Andrew Wiles’ Marvellous Proof

[摘要] Fermat famously claimed to have discovered “a truly marvellous proof” of his Last Theorem, which the margin of his copyof Diophantus’ Arithmetica was too narrow to contain. Whilethis proof (if it ever existed) is lost to posterity, Andrew Wiles’marvellous proof has been public for over two decades andhas now earned him the Abel prize. According to the prize citation, Wiles merits this recognition “for his stunning proof ofFermat’s Last Theorem by way of the modularity conjecturefor semistable elliptic curves, opening a new era in numbertheory”.