LLM finds obscure linear-programming paper that helps solve a K3 quartics problem
burny_tech · x · 2026-07-28
A mathematician recounts how, after getting access to the latest model, they used a carefully designed Codex prompt on a problem about Chern slopes of K3 quartics.
The model unexpectedly surfaced an obscure paper on a variant of linear programming, which helped advance the final part of the proof. The story highlights how LLMs can contribute in niche mathematical research by finding non-obvious connections, not just by doing rote computation.
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