# Leveraging MO to organize mathematical research

I am currently studying an existence lemma that appears to be simple yet powerful. From what I know about it, it is applicable in combinatorics, topology, graph theory, probability, percolation theory, game theory, maybe other fields as well (here is a graph theory version Graph with path of length $\geq n$ along grid diagonals - a known result in graph theory?).

Informally, it seems to me as versatile and powerful as the Lemma of Sperner, and feel it has a role to play in various fields.

To explore its strength, I would like to connect with a few users on MO, from different fields, who were touching on it in their posts. I would like to ask them if they could be interested to collaborate in the study of this lemma across fields.

How can I do that? Should I ask it as a question on MO, or is there another way of connecting? For example, is there a way to invite them to a chat?

## 1 Answer

If you are too forward in your approach, you risk alienating those you wish to solicit. I recommend the MathOverflow user page to state the invitation in full (or concisely with a link to a longer invitation), and then ever so occasionally and with maximum level of relevance and propriety link to it in a comment to another user. If they don't have interest at the time to follow the link, they (or some other reader) may develop that interest later. However, many come to this forum because this is precisely the level of interaction they desire. Be very careful in how you ask for more.

Gerhard "Buy Them A Drink First?" Paseman, 2020.05.21.

• thanks a lot for your answer. Helps me a lot to move forward. I would never have had the idea to use the user page for this. Thanks again! – Claus Dollinger May 21 at 17:18
• Yes. Promoting yourself overtly on the Q and A part of the forum (or active solicitation) is discouraged. On the user page, think of it as a combo of LinkedIn and Facebook, but make your point briefly. You can do more promotion and solicitation on the user (and outside linked) pages. Gerhard "Like A Big Business Card" Paseman, 2020.05.21. – Gerhard Paseman May 21 at 18:15
• I think your comment really saved me .. I am glad I asked this question before just trying something out, and glad that I received your and M Sleziak's help. thanks again. By the way I like all your middle names, have seen a lot of them now and they really give great summaries – Claus Dollinger May 21 at 18:23