Questions tagged [open-problems]

If it turns out that a problem is equivalent to a known open problem, then the open-problem tag is added. After that, the question essentially becomes, "What is known about this problem? What are some possible ways to approach this problem? What are some ways that people have tried to attack it before, and with what results?"

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On the number of complete Boolean algebras

In their 1972 paper On the number of complete Boolean algebras Monk and Solovay showed that if $\lambda$ is an infinite cardinal, then there are $2^{2^\lambda}$ many isomorphism types of complete ...
Mohammad Golshani's user avatar
2 votes
0 answers
194 views

Squares whose differences are squares

EDIT. I've just noticed a thread from 2011 in the "Related" column on the right (click me), where a closely related question is being discussed (the main difference seems to be that, in ...
Salvo Tringali's user avatar
22 votes
4 answers
2k views

Open problems which might benefit from computational experiments

Question: I wonder what are the open problems , where computational experiments might me helpful? (Setting some bounds, excluding some cases, shaping some expectations ). Grant program: The context of ...
2 votes
1 answer
160 views

A more complete set of open problems

Over time, there have been a number of posts on open problems remaining in different fields of math, both here and on the MathSE. So I had the idea of trying to construct a “list of lists” of problems ...
Aidan W. Murphy's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
135 views

Optimal covering trails for every $k$-dimensional cubic lattice $\mathbb{N}^k := \{(x_1, x_2, \dots, x_n) : x_i \in \mathbb{N} \wedge n \geq 3\}$

After a dozen years spent investigating this particular class of problems, I finally give up and I wish to ask you if any improvement is achievable from here on. The general problem is as follows: Let ...
Marco Ripà's user avatar
  • 1,102
1 vote
1 answer
287 views

Goldbach conjecture reformulation [closed]

As thought, the question below is a reformulation of the goldbach conjecture. $ S = \{K - ap \mid a \geq 3, p \text{ is prime} < K/2 \} $, where $ a $ is an odd integer greater than or equal to 3, ...
Felix Fowler's user avatar
6 votes
2 answers
1k views

5n+1 sequence starting at 7

Consider the following variant of the Collatz function: $f:\mathbb N\rightarrow\mathbb N$ is defined by \begin{equation} f(n):=\begin{cases} n/2 & \text{if $n$ is even}\\ 5n+1 & \...
Riemann's user avatar
  • 537
7 votes
0 answers
147 views

What is the current status of research on the von Neumann's inequality for $n \ge 3$?

Problem Let $(T_1, \ldots, T_n)$ be a tuple of commuting contractions in Hilbert space $H$. Does a constant $C_n \ge 1$ exist, for which it would be true, that: $$\forall_{p \in \mathbb{C}[x_1, \ldots,...
S-F's user avatar
  • 155
0 votes
0 answers
162 views

Research directions related to the Hilbert-Smith conjecture

The Hilbert-Smith Conjecture (HSC) is a famous open problem in geometric group theory stating "for every prime $p$ there are no faithful continuous action of the $p$-adic group of integers $A_p$ ...
sadman-ncc's user avatar
2 votes
0 answers
86 views

An open problem about simple Noetherian rings

The following is a well-known open problem in ring theory (see, for instance, Goodearl, Warfield, 'An introduction to noncommutative Noetherian rings, Appendix, Problem 19) Question: Let $R$ be a left ...
jg1896's user avatar
  • 2,683
2 votes
2 answers
145 views

On the number of values with exactly $k$ prime factors of a given polynomial

This is surely be a well studied problem. Let $f(x) \in \mathbb{Z}[x]$. Is there some $k \in \mathbb{N}$ such that there are infinitely many $n \in \mathbb{Z}$ where $f(n)$ has exactly $k$ prime ...
Paul Cusson's user avatar
  • 1,735
0 votes
0 answers
26 views

The hardness of active learning with fixed budget

I have been looking for theoretical papers studying this question of the fundamental hardness of PAC active learning algorithms. I found a few papers studying the problem from a fixed perspective (...
rivana's user avatar
  • 29
8 votes
0 answers
330 views

Has there been any progress on this open problem about co-well-poweredness of accessible categories?

