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At 17, Hannah Cairo Solved a Major Math Mystery (www.quantamagazine.org)
submitted 7 months ago by to c/math@mander.xyz
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[–] 12 points 7 months ago (3 children)

If anyone got a tldr on what the conjecture is (was?) about and how she disproved it, please share. I fell asleep reading her life's story..

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  • [–] 8 points 7 months ago* (2 children)

    "Cairo showed that in her function, they didn’t cancel out as expected. Instead, their interference created uneven patterns, causing the function’s energy to spread out over some areas and concentrate in others in a fractal-like way that the Mizohata-Takeuchi conjecture prohibited."

    Also she's 17 and going for her doctorate without either a GED or undergraduate degree, which is certainly interesting.

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  • [–] 3 points 7 months ago

    Thank you! And I agree that the situation is interesting, but I didn't need any of it beyond the first paragraph, I was more interested in the math context. And it was late and I was reading it right before going to bed so that also shifts perspective 😅

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