Questions tagged [big-list]

Questions designed to generate a "big list" of certain results, examples, conjectures, etc. via many individual answers, each contributing one or a few instances. Such a question should typically be in Community Wiki mode (CW); after asking, please, flag for moderators attention requesting the question to be made CW.

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113 votes
15 answers
54k views

Top specialized journals

In geometry/topology, there are (at least) three specialized journals that end up publishing a large fraction of the best papers in the subject -- Geometry and Topology, JDG, and GAFA. What journals ...
108 votes
15 answers
10k views

Are there any good websites for hosting discussions of mathematical papers?

I was wondering if there are any websites out there which systematically provide space for the discussion of mathematics articles (particularly those on the arXiv, though not necessarily just those),...
90 votes
11 answers
13k views

What are possible applications of deep learning to research mathematics?

With no doubt everyone here has heard of deep learning, even if they don't know what it is or what it is good for. I myself am a former mathematician turned data scientist who is quite interested in ...
75 votes
13 answers
12k views

What precisely Is "Categorification"?

(And what's it good for.) Related MO questions (with some very nice answers): examples-of-categorification; can-we-categorify-the-equation $(1-t)(1+t+t^2+\dots)=1$?; categorification-request.
Gil Kalai's user avatar
  • 24.2k
67 votes
28 answers
12k views

Examples of seemingly elementary problems that are hard to solve?

I'm looking for a list of problems such that a) any undergraduate student who took multivariable calculus and linear algebra can understand the statements, (Edit: the definition of understanding here ...
67 votes
39 answers
9k views

Results true in a dimension and false for higher dimensions

Some theorems are true in vector spaces or in manifolds for a given dimension $n$ but become false in higher dimensions. Here are two examples: A positive polynomial not reaching its infimum. ...
57 votes
43 answers
11k views

What are some mathematical sculptures?

Either intentionally or unintentionally. Include location and sculptor, if known.
43 votes
8 answers
21k views

Approaches to Riemann hypothesis using methods outside number theory [closed]

Background: Once an analytic number theorist remarked to me that all attempts to prove the Riemann hypothesis using number theoretic methods have failed. Since then that remark stuck in my mind. The ...
220 votes
140 answers
48k views

Fundamental Examples

It is not unusual that a single example or a very few shape an entire mathematical discipline. Can you give examples for such examples? (One example, or few, per post, please) I'd love to learn about ...
163 votes
46 answers
31k views

Every mathematician has only a few tricks

In Gian-Carlo Rota's "Ten lessons I wish I had been taught" he has a section, "Every mathematician has only a few tricks", where he asserts that even mathematicians like Hilbert ...
157 votes
28 answers
29k views

How To Present Mathematics To Non-Mathematicians?

(Added an epilogue) I started a job as a TA, and it requires me to take a five sessions workshop about better teaching in which we have to present a 10 minutes lecture (micro-teaching). In the last ...
147 votes
71 answers
20k views

Nonequivalent definitions in Mathematics

I would like to ask if anyone could share any specific experiences of discovering nonequivalent definitions in their field of mathematical research. By that I mean discovering that in different ...
114 votes
32 answers
20k views

What notions are used but not clearly defined in modern mathematics?

"Everyone knows what a curve is, until he has studied enough mathematics to become confused through the countless number of possible exceptions." Felix Klein What notions are used but not ...
106 votes
26 answers
14k views

Fields of mathematics that were dormant for a long time until someone revitalized them

I thought that the closed question here could be modified to a very interesting question (at least as far as big-list type questions go). Can people name examples of fields of mathematics that were ...
101 votes
21 answers
15k views

Proofs of the uncountability of the reals

Recently, I learnt in my analysis class the proof of the uncountability of the reals via the Nested Interval Theorem (Wayback Machine). At first, I was excited to see a variant proof (as it did not ...
Unknown's user avatar
  • 2,815
101 votes
15 answers
17k views

Have you solved problems in your sleep?

