Leila Sloman

Contributing Correspondent

Latest Articles

Maze Proof Establishes a ‘Backbone’ for Statistical Mechanics

February 7, 2024

Four mathematicians have estimated the chances that there’s a clear path through a random maze.

Q&A

The Mathematician Who Finds the Poetry in Math and the Math in Poetry

January 12, 2024

The links between math, music and art have been explored for thousands of years. Sarah Hart is now turning a mathematical eye to literature.

‘A-Team’ of Math Proves a Critical Link Between Addition and Sets

December 6, 2023

A team of four prominent mathematicians, including two Fields medalists, proved a conjecture described as a “holy grail of additive combinatorics.”

In the ‘Wild West’ of Geometry, Mathematicians Redefine the Sphere

November 7, 2023

High-dimensional spheres can have a much wider variety of structures than mathematicians thought possible.

Mathematicians Cross the Line to Get to the Point

September 25, 2023

A new paper establishes a long-conjectured bound about the size of the overlap between sets of lines and points.

The Biggest Smallest Triangle Just Got Smaller

September 8, 2023

A new proof breaks a decades-long drought of progress on the problem of estimating the size of triangles created by cramming points into a square.

New Proof Shows That ‘Expander’ Graphs Synchronize

July 24, 2023

The proof establishes new conditions that cause connected oscillators to sway in sync.

The Lawlessness of Large Numbers

July 7, 2023

Mathematicians can often figure out what happens as quantities grow infinitely large. What about when they are just a little big?

A Very Big Small Leap Forward in Graph Theory

May 2, 2023

Four mathematicians have found a new upper limit to the “Ramsey number,” a crucial property describing unavoidable structure in graphs.

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