in 2012 mochizuki posted a 500 - page paper online that claimed to solve the puzzle , but it required a dense framework of new maths dubbed " inter - universal teichmüller theory " that even experienced mathematicians found difficult to follow .
in number theory poses deep questions about the true nature of numbers .
he has also criticised the rest of the community for not studying his work in detail , and says most other mathematicians are " simply not qualified " to issue a definitive statement on the proof unless they shinichi mochizuki of kyoto university , japan claims he has proven the abc conjecture , one of the longest standing mysteries of mathematics .
however , even though his 500 - page paper was published in 2012 , no one has managed to understand it .
shinichi mochizuki of kyoto university , japan , has tried to prove the abc ?
mochizuki says his fellow mathematicians are failing to get to grips with his work .
there were two problems however – the first one , that it ’s a 500 page paper online that claimed to solve the puzzle .
he says that three researchers who studied it with his help have yet to find an error , but it will take a few more years for it to be fully confirmed .
it roughly states that three numbers a , b and c , which have no common factor and satisfy a + b = c can not be too smooth ( more detailed explanation here ) .