Math is coolToday on the SOLAR (sford alum) list, Arun Jain, who supposedly has an m.s in CS from Stanford, posted a message claiming to have solved Fermat’s Last Theorem and requesting advice on how he should present his proof.

The two responses posted so far are high-quality. I’ve included them in the Extended Entry below, along with Arun’s original.

Arun’s message:
From: owner-solar-network@lists.Stanford.EDU
[mailto:owner-solar-network@lists.Stanford.EDU]On Behalf Of Arun Jain
Sent: Wednesday, May 21, 2003 11:18 AM
To: solar-network@lists.Stanford.EDU
Cc: Arun Jain
Subject: SOLAR-NETWORK Before you send paper to Journal for publishing

Hello everybody,

I had been working on an old mathematical problem for a long time. The problem remained unsolved for over 3 centuries. It is an important problem, popularly known as Fermat’s last problem. Past attempts were either partial, or faulty or unverified.

I am more than reasonably sure, that I have cracked that problem.

Please don’t discard this message as a joke. I have four masters’ degree to my credit. Two in Physic, and one in computer science from Stnford, and another MBA from Santa Clara.

At this stage I am scared of just mailing my work for publication for fear of this getting stolen along the way.

I am requesting the group to provide some suggestion as to how to go about it.

Some of the options I have.

1. Discuss it with some of accredited professors of mathematics at Santa Clara University, Stanford and/or Berkely and obtain a forward from them.

2. Directly contact the editor of the Journal I wish to send my paper to.

3. Insist on meeting with the editor in person before handing over the paper.

4. Opt for a conference.

Please provide your feedback. I will appreciate any suggestions.

Thanks.

arunjain

RESPONSE 1:

While the proof by Andrew Wiles in 1993 was found to have holes, a corrected version was presented in late 1994 and the mathematics community now considers this problem to be solved. There is still value in additional proofs of Fermat’s Last Theorem, since Wiles’ proof is quite long and complex. Perhaps you should review the history of the problem, since any misrepresentation on your part will not help your case.

I believe that in general the academic community can be trusted, but I would make a point of contacting the head of the Physics Department at Stanford, or another professor there who respects your work, and ask him to refer you to an appropriate mathematics professor. That way there would be more widespread recognition that you have original material on the subject and the mathematics professor will be more likely to give you his time. You will almost certainly need an academic sponsor to get a paper like this published in a mainstream mathematics journal.

The hardest part will be to get someone to spend time verifying your work. There are only a handfull of people on the planet who are qualified to judge work on this problem, and there are lots of people who claim to have solved the problem who are clamoring for attention. Even if some of them have solved it, they weren’t able to get it verified and published. If I were you I would create a presentation that would take no more than half an hour to present that clearly summarizes your results.

Michael Pallesen

RESPONSE 2:
I have also worked on solving the problem, but I don’t want to present the proof.

Why shouldn’t I show the proof? That’s a tough one, but I’ll take a shot. Say I’m working at the math department. Somebody puts a theorem on my desk, something nobody else can prove. Maybe I take a shot at it and maybe I prove it. And I’m real happy with myself, ‘cause I did my job well. But maybe that equation sparked more interest professors in Harvard or Princeton. Once they have that interest, the academic community flocks there and fifteen hundred grad students that I never met and that I never had no problem with get more homework to do. Now the academic deans are sayin’, “Send in the postdocs to do more proofs” ‘cause they don’t give a shit. It won’t be their grad students over there, gettin’ worked. Just like it wasn’t them when their number was called, ‘cause they were pullin’ a tour in the university administration. It’ll be some phd from MIT takin’ equations in the ass. And he comes home to find that the advisor he used to work for got tenured at the school he just got back from. And the guy who put the equation in his ass got his old fellowship, ‘cause he’ll work for fifteen Twinkies a day and no bathroom breaks. Meanwhile he realizes the only reason he was over there in the first place was so we could install a provost that would hire more math faculty at a good price. And of course the undergraduate programs used the excitement over there to scare up their own tuition costs. A cute little ancillary benefit for them but it ain’t helping my buddy at $5000 per unit. They’re takin’ their sweet time bringin’ the proofs back, and maybe even took the liberty of hiring an alcoholic professor who likes to drink martinis and fuckin’ play air guitar on his slide rule, and it ain’t too long ‘til he messes around with one, finds a new theorem and presents it to the academics in the North Atlantic. So now my buddy’s a Sociology major and he can’t do math anymore, so he’s tipping the wrong amounts at fuckin’ restaurants, which sucks ‘cause the equations still in his ass are givin’ him chronic hemorroids. And meanwhile he’s intellectually starvin’ ‘cause every time he tries to get a research paper to read, the only blue plate special they’re servin’ is North Atlantic Conference Proofs with the alcoholic professor. So what did I think? I’m holdin’ out for somethin’ better. I figure, fuck it, while I’m at it, why not just shoot my buddy, take his fellowship and give it to his rival school, hike up interests in math, jack up the price of education, make nerds cool, hit
the Matlab and join the NSF? I could be elected President.

Lt_Kaffee