachelor of Science degree
"by research" in 1916, and he was elected a Fellow of the Royal
Society (the first Indian to be so honored) in 1918.

In 1997, The Ramanujan Journal (published by Springer)

was launched to publish work "in areas of mathematics
influenced by Ramanujan".

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Unsolved problems in Number Theory and Prizes

R AMANUJAN AND F ERMAT ’ S L AST T HEOREM

F ERMAT ’ S L AST T HEOREM (1637)

P. de Fermat (1607–1665) A. J. Wiles (1953-)

Looks for three positive integer solutions to an + bn = c n , n > 2.

A NDREW W ILES (A B RITISH MATHEMATICIAN ) PROVED IN 1995

no three positive integers a, b, and c can satisfy the equation
an + bn = c n for any integer value of n > 2.
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Unsolved problems in Number Theory and Prizes

T HE TAXI - CAB NUMBER OF H ARDY-R AMANUJAN : 1729

The two ways to form 1729 can be matched as
103 + 93 = 123 + 13 .
In other words (103 + 93 = 123 ) is a near miss solution to
Fermat’s Last Theorem, as it only misses by 1.

Ramanujan identified a way to generate an infinite number of

near misses of the form: x 3 + y 3 = z 3 ± 1.

E XAMPLES (R AMANUJAN )
103 + 93 = 123 + 13 ;
63 + 83 = 93 − 1;
1353 + 1383 = 1723 − 1;
7913 + 8123 = 10103 − 1;
111613 + 114683 = 142583 + 1.
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Unsolved problems in Number Theory and Prizes

H ONOR TO A NDREW W ILES

Andrew Wiles was 41, when he solved the famous Fermat’s
Last Theorem. Since then he honored with several (12)
prestigious international prizes including Fermat Prize (1995)
and Abel Prize (2016).

I T ’ S A DISAPPOINTMENT !
Wiles could not get a Fields Medal! Could have awarded with
Fields Medal, if he would have proved Fermat’s Theorem just
before one year.

N OBEL P RIZES IN M ATHEMATICS

Fields Medal and Abel Prize are the most prestigious prizes in
mathematics equivalent to the Nobel Prize.

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Unsolved problems in Number Theory and Prizes

International Mathematical Union, Berlin, Germany

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Unsolved problems in Number Theory and Prizes

John Charles Fields A photograph of his gravestone in

(1863-1932), a Canadian Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
mathematician

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Unsolved problems in Number Theory and Prizes

Fields Medal Back Fields Medal Front

The Fields Medal is made of gold and shows the head of Archimedes (287-212 BC) together with a quotation

attributed to him: “Transire suum pectus mundoque potiri” (“Rise above oneself and grasp the world”). The reverse

side bears the inscription: “Congregati ex toto orbe mathematici ob scripta insignia tribuere” (“The mathematicians

assembled here from all over the world pay tribute for outstanding work”).

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Unsolved problems in Number Theory and Prizes

In contrast with the Nobel Prize, the Fields Medal is awarded

only every four years (contributions are counted yearly basis).
The Medal also has an age limit: a recipient’s 40th birthday
must not occur before 1 January of the year in which the Fields
Medal is awarded. This was first awarded in 1936, and since
1950 has been awarded every four years at the International
Congress of Mathematicians (ICM).

The first two medals were awarded to

• Lars Ahlfors (Finnish mathematician)
• Jesse Douglas (American mathematician)
at Oslo in 1936.

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Unsolved problems in Number Theory and Prizes

A NDREW W ILES ’ MOST SUCCESSFUL STORY IS

H IS DOCTORAL STUDENT M ANJUL B HARGAVA (1974-)

An Indian-American mathematician received SASTRA

Ramanujan Prize in 2005 and Fields Medal in 2014.

T HE SASTRA R AMANUJAN P RIZE

Founded by Shanmugha Arts, Science, Technology & Research
Academy (SASTRA) University in Kumbakonam, India, Srinivasa
Ramanujan’s hometown, is awarded every year to a young
mathematician judged to have done outstanding work in Ramanujan’s
fields of interest. The age limit for the prize has been set at 32 (the
age at which Ramanujan died), and the current award is $10, 000.

