Research Proposal 14.03.

22
Name Alexander Dankanich
Supervisor Mr. Leonard Constantin
Topic Proof of Fermat’s Last Theorem
In your proposal please address the following:
1. Is your topic appropriate for the Subject that you have chosen?
2. What questions/possible lines of inquiry emerged from your background reading?
3. Why do these questions matter?
4. Are there any ethical considerations that you need to be aware of?
5. What possible approaches might suit your inquiry?

Research Proposal (please detail your background reading)

1. The Subject chosen is Mathematics. The topic is appropriate to the Subject area, as it
concerns one of the greatest solved problems in the history of Mathematics,
concerning the branch of number theory.
2. Inquiry lines.
a. Are there any real-life applications of the Fermat’s Last Theorem?
b. To what extent is Fermat's Last Theorem a continuation of Pythagoras’s and
Diophantus’s works?
c. How was the Fermat’s Last Theorem proven?
d. How did Andrew Wiles use elliptical curves and modular theorem to prove the
Fermat’s Last Theorem?
e. What are the elliptical curves?
f. What is the modular theorem?
Inquiry Stage: g. What is the Tanyama-Shimura conjecture and how does it work?
Wonder h. What is the connection between Tanyama-Shimura conjecture and Fermat’s
Last Theorem?
i. What are the Frey curves?
j. What previous contributions have been made to prove the Fermat’s Last
Theorem?
k. Why are the original proofs for different values of “n” so different from each
other?
l. Why were proofs by Gabriel Lamé and Augustin Louis Cauchy invalid?
m. What is the history behind the Fermat’s Last Theorem?
n. Why did Pierre de Fermat show only the proof of Fermat’s Last Theorem for
the value n=4?
(Below are concepts used in Wiles proof that are required to be inquiry lines, in order for me to
be able to write an EE on Fermat’s Last Theorem. Numbered by pages in Andrew Wiles proof).
(1) What is the Hasse-Weil zeta function?
(1) What is invariance in the context of mathematics?
(1) What is implied by something being modular?
(1) What is the ε-conjecture by Serre and what is the proof by Ribet?
(2) What are Galois representations?
(2) What is the Langlands-Tunnell theorem?
(2) What makes an elliptic curve semi-stable?
(2) What is commutative algebra?
(2) What is the class number problem / criterion?
(2) What is the p-adic representation?
(2) What is a modular form?
FOSIL: Learning by finding out for yourself.
 (2) What are L-functions?
(2) What are the developments by Hida and Mazur 1980?
(2) What is the analytic class number formula of Dirichlet?
(2) What is cohomology?
(2) What is Galois cohomology?
(2) What are the fundamental theorems of Poitou and Tate?
(3) What is an eigenform / eigenvalues / eigenspace?
(3) What is implied by a weight in the context of mathematics?
(3) What is a Hecke operator?
(3) What is implied by a ring of integers?
(3) What is meant if something is isomorphic in the context of mathematics?
(3) What is the lattice order?
(4) What is the residue field?
(4) What is a subspace?
(4) What is meant by a decomposition group?
(4) What is a cyclotomic character?
(4) What is the quotient space?
(4) What are compatible systems?
(4) What is meant by ramification?
(5) What is the algebraic closure?
(6) What is the isogeny theorem proved by Faltings?
(6) What is the square-free conductor?
(6) What are the deformations of elliptic curves?
(6) What are the deformations of Galois presentation?
(7) What is the Iwasawa conjecture / theory?
(7) What is the “field of the m-adic torsion on the Jacobian of a suitable modular
curve”?
(7) What is the Hecke ring?
(8) What are trivial zeros?
(8) What is cyclotomic extension?
(8) What are unramified cohomology classes?
(8) What are duality theorems?
(8) What is ring-theoretic language?
(8) What is the language of deformations of Galois representations?
(8) What are universal deformation rings?
(9) What are Gorenstein rings?
(9) What is Tate's account of Grothendieck duality theory?
(9) What are the “recent theorems” of Rubin and Kolyvagin?
(10) What is the conjecture by Coates and Schmidt on Iwasawa theory?
(10) What are auxiliary primes?
(10) What is base change?
(10) What is the Selmer group?
(10) What is the projective limit?
(10) What is the cyclotomic tower?
(10) What is the method of Hida?

FOSIL: Learning by finding out for yourself.

