10/9/2016

ConjectureWikipedia,thefreeencyclopedia

Conjecture
FromWikipedia,thefreeencyclopedia

Inmathematics,aconjectureisaconclusionorproposition
basedonincompleteinformation,forwhichnoproofhas
beenfound.[1][2]ConjecturessuchastheRiemann
hypothesis(stillaconjecture)orFermat'sLastTheorem
(whichwasaconjectureuntilprovenin1995)haveshaped
muchofmathematicalhistoryasnewareasofmathematics
aredevelopedinordertoprovethem.

Contents
1 Importantexamples
1.1 Fermat'sLastTheorem
1.2 Fourcolortheorem
1.3 Hauptvermutung
1.4 Weilconjectures
1.5 Poincarconjecture
1.6 Riemannhypothesis
1.7 PversusNPproblem
1.8 Otherconjectures
2 Resolutionofconjectures
2.1 Proof
2.2 Disproof
2.3 Undecidableconjectures
3 Conditionalproofs
4 Inothersciences
5 Seealso
6 References
7 Externallinks

Therealpart(red)andimaginarypart(blue)ofthe
RiemannzetafunctionalongthecriticallineRe(s)
=1/2.Thefirstnontrivialzeroscanbeseenat
Im(s)=14.135,21.022and25.011.The
Riemannhypothesis,afamousconjecture,saysthat
allnontrivialzerosofthezetafunctionliealong
thecriticalline.

Importantexamples
Fermat'sLastTheorem
Innumbertheory,Fermat'sLastTheorem(sometimescalledFermat'sconjecture,especiallyinoldertexts)
statesthatnothreepositiveintegersa,b,andccansatisfytheequationan+bn=cnforanyintegervalueofn
greaterthantwo.
ThistheoremwasfirstconjecturedbyPierredeFermatin1637inthemarginofacopyofArithmeticawherehe
claimedhehadaproofthatwastoolargetofitinthemargin.[3]Thefirstsuccessfulproofwasreleasedin1994
byAndrewWiles,andformallypublishedin1995,after358yearsofeffortbymathematicians.Theunsolved
problemstimulatedthedevelopmentofalgebraicnumbertheoryinthe19thcenturyandtheproofofthe
modularitytheoreminthe20thcentury.Itisamongthemostnotabletheoremsinthehistoryofmathematics
andpriortoitsproofitwasintheGuinnessBookofWorldRecordsfor"mostdifficultmathematicalproblems".

Fourcolortheorem

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conjecture

1/6

10/9/2016

ConjectureWikipedia,thefreeencyclopedia

Inmathematics,thefourcolortheorem,orthefourcolormaptheorem,
statesthat,givenanyseparationofaplaneintocontiguousregions,
producingafigurecalledamap,nomorethanfourcolorsarerequired
tocolortheregionsofthemapsothatnotwoadjacentregionshavethe
samecolor.Tworegionsarecalledadjacentiftheyshareacommon
boundarythatisnotacorner,wherecornersarethepointssharedby
threeormoreregions.[4]Forexample,inthemapoftheUnitedStatesof
America,UtahandArizonaareadjacent,butUtahandNewMexico,
whichonlyshareapointthatalsobelongstoArizonaandColorado,are
not.

Afourcoloringofamapofthestates
oftheUnitedStates(ignoringlakes).

