Hey Guys – something incredible just happened and social media is ablaze. Check out these
posts that just came into my twitter feed. Apparently an MIT professor by the name of
Sal Fliporo has just solved the Riemann Hypothesis - the most coveted problem in all of mathematics.
So what’s all the hype about? Well for starters, this is one of the so-called Millennium Problems,
which means that solving the Riemann Hypothesis would get you instant fame and recognition as
well as a one million dollar prize awarded by the Clay Mathematics Institute. Not bad,
right? But it gets even better. Not only would it cement many
groundbreaking results in number theory, but it would also shed light into quantum physics.
I was a little skeptical so I checked him out, this Sal Fliporo guy, and he’s actually legit.
He’s a professor at MIT’s Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department. And check this
out – his research interests include quantum computing which is exactly how he attacked the
Riemann Hypothesis. OK, listen guys: stay glued to this video because in just 90 seconds I’m
taking you to a live press conference. In the meantime, here’s a few things you should know.
The Riemann Hypothesis comes from a seminal paper by the German mathematician Bernhard
Riemann. In it he made a very important claim about the so-called Zeta Function.
He stated, without proof, that the non-trivial zeros of this function have complex solutions
with real part ½ plus an imaginary component t. We’ve known the first few solutions since 1903
and, just as Riemann predicted, they march along the red line ½ like obedient foot soldiers. And
that’s the essence of the Riemann Hypothesis: to prove that these solutions never deviate from real
part ½. Since then, thanks to number crunching capabilities of supercomputers, we’ve discovered
literally trillions more and all the solutions to this date have real part equal to ½. And this is
where Fliporo enters the picture. Based on some theoretical work he had done a few years ago,
he was certain that the Riemann Hypothesis would fail at some point beyond our computational reach.
But he also knew that quantum computers would be ideal for disproving the Riemann Hypothesis,
since they could calculate solutions millions of orders of magnitude beyond the current
values. Just a month ago he acquired an IBM Q System One Quantum Computer and announced
his shocking results yesterday. Fliporo found not just one, but a whole slew of solutions
scattered like buckshot with real parts no longer equal to ½.
He actually disproved the Riemann Hypothesis! OK – he’s live now.
Yes, uh, next question please. Thank you Professor Fliporo.
My name is Zack Philimonte. I'm here from CBS Boston. I have two questions, Professor. First,
how do you plan to spend the million dollar prize? And second, have you received any backlash,
specificially from the mathematical community? Hah! Well, to answer to your first question,
as far as what I plan to do with the money, that's none or your bleeping business!
Now, in answer to your second question, have I received any backlash? Yes! There are legions of
naysayers out there on social media and we have even received some downright hateful comments as
well as violent threats. I guess that's what happens when you waste your whole life in
mathematics trying to prove something to be true and it turns out to be the exact opposite. Hah!
Hey! Hey! Who turned out the lights? Hey! What's going on here? Hey! Who are you? You know who I
am. You ruined my entire mathematical career with your overzealous
quantum computer research. And for that, you will pay. Ahhh!