Wiles's proof of Fermat's Last Theorem is a proof by the British mathematician Andrew Wiles of a special case of the modularity theorem for elliptic curves, which together with Ribet's theorem supplies a proof of Fermat's Last Theorem itself. Both Fermat's Last Theorem and the modularity theorem had been considered beyond proof with existing techniques by almost every mathematician of the time. Wiles first announced his proof on 23 June 1993 in a Cambridge lecture titled Modular Forms, Elliptic Curves and Galois Representations, but by September 1993 the proof was found to contain an error.
Facts
StatementWiles proved the modularity theorem for semistable elliptic curves, from which Fermat's Last Theorem follows by proof by contradiction. 1 Connections
Named After
Derived from the theorem's own name (unambiguous possessive-token match to exactly one live mathematician entity, w-bfill-g5-0924 browse backfill)
Sources
1. Wiles's proof of Fermat's Last Theorem - Wikipedia
Summary of Wiles's proof section
Wiles proved the modularity theorem for semistable elliptic curves, from which Fermat's last theorem follows using proof by contradiction.
Announcement and final proof, 1993 to 1995 section
On 19 September 1994, Wiles submitted two manuscripts
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