On the relations between accessible categories and large cardinal axioms, one big example is the following: Assume the existence of a proper class of strongly compact cardinals. Then every accessible ...
interregno's user avatar
2 votes
0 answers
282 views

A question on Giles Gardam counter example to the Unit conjecture of Kaplansky

The unit version of the Kaplansky conjecture is about units in $FG$ where $F$ is a field and $G$ is a torsion free group. In a recent counter example by Giles Gardam, it is given an ...
Ali Taghavi's user avatar
4 votes
0 answers
167 views

Status of Problems in 102 problems in mathematical logic

Is there any location that records the current status of the problems in 102 problems in mathematical logic? Or, better yet, serves as a status board for open problems in mathematical logic? ...
Peter Gerdes's user avatar
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2 votes
0 answers
110 views

An open problem of Hardy and Littlewood on $p$-integral means

In Duren's book "Theory of $H^p$ spaces" (MSN) in the comment section after Section 4, it is mentioned that Littlewood and Hardy proved in Some properties of conjugate functions that if $u$ ...
an_ordinary_mathematician's user avatar
22 votes
4 answers
3k views

Brute force open problems in graph theory

Usually, a graph theoretic problem asks whether some class of graphs $C$ possesses a quality $P$. For example, $C$ is the class of all graphs and $P$ is the reconstructability property in Kelly-Ulam ...
11 votes
1 answer
736 views

Books/blogs/websites that have open problems in Algebraic geometry

I got admitted in a PhD program in Europe last year. But due to serious mental health issues , I was deemed unfit by the mathematics department to continue the program. I am from a 3rd world nation ...
2 votes
0 answers
423 views

What are some of the big open problems in $4$-manifold theory?

I've recently been studying some Manifold Theory and got very interested in their topological as well as geometric properties. From my understanding of the current literature, most the big and ...
sadman-ncc's user avatar
11 votes
1 answer
1k views

Open problem: $\log n$ factor in Binomial empirical process

The following problem was considered in Cohen and Kontorovich, "Local Glivenko-Cantelli", https://arxiv.org/abs/2209.04054, to appear in COLT 2023 (henceforth, CK'23). Let $Y_j$, $j\in\...
Aryeh Kontorovich's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
337 views

Question about Jacobian conjecture on the reals

By the works of Michiel de Bondt and Arno van den Essen, and Ludwik Drużkowski, it is known that if $F=I+N$, where $I$ is the identity mapping and $N$ is cubic homogeneous polynomials in $n$ complex ...
Ken.Wong's user avatar
  • 493
3 votes
1 answer
392 views

$\lim_{b \rightarrow \infty} {^{b}a} \in \mathbb{Q}_p$ for any $a \in \mathbb{Z}^+$?

$\newcommand\tetra[2]{{^{#1}{#2}}}$In a recent discussion on the Tetration Forum (see https://math.eretrandre.org/tetrationforum/showthread.php?tid=1703&page=2), it has been pointed out how my ...
Marco Ripà's user avatar
  • 1,102
2 votes
0 answers
199 views

Is the Goldbach conjecture easier if we allow 1 as a prime?

I hope this is the right site for the question. Is the Goldbach conjecture easier if we allow 1 as a prime? (12=1+11 would be allowed as Goldbach sum for 12) IOW: if we can prove Goldbach for the case ...
rl1's user avatar
  • 129
35 votes
9 answers
4k views

Places where one can post open problems

(This must have been asked before and exist somewhere in Community Wiki, but I can't find it...) Where can you post open (math) problems? And what are the advantages and disadvantages? Example: This ...
8 votes
0 answers
497 views

Landau's century-old problems: Anything comparable?

