Monumental (if correct) advance in number theory posted to ArXiv by Yitang Zhang
Two additional notes:<p>1. Zhang posted an attempt at solving this problem in 2007 that he later more or less admitted was flawed: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;mathoverflow.net&#x2F;questions&#x2F;131221&#x2F;yitang-zhangs-2007-preprint-on-landau-siegel-zeros?rq=1" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;mathoverflow.net&#x2F;questions&#x2F;131221&#x2F;yitang-zhangs-2007...</a>. But speaking with mathematicians who are intimately familiar with Zhang&#x27;s previous work, there seems to be good reason to be optimistic nevertheless. First, the idea behind Zhang&#x27;s proof is similar to the zero-repulsion ideas appearing in known results about Siegel zeros, and is thus reasonable. Second, Zhang seems to have matured late, and unlike the flawed 2007 paper, his 2013 paper on bounded gaps in primes is meticulously written. He came a long way between those two papers, and he may have come even further since then.<p>2. Zhang is 67 years old. If the paper is correct, then Zhang constitutes a strong counterexample to G.H. Hardy&#x27;s famous claims that &quot;mathematics is a young man&#x27;s game&quot; and nobody alive today could say, as Hardy did, that &quot;I do not know an instance of a major mathematical advance initiated by a man past fifty.&quot;