Abel Prize Laureate Gerd Faltings shares his official position on the infamous ABC Conjecture proof by his former PhD student, Shinichi Mochizuki.

In 2012, Mochizuki published a 500+ page paper claiming to have solved the ABC conjecture — one of the biggest open problems in number theory. More than a decade later, the mathematical community remains split, with many finding the inter-universal Teichmüller theory nearly impossible to digest. Here is what Faltings thinks about his student's work.

Excerpt from the post Abel Prize 2026 ceremony interview.

0:00​ - "If I'm at page 500, I've forgotten page 1"
0:10​ - Did Mochizuki prove the ABC Conjecture?
1:00​ - Faltings' official position
1:55​ - "PhD students are like children..."

https://youtu.be/8NpE81F0gzU?si=o8rqppn2r-mkMe76