Questions tagged [on-topic]
For discussions and questions on the appropriateness (for the main site) of a question or a certain type of question.
142 questions
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Is this the appropriate to post a request for arxiv reference query, or is there another site I should use?
I have found a solution to a big research problem that I want to post on arxiv. Unfortunately, due to mental illness, I haven't worked in years and have no connections in any mathematical community.
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Asking for consensus on mathematical conventions/definitions
Is this (mathoverflow or meta) a reasonable place to ask nuanced questions about how the mathematical community interprets mathematical terms and how they are used in common questions? For example: is ...
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Are questions about whether a type of work/problem/solution or (one's own) arxiv paper is publishable on topic?
This is a bit related to the question:
Are "has this been studied before" questions on topic?
If I post something in the arxiv, can I ask for an opinion as to whether: 1) it's been done ...
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Is it fine to repost questions from a paper
Is it fine to re-ask open questions from ones paper on mathoverflow?
On the one hand, I am interested in finding an answer to the question, and it might help if it is more publicly available. But if I ...
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Suggestions for the design of a font for math articles/books
Recently I've resumed work on a font I'm currently developing, meant to be released as a completely free, open-source, OFL-licensed font designed specifically for use in papers, theses, books, lecture ...
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Are "has this been studied before" questions on topic?
I have a fairly elementary question but rather than feeding it straight to the wolves I thought I would ask it here. Well, via a more general question:
Are questions of the form "has $X$ been ...
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Most important results of the year - appropriate or not?
The question Most important results in 2023 has been posted to MO, and as in previous years, has had a mixed reception. (EDIT: As of this writing, the post has been deleted by the author, presumably ...
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Is asking for the status of Vandiver's conjecture suitable for MO?
I wonder what the current status of Vandiver's conjecture in number theory is? An internet search revealed the paper "Vandiver's conjecture via K-theory" by Alexander Stolin from 2020 on the ...
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Is asking to verify my P=NP proof appropriate?
Is providing link to my (8 pages) proof of P=NP and asking to check my proof appropriate for a MathOverflow question?
The proof is on professional mathematician level (uses advanced logics) and does ...
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Posting a technical/narrow open question on mathoverflow?
I am a bit confused on our policy for open-problems. Are we allowed to post a technical/narrow conjecture/open problem on MO?
For example, here is a type of a beautiful question that I have in mind ...
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Are questions about mathematical writing acceptable on the main site?
I have a question concerning mathematical writing, a draft of which is posted below if you are interested. The question I wish to ask on Meta however is about whether questions concerning mathematical ...
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Policy toward GPT-generated conjectures?
The recent MO post, A number theoretic conjecture by Chat GPT, posed a conjecture that was generated by ChatGPT. In my opinion, it was not a particularly interesting conjecture. For me at least, the ...
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Is this question about partition numbers too broad/vague?
Here's my proposed question (edit: now posted) (edit 2: posted version now edited):
I have found an algorithm for counting partitions, and I've been able to express it into a mathematical formula, $P(...
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Mathoverflow for finding the name of mathematical concepts
I am used to posting on MathOverflow problems with questions. However, now I am looking for the name of a mathematical object that I think already exists (and I would be happy to find reference ...
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Can I ask this question on Math Overflow? (Advice on how to get started)
I am thinking of applying for a maths PhD programme. I have more or less an idea of the subfield I'd like to research, but not much more than that. I'm looking for suggestions on how to properly ...
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Asking if a post about a mathematical characterization of gravitational geons can be potentially interesting for the main site MathOverflow
I would like to ask about if a question about the following subject can be potentially interesting and on topic on MathOverflow. I would like to ask on the main site of MathOverflow about the ...
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Would such a "big list" on known bounds for distances between $2^S-3^N$ be appropriate for MO?
After new questions and/or activities on older questions on "bounds for distances $2^S-3^N$" appeared in MO I thought whether a [BigList] or [CommunityWiki] on known such bounds (their ...
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Planar geometry on MO
"Planar geometry" here is 2-dimensional Euclidean geometry, usually used as Olympiad geometry problem, its objects just be a bunch of lines and circles, it has no Combinatoric aspect and not ...
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Questions about correctness of published papers
A recent thread brought up the issue of the appropriateness of discussing correctness of a published paper on MO.
Correctness of Thierry Aubin's argument about positive Ricci curvature
I did a ...
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Revamping the closure reasons in 2022
Prompted by Gro-Tsen's recent meta question, it appears that now may be a good time to rethink our site-specific close reasons here on MathOverflow.
Background:
If you have sufficient rep, you can ...
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Could we add another reason for closing that's more appropriate for "check this (dis)proof of RH"-type questions?
I wanted to vote to close this question which claims to disprove the Riemann Hypothesis, but I realized that, even though we get questions of this kind occasionally, none of the reasons to close is ...
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Would this question be appropriate on the main site?
I would like to ask a "big list" style question on the main site.
The question would be "How do we pronounce the names of famous mathematicians?".
Each answer would be an audio ...
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Is this soft question acceptable?
Edited version: What are great examples of comprehensively archived mathematical correspondence (including both handwritten and electronic items)?
Previous version : How should mathematicians archive ...
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How to formulate a question for a Mathoverflow forum?
Can the following question be posted? “Where could an error be in the proposed proof of Fermat Last Theorem? Info about the author, proof and preliminary validation is at (link)”. How should the ...
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What if I'm not sure about what area of math a problem lies?
One student asked me how to solve a problem and the only way of solving it that came to me seems hopeless to find an answers. It occurred to me that I may using a wrong approach to it. How could I ask ...
