Abstract:
Pierre de Fermat famously claimed to have discovered “a truly marvelous proof” of his last theorem, which the margin in his copy of Diophantus' Arithmetica was too narrow to contain. Fermat's proof (if it ever existed!) is probably lost to posterity forever, while Andrew Wiles' proof has been part of the mathematical landscape for over two decades. This lecture will describe a few of the new ideas in this marvelous proof, and the remarkable impact they have had on number theory.

Professor Henri Darmon is a French Canadian mathematician specializing in number theory. He works on Hilbert's 12th problem and its relation with the Birch-Swinnerton-Dyer conjecture. He is currently a James McGill Professor of Mathematics at McGill University.

This lecture was held at The University of Oslo, May 25, 2016 and was part of the Abel Prize Lectures in connection with the Abel Prize Week celebrations.

Program for the Abel Lecture 2016
1. "Fermat's Last Theorem: abelian and non-abelian approaches" by Abel Laureate Sir Andrew Wiles, University of Oxford
2. "Andrew Wiles' marvelous proof" by professor Henri Darmon, McGill University
3. "What is the Birch--Swinnerton-Dyer Conjecture, and what is known about it?" by professor Manjul Bhargava, Princeton University
4. "From Fermat's Last Theorem to Homer's Last Theorem" - a popular lecture by Simon Singh, author of Fermat's Last Theorem among other achievements. This lecture will never be published because the presentation contained material protected by intellectual property.