English

What is a Theorem?

History and Overview 2017-04-11 v1

Abstract

General acceptance of a mathematical proposition PP as a theorem requires convincing evidence that a proof of PP exists. But what constitutes "convincing evidence?" I will argue that, given the types of evidence that are currently accepted as convincing, it is inconsistent to deny similar acceptance to the evidence provided for the existence of proofs by certain randomized computations.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1704.02871,
  title  = {What is a Theorem?},
  author = {Jeffrey C. Jackson},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1704.02871},
  year   = {2017}
}

Comments

5 pages, 3 figures

R2 v1 2026-06-22T19:12:53.020Z