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78 votes
9 answers
9k views

Mathematical conjectures on which applications depend

What are some examples of mathematical conjectures that applied mathematicians assume to be true in applications, despite it being unknown whether or not they are true?
63 votes
7 answers
8k views

Theorems demoted back to conjectures

Many mathematicians know the Four Color Theorem and its history: there were two alleged proofs in 1879 and 1880 both of which stood unchallenged for 11 years before flaws were discovered. I am ...
62 votes
2 answers
3k views

A conjecture regarding prime numbers

For $n,m \geq 3$, define $ P_n = \{ p : p$ is a prime such that $ p\leq n$ and $ p \nmid n \}$ . For example : $P_3= \{ 2 \}$ $P_4= \{ 3 \}$ $P_5= \{ 2, 3 \}$, $P_6= \{ 5 \}$ and so on. Claim: $...
BR Pahari's user avatar
  • 653
59 votes
7 answers
4k views

How closed-form conjectures are made?

Recently I posted a conjecture at Math.SE: $$\int_0^\infty\ln\frac{J_\mu(x)^2+Y_\mu(x)^2}{J_\nu(x)^2+Y_\nu(x)^2}\mathrm dx\stackrel{?}{=}\frac{\pi}{2}(\mu^2-\nu^2),$$ where $J_\mu(x)$ and $Y_\mu(x)$ ...
Vladimir Reshetnikov's user avatar
58 votes
5 answers
6k views

Arriving at the same result with the opposite hypotheses

I am pretty distant from anything analytic, including analytic number theory but I decided to read the Wikipedia page on the Riemann hypothesis (current revision) and there is some pretty interesting ...
48 votes
6 answers
5k views

Are there examples of conjectures supported by heuristic arguments that have been finally disproved?

The idea for this comes from the twin prime conjecture, where the heuristic evidence seems just so overwhelming, especially in the light of Zhang's famous result from 2014 about Bounded gaps between ...
40 votes
2 answers
2k views

Arctangents of odd powers of the golden ratio

While trying to answer this MSE question, I found that arctangents of many odd powers of the golden ratio $\varphi=\frac{1+\sqrt5}2$ are expressible as rational linear combinations of arctangents of ...
Vladimir Reshetnikov's user avatar
29 votes
3 answers
4k views

An explicit series representation for the analytic tetration with complex height

Tetration is the next hyperoperation after more familiar addition, multiplication and exponentiation. It can be seen as a repeated exponentiation, similar to how exponentiation can be seen as a ...
Vladimir Reshetnikov's user avatar
28 votes
3 answers
5k views

Why to believe the Fargues geometrization conjecture?

In the study of the arithmetic local Langlands correspondence, there is a conjecture that was recently (in this decade) formulated by Fargues. I can't even concisely state the conjecture so I will ...
user avatar
26 votes
1 answer
1k views

What is the status on this conjecture on arithmetic progressions of primes?

The Green-Tao theorem states that for every $n$, there is an arithmetic sequence of length $n$ consisting of primes. For primes, $p$, let $P(p)$ be the maximum length of an arithmetic progression of ...
Gorka's user avatar
  • 1,835
24 votes
2 answers
2k views

A conjecture based on Wilson's theorem

Definitions: Lagrange's theorem implies that for each prime $p$, the factors of $(p − 1)!$ can be arranged in unequal pairs, with the exception of $±1$, where the product of each pair $≡ 1 \pmod p$. ...
martin's user avatar
  • 1,903
23 votes
1 answer
3k views

More mysteries about the zeros of the Riemann zeta function

Update on 12/26/2020: I added the Appendix at the bottom: simplified formula for $|\zeta(s)|^2$, when $\frac{1}{2}<\Re(s)<1$. Update on 1/5/2020: I added the section "more interesting ...
Vincent Granville's user avatar
21 votes
1 answer
975 views

Conjecture: Given any five points, we can always draw a pair of non-intersecting circles whose diameter endpoints are four of those points

The following question resisted attacks at Math SE, so I thought I would try posting it here. Is the following conjecture true or false: Given any five coplanar points, we can always draw at least ...
Dan's user avatar
  • 3,527
20 votes
4 answers
2k views

Can anything deep be said uniformly about conjectures like Goldbach's?