Mbiusmentionedtheprobleminhislecturesasearlyas1840.[5]The
conjecturewasfirstproposedonOctober23,1852[6]whenFrancisGuthrie,whiletryingtocolorthemapof
countiesofEngland,noticedthatonlyfourdifferentcolorswereneeded.Thefivecolortheorem,whichhasa
shortelementaryproof,statesthatfivecolorssufficetocoloramapandwasproveninthelate19thcentury
(Heawood1890)however,provingthatfourcolorssufficeturnedouttobesignificantlyharder.Anumberof
falseproofsandfalsecounterexampleshaveappearedsincethefirststatementofthefourcolortheoremin
1852.
Thefourcolortheoremwasprovenin1976byKennethAppelandWolfgangHaken.Itwasthefirstmajor
theoremtobeprovedusingacomputer.AppelandHaken'sapproachstartedbyshowingthatthereisa
particularsetof1,936maps,eachofwhichcannotbepartofasmallestsizedcounterexampletothefourcolor
theorem.(Iftheydidappear,youcouldmakeasmallercounterexample.)AppelandHakenusedaspecial
purposecomputerprogramtoconfirmthateachofthesemapshadthisproperty.Additionally,anymapthat
couldpotentiallybeacounterexamplemusthaveaportionthatlookslikeoneofthese1,936maps.Showing
thisrequiredhundredsofpagesofhandanalysis.AppelandHakenconcludedthatnosmallestcounterexamples
existsbecauseanymustcontain,yetdonotcontain,oneofthese1,936maps.Thiscontradictionmeansthere
arenocounterexamplesatallandthatthetheoremisthereforetrue.Initially,theirproofwasnotacceptedbyall
mathematiciansbecausethecomputerassistedproofwasinfeasibleforahumantocheckbyhand(Swart1980).
Sincethentheproofhasgainedwideracceptance,althoughdoubtsremain(Wilson2002,216222).

Hauptvermutung
TheHauptvermutung(Germanformainconjecture)ofgeometrictopologyistheconjecturethatanytwo
triangulationsofatriangulablespacehaveacommonrefinement,asingletriangulationthatisasubdivisionof
bothofthem.Itwasoriginallyformulatedin1908,bySteinitzandTietze.
Thisconjectureisnowknowntobefalse.ThenonmanifoldversionwasdisprovedbyJohnMilnor[7]in1961
usingReidemeistertorsion.
Themanifoldversionistrueindimensionsm3.Thecasesm=2and3wereprovedbyTiborRadand
EdwinE.Moise[8]inthe1920sand1950s,respectively.

Weilconjectures
Inmathematics,theWeilconjecturesweresomehighlyinfluentialproposalsbyAndrWeil(1949)onthe
generatingfunctions(knownaslocalzetafunctions)derivedfromcountingthenumberofpointsonalgebraic
varietiesoverfinitefields.
AvarietyVoverafinitefieldwithqelementshasafinitenumberofrationalpoints,aswellaspointsover
everyfinitefieldwithqkelementscontainingthatfield.Thegeneratingfunctionhascoefficientsderivedfrom
thenumbersNkofpointsoverthe(essentiallyunique)fieldwithqkelements.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conjecture

2/6

10/9/2016

ConjectureWikipedia,thefreeencyclopedia

Weilconjecturedthatsuchzetafunctionsshouldberationalfunctions,shouldsatisfyaformoffunctional
equation,andshouldhavetheirzeroesinrestrictedplaces.Thelasttwopartswerequiteconsciouslymodeled
ontheRiemannzetafunctionandRiemannhypothesis.TherationalitywasprovedbyDwork(1960),the
functionalequationbyGrothendieck(1965),andtheanalogueoftheRiemannhypothesiswasprovedby
Deligne(1974)

