Mathematics

After 44 years, there’s finally a better way to find approximate solutions to the notoriously difficult traveling salesperson problem.

A small community of mathematicians is using a software program called Lean to build a new digital repository. They hope it represents the future of their field.

Despite recent progress on the notorious Collatz conjecture, we still don’t know whether a number can escape its infinite loop.

Computer scientists are trying to build an AI system that can win a gold medal at the world’s premier math competition.

Two computer scientists found — in the unlikeliest of places — just the idea they needed to make a big leap in graph theory.

Mathematicians have long grappled with the reality that some problems just don’t have solutions.

For millennia, mathematicians have wondered whether odd perfect numbers exist, establishing an extraordinary list of restrictions for the hypothetical objects in the process. Insight on this question could come from studying the next best things.

Emily Riehl is rewriting the foundations of higher category theory while also working to make mathematics more inclusive.

Three mathematicians have resolved a fundamental question about straight paths on the 12-sided Platonic solid.