This is a soft question sparked by my curiosity about the intrinsic depth of Goldbach-like conjectures as perceived by current experts in number theory. The incompleteness theorem implies that, if our ...
user21820's user avatar
  • 2,912
20 votes
1 answer
594 views

Distinct exponents in the factorization of the factorial, a problem of Erdős

In the 1982 paper below, Paul Erdős proved that if $h(n)$ is the number of distinct exponents in the prime factorization of $n!$ then $$c_1\Big(\frac{n}{\log n}\Big)^{1/2} < h(n) < c_2\Big(\frac{...
sebaztian's user avatar
  • 203
18 votes
3 answers
2k views

Is it a reasonable way to write a research article assuming truth of a conjecture?

I have found a conjecture in a research article (published in a good journal) on number theory, which is not well known but very reasonable. Let me be clear that, there is no counter-example that vote ...
MAS's user avatar
  • 930
18 votes
4 answers
1k views

A seemingly simple inequality

Let $a_i,b_i\in\mathbb{R}$ and $n>1$, does the inequality $$ \left(\sum_{i=1}^n a_i^2\right)\left(\sum_{i=1}^n b_i^2\right)+\left(\sum_{i=1}^na_i b_i\right)^2\ge \sqrt{\left(\sum_{i=1}^n a_i^4\...
Ludwig's user avatar
  • 2,712
18 votes
1 answer
2k views

Conjecture: The number of points modulo $p$ of certain elliptic curve is $p$ or $p+2$ for $p$ of form $p=27a^2+27a+7$

Numerical evidence suggests a conjecture that the number of points of certain elliptic curve over $\mathbb{F}_p$ is either $p$ or $p+2$ for $p$ of certain form. Let $p$ be prime of the form $p=27a^2+...
joro's user avatar
  • 25.4k
18 votes
3 answers
1k views

A curious series related to the asymptotic behavior of the tetration

The tetration is denoted $^n a$, where $a$ is called the base and $n$ is called the height, and is defined for $n\in\mathbb N\cup\{-1,\,0\}$ by the recurrence $$ {^{-1} a} = 0, \quad {^{n+1} a} = a^{\...
Vladimir Reshetnikov's user avatar
18 votes
1 answer
1k views

Which motivic cohomology groups of complex numbers are non-torsion?

I would like to know which motivic cohomology groups of complex numbers are non-zero and ("better") non-torsion, i.e., for which $(i,j)$ the $i$th cohomology of the complex ${\mathbb{Q}}(j)$ over $\...
Mikhail Bondarko's user avatar
18 votes
1 answer
727 views

Several conjectured identities for polylogarithms

I asked a question at M.SE a couple of years ago about polylogarithms $\!^{[1]}$$\!^{[2]}$$\!^{[3]}$$\!^{[4]}$ where I conjectured $$720\,\operatorname{Li}_4\!\left(\tfrac12\right)-2160\,\operatorname{...
Vladimir Reshetnikov's user avatar
17 votes
5 answers
2k views

Is there a progress on a solution of the inequality $\pi (m+n) \leq \pi (m) + \pi (n)$

in 1923 Hardy and Littlewood proposed the conjecture $\pi (m+n) \leq \pi (m) + \pi (n)$. Is there any progress towards solving this conjecture?
Hashem sazegar's user avatar
17 votes
1 answer
2k views

Conjectures or Results?

There is a paper (not accepted for publication yet) that contains several conjectures. Some of these conjectures were proven recently. The referee of the original paper requires to substitute the ...
16 votes
2 answers
700 views

A tantalizing Gamma quotient to challenge the Rohrlich-Lang Conjecture

The Rohrlich-Lang Conjecture for polynomial relations in Gamma values predicts that all polynomial relations between Gamma values over $\mathbb Q$ come from the functional equations satisfied by the ...
Wolfgang's user avatar
  • 13.4k
16 votes
2 answers
2k views

Is the Gromov conjecture still open?

