Has the ABC Conjecture Been Proven?

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Oh, all the great headlines the press could write...
"Mathematicians still unsure if a+b=c"
"Conference on whether a+b=c or not, no solution"

Does Mochizuki write down more details and steps in regions where other mathematicians struggle? It looks like an obvious thing to do.
 
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mfb said:
Oh, all the great headlines the press could write...
"Mathematicians still unsure if a+b=c"
"Conference on whether a+b=c or not, no solution"

Does Mochizuki write down more details and steps in regions where other mathematicians struggle? It looks like an obvious thing to do.

Usually the proof is with a consistent level of detail. It is already very long, perhaps a thousand pages. It could be that different mathematicians struggle with different steps, or maybe they are just overwhelmed with the whole thing. That's the trouble with highly original research: peer review could take many man-years, and there is risk that the whole thing will be useless. If Mochizuki didn't have a heavy rep there would be no chance that his proof would be accepted: too risky an investment.
 
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I never took number theory, but I've taken lots of combinatorics and I usually stay up on math related "news." But I've heard more about this conjecture in the press than I've heard from anybody I know in the math community. Does anyone really think it's really such an important conjecture?

-Dave K