Peter Borwein - Collected Quotes

"Arguments for the Riemann hypothesis often include its widespread ramifications and appeals to mathematical beauty; however, we also have a large corpus of hard facts. With the advent of powerful computational tools over the last century, mathematicians have increasingly turned to computational evidence to support conjectures, and the Riemann hypothesis is no exception." (Peter Borwein et al, "The Riemann Hypothesis: A Resource for the Afficionado and Virtuoso Alike", 2007)

"In one of the largest calculations done to date, it was checked that the first ten trillion of these zeros lie on the correct line. So there are ten trillion pieces of evidence indicating that the Riemann hypothesis is true and not a single piece of evidence indicating that it is false. A physicist might be overwhelmingly pleased with this much evidence in favour of the hypothesis, but to some mathematicians this is hardly evidence at all. However, it is interesting ancillary information." (Peter Borwein et al, "The Riemann Hypothesis: A Resource for the Afficionado and Virtuoso Alike", 2007)

"Number-theoretic equivalences of the Riemann hypothesis provide a natural method of explaining the hypothesis to nonmathematicians without appealing to complex analysis. While it is unlikely that any of these equivalences will lead directly to a solution, they provide a sense of how intricately the Riemann zeta function is tied to the primes"  (Peter Borwein et al, "The Riemann Hypothesis: A Resource for the Afficionado and Virtuoso Alike", 2007)

"One of the current ideas regarding the Riemann hypothesis is that the zeros of the zeta function can be interpreted as eigenvalues of certain matrices. This line of thinking is attractive and is potentially a good way to attack the hypothesis, since it gives a possible connection to physical phenomena. [...] Empirical results indicate that the zeros of the Riemann zeta function are indeed distributed like the eigenvalues of certain matrix ensembles, in particular the Gaussian unitary ensemble. This suggests that random matrix theory might provide an avenue for the proof of the Riemann hypothesis." (Peter Borwein et al, "The Riemann Hypothesis: A Resource for the Afficionado and Virtuoso Alike", 2007)

"So the prime number theorem is a relatively weak statement of the fact that an integer has equal probability of having an odd number or an even number of distinct prime factors." (Peter Borwein et al, "The Riemann Hypothesis: A Resource for the Afficionado and Virtuoso Alike", 2007)

"Solving any of the great unsolved problems in mathematics is akin to the first ascent of Everest. It is a formidable achievement, but after the conquest there is sometimes nowhere to go but down. Some of the great problems have proven to be isolated mountain peaks, disconnected from their neighbors. The Riemann hypothesis is quite different in this regard. There is a large body of mathematical speculation that becomes fact if the Riemann hypothesis is solved. We know many statements of the form “if the Riemann hypothesis, then the following interesting mathematical statement”, and this is rather different from the solution of problems such as the Fermat problem." (Peter Borwein et al, "The Riemann Hypothesis: A Resource for the Afficionado and Virtuoso Alike", 2007)

"The first and easies tproofs [of the prime number theorem] are analytic and exploit the rich connections between number theory and complex analysis. It has resisted trivialization, and no really easy proof is known. This is especially true for the so-called elementary proofs, which use little or no complex analysis, just considerable ingenuity and dexterity. The primes arise sporadically and, apparently, relatively randomly, at least in thes ense that there is no easy way to find a large prime number with no obvious congruences. So even the amount of structure implied by the prime number theorem is initially surprising." (Peter Borwein et al, "The Riemann Hypothesis: A Resource for the Afficionado and Virtuoso Alike", 2007)

"Why is the Riemann hypothesis so important? Why is it the problem that many mathematicians would sell their souls to solve? There are a number of great old unsolved problems in mathematics, but none of them has quite the stature of the Riemann hypothesis. This stature can be attributed to a variety of causes ranging from mathematical to cultural. As with the other old great unsolved problems, the Riemann hypothesis is clearly very difficult. It has resisted solution for 150 years and has been attempted by many of the greatest minds in mathematics." (Peter Borwein et al, "The Riemann Hypothesis: A Resource for the Afficionado and Virtuoso Alike", 2007)