MATHEMATICIANS have reacted with scepticism to claims that one of the great outstanding problems in mathematics has been solved.
Louis de Branges de Bourcia of Purdue University in Indiana, issued a press release on 8 June in which he claimed to have proved the famous Riemann hypothesis. A proof would imply that prime numbers are scattered at random along the number line.
De Branges has allegedly made similar claims in the past, only to be proved wrong. Harry Dym of the Weizmann Institute in Israel says this has 鈥済enerated a certain reluctance in people to devote the time to checking a new one鈥�.
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The proof carries a $1 million prize put up by the Clay Mathematics Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts. To claim it, a mathematician must first publish the proof, which will have to survive two years鈥� scrutiny by fellow mathematicians. So de Branges鈥� plans to spend the prize money on restoring an ancestral castle in France and turning it into a mathematics institute may have to remain on hold for now.