Landau's four problems are now over a century old (1912), and each still unsolved. This seems remarkable, even though he was not the originating author all four (maybe only the 4th?). Still, he ...
0 votes
1 answer
115 views

Traveling salesperson problem algorithm [closed]

I was wondering something, let's say in a symmetric distance matrix of a sample of TSP, there was a sure algorithm that could remove between 30% to 80% of the values (distances) that wouldn't ...
Ehsan Javanbakht's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
180 views

Infinitely many $k \in \mathbb{N}$ such that the closed interval $[k, k+99]$ contains from $2$ to $23$ prime numbers

Let $k \in \mathbb{Z}^+$. Is it possible to prove that, for some given $m \in \{0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23\}$, there are only finitely many $k$ such that the closed ...
Marco Ripà's user avatar
  • 1,102
0 votes
0 answers
99 views

What will be the set of non-Wieferich numbers if the set of non-Wieferich primes is finite?

Integer $n$ is Wieferich number if $2^{\phi(n)}-1 \equiv 0 \pmod {n^2}$. Wieferich prime is Wieferich number with $n$ prime. It is an open problem if there are infinitely many Wieferich primes and ...
joro's user avatar
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5 votes
2 answers
240 views

Is it still not known whether the construction of shortest nonzero vector of a lattice w.r.t. $l^2$-norm is NP-hard?

It was shown in P. van Emde Boas, Another NP-complete partition problem and the complexity of computing short vectors in a lattice that the construction of a shortest nonzero vector of a Euclidean ...
taylor's user avatar
  • 425
1 vote
1 answer
527 views

Finding an optimal covering trail for the set $\{0,1,2,3\}\times\{0,1,2,3\}\times\{0,1,2,3\}$

Here is a key question (i.e., Question 2 below) that, if correctly answered, would let me support a very general conjecture on a wide class of related problems, a conjecture that I have never shared ...
Marco Ripà's user avatar
  • 1,102
1 vote
0 answers
35 views

Approximating spectra of (finite rank pertubations of) Laurent operators by spectra of (pertubations of) periodic finite operators

A tridiagonal matrix is a matrix which only has elements on three diagonals. So for $\alpha, \beta, \gamma \in \mathbb{C}$ consider the bi-infinite tridiagonal Laurent operator $T$ with $\beta $ on ...
Frederik Ravn Klausen's user avatar
7 votes
1 answer
624 views

Open problems in type theory

I am only a beginner in the field of type theory, and I'm wondering if the community could point me out a few open problems in the field. I have a good background in logic, in particular, proof theory ...
7 votes
4 answers
2k views

Are there any open sourced or crowd source math research projects?

I’m looking for open source math research projects as I know computer science students can easily have access to material they can contribute to but this is not the case with math as far as I’m aware. ...
Jayden Maryott's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
484 views

What is the current status on bad tangent cones at isolated singularities?

Let $M^8 \subset B^9 \setminus \{ 0 \} \subset \mathbf{R}^9$ be a properly embedded, stable minimal hypersurface. Suppose that $0 \in \overline{M}$ is an isolated singularity of the surface. Question. ...
Leo Moos's user avatar
  • 4,968
2 votes
0 answers
257 views

Resources where one can find open problems in Analytic Number Theory

Edit: I have asked this question separately because I am in need of some resources which focus on analytic number theory only.So, this question is not a duplicate of:Resources where I can find open ...
Arnold's user avatar
  • 668
5 votes
0 answers
302 views

The "Smallest" open Diophantine Equation, a potential approach

In this question, Bogdan Grechuk found the "Smallest" open Diophantine equation, where size is determined by taking absolute values of all coefficients, then substituting 2 into all ...
Thomas Blok's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
90 views

Convex polygon shadows: Shortest equivalent segments

Let $P$ be a convex polygon. Q1. What is the shortest collection of line segments $S$ inside $P$ with the property that both $P$ and $S$ have the same sequence of orthogonal shadows as $P$ and $S$ ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
20 votes
2 answers
2k views

Mark Hovey's open problems in the theory of model categories

Mark Hovey maintains a list of open problems in model category theory. I think this list is quite old, and I don't know if Hovey is still updating it or not. My question is: i) which of the 13 ...
display llvll's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
390 views

Source for conjectures in commutative algebra

Do you know some books/survey papers/ websites on conjectures or open problems in commutative ring theory? I want to see if there are very famous open problems or conjectures in commutative ring ...
user 1's user avatar
  • 1,345
16 votes
5 answers
3k views

Resources where I can find open problems in number theory along with their level of difficulty

NOTE: I will not accept an answer because a lot of answers are really good and if anyone want to post under this question later then they are most welcome to post as comment or answer because it will ...
1 vote
0 answers
228 views

Is there a known connection between Wieferich primes and the Goormaghtigh conjecture?

