Unknown Mathematician Foils Community With Twin Prime Conjecture ... At Last

An unknown mathematician wrote a paper that relates to the twin prime conjecture mathematical theory. This theory states that there are an infinite amount of many twin prime numbers. For many years mathematics tried to obtain proof of this theory and one man appears to have discovered it.

Prime numbers are numbers that are only divisible by the number 1 and itself. Twin prime numbers are a pair of prime numbers that have a difference of 2. The numbers 3 and 5 are considered prime numbers and together they make a prime pair. The numbers 5 and 7 are also considered prime pairs.

Professor Yitang Zhang from the University of Hampshire wrote a paper that's being called a breakthrough in mathematics. Zhang's work is a major advancement toward understanding the twin prime conjecture.

Zhang submitted his paper to the bimonthly math journal, the Annals of Mathematics last month. The editors rushed the paper to the referees for an in depth review and Zhang got the referee report back in just a few weeks.

"The main results are of the first rank," wrote one of the referees. They determined that the paper discussed a "landmark theorem in the distribution of prime numbers."

Zhang succeeded in proving what many experts of the field have tried to for years. Earning his doctorate in 1992, the 50-something year old professor worked as an accountant for many years prior. Zhang presented his work on May 13 at Harvard University before expert mathematicians. He showed proof that there are infinite prime pairs that differ by less than 70 million.

"The big experts in the field had already tried to make this approach work. He's not a known expert, but he succeeded where all the experts had failed", number theorist at the University of Montreal, Andrew Granville said.

As the Simons Foundation reported, although mathematicians have speculated that there are infinitely many twin prime pairs, proving it was tricky. At the beginning of the number line, there are many prime numbers but as the numbers go higher, there are gaps between them. There are 40 percent of prime numbers from 1 to 10 and just 4 percent among larger 10 digit numbers. Mathematicians understood that the expected gap between larger prime numbers is about 2.3 times the number of digits.

Another number theorist from San Jose State University, Daniel Goldston called Zhang's work "astounding".