Poincarconjecture
Inmathematics,thePoincarconjectureisatheoremaboutthecharacterizationofthe3sphere,whichisthe
hyperspherethatboundstheunitballinfourdimensionalspace.Theconjecturestates:
Everysimplyconnected,closed3manifoldishomeomorphictothe3sphere.
Anequivalentformoftheconjectureinvolvesacoarserformofequivalencethanhomeomorphismcalled
homotopyequivalence:ifa3manifoldishomotopyequivalenttothe3sphere,thenitisnecessarily
homeomorphictoit.
OriginallyconjecturedbyHenriPoincar,thetheoremconcernsaspacethatlocallylookslikeordinarythree
dimensionalspacebutisconnected,finiteinsize,andlacksanyboundary(aclosed3manifold).ThePoincar
conjectureclaimsthatifsuchaspacehastheadditionalpropertythateachloopinthespacecanbe
continuouslytightenedtoapoint,thenitisnecessarilyathreedimensionalsphere.Ananalogousresulthas
beenknowninhigherdimensionsforsometime.
Afternearlyacenturyofeffortbymathematicians,GrigoriPerelmanpresentedaproofoftheconjecturein
threepapersmadeavailablein2002and2003onarXiv.TheprooffollowedonfromtheprogramofRichard
HamiltontousetheRicciflowtoattempttosolvetheproblem.Hamiltonlaterintroducedamodificationofthe
standardRicciflow,calledRicciflowwithsurgerytosystematicallyexcisesingularregionsastheydevelop,in
acontrolledway,butwasunabletoprovethismethod"converged"inthreedimensions.[9]Perelmancompleted
thisportionoftheproof.SeveralteamsofmathematicianshaveverifiedthatPerelman'sproofiscorrect.
ThePoincarconjecture,beforebeingproven,wasoneofthemostimportantopenquestionsintopology.

Riemannhypothesis
Inmathematics,theRiemannhypothesis,proposedbyBernhardRiemann(1859),isaconjecturethatthenon
trivialzerosoftheRiemannzetafunctionallhaverealpart1/2.Thenameisalsousedforsomecloselyrelated
analogues,suchastheRiemannhypothesisforcurvesoverfinitefields.
TheRiemannhypothesisimpliesresultsaboutthedistributionofprimenumbers.Alongwithsuitable
generalizations,somemathematiciansconsideritthemostimportantunresolvedprobleminpuremathematics
(Bombieri2000).TheRiemannhypothesis,alongwiththeGoldbachconjecture,ispartofHilbert'seighth
probleminDavidHilbert'slistof23unsolvedproblemsitisalsooneoftheClayMathematicsInstitute
MillenniumPrizeProblems.

PversusNPproblem
ThePversusNPproblemisamajorunsolvedproblemincomputerscience.Informally,itaskswhetherevery
problemwhosesolutioncanbequicklyverifiedbyacomputercanalsobequicklysolvedbyacomputeritis
widelyconjecturedthattheanswerisno.Itwasessentiallyfirstmentionedina1956letterwrittenbyKurt
GdeltoJohnvonNeumann.GdelaskedwhetheracertainNPcompleteproblemcouldbesolvedinquadratic
orlineartime.[10]TheprecisestatementoftheP=NPproblemwasintroducedin1971byStephenCookinhis

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conjecture

3/6

10/9/2016

ConjectureWikipedia,thefreeencyclopedia

seminalpaper"Thecomplexityoftheoremprovingprocedures"[11]andisconsideredbymanytobethemost
importantopenprobleminthefield.[12]ItisoneofthesevenMillenniumPrizeProblemsselectedbytheClay
MathematicsInstitutetocarryaUS$1,000,000prizeforthefirstcorrectsolution.

Otherconjectures
Goldbach'sconjecture
Thetwinprimeconjecture
TheCollatzconjecture
TheManinconjecture
TheMaldacenaconjecture
TheLanglandsprogram[13]isafarreachingweboftheseideasof'unifyingconjectures'thatlinkdifferent
subfieldsofmathematics,e.g.numbertheoryandrepresentationtheoryofLiegroupssomeofthese
conjectureshavesincebeenproved.