Today I read about Gromov's definition of minimal volume for smooth manifolds. $$\min {\rm Vol}(M):=\inf_{|K_g|\leq1}\{{\rm Vol}(M,g)\}.$$ Gromov's conjecture states that for every closed simply ...
C.F.G's user avatar
  • 4,195
16 votes
0 answers
787 views

Numbers of the form $x^2(x-1) + y^2(y-1) + z^2(z-1)$ with $x,y,z\in\mathbb Z$

Roger Heath-Brown conjectured that any integer $k\not\equiv\pm4\pmod9$ can be expressed as $x^3+y^3+z^3$ with $x,y,z\in\mathbb Z$ in infinitely many different ways. Also it is well-known that some ...
Alkan's user avatar
  • 701
15 votes
1 answer
732 views

A cubic and six conics problem

I am an electrical engineer system. I live in Viet Nam. I am not a Mathematician. I construct and found a problem as follows: Let a cubic, and five conics $(C_1)$, $(C_2)$, $(C_3)$, $(C_4)$, $(C_5)$. ...
Oai Thanh Đào's user avatar
15 votes
1 answer
17k views

The 4th vertex of a triangle?

I was immensely surprised and amused by the idea of the fourth side of a triangle that was introduced by B.F.Sherman in 1993. 'Sherman's Fourth Side of a Triangle' by Paul Yiu is available here. ...
A.Zakharov's user avatar
15 votes
3 answers
613 views

Maximum matching in a graph with no "shortcuts"

For a directed acyclic graph (DAG) $G$, denote by $G^\star$ the undirected graph obtained from $G$ by ignoring direction of its arcs. Let $e(G)=e(G^\star)$ be the number of arcs in $G$ (or edges in $G^...
Max Alekseyev's user avatar
15 votes
2 answers
730 views

A conjecture about $\lfloor n!\cdot q/e\rfloor-\,!n\cdot q$

I was thinking about this question asked at Math.SE, when I came up with the following conjecture. For every $q\in\mathbb Q$ consider a sequence $s_n^{(q)}$ (terms within the sequence are indexed by $...
Vladimir Reshetnikov's user avatar
15 votes
1 answer
1k views

What are the strongest conjectured uniform versions of Serre's Open Image Theorem?

This question concerns the uniform conjectured effective versions and generalizations of these two results of Serre on $\ell$-adic Galois representations $\rho_{E,\ell}$ associated to a non-CM ...
Bobby Grizzard's user avatar
15 votes
1 answer
1k views

Status of Grothendieck's conjecture on homomorphisms of abelian schemes

In [1] Grothendieck posits the following: Conjecture. Let $S$ be a reduced connected scheme, locally of finite type over Spec($\mathbf{Z}$) or a field $k$, $A$ and $B$ two abelian schemes over $S$, $...
Zavosh's user avatar
  • 1,376
15 votes
1 answer
1k views

Arithmetic progressions in stopping time of Collatz sequences

Inspired by the question here, we did a few more simulations of numbers of some specific forms and noticed a pattern. We consider the original $3n+1$ transform where we divide by $2$ if it's even and ...
Yuzuriha Inori's user avatar
15 votes
0 answers
365 views

Do primes of the form $4k+1$ ever lead the greatest prime factor race?

Analogous to Chebyshev's race between primes, I examined the race between primes in the greatest prime factors, GPF, of natural numbers. Similar to the regular prime race, in the GPF race, the ...
Nilotpal Kanti Sinha's user avatar
14 votes
2 answers
729 views

A conjecture about algebraic values of $(-q;\,-q)_\infty/(q;\,q)_\infty$

Recall that $(a;\,q)_\infty$ is the $q$-Pochhammer symbol: $$(a;\,q)_\infty=\prod_{n=0}^\infty(1-a \, q^n).\tag1$$ Its important special case $(q;\,q)_\infty=\prod_{n=1}^\infty(1-q^n)$ is sometimes ...
Vladimir Reshetnikov's user avatar
13 votes
2 answers
938 views

On Generalizations of Fermat's Conjecture

We know the following facts: (1) For all $1\leq n\leq 2$ the equation $x_{1}^{n}+x_{2}^{n}=x_{3}^{n}$ has a solution in $\mathbb{N}$. (2) For all $3\leq n$ the equation $x_{1}^{n}+x_{2}^{n}=x_{3}^{n}...
user avatar
13 votes
1 answer
528 views

An elementary expression for $_3F_2(1,1,9/4;2,2;-1)$

Consider the following series: $$S=\sum_{n=1}^\infty\frac{(-1)^n\ \Gamma\left(\frac{5}{4}+n\right)}{n^2\ \Gamma(n)}.$$ It can be expressed in terms of a hypergeometric function: $$S=-\frac{5}{16}\...
X.C.'s user avatar
  • 241
13 votes
1 answer
484 views

A probability involving areas in a random pentagram inscribed in a circle: Is it really just $\frac12$?

