Sun Zhiwei (, born October 16, 1965) is a Chinese
mathematician
A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems.
Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change.
History
On ...
, working primarily in
number theory
Number theory (or arithmetic or higher arithmetic in older usage) is a branch of pure mathematics devoted primarily to the study of the integers and arithmetic function, integer-valued functions. German mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777â ...
,
combinatorics
Combinatorics is an area of mathematics primarily concerned with counting, both as a means and an end in obtaining results, and certain properties of finite structures. It is closely related to many other areas of mathematics and has many appl ...
, and
group theory
In abstract algebra, group theory studies the algebraic structures known as group (mathematics), groups.
The concept of a group is central to abstract algebra: other well-known algebraic structures, such as ring (mathematics), rings, field ...
. He is a professor at
Nanjing University
Nanjing University (NJU; ) is a national public research university in Nanjing, Jiangsu. It is a member of C9 League and a Class A Double First Class University designated by the Chinese central government. NJU has two main campuses: the Xianl ...
.
Biography
Sun Zhiwei was born in
Huai'an, Jiangsu. Sun and his twin brother
Sun Zhihong
Sun Zhihong (, born October 16, 1965) is a Chinese mathematician, working primarily on number theory, combinatorics, and graph theory.
Sun and his twin brother Sun Zhiwei proved a theorem about what are now known as the Wall–Sun–Sun primes ...
proved a theorem about what are now known as the
Wall–Sun–Sun prime
In number theory, a Wall–Sun–Sun prime or Fibonacci–Wieferich prime is a certain kind of prime number which is conjectured to exist, although none are known.
Definition
Let p be a prime number. When each term in the sequence of Fibonac ...
s.
Sun proved
Sun's curious identity in 2002. In 2003, he presented a unified approach to three topics of
Paul Erdős
Paul Erdős ( hu, Erdős Pál ; 26 March 1913 – 20 September 1996) was a Hungarian mathematician. He was one of the most prolific mathematicians and producers of mathematical conjectures of the 20th century. pursued and proposed problems in ...
in combinatorial number theory:
covering system In mathematics, a covering system (also called a complete residue system) is a collection
:\
of finitely many residue classes a_i(\mathrm\ ) = \
whose union contains every integer.
Examples and definitions
The notion of covering system was ...
s,
restricted sumset
In additive number theory and combinatorics, a restricted sumset has the form
:S=\,
where A_1,\ldots,A_n are finite nonempty subsets of a field ''F'' and P(x_1,\ldots,x_n) is a polynomial over ''F''.
If P is a constant non-zero function, f ...
s, and
zero-sum problem In number theory, zero-sum problems are certain kinds of combinatorial problems about the structure of a finite abelian group. Concretely, given a finite abelian group ''G'' and a positive integer ''n'', one asks for the smallest value of ''k'' suc ...
s or EGZ Theorem.
With Stephen Redmond, he posed the
Redmond–Sun conjecture in 2006.
In 2013, he published a paper containing many conjectures on primes, one of which states that for any positive integer
there are consecutive primes