Resolutionofconjectures
Proof
Formalmathematicsisbasedonprovabletruth.Inmathematics,anynumberofcasessupportingaconjecture,
nomatterhowlarge,isinsufficientforestablishingtheconjecture'sveracity,sinceasinglecounterexample
wouldimmediatelybringdowntheconjecture.Mathematicaljournalssometimespublishtheminorresultsof
researchteamshavingextendedthesearchforacounterexamplefartherthanpreviouslydone.Forinstance,the
Collatzconjecture,whichconcernswhetherornotcertainsequencesofintegersterminate,hasbeentestedfor
allintegersupto1.21012(overatrillion).However,thefailuretofindacounterexampleafterextensive
searchdoesnotconstituteaproofthatnocounterexampleexistsnorthattheconjectureistrue,becausethe
conjecturemightbefalsebutwithaverylargeminimalcounterexample.
Instead,aconjectureisconsideredprovenonlywhenithasbeenshownthatitislogicallyimpossibleforittobe
false.TherearevariousmethodsofdoingsoseeMathematicalproof#Methodsfordetails.
Onemethodofproof,usablewhenthereareonlyafinitenumberofcasesthatcouldleadtocounterexamples,is
knownas"bruteforce":inthisapproach,allpossiblecasesareconsideredandshownnottogive
counterexamples.Sometimesthenumberofcasesisquitelarge,inwhichsituationabruteforceproofmay
requireasapracticalmattertheuseofacomputeralgorithmtocheckallthecases:thevalidityofthe1976and
1997bruteforceproofsofthefourcolortheorembycomputerwasinitiallydoubted,butwaseventually
confirmedin2005bytheoremprovingsoftware.
Whenaconjecturehasbeenproven,itisnolongeraconjecturebutatheorem.Manyimportanttheoremswere
onceconjectures,suchastheGeometrizationtheorem(whichresolvedthePoincarconjecture),Fermat'sLast
Theorem,andothers.

Disproof
Conjecturesdisproventhroughcounterexamplearesometimesreferredtoasfalseconjectures(cf.thePlya
conjectureandEuler'ssumofpowersconjecture).Inthecaseofthelatter,thefirstcounterexamplefound
involvednumbersinthemillions,althoughsubsequentlyithasbeenfoundthattheminimalcounterexampleis
smallerthanthat.

Undecidableconjectures
Noteveryconjectureendsupbeingproventrueorfalse.Thecontinuumhypothesis,whichtriestoascertainthe
relativecardinalityofcertaininfinitesets,waseventuallyshowntobeundecidable(orindependent)fromthe
generallyacceptedsetofaxiomsofsettheory.Itisthereforepossibletoadoptthisstatement,oritsnegation,as
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conjecture

4/6

10/9/2016

ConjectureWikipedia,thefreeencyclopedia

anewaxiominaconsistentmanner(muchaswecantakeEuclid'sparallelpostulateaseithertrueorfalse).
Inthiscase,ifaproofusesthisstatement,researcherswilloftenlookforanewproofthatdoesn'trequirethe
hypothesis(inthesamewaythatitisdesirablethatstatementsinEuclideangeometrybeprovedusingonlythe
axiomsofneutralgeometry,i.e.noparallelpostulate.)Theonemajorexceptiontothisinpracticeistheaxiom
ofchoiceunlessstudyingthisaxiominparticular,themajorityofresearchersdonotusuallyworrywhethera
resultrequirestheaxiomofchoice.

Conditionalproofs
Sometimesaconjectureiscalledahypothesiswhenitisusedfrequentlyandrepeatedlyasanassumptionin
proofsofotherresults.Forexample,theRiemannhypothesisisaconjecturefromnumbertheorythat(amongst
otherthings)makespredictionsaboutthedistributionofprimenumbers.Fewnumbertheoristsdoubtthatthe
Riemannhypothesisistrue.Inanticipationofitseventualproof,somehaveproceededtodevelopfurtherproofs
whicharecontingentonthetruthofthisconjecture.Thesearecalledconditionalproofs:theconjectures
assumedappearinthehypothesesofthetheorem,forthetimebeing.
These"proofs",however,wouldfallapartifitturnedoutthatthehypothesiswasfalse,sothereisconsiderable
interestinverifyingthetruthorfalsityofconjecturesofthistype.

Inothersciences
KarlPopperpioneeredtheuseoftheterm"conjecture"inscientificphilosophy.[14]Conjectureisrelatedto
hypothesis,whichinsciencereferstoatestableconjecture.

