Questions tagged [on-topic]
For discussions and questions on the appropriateness (for the main site) of a question or a certain type of question.
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Are help requests to entitle specific papers appropriate for MathOverflow?
The title of a paper has crucial importance, since when it is well thought, other researchers will have more possibilities of finding it when in need, and of wondering its content when encountered. I ...
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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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Is there a clear rule against "check this proof" type questions?
I discovered that the meta question "Questions" of the type "I have written something, please give me feedback" from more than three years ago still does not have any answer, while ...
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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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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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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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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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Why was my question closed while it looks like similar questions are still open?
Recently, my question regarding a good introductory book on mathematical risk theory was closed because it was deemed off-topic and not research-level mathematics.
However, I think that multiple ...
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Can I ask this question here?
I recently posted this question on Math Stack Exchange, in which I asked for a published reference containing the proof of a certain fact. What I got instead was a very rough outline of a proof. I've ...
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Are questions related to mathematicians appropriate for MO?
Is it acceptable to ask questions that are more concerned with mathematicians (women and men alike) as persons than with their contribution to mathematics?
Those questions could be related to the ...
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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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What about talking about life? How to work, manage, organize, and so forth?
My question comes from a general an recurrent observation on MO (and more generally in the real academic life):
doing research (in mathematics) is a whole ecosystem, full of different tasks and ...
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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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A remark on the abc conjecture
It went/goes something like this:
"It [the abc conjecture] resembles a false proposition in that A GREAT DEAL of results would follow from its veracity".
I may have read it in the comments of a ...
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Why is my question on martingales off-topic and not migrated?
Here is my question: https://mathoverflow.net/questions/225181/show-that-ex-t-t-infty-le-ex-0-and-cp-sup-x-n-ge-c-le-ex-0
I said in the beginning to please migrate if needed. Could it be on-topic ...
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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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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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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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Should this be moved to math.stackexchange?
I posted Lower bound on Carmichael Function
and just assumed it belonged here, but after thinking about it for some time I'm not so sure. The Carmichael function itself might be encountered by other ...
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soft-question tag for discussing mathematical best-practices
I asked a question about where people could store slides for future reference. As a discussion of best-practices in the Mathematical profession, I thought it was appropriate for the soft-question tag ...
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Is it a problem if I post a lot of questions?
The fuel of MO is the research level questions in mathematics.
In most (regular) users' summary I look, there are much more answers than questions, as if the opposite position would be doubtful ...
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Is it appropriate to ask why a textbook on nonlinear algebra not well known?
I am wondering if it would be worthwhile to ask why a certain textbook and/or its authors (Dolotin and Morozov) are not well known.
From the description of the book:
This unique text presents the ...
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Will this question be suitable for MO?
Recently I have asked two questions in MSE regarding the simultaneous solutions of the following inequalities:
$$x+y>p_{\pi(x)}+p_{\pi(y)+1}\tag{1}$$$$x+y>p_{\pi(y)}+p_{\pi(x)+1}\tag{2}.$$
My ...
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Why is my question on hold?
Why is this question fine, but mine is put on hold? They seem to be very similar questions? Or is there some distinction that I'm not getting?
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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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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 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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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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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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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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Would this soft question be appropriate?
A few weeks back on the Math Stack Exchange, I asked this question about "interesting" PDEs. It got (no answers and) some deserved criticism, so I opened a discussion on the Meta there and made some ...
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Would this question be on topic?
I'm independently working on some research, and would like to see if there are any other papers on this topic. Can I ask a question on the main site, with a brief description of my work, to see what ...
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Is this post incompatible with its tags?
Is the following question incompatible with its tags? I really do not understand the reason that some participants voted to closing this question as off topic question:
PhD dissertations that ...
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Proposed question: In the math history books of the future, what will be written about the years 1960-2010?
I was reading Stillwell's book, Mathematics and its History, and it got me thinking about how research developments in the last two decades (i.e. history for us too, except recent) would be "narrated"....
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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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May I know why is my question on hold when it is clearly research-level?
This is my question
https://mathoverflow.net/questions/262039/central-properties-of-the-integers-mathbbz-over-other-structures-with-sum
I think the question is clear enough and it is easy to ...
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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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Would it be okay/interesting to ask a survey type question?
I would be interested in asking a question which asks mathematicians who visit the site the following question:
1) What research topic are you actively working on right now?
2) Why are you ...
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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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Should MO perhaps give numerological abductive questions a little more benefit of the doubt
Background:
This question is a much more specific version of a metaMO question which was deleted for some odd reason after one poster said in a comment that he agreed with everything said in the post....
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