 (10) What is the power series ring?
(10) What is Flach’s method?
(10) What is the Euler system [argument]?
(10) What are the twisted forms of modular forms?
(11) What is de Shalit’s theory?
(11) What is a complete intersection property?
(12) What is Lenstra elliptic-curve factorization?
(12) What is a CM case / hypothesis?
(13) What is Mazur’s deformation theory?
(13) What is the Bloch-Kato conjecture / cohomology group?
(13) What are Witt vectors?
(13) What is Noeterian local W(k)-algebra?
(14) What are homomorphisms?
(14) What is the Teichmuller character?
(14) What is the Jordan-Holder series?
(14) What is a subquotient?
(14) What is the classification of Oort-Tate?
(14) What is the classification of Raynaud?
(14-15) What are Selmer, strict, ordinary, flat deformations? Differences?
(15) What is Schlessinger’s criteria?
(15) What is O-algebra?
(15) What is the Zariski tangent?
(15) What is Nakayama’s lemma?
(15) What is natural mapping?
(15) What is the Noetherian ring?
(17) What is the Artinian local ring?
(17) What is the residual representation?
(17) What is the cohomology class?
(17) What is peu ramifie?
(18) What is cotangent space?
(18) What are scalar multiplications?
(19) What is a vector space?
(19) What is an inverse image?
(19) What are Fourier coefficients?
(19) What is a uniformizer?
(20) What is zero-lifting?
(20) What is a zero element?
(24) What is Schur's lemma?
(25) What is the theory of Fontaine and Lafaille?
(26) What is a crystalline in the context of mathematics?
(26) What is direct sum decomposition?
(27) What is implied by something being [naturally] injective / surjective?
(28) What is an orthogonal complement?
(29) What is meant by cup product pairing?
(31) What is p-power order?

FOSIL: Learning by finding out for yourself.

 (31) What is the sequence of inflation-restriction?
(32) What is a triangle commute?
(33) What is the abelian quotient / extension / subvariety / variety / splitting field?
(33) What is the Sylow subgroup?
(34) What is Dickson's classification of the subgroups of GL2(k)?
(34) What is meant by a noncommuting unipotent element?
(35) What is meant by something being dihedral?
(36) What are scalar commutes?
(36) What is the conjugation of matrices?
(36) What is meant by the loss of generality?
(37) What is Gorenstein property?
(38) What is the ring of endomorphisms?
(38) What are cusp forms?
(38) What are Hecke operators?
(38) What is a Frobenius?
(39) What are Pontrjagin duals?
(39) What is implied for a module to have a rank
(39) What is a kernel?
(39) What is meant for something to be topologically nilpotent?
(39) What is an involution?
(40) What is a Corollary?
(40) What is the Tate module?
(40) What is Gorenstein Zp-algebra?
(41) What are Eichler-Shimura relations?
(41) What is the method of Carayol?
(41) What is a fibre in the context of mathematics?
(41) What is the canonical etale quotient?
(42) What is the theorem of Deligne and Rapoport?
(42) What is the Neron model?
(42) What is a Cartier map?
(42) What is a Hecke invariant?
(42) What is the argument of Tilouine?
(43) What is the Krull-Schmidt theorem?
(43) What is a Jacobian?
(43) What are meromorphic differentials?
(43) What is a supersingular point?
(44) What is a holomorphic differential?
(44) What is Grothendieck duality?
(44) What is endomorphism?
(47) What is the theorem of Ihara?
(49) What is Chebotarev density [theorem]?
(51) What is a maximum ideal?
(52) What is an Eisenstein?
(52) What is a genus in the context of mathematics?
(55) What are newforms in the context of mathematics?

FOSIL: Learning by finding out for yourself.

 (58) What is an inertia group?
(59) What is [finite] cardinality?
(59) What is the Petersson inner product?
(63) What are L-series?
(63) What are Euler factors?
(63) What are Galois conjugacy classes?
(65) What was the observation of Livne?
(67) What is an “ord” in the context of mathematics?
(69) What is the conjecture of Mazur and Telouine?
(72) What is meant by something being bilinear?
(78) What is a primitive root?
(79) What is the theory of Fitting ideals?
(87) What is a conductor in the context of mathematics?
(87) What is the Weierstrass model?
(87) What is the Lubin-Tate group?
(89) What is the Teichmuller lift?
(90) What is a Neron differential?
(91) What are complex manifolds?
(93) What is the formula of Hida?
(93) What is a grossencharacter?
(99) What is automorphism?
(100) What is Melling transform?
(100) What is Deligne-Serre lemma?
(100) What is Serre’s isogeny theorem?
(100) What is implied by “isogeny”?
(101) What are non-cuspidal points?
(101) What is implied by level classification of elliptic curves?
(174 questions on Andrew WIles)
Furthermore, mathematical notation must be studied.

3. The questions matter, as they directly concern my topic and without them, my
understanding of the topic and the proof will be limited. Some questions I asked
concern the differences between various mathematical branches / power-specific
proofs, as I have little understanding of how the same question with one variable
changed can result in completely different approaches to power-specific proofs.
4. Having read IB Ethical Guidelines, I am fully aware of the guidelines with regard to
research collection. Summarising the guidelines, my research must be harmless and the
conduct of it must be appropriate.
5. My inquiry will be mainly based on academic papers and textbooks. Academic papers
will help me understand the logical arguments made in the proof of Fermat’s Last
Theorem, and textbooks will help me understand the mathematical concepts required
to understand these papers. If there will be difficulties with academic papers, then
literature will be used. I might use biographies and interviews to explain the context of
the problem.

Submission of Research Proposal 17.03.22

FOSIL: Learning by finding out for yourself.

FOSIL: Learning by finding out for yourself.