British mathematician Sir Andrew Wiles, a research professor at the University of Oxford has won the prestigious Abel prize for his contributions to mathematical sciences.
Sir Andrew Wiles is professor at the University of Oxford
Sir Andrew Wiles said that for any three whole numbers, a , b and c , the equation an + bn = cn could not be satisfied by any whole number greater than 2. Although he claimed to have discovered a proof for the seemingly simple puzzle, he did not provide one. With Fermat’s death in 1665, the equation — now known as “Fermat’s Last Theorem” — soon became (in)famous as the most difficult mathematical problem ever conceived, spawning a plethora of unsuccessful proofs.
When Andrew Wiles was 10 years old, he had stumbled upon Fermat’s Last Theorem in E.T. Bell’s “The Last Problem” at his local library in Cambridge. The theorem was formulated by Pierre de Fermat, a French mathematician, in 1637. It states that there are no whole number solutions to the equation x^n + y^n = z^n, when n is greater than 2.
Andrew Wiles said the problem captivated him as a young boy. The theorem has been the most popular problem in mathematics, but he didn’t know it at that time. “What amazed me was that there were some unsolved problems that someone who was 10 years old could understand and even try. And I tried it throughout my teenage years,” Wiles told The Guardian. “When I first went to college I thought I had a proof, but it turned out to be wrong.”
Fermat once claimed that he had proved the theorem, but he also said the margin of the book he was jotting notes in was too narrow to elaborate. Since then, scholars and mathematicians all over the world have attempted to solve the problem but failed to do so.
Wiles’ methods to solve the theorem have had a lasting effect on the field of mathematics, and are still being used today. He actually took a different approach to solve the problem – by proving the 1950s Shimura-Taniyama conjecture, which proposes that two very different branches of mathematics are conceptually equivalent.
The professor Andrew Wiles said the proof didn’t just solve the problem, it also introduced new ways of attacking Langland’s Program – one of the big webs of conjectures of contemporary mathematics. This aims to unify different branches of the discipline. Meanwhile, although it had been difficult for Wiles to get back into work, he is working on another major unsolved conjecture in history – the Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer Conjecture.
“The beauty of mathematics lures you back in,” added Wiles. “It has always been my hope that my solution of this age-old problem would inspire many young people to take up mathematics and to work on the many challenges of this beautiful and fascinating subject.”
Soon after receiving the news, Wiles told the Guardian that it was a “tremendous honor” to receive the prize, adding that he had not thought about what to do with the 500,000 pounds ($704,500) that accompany the award.
“This problem captivated me,” Wiles told the Guardian. “It was the most famous popular problem in mathematics, although I didn’t know that at the time. What amazed me was that there were some unsolved problems that someone who was 10 years old could understand and even try. And I tried it throughout my teenage years. When I first went to college I thought I had a proof, but it turned out to be wrong.”
“I knew from that moment that I would never let it go. I had to solve it,” he added. Since his remarkable achievement in 1995, scores of mathematicians have used it as an inspiration to develop new theorems. The proof provided mathematicians new tools to tackle problems involving elliptic curves, modular forms and Galois representation, among other things.
“Few results have as rich a mathematical history and as dramatic a proof as Fermat’s Last Theorem,” the Abel Committee said in a statement. Although Wiles’ achievement is now two decades old, he continues be a mathematics “rock star,” Martin Bridson, director of Oxford’s Mathematical Institute.
Source : www.albanydailystar.com
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