Researching with infinite patience

Once, in 2012, they thought they had reached their goal: Prof. Ralf Schindler and Prof. David Asperó presented to their community of fellow mathematicians a proof designed to unite two hitherto competing assumptions in set theory. Shortly afterwards the pair of researchers had to back-pedal after a colleague had discovered an error in their presentation. "As a mathematician you definitely need high frustration tolerance," says Schindler, a professor at the Institute of Mathematical Logic and Foundational Research at the University of Münster. But staying on the ball - despite setbacks - can pay off: a few years later, while driving on holiday in Italy, David Asperó suddenly had a brainwave showing how their proof might work after all. Together the two mathematicians worked on their approach, which they finally published in the "Annals of Mathematics" journal in May 2021. Mathematicians the world over celebrated the proof as a milestone in research in the field of infinities - one of the theoretical foundations of mathematics. Previously, experts had assumed that you had to decide between the two assumptions (known in mathematics as axioms).