I have hit upon major (for me—relative to my trivial accomplishments) insights in my research in various sleep-deprived altered states of consciousness, e.g., long solo car-drives extending through ...
97 votes
50 answers
42k views

Theorems that are 'obvious' but hard to prove

There are several well-known mathematical statements that are 'obvious' but false (such as the negation of the Banach--Tarski theorem). There are plenty more that are 'obvious' and true. One would ...
93 votes
20 answers
10k views

Short papers for undergraduate course on reading scholarly math

(I know this is perhaps only tangentially related to mathematics research, but I'm hoping it is worthy of consideration as a community wiki question.) Today, I was reminded of the existence of this ...
81 votes
30 answers
68k views

Applications of the Chinese remainder theorem

As the title suggests I am interested in CRT applications. Wikipedia article on CRT lists some of the well known applications (e.g. used in the RSA algorithm, used to construct an elegant Gödel ...
74 votes
16 answers
8k views

Geometric / physical / probabilistic interpretations of Riemann zeta($n>1$)?

What are some physical, geometric, or probabilistic interpretations of the values of the Riemann zeta function at the positive integers greater than one? I've found some examples: 1) In MO-Q111339 ...
63 votes
14 answers
6k views

Unnecessary uses of the axiom of choice

What examples are there of habitual but unnecessary uses of the axiom of choice, in any area of mathematics except topology? I'm interested in standard proofs that use the axiom of choice, but where ...
58 votes
82 answers
18k views

Prominent non-mathematical work of mathematicians

First of all, sorry if this post is not appropriate for this forum. I have a habit that every time I read a beautiful article I look at the author's homepage and often find amazing things. Recently I ...
51 votes
25 answers
11k views

Theorems for nothing (and the proofs for free) [closed]

Some theorems give far more than you feel they ought to: a weak hypothesis is enough to prove a strong result. Of course, there's almost always a lot of machinery hidden below the waterline. Such ...
40 votes
11 answers
11k views

Contemporary philosophy of mathematics

Starting to write an introduction to the philosophy of mathematics, I find tons of positions that are of historical interest. Which philosophical positions are explicitly considered these days, say in ...
35 votes
12 answers
8k views

How to write math well?

Let's learn about writing good mathematical texts. For some people it could be especially interesting to answer about writing texts on Math Overflow, though I personally feel like I've already ...
35 votes
62 answers
21k views

What's your favorite equation, formula, identity or inequality? [closed]

Certain formulas I really enjoy looking at like the Euler-Maclaurin formula or the Leibniz integral rule. What's your favorite equation, formula, identity or inequality?
34 votes
18 answers
6k views

Non-rigorous reasoning in rigorous mathematics

I was wondering what role non-rigorous, heuristic type arguments play in rigorous math. Are there examples of rigorous, formal proofs in which a non-rigorous reasoning still plays a central part? ...
33 votes
3 answers
7k views

What are the applications of operator algebras to other areas?

Question: What are the applications of operator algebras to other areas? More precisely, I would like to know the results in mathematical areas outside of operator algebras which were proved by ...
23 votes
11 answers
9k views

Noteworthy achievements in and around 2010?

The goal of this question is to compile a list of noteworthy mathematical achievements from about 2010 (so somewhat but not too far in the past). In particular, this is meant to include (but not ...
21 votes
3 answers
6k views

What are the current breakthroughs of Geometric Complexity Theory?

I've read from Wikipedia about Geometric Complexity Theory (GCT) which (if I understood correctly) is a program for coping with the $ P=NP $ problem using algebraic methods. That program seems ...
5 votes
23 answers
5k views

A search for theorems which appear to have very few, if any hypotheses [closed]

I'm interested in theorems which appear to have very few, if any hypotheses. Essentially a search for unexpected regularity or pattern in a relatively unstructured situation. By "few hypotheses" I ...
232 votes
16 answers
55k views

What elementary problems can you solve with schemes?

I'm a graduate student who's been learning about schemes this year from the usual sources (e.g. Hartshorne, Eisenbud-Harris, Ravi Vakil's notes). I'm looking for some examples of elementary self-...
421 votes
91 answers
146k views

Video lectures of mathematics courses available online for free

It can be difficult to learn mathematics on your own from textbooks, and I often wish universities videotaped their mathematics courses and distributed them for free online. Fortunately, some ...
233 votes
14 answers
75k views

Have any long-suspected irrational numbers turned out to be rational?

