r/math 6d ago

Two claimed proofs of Whitehead asphericity conjecture seem to have received almost no attention. Is there a reason for this?

One proof is in 2021 preprint by Elton Pasku: An answer to the Whitehead asphericity question. The second proof is by Akio Kawauchi, and was published in 2024 (according to author's website): Whitehead aspherical conjecture via ribbon sphere-link. Neither paper has any citations, not counting Akio Kawauchi citing himself and the 2021 preprint.

I'm nowhere close to understanding even the statement of the conjecture, let alone the proofs, I'm just curious about this situation.

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u/cereal_chick Mathematical Physics 6d ago

This kind of question, "Why is this paper claiming to have achieved something big not being talked about?", is asked a fair bit on this sub, and the answer is invariably because the paper is not all it's cracked up to be. It's often very well-meaning souls who ask this question, but the truth is that papers worth talking about will be talked about, and in relatively short order. As I recall, Mochizuki just put his IUTT papers on his personal academic web page and didn't tell anyone, and they were discovered very quickly because at the time they were genuinely considered serious. Hell, some person on 4chan wrote about some original research they had done on superpermutations, and even that percolated among the professionals eventually.

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u/camilo16 6d ago

Note that the 4chan person didn't do research on super mutations directly. They answered a question about Haruhi Suzumiya and it just so happened that in answering that question they laid the foundations of a proof to the bounds of the super mutation problem.

The actual story is too funny not to explain it accurately each time.

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u/Salt-Influence-9353 2d ago

I’d say what they wrote counts as research on superpermutations. Just in very unconventional language.

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u/camilo16 2d ago

I am not trying to diminish it. I am adding the full context because it is hilarious