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Charles Matthews's user avatar
Charles Matthews's user avatar
Charles Matthews's user avatar
Charles Matthews
  • Member for 14 years, 7 months
  • Last seen more than 9 years ago
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Why are proofs so valuable, although we do not know that our axiom system is consistent?
In the version that there are recursively enumerable sets that are not recursive, that seems fair. Dieudonné certainly once said that if certain problems are not algorithmically soluble, then we should care more about other things. (But I disagree with the tenor of the question. If 0 = 1 results from some high-powered proof, that shifts the foundational debate back to a century ago. But some illumination will come out of it, as axiomatic set theory came out of the paradoxes.)
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What is the proper initiation to the theory of motives for a new student of algebraic geometry?
Should really add that the original theory is really not known to work (after 45 years). There are ways round this (absolute Hodge cycles, motivic cohomology), but these are less accessible.
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Closed form of divergent infinite product?
Your question is related to the Gamma function (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamma_function) at $-1$; but the product is meaningless, the Gamma function has a singularity there, and this all has been known for two centuries.
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Characterizing convex polynomials
This is about the sign of the second derivative.
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Are there natural choices of $\sqrt{-1}$ in $\mathbb Z/p\mathbb Z$ for a prime $p\equiv 1\pmod 4$
I'm thinking about the Frobenius for the curve being $\pi$, or in other words the Hecke character associated to the curve by the theory of complex multiplication. But my explanation was hurried, and I may need to edit it.
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Least collaborative mathematician
Quite hard to sharpen anything of Hooley's.
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What would be good to know before starting my undergraduate studies to become a good mathematician?
Plenty of analysis. Starting from a computer science background, you should probably concentrate on developing some feeling for inequalities.
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