I posted this question on SE, and was told I should repost it here. The Goormaghtigh conjecture explores the Diophantine equation of the form $$ \frac{a^b-1}{a-1}=\frac{c^d-1}{c-1}, $$ where $a>c&...
Clyde Kertzer's user avatar
4 votes
2 answers
2k views

What is the importance of Polignac’s conjecture?

The twin-prime conjecture (also known as Polignac’s conjecture, 1846) states that there are infinitely many twin primes (pairs of primes that differ by 2; for example, 3 and 5, 5 and 7, 11 and 13, and ...
mahdi meisami's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
189 views

Status of finite-dimensional Ando's theorem

Szőkefalvi-Nagy's theorem says the following: if $A$ is a contraction on a Hilbert space $H$, then there exists a unitary $U$ on a Hilbert space $H'\supset H$ for which $A^n=P_HU^nP_H$ for all $0\le n$...
zjs's user avatar
  • 465
1 vote
1 answer
568 views

Polynomials, $3^x$ and the Collatz conjecture

$\DeclareMathOperator\Orb{Orb}\newcommand\abs[1]{\lvert#1\rvert}$The Collatz or the $3n+1$ conjecture is open. Are there non-trivial polynomials $f(x)\in\mathbb Z[x]$ and $g(x)\in\mathbb R[x]$ having ...
Turbo's user avatar
  • 13.6k
8 votes
0 answers
1k views

Is the Collatz conjecture known to be true for interesting unbounded classes of numbers?

The Collatz or the $3n+1$ conjecture is open. Is there a specific polynomial $f(x)\in\mathbb Z[x]$ whose range is unbounded for which every integer of form $|f(m)|$ at $m\in\mathbb Z$ satisfies $3n+1$...
Turbo's user avatar
  • 13.6k
2 votes
2 answers
474 views

On odd perfect numbers $p^k m^2$ with special prime $p$ satisfying $m^2 - p^k = 2^r t$ - Part II

(Preamble: We have asked this same question in MSE two weeks ago, without getting any answers. We have therefore cross-posted it to MO, hoping that it gets answered here.) The topic of odd perfect ...
Jose Arnaldo Bebita Dris's user avatar
0 votes
0 answers
106 views

On improving the upper bound $I(m^2) \leq \frac{2p}{p+1}$, if $p^k m^2$ is an odd perfect number with special prime $p$

(Preamble: This question is an offshoot of this answer to an MSE question with the same title.) Denote the classical sum of the divisors of the positive integer $x$ by $\sigma(x)=\sigma_1(x)$ and the ...
Jose Arnaldo Bebita Dris's user avatar
14 votes
2 answers
894 views

Open problems in symbolic dynamics

I would like to know which are some noticeable open problems in symbolic dynamics, including substitution dynamics. I'm especially interested in connections with topological chaos of various forms. ...
3 votes
1 answer
306 views

Planar subsets with many pairs of points on distance $1$ [duplicate]

Let $X$ be a subset of $\mathbb R^2$ consisting of $n$ distinct points. Let $d_1(X)$ be the number of pairs of points of $X$ on distance $1$ from each other. Define $$d_1(n)=\sup_{X\subset \mathbb R^2|...
aglearner's user avatar
  • 14k
2 votes
0 answers
121 views

Inscribed square and convexity

Let $b(X)$ be the boundary of any $X$ subset of the plane. Does there exist $A,B$ convex compact sets of the plane, such that $C:=A\setminus B$ is simply connected and not empty, and such that ...
jcdornano's user avatar
  • 469

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