United States of America Paul 'czm' Nelson, Quake legend, CPL and QuakeCon champion has solved the subconvexity problem, a problem two steps removed from the Riemann hypothesis. The Riemann hypothesis is one of the most important unsolved problems in pure mathematics and if solved, would help us know more about prime numbers, which are important in all manner of areas including basic cryptography.

In a paper posted in September, Paul Nelson of the Institute for Advanced Study has solved the subconvexity problem, a kind of lighter-weight version of Riemann’s question. The proof is a significant achievement on its own and teases the possibility that even greater discoveries related to prime numbers may be in store.

“It’s a bit of a far-fetched dream, but you could hyper-optimistically hope that maybe we get some insight in how the [Riemann hypothesis] works by working on problems like this,” Nelson said.

He wrote two papers, one in 2020 and one in September of last year that put together solved the subconvexity problem.

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