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Unsolved problems in Number Theory and Prizes

T HE A BEL P RIZE

• Since 2003, the Abel Prize has been awarded annually by

the Norwegian Academy of Sciences, which also awards
the Nobel Peace Prize.
• It is given for “outstanding scientific work in the field of
mathematics”, which has meant a lifetime achievement.
• So, it is for older mathematicians.

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Unsolved problems in Number Theory and Prizes

Niels Henrik Abel (1802-1829), Gustav Vigeland’s Abel

a Norwegian mathematician Monument, Oslo, Norway

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Unsolved problems in Number Theory and Prizes

E XAMPLES OF A BEL P RIZE W INNERS

2003: Jean-Pierre Serre (French mathematician)
2007: Srinivasa S. R. Varadhan (Indian-American
mathematician)
2009: Mikhail Gromov (Russian-French mathematician)
2015: John F. Nash (American mathematician)–also received
Nobel Prize in 1994
2016: Andrew John Wiles (British mathematician)

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Unsolved problems in Number Theory and Prizes

Srinivasa Varadhan in 1947 Srinivasa Varadhan in 2007

Srinivasa Varadhan (1940-), an Indian-American mathematician

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Unsolved problems in Number Theory and Prizes

O NE CAN GET F IELDS M EDAL /A BEL P RIZE IF

HE / SHE SOLVES AT LEAST ONE OF
• The Millennium Prize Problems–introduced by–The Clay
Mathematics Institute of Cambridge, Massachusetts (CMI)
• Hilbert’s Eighth Problem – introduced by–David Hilbert, A
German mathematician (A list of 23-unsolved problems
presented on August 8, 1900 in ICM held at Paris)

The Riemann Hypothesis is common to both, but Goldbach’s

Conjecture is part of Hilbert’s Eighth Problem

T HE FAMOUS G OLDBACH ’ S C ONJECTURE

Every even integer greater than 2 can be expressed as the sum
of two primes.
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Unsolved problems in Number Theory and Prizes

A FACT– PROVEN BY G RIGORI P ERELMAN (1966-)

But, nobody knows why the great mathematician

Grigori Perelman, a Russian mathematician

declined to receive the awards EMS (European Mathematical

Society) Prize (1996), Fields Medal (2006), and Millennium
Prize (2010) after solving the Poincaré Conjecture (in 2003),
one of the US $ 1, 000, 000 problems in mathematics.
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Unsolved problems in Number Theory and Prizes

B UT ONE CAN NOT GET N OBEL P RIZE , BECAUSE

Literature
Peace

Physics Nobel Prizes are awarded to Chemistry

Economics Physiology & Medicine

There is no Nobel Prize in Mathematics !

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Unsolved problems in Number Theory and Prizes

S OME MATHEMATICIANS DISPROVED !

• John Forbes Nash (American) – Nobel Prize in 1994
(Economics). Nash is the subject of the 2001 Hollywood
movie A Beautiful Mind.
• Bertrand Russell (British) – Nobel Prize in 1950
(Literature).
• Max Born (German-British) – Nobel Prize in 1954
(Physics).

Nash
(1928-2015) Russell (1872-1970) Born (1882-1970)

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Unsolved problems in Number Theory and Prizes

W HY THERE IS NO N OBEL P RIZE IN M ATHEMATICS ?

Alfred Nobel (1833-1896), Gösta Mittag-Leffler (1846-1927),

a Swedish chemist. In 1863, a Swedish mathematician. The
Nobel left St. Petersburg and first professor in mathematics at
moved to Stockholm. Stockholm University (1882-1911).

Sofia Kovalevskaya (1850, Russia-1891, Sweden)

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Unsolved problems in Number Theory and Prizes

Gösta Mittag-Leffler: A Man of Conviction

Arild Stubhaug (Author)
Tiina Nunnally (Translator)
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Unsolved problems in Number Theory and Prizes

W HO KNOWS ? I F R AMANUJAN WERE ALIVE , PERHAPS HE WOULD

HAVE WON ALL THE PRIZES : F IELDS M EDAL , A BEL P RIZE , AND
MANY MORE ... INCLUDING T HE N OBEL P RIZE !

L ET ’ S WATCH A DOCUMENTED MOVIE AND IMAGINE !

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Unsolved problems in Number Theory and Prizes

Thank You

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