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, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...
, working primarily in
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
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 public university in Nanjing, Jiangsu, China. It is affiliated and sponsored by the Ministry of Education. The university is part of Project 211, Project 985, and the Double First-Class Construction. The univers ...
.
Biography
Sun Zhiwei was born in
Huai'an, Jiangsu. Sun and his twin brother
Sun Zhihong 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.
Sun proved
Sun's curious identity in 2002. In 2003, he presented a unified approach to three topics of
Paul Erdős
Paul Erdős ( ; 26March 191320September 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 discrete mathematics, g ...
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\pmod = \,
whose union contains every integer.
Examples and definitions
The notion of covering system was i ...
s,
restricted sumsets, and
zero-sum problems 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