Some simple ideas of great mathematicians


This page is dedicated to short presentations of simple ideas of great mathematicians. Much of the work done at the highest levels of mathematics is very sophisticated and requires a considerable amount of background and mathematical sophistication to digest. But some of the ideas are beautifully transparent and can be presented to a wide mathematical audience. We are going to explore such miniatures below. Let me note that the choice of topics is highly motivated by my personal mathematical interests.

If you click on the name of a mathematician, it will take you to their wikipedia page. Clicking on the title of the presentation will take you to the .pdf with the precise statement and a proof.

If you would like to contribute a miniature to this page, please let me know. I will gladly post it with a proper attribution, of course.


Nikolai Chebotaryov: Minors of the Fourier matrix modulo a prime (coming soon)

Paul Erdos:
The square root bound for the Erdos distance problem

Paul Erdos: The Erdos Integer Distance Principle (coming soon)

Benjamin Logan:
L1L^1 - minimization and signal recovery

Klaus Roth: Arithmetic progressions of length three (coming soon)