See the ProofZoom Entry Template for the recommended structure of entries and the LaTeX template used for ProofZoom essays.
ProofZoom welcomes contributions from mathematicians who share the goal of making the central ideas behind important proofs visible to mathematicians outside the specialty.
Entries should emphasize conceptual clarity while presenting proofs with enough intermediate steps to make the logical derivation completely clear.
ProofZoom serves as a conceptual guide to important mathematical proofs.
ProofZoom aims to make the central idea behind a proof visible to mathematicians outside the specialty and to include intermediate steps where necessary so that the derivation of the proof is clear.
Mathematical papers often present proofs in full technical detail, but the conceptual mechanism driving the argument may not be immediately visible to readers outside the field. ProofZoom entries aim to reveal that mechanism clearly while presenting proofs in a logically transparent way.
Explain the key conceptual insight of the result and its relevance within the subject area, including connections to major results in the theory.
Describe the mechanism that makes the proof work. The reader should be able to understand why the theorem is true before encountering the full technical details.
Present the rigorous mathematical proof, including intermediate steps where necessary so that the logical derivation is clear.
Entries should aim for:
Whenever possible:
ProofZoom is written for mathematicians, but not necessarily specialists in the topic.
An entry should ideally be understandable by a graduate-level mathematician working in a different area.
Entries should focus on a single concept or theorem. Most entries will typically range from 3–8 pages.
Each entry should include a citation line such as:
Cite as:
ProofZoom Entry-XXXX, Title, ProofZoom (Year).
Show the idea first, and make the proof steps clear.