This question was posted at MSE but was not answered. The vertices of a pentagram are five uniformly random points on a circle. The areas of three consecutive triangular "petals" are $a,b,c$...
Dan's user avatar
  • 3,527
12 votes
2 answers
940 views

An analogue of the Bass-Quillen conjecture with power or Laurent series

The famous Quillen-Suslin theorem (formerly known as Serre's problem/conjecture) states that every projective module over $k[x_1,\dots, x_n]$ is free for $k$ a field. Replacing $k$ by a more general ...
Lennart Meier's user avatar
12 votes
2 answers
556 views

Sylvester–Gallai theorem with circle version, plane version and curve version?

The Sylvester–Gallai theorem in geometry states that, given a finite number of points in the Euclidean plane, either All the points are collinear; or There is a line which contains exactly two of the ...
Cố Gắng Lên's user avatar
12 votes
2 answers
520 views

Gerstenhaber conjecture for free loop space

I- Is the following statement still a conjecture see this article ? Conjecture (?) Let $M$ be a simply connected compact oriented $d$-manifold (smooth), then $HH^{\ast}(C^{\ast}(M))$ the Hochschild ...
lilia's user avatar
  • 235
12 votes
2 answers
370 views

A sequence based on Catalan–Mihăilescu problem

It was conjectured by Catalan in 1844 that the only solutions of the equation $x^a-y^b=1$ over variables $a,b,x,y\in\mathbb{N^+}$ are trivial ones: $3^1-2^1=1$ and $3^2-2^3=1$. The conjecture was ...
Piotr Shatalin's user avatar
12 votes
3 answers
4k views

Status of Hadamard matrix conjecture

I would like to know if any progress has been made on Hadamard conjecture : Hadamard matrix of order $4k$ exists for every positive integer $k$.
Serifo  Blade's user avatar
12 votes
1 answer
1k views

What is the Status of Borel conjecture today?

Let me recall the conjecture: $M$ and $N$ two aspherical closed $n$-manifolds with isomorphic fundamental groups, then $M$ and $N$ are homeomorphic.
Q Q's user avatar
  • 205
12 votes
0 answers
359 views

Consequences of Zeeman's conjecture

Recall the Zeeman's conjecture: if $K$ is a contractible polyhedron of dimension 2, then $K\times I$ has a collapsible subdivision. Zeeman showed that this implies the Poincaré conjecture in ...
Michał Kukieła's user avatar
11 votes
6 answers
3k views

What are conjectures that are true for primes but then turned out to be false for some composite number?

Note: This is an update formulation since many people misunderstood the question before. Of course it is easy to make a statement like "Every n is a prime or at most 1000", which is true for every ...
domotorp's user avatar
  • 18.8k
11 votes
3 answers
711 views

An open triangle problem in plane geometry

Some years ago, I asked some 'famous' people in an advanced Plane Geometry forum about the following: Let $ABC$ be arbitrary triangle, how can one construct a point $P$ in the plane such that $P$ is ...
Đào Thanh Oai's user avatar
11 votes
1 answer
866 views

Seeking proof of the Cuckoo Cycle Conjecture

Allow me to introduce the Cuckoo Cycle Proof of Work, and conclude with a closely related Conjecture about random graphs, which I hope someone can find a proof for. Cuckoo Cycle is named after the ...
John Tromp's user avatar
  • 1,734
10 votes
3 answers
2k views

Have new conjectures generated by the Ramanujan machine been proven?

Recently the following preprint was published with new automatically generated conjectures on generalizes continuous fractions, e.g., for the Euler constant: Raayoni, Pisha, Manor, Mendlovic, Haviv, ...
Andreas Rüdinger's user avatar
10 votes
1 answer
2k views

Is new $n$-conjecture as follows correct?

Given a positive integer $P>1$, let its prime factorization be written as$$P=p_1^{a_1}p_2^{a_2}p_3^{a_3}\cdots p_k^{a_k}.$$ Define the functions $h(P)$ by $h(1)=1$ and $h(P)=\min(a_1, a_2,\ldots,...
Đào Thanh Oai's user avatar

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