PICTURED smiling next to the blackboard, this 22-year-old caused a media storm last month when she contacted Swedish newspapers, claiming to have solved a famous mathematical problem. But her triumph is turning sour as colleagues condemn her work.
Elin Oxenhielm, a graduate student at Stockholm University, thought she had solved a part of Hilbert’s 16th problem. This is a statement about the nature of the curves and surfaces that come from certain kinds of equations. It was proposed in 1900 but has remained unproved ever since.
The journal Nonlinear Analysis reviewed her paper and decided to publish it, so she…
