1
$\begingroup$

I would like to learn about appropriateness of posting a candidate constructive proof that decides a conjecture or open question and asking for counter examples that render the proof incorrect.

The motivation for doing so would be to abstain from publication and/or modify the claim about what the proof candidate actually accomplishes.

As I don't see on which side of the border between the nebulous "self advertisement" and the "sharing knowledge" realms of MO such a posting would be seen I would like to hear of arguments in favor or against such posting.

$\endgroup$
5
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ Isn't this a dupe of meta.mathoverflow.net/questions/1265/… or/and meta.mathoverflow.net/questions/3510/… ? $\endgroup$
    – Moishe Kohan
    Commented Jul 4, 2021 at 8:54
  • $\begingroup$ @MoisheKohan I think that my question has a bit of a different flavor by asking for counter examples to a constructive proof, which IMHO is not quite the same as asking whether a proof is correct in the sense of identifying the reasoning that is flawed $\endgroup$
    – Manfred Weis
    Commented Jul 4, 2021 at 9:22
  • $\begingroup$ I understand this. I think, your question is a special case of what was asked earlier (and, as far as I can tell, decided that it's in general MO-appropriate, subject to the standard caveats). But this was long ago and the current consensus might be different. $\endgroup$
    – Moishe Kohan
    Commented Jul 4, 2021 at 9:28
  • 3
    $\begingroup$ If you can isolate the specific step you are interested in, then I see little issue with asking if there are issues with the constructivity or otherwise of that step. $\endgroup$
    – David Roberts Mod
    Commented Jul 5, 2021 at 9:04
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ I agree with @DavidRoberts, where the bit about isolating a specific step is crucial. $\endgroup$
    – Steven Landsburg
    Commented Jul 7, 2021 at 5:18

0

Reset to default

You must log in to answer this question.

Browse other questions tagged .