Sun Zhihong (, 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, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...

, working primarily on

number theory Number theory is a branch of pure mathematics devoted primarily to the study of the integers and arithmetic functions. Number theorists study prime numbers as well as the properties of mathematical objects constructed from integers (for example ...

combinatorics Combinatorics is an area of mathematics primarily concerned with counting, both as a means and as an end to obtaining results, and certain properties of finite structures. It is closely related to many other areas of mathematics and has many ...

, and

graph theory In mathematics and computer science, graph theory is the study of ''graph (discrete mathematics), graphs'', which are mathematical structures used to model pairwise relations between objects. A graph in this context is made up of ''Vertex (graph ...

. Sun and his twin brother Sun Zhiwei 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 Fibona ...

s that guided the search for counterexamples to

Fermat's Last Theorem In number theory, Fermat's Last Theorem (sometimes called Fermat's conjecture, especially in older texts) states that no three positive number, positive integers , , and satisfy the equation for any integer value of greater than . The cases ...

External links

Zhi-Hong Sun's homepage
1965 births Living people Mathematicians from Jiangsu 20th-century Chinese mathematicians 21st-century Chinese mathematicians Number theorists Academic staff of Huaiyin Normal University Scientists from Huai'an Educators from Huai'an Chinese twins {{Asia-mathematician-stub