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Is this partial differential equation on topic for Mathoverflow?
I came across this differential equation. I'm not sure if it's research level, but I think it might be:
$$u\frac{\partial}{\partial u}\left(u\frac{\partial f}{\partial u}\right) + v\frac{\partial}{\...
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To which extent can one modify another's question?
One highly off-topic question of real analysis was asked in the main site by a new user. One user sent, 1 hour later, a long answer going far beyond the the question, and then, 12 hours later, edited ...
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Asking whether this question will be suitable and hence answered by people on MO ? ( I will use career and advice tag)
I am thinking of asking this question on the MO website which is due to the fact that how should I write/ explain the gap in my CV while applying for PHD programs in 2022.
Very brief of the situations ...
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Self advertising and posting a candidate constructive proof
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 ...
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How do off-topic question askers find MO?
Apologies if this has been addressed on Meta before (it's a little hard to know the right keywords to search for Meta questions with).
Question: Has there been any systematic attempt to try to figure ...
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Can I ask a question on MathOverflow and also on another site?
Sometimes one might ask a question on a website such as Mathematics Stack Exchange which is comparable but not identical to MathOverflow, and then decide to post the same question on MathOverflow. ...
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(When) are "career advice" questions on-topic here? If and when such a question is on-topic, what to keep in mind in answering such a question?
We have a tag career and a tag advice. We don't have a flood of questions under these tags, but for several reasons I think it would also be appropriate for us to have a bit more guidance on meta ...
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Is this the right community for "under-the-hood" math questions?
I've posted a few questions in the Mathematics Stack Exchange community asking about theoretical concerns, such as "Why is $\frac{\frac{1}{x}}{\frac{1}{x^2}+1}=\frac{x}{x^2+1}$ true for all $x$?&...
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Appropriateness and cross-posting
I am interested in this question on math.stackexchange. To me it is interesting because while it looks "obvious" that there isn't a solution with 6 turns (I have some very partial results ...
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Utility of Mathematics: Is this question appropriate here, and if not/if so, how can I phrase it better?
I would like to know if this question is appropriate for Math Overflow, and if so, how I can phrase it better to get the best results.
Question:
I recently spoke with a very nice mathematician who ...
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Question on topic for Mathoverflow?
My question, asked months ago, was well received. Now...
I'm wondering if this question is on-topic for MathOverflow:
Consider a semi-Riemannian manifold $\zeta^{2,2}$ with metric, $g=\frac{dxdy}{xy}+...
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Questions seemingly/apparently/ostensibly too elementary for overlfow
Well I don't really get notifications of flag responses sooo...
Nov 6 at 14:01 helpful - I suggest you take this up in meta; there is not enough space to answer here. But there are a number of ...
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Is asking about name of a curve a research level question?
In my opinion this post is not a research level topic but surprisingly it has been received 22 votes.
Is the linked post a research level question and appropriate for MO?
I think it is more ...
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Questions, answers, comments or discussions on aspects of politics relevant to mathematicians on MathOverflow (main or meta)
Given the recent question here on meta about the deletion of a
comment stating a political opinion on an answer which also stated
a political opinion which sparked a lively debate, let me bring up the
...
Stefan KohlMod
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Would asking this question be permissible on the main site?
I have been working on a problem for days, that I previously mentioned on ComScience StackExchange. The answers were helpful. But, I need more information to develop a polynomial space algorithm.
I ...
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Role of the tag "gm.general-mathematics"
This question is about the tag gm.general-mathematics. A meta question about it already occurred here, but was less specific (and didn't generate much discussion). See also the discussion in the ...
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High accuracy computation question on MO
Can I ask question which require very high accuracy calculation with very delicate nature on MO :
Ex: calculate:
$$S(q)=\int_{x=2}^q\sin^2\left(\frac{π\Gamma(x)}{2x}\right)dx$$ for $q=10^3$ or $10^...
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Writing a proper MathOverflow question
I am in uni and I'm struggling to write a proper question for this site. I always end up writing too little and people say they need more detail. Sometimes I get a bad rep and criticised for being ...
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Would this question be suitable for MO?
I have asked What are some efficient ways to keep a note of results of a paper? in Academia SE.
Would this question be suitable for MO?
Is this better suited in MO than academia?
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Advice with arXiv: MO Meta or academia SE?
I would like to write a question $Q$ asking for advice about what to do with a note which I wrote (itself based on a self-answer on MathOverflow) which was rejected from the arXiv (something I didn't ...
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MO is not the place for Mochizuki news
This question
Everybody wants to know what's going on with this but we should leave it to Twitter, Reddit, blogs, etc. There is very little actual Mathematics in the discussion I linked to.
(I am ...
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About if questions in Research papers can be asked on MathOverflow
I am new to MathOverflow.
I am a master of mathematics student. I wanted to ask if questions in research papers ( regarding what I am not able to understand in the paper ) can be asked on ...
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Are questions appropriate if they require answers to be edited in perpetuity?
A recent popular question asks about the status of a certain list of open problems. The OP answered his own question within 13 hours of asking it, and has now edited his answer 26 times, so that it is ...
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Would this question be appropriate for MathOverflow?
I asked this question in Math Stack Exchange several days ago, but I have received no interaction so far, apart from 4 upvotes. I was considering adding a bounty, but since (to my humble understanding)...
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Is my question suitable for MO?
Around a month ago I asked a question on ME here. It was well received (got seven up votes). Sadly nobody was able to help much. To get more attention I also placed a bounty on it. Still no luck. The ...
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