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Say I prove an identity that's quite important; important enough that an uneducated person like myself could get it published (given the proof is correct, of course). What then is the best course of action?

I am scared of sending to a publisher, because if it is wrong, perhaps that will set my potential maths publishing career off on a bad start? Perhaps the proof is hilariously bad? This is something I'd like to avoid... so, what about asking if the proof is correct on MathOverflow.SE or Mathematics.SE? If my proof is correct, then I'm pretty sure it'll be quite attractive. I'm scared that someone could steal it, and I don't know how easy it is to simply prove I made the proof by referring to the SE post. Perhaps I'm overthinking it, but if this proof I've made is actually correct, this could be the start of a mathematical career. I want to do it right.

Of course, there is rigorous checking that I could do myself. However, this identity is somewhat sizeable, so doing it by hand is bothersome and prone to error. I don't have Wolfram Mathematica, but I do have Wolfram Script; it is however only returning the input as the output, implying to me it doesn't know how to evaluate it.

So, how should I go about this?

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    $\begingroup$ Talk to someone in person or at least privately. This site is not meant to be a proof-checking service. Besides, since you are worried about someone "stealing" your result, it's strange that you would even think about trying to use a public website for verifying the correctness of your result. You should be more concerned about whether your result is genuinely important. $\endgroup$
    – KConrad
    Commented Jun 21, 2022 at 3:35
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    $\begingroup$ There's nothing special about MO or M.SE. You could ask people on Reddit or people in your immediate circle on your preferred social media site. Try giving a little seminar to your peers about the proof, and get them to pepper you with questions, no matter how trivial-seeming. But KConrad is correct: MO is very much not a "please check my proof" site. $\endgroup$
    – David Roberts ♦
    Commented Jun 21, 2022 at 4:02
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    $\begingroup$ You can find several related discussions on meta - for example: Is there a clear rule against "check this proof" type questions? and Using Math Overflow to check whether or not a proof is correct. $\endgroup$
    – Martin Sleziak
    Commented Jun 21, 2022 at 5:18
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    $\begingroup$ Questions of the form "Is MathOverflow suitable for..." should be on MathOverflow Meta. $\endgroup$
    – YCor
    Commented Jun 21, 2022 at 6:41

1 Answer 1

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As said in the comments, MO explicitly discourages people to ask for proof checks. However, there are a few things you can do.

First of all, you can post your work on ArXiv, or ResearchGate. In this way you make it clear that you authored that piece of work, while letting it having some visibility. You can then ask some expert in the field to look at your online paper (although it may not be easy to find someone who really checks it).

In addition, you can search for math blogs in your area. That could be a better place to ask for this kind of help than MO.

Finally, let me quickly address your opinion on the attractiveness of the result. You could be 100% right, but perhaps you should also be prepared to some degree of delusion. Unless you’re claiming to solve a well known open problem, it is possible that you are not in the best position to judge the relative importance of your result. In most cases, the main issues with contributions by people somewhat disconnected from the math community concern this point.

Good luck!

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    $\begingroup$ "you can post your work on ArXiv...." Well, you can't, can you, unless you can get some established mathematician to vouch for you. Or have they changed the rules? $\endgroup$
    – Gerry Myerson
    Commented Jun 21, 2022 at 6:55
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    $\begingroup$ There is some minimal check on the content, but as far as I know they accept almost everything. $\endgroup$
    – Alessandro Della Corte
    Commented Jun 21, 2022 at 8:24

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