EVENT DETAILS AND ABSTRACT


Colloquium

Title: The ternary Goldbach conjecture
Speaker: Harald Helfgott
Speaker Info:
Brief Description: The ternary Goldbach conjecture
Special Note:
Abstract:

The ternary Goldbach conjecture (1742) asserts that every odd number greater than 5 can be written as the sum of three prime numbers. Following the pioneering work of Hardy and Littlewood, Vinogradov proved (1937) that every odd number larger than a constant C satisfies the conjecture. In the seventy-six years that followed, there was a succession of results reducing C, but only to levels much too high for a verification by computer up to C to be possible (C>10^1300). (Works by Ramare and Tao solved the corresponding problems for six and five prime numbers instead of three.) I gave a complete proof of the conjecture. We will go over the main ideas of the proof.

Date: Friday, March 11, 2016
Time: 4:00pm
Where: Lunt 105
Contact Person: Kate Juschenko
Contact email:
Contact Phone:
Copyright © 1997-2024 Department of Mathematics, Northwestern University.