Seealso
Hypotheticals
Listofconjectures

References
1.OxfordDictionaryofEnglish(2010ed.).
2.Schwartz,JL(1995).Shuttlingbetweentheparticular
andthegeneral:reflectionsontheroleofconjecture
andhypothesisinthegenerationofknowledgein
scienceandmathematics.p.93.
3.Ore,Oystein(1988)[1948],NumberTheoryandIts
History,Dover,pp.203204,ISBN9780486
656205
4.GeorgesGonthier(December2008)."FormalProof
TheFourColorTheorem".NoticesoftheAMS.55
(11):13821393.Fromthispaper:Definitions:A
planarmapisasetofpairwisedisjointsubsetsofthe
plane,calledregions.Asimplemapisonewhose
regionsareconnectedopensets.Tworegionsofa
mapareadjacentiftheirrespectiveclosureshavea
commonpointthatisnotacornerofthemap.Apoint
isacornerofamapifandonlyifitbelongstothe
closuresofatleastthreeregions.Theorem:The
regionsofanysimpleplanarmapcanbecoloredwith
onlyfourcolors,insuchawaythatanytwoadjacent
regionshavedifferentcolors.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conjecture

5.W.W.RouseBall(1960)TheFourColorTheorem,
inMathematicalRecreationsandEssays,Macmillan,
NewYork,pp222232.
6.DonaldMacKenzie,MechanizingProof:Computing,
Risk,andTrust(MITPress,2004)p103
7.Milnor,JohnW.(1961)."Twocomplexeswhichare
homeomorphicbutcombinatoriallydistinct".Annals
ofMathematics.74(2):575590.
doi:10.2307/1970299.JSTOR1970299.MR133127.
8.Moise,EdwinE.(1977).GeometricTopologyin
Dimensions2and3.NewYork:NewYork:Springer
Verlag.ISBN9780387902203.
9.Hamilton,RichardS.(1997)."Fourmanifoldswith
positiveisotropiccurvature".Communicationsin
AnalysisandGeometry.5(1):192.MR1456308.
Zbl0892.53018.
10.JurisHartmanis1989,Gdel,vonNeumann,andthe
P=NPproblem(http://ecommons.library.cornell.edu/
bitstream/1813/6910/1/89994.pdf),Bulletinofthe
EuropeanAssociationforTheoreticalComputer
Science,vol.38,pp.101107

5/6

10/9/2016

ConjectureWikipedia,thefreeencyclopedia

11.Cook,Stephen(1971)."Thecomplexityoftheorem
provingprocedures".ProceedingsoftheThirdAnnual
ACMSymposiumonTheoryofComputing.pp.151
158.
12.LanceFortnow,ThestatusofthePversusNP
problem(http://www.cs.uchicago.edu/~fortnow/paper
s/pnpcacm.pdf),CommunicationsoftheACM52
(2009),no.9,pp.7886.
doi:10.1145/1562164.1562186(https://dx.doi.org/10.1
145%2F1562164.1562186)

13.Langlands,Robert(1967),LettertoProf.Weil
14.Popper,Karl(2004).Conjecturesandrefutations:the
growthofscientificknowledge.London:Routledge.
ISBN0415285941.

Externallinks
OpenProblemGarden(http://garden.irmacs.sfu.ca/)
UnsolvedProblemswebsite(http://unsolvedproblems.org/)

Lookupconjecturein
Wiktionary,thefree
dictionary.

Retrievedfrom"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?
title=Conjecture&oldid=714642411"
Categories: Conjectures Statements Philosophicalconcepts
Thispagewaslastmodifiedon11April2016,at00:26.
TextisavailableundertheCreativeCommonsAttributionShareAlikeLicenseadditionaltermsmay
apply.Byusingthissite,youagreetotheTermsofUseandPrivacyPolicy.Wikipediaisaregistered
trademarkoftheWikimediaFoundation,Inc.,anonprofitorganization.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conjecture

6/6