I am interested in polynomials with few terms ("short polynomials", "fewnomials") in ideals. A simple to state question is Given an ideal $I\subset k[x_1,\dots,x_n]$, what is the shortest polynomial in $I$? There are answers for "Does an ideal contain a monomial/binomial?", but the general que...

In 1994, Mike Hopkins wrote a paper called Topological Modular Forms, the Witten Genus, and the Theorem of the Cube. As usual, the introduction was fantastic, explaining the power of various cobordism invariants and connections between homotopy theory and other fields. He states "it is believed t...

This question is related to but seems to be simpler than this one, so perhaps somebody can solve it. Question. Is there $k\ge 1$ and a coloring of vertices of the lattice ${\mathbb Z}^k$ in $k$ colors such that there does not exist an arbitrarily long monochromatric simple 2-path? Is there a c...

Having just finished Michael Nielsen's book "Reinventing Discovery", I find myself wondering if there are ways that pure mathematics research can engage the public in the way that GalaxyZoo or Foldit have in astronomy and protein science respectively. In other words, to break up large-scale resea...