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What apps can be found in the Apple app store, Google Play, Blackberry World etc. showcasing specific mathematics research?

(Edit - Since the first version of the question got closed, examples should showcase specific work of specific mathematicians. Tools such as Wolfram Alpha, bibliography managers, arXiv app, etc. are no longer allowed.)

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  • $\begingroup$ There are several apps which are aimed at the SE platform. That must count as a research tool, no? :-) $\endgroup$
    – Asaf Karagila ♦
    Commented Jun 29, 2013 at 9:53
  • $\begingroup$ Matlab Mobile may be helpful in some ways for quick verification of intuitions. But it is not well developed yet as an app. $\endgroup$
    – Jing Zhang
    Commented Jun 29, 2013 at 10:27

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Akio Kawauchi, Ayaka Shimizu, and Kengo Kishimoto have created an app called Region Select, based on a knot theory paper by Shimizu. She found an algorithm to unknot a knot diagram by "region crossing change" moves, and then they realized that it was tricky and interesting enough that it was worth turning it into a game. The game got big-time press coverage in Japan. I wrote a blog post about it here. The game became popular enough that it was developed into an honest to goodness android app.

It's playable, a lot of fun, and there's a genuine theorem and research paper hiding behind it- can you figure out a strategy to win the game from any starting configuration?

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    $\begingroup$ +1 I have the App on my Galaxy Tab and enjoyed it. I guess that it is computationally hard (NP-complete). $\endgroup$
    – Mohammad Al-Turkistany
    Commented Jun 30, 2013 at 12:58
  • $\begingroup$ This game is addictive. (Here is the link to the app: play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=jp.co.global.regionselect ) $\endgroup$
    – Bjørn Kjos-Hanssen
    Commented Jun 30, 2013 at 16:41
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There's an arXiv app which I find extremely useful. I have an android, but I imagine this app exists for other phone types too. There are also several latex apps. Detexify, verbtex, and texportal spring to mind

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    $\begingroup$ Should we make it "one app per answer"? $\endgroup$
    – Bjørn Kjos-Hanssen
    Commented Jun 29, 2013 at 17:27
  • $\begingroup$ That depends. Did you want to have an election for best app or just compile a list of apps which are useful. It seemed like you preferred the latter option, and I didn't really feel like writing 4 different answers if all you wanted was a list of good apps. $\endgroup$
    – David White
    Commented Jun 30, 2013 at 15:37
  • $\begingroup$ Maybe make detefixy, verbtex and texportal into one "LaTeX category" answer? $\endgroup$
    – Bjørn Kjos-Hanssen
    Commented Jun 30, 2013 at 16:24
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I recently downloaded Colwiz, which is a collaboration tool combined with a paper management system. The homepage is at http://www.colwiz.com. It is far too early for me to write a review about this, but I may come back to that.

Another gem I use a lot is Papers, which manages all these PDFs in a very nice way and searches mathscinet, arXiv and the like for you.

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    $\begingroup$ Oh, by the way: Does anybody know if there is some Papers-like PDF management system for Android tablets? $\endgroup$
    – Ulrich Pennig
    Commented Jun 29, 2013 at 9:59
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    $\begingroup$ There are several Android apps that synchronize with Mendeley. $\endgroup$
    – bezirsk
    Commented Jun 29, 2013 at 11:14
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There are several mobile apps for use with the Zotero bibliography manager. Zotero allows you to store citation information for papers (and even PDF's of the actual papers) and access the information from any device (cell phone, tablet, computer) that you might be using.

On the Android side, check out Zandy. On the IOS side, check out Zotpad.

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  • $\begingroup$ I really like Zotero, and I use it to manage my bibliography, but I was really disappointed by Zandy. Unless it has gotten a facelift since I last used it, it is not a very usable app. $\endgroup$
    – Yoav Kallus
    Commented Jun 29, 2013 at 16:04
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AutoComplex is an Android app that uses "autocomplete" to let the user look up nondeterministic automaton complexity, including proof hints in the form of witnessing sequences of states, of binary strings. So it serves as a database of information about that specific notion of complexity.

Screenshot

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Wolfram Alpha was worth the 3 dollars I paid for it for entertainment value alone, but also in case I care to factor a large integer, solve a differential equation and the like .

It's a little hit and miss how to phrase requests ( but cool when it works, see below) and basically is a computation engine in the cloud, but it is convenient and has several keyboards.

Also it has other party tricks like distances, runway data, and traveling salesman between airports "FLL JFK ORD SFO MIA" or comparisons of population area etc between entities "Israel Jamaica Vertmont Palm Beach County"

So it could probably do more than I do with it.

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