Solved! Caltech Researcher Helps Crack Decades-Old Math Problem

), and Matthew Hastings, a researcher at Microsoft, have solved one of the world's most challenging open problems in the field of mathematical physics. The problem, related to the "quantum Hall effect," was first proposed in 1999 as one of 13 significant unsolved problems to be included on a list maintained by Michael Aizenman, a professor of physics and mathematics at Princeton University and the former president of the   was to record some of the most perplexing unsolved puzzles in mathematical physics-a field that uses rigorous mathematical reasoning to address physics questions. So far, the problem undertaken by Michalakis is the only one fully solved, while another has been partially solved. Progress made on the partially-solved problem has resulted in two Fields Medals, the highest honor in mathematics. "I hope that the solution to this problem will invigorate interest in the field of mathematical physics," says Michalakis. "In mathematical physics, we look for a minimal set of assumptions under which we can show how important phenomena in physics arise. And, as is often the case with proofs of significant problems in math, the solution leads to new ideas and techniques that open the doors to resolving several other important questions." Bizarre Electron Behavior The original quantum Hall effect was discovered in a groundbreaking experiment by Edwin Hall in 1879 that showed, for the first time, that electric currents in a metal can be deflected in the presence of a magnetic field perpendicular to the surface.