The Riemann hypothesis, first proposed by Bernhard Riemann in 1859, deals with the distribution of prime numbers. At the beginning of the 20th century, it was one of the top 23 problems identified by David Hilbert for the mathematical community to work on for the upcoming century. Math Vacation: David Hilbert Problems (jamesmacmath.blogspot.com) Riemann hypothesis - Wikipedia
The Riemann
hypothesis and five others remain unsolved. The Clay Mathematics Institute has
offered a US$1 million prize to anyone who can solve the Riemann hypothesis.
The list of unsolved Hilbert problems may be closer to being
shorten by University of California – Santa Barbara professor Yitang Zhang. https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3198779/has-chinese-born-professor-discovered-big-piece-150-year-old-maths-puzzle
If successful, this would be remarkable for a 67-year-old
mathematician. However, it won’t be the first time for Zhang to solve a
difficult problem later in life. Nine years ago, he shocked the world with his
work of the twin-prime conjecture. While he didn’t prove the twin prime
conjecture, he did prove there exists a limit below which (at the time it was
70 million) there must be an infinite number of primes separated by that a
specific gap size, N. Since then, using Zhang’s techniques, the limit for that
minimum gap size has been dropped from 70 million to a few hundred. If mathematicians
could bring this limit down to 2, it would prove the twin prime conjecture.
August 20, 2023 Update: New York Post Article - Riemann hypothesis: Unsolved math problem worth $1 million (nypost.com).