The history of proving numbers irrational is full of interesting stories, from the ancient proofs for $\sqrt{2}$, to Lambert's irrationality proof for $\pi$, to Roger Apéry's surprise demonstration ...
215 votes
67 answers
45k views

Proofs that require fundamentally new ways of thinking

I do not know exactly how to characterize the class of proofs that interests me, so let me give some examples and say why I would be interested in more. Perhaps what the examples have in common is ...
191 votes
47 answers
27k views

Books you would like to read (if somebody would just write them…)

I think that the title is self-explanatory but I'm thinking about mathematical subjects that have not received a full treatment in book form or if they have, they could benefit from a different ...
191 votes
34 answers
79k views

What is convolution intuitively?

If random variable $X$ has a probability distribution of $f(x)$ and random variable $Y$ has a probability distribution $g(x)$ then $(f*g)(x)$, the convolution of $f$ and $g$, is the probability ...
189 votes
79 answers
42k views

Which math paper maximizes the ratio (importance)/(length)?

My vote would be Milnor's 7-page paper "On manifolds homeomorphic to the 7-sphere", in Vol. 64 of Annals of Math. For those who have not read it, he explicitly constructs smooth 7-manifolds which are ...
187 votes
81 answers
32k views

Suggestions for good notation

I occasionally come across a new piece of notation so good that it makes life easier by giving a better way to look at something. Some examples: Iverson introduced the notation [X] to mean 1 if X is ...
186 votes
47 answers
100k views

Magic trick based on deep mathematics

I am interested in magic tricks whose explanation requires deep mathematics. The trick should be one that would actually appeal to a layman. An example is the following: the magician asks Alice to ...
154 votes
54 answers
22k views

Old books you would like to have reprinted with high-quality typesetting

There are some questions on mathoverflow such as What out-of-print books would you like to see re-printed? Old books still used with answers that tell us things such as: Mathematicians prefer to use ...
153 votes
7 answers
69k views

Consequences of the Riemann hypothesis

I assume a number of results have been proven conditionally on the Riemann hypothesis, of course in number theory and maybe in other fields. What are the most relevant you know? It would also be nice ...
150 votes
31 answers
27k views

Extremely messy proofs

Currently in my undergraduate courses I am being taught how to set up various machinery using slick, short proofs and then how to apply that machinery. What I am not being taught, largely, is what ...
148 votes
31 answers
69k views

What are the most misleading alternate definitions in taught mathematics?

I suppose this question can be interpreted in two ways. It is often the case that two or more equivalent (but not necessarily semantically equivalent) definitions of the same idea/object are used in ...
142 votes
24 answers
18k views

Occurrences of (co)homology in other disciplines and/or nature

I am curious if the setup for (co)homology theory appears outside the realm of pure mathematics. The idea of a family of groups linked by a series of arrows such that the composition of consecutive ...
124 votes
23 answers
35k views

Collection of equivalent forms of Riemann Hypothesis

This forum brings together a broad enough base of mathematicians to collect a "big list" of equivalent forms of the Riemann Hypothesis...just for fun. Also, perhaps, this collection could include ...
109 votes
89 answers
29k views

Tweetable Mathematics

Update: Please restrict your answers to "tweets" that give more than just the statement of the result, and give also the essence (or a useful hint) of the argument/novelty. I am looking for ...
102 votes
12 answers
19k views

What is entropy, really?

I first saw the term "entropy" in a chemistry course while studying thermodynamics. During my graduate studies I encountered the term in many different areas of mathematics. Can anyone explain why ...
Mustafa Said's user avatar
  • 3,679
100 votes
10 answers
15k views

Why do Bernoulli numbers arise everywhere?

I have seen Bernoulli numbers many times, and sometimes very surprisingly. They appear in my textbook on complex analysis, in algebraic topology, and of course, number theory. Things like the criteria ...
98 votes
33 answers
18k views

Theorems with unexpected conclusions

I am interested in theorems with unexpected conclusions. I don't mean an unintuitive result (like the existence of a space-filling curve), but rather a result whose conclusion seems disconnected from ...

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