Questions tagged [motivation]

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293 votes
8 answers
141k views

Philosophy behind Mochizuki's work on the ABC conjecture

Mochizuki has recently announced a proof of the ABC conjecture. It is far too early to judge its correctness, but it builds on many years of work by him. Can someone briefly explain the philosophy ...
121 votes
18 answers
14k views

How do you decide whether a question in abstract algebra is worth studying?

Dear MO-community, I am not sure how mature my view on this is and I might say some things that are controversial. I welcome contradicting views. In any case, I find it important to clarify this in my ...
98 votes
10 answers
23k views

Motivation for algebraic K-theory?

I'm looking for a big-picture treatment of algebraic K-theory and why it's important. I've seen various abstract definitions (Quillen's plus and Q constructions, some spectral constructions like ...
S. Carnahan's user avatar
  • 45k
64 votes
5 answers
17k views

Why tropical geometry?

Tropical geometry can be described as "algebraic geometry" over the semifield $\mathbb{T}$ of tropical numbers. As a set, $\mathbb{T}=\mathbb{R}\cup \{ -\infty\}$; this is endowed with addition being ...
44 votes
4 answers
7k views

What motivates modern algebraic geometry for a combinatorial/constructive algebraist?

This is, basically, me trying to generalize "Why should I care for sheaves and schemes?" into a reasonable question. Whether successfully, time will tell, but let me hope that if not the question, ...
darij grinberg's user avatar
21 votes
1 answer
1k views

Why symplectic geometry gives Poisson geometry

One way I've learned to understand Poisson geometry is to consider it as symplectic geometry with no open conditions - i.e. no condition of nondegeneracy. This idea can be applied to many other ...
user44191's user avatar
  • 4,961
57 votes
5 answers
8k views

Why are spectral sequences so ubiquitous?

I sort of understand the definition of a spectral sequence and am aware that it is an indispensable tool in modern algebraic geometry and topology. But why is this the case, and what can one do with ...
Akhil Mathew's user avatar
  • 25.3k
27 votes
1 answer
1k views

Motivation for relative schemes: why should one work with schemes over a ringed topos?

Recently I've been trying to learn more about relative schemes. These were developed in M. Hakim's thesis Topos annelés et schémas relatifs under Grothendieck's guidance and appear in many of later ...
Emily's user avatar
  • 10.3k
24 votes
10 answers
4k views

Why localize spaces with respect to homology?

A basic construction in algebraic topology is the localization of spaces or spectra with respect to a homology theory: one formally inverts the $E$-homology isomorphisms, reflecting each space into ...
Mike Shulman's user avatar
24 votes
2 answers
1k views

Nice application of generalized smooth spaces

I am a fan of category theory in general, and I appreciate that various brands of generalized smooth spaces (Diffeological spaces, Chen spaces, Frolicher spaces ...) form much nicer categories of ...
15 votes
3 answers
2k views

Motivation for equivariant homotopy theory?

I'm in the process of learning equivariant homotopy theory, so I was wondering: what is the importance of equivariant homotopy theory, and what has it been applied to so far? I know of HHR's solution ...
14 votes
1 answer
4k views

Why are Galois Representations so important in Number theory ?

Dear everyone, Motivation : From the past few days, I have been reading about the Galois Representations . I was really amazed to see that every seminal idea in the theory of elliptic curves have ...
Shanmukha_Srinivasan's user avatar
14 votes
1 answer
2k views

Entering to the K-theory realm

I am looking for a guidance in $K$-theory. My master thesis was in the field of Algebraic K-theory and its relation and interaction with the field of Algebraic Topology. I mainly had concentrated on ...
B.K-Theory's user avatar