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388•08/11/2026, 10:00•3 min read

Claude Improves the Estimate of the Zeros of the Riemann Zeta Function

Claude Improves the Estimate of the Zeros of the Riemann Zeta Function
Executive TL;DR30s read

Claude has made significant progress in estimating the zeros of the Riemann zeta function, raising the lower bound from 41.6% to 67.2%. This was achieved through new approaches and coordination of sub-agents.

Claude Improves the Estimate of the Zeros of the Riemann Zeta Function

One of the researchers, more for the sake of experimentation, asked an unpublished research version of Claude to "seriously tackle" the Riemann Hypothesis. The model did not prove the hypothesis, but it unexpectedly achieved a strong result: it increased the lower bound of the zeros of the Riemann zeta function lying on the critical line from 41.6% to 67.2%.

To understand the scale: before this, over 46 years, from 1974 to 2020, the boundary shifted only from 33.3% to 41.6%, and this was the work of dozens of mathematicians. Claude made a leap three times greater in one go.

The work took two sessions in Claude Code, approximately 31 million output tokens. Initially, the model tried over 600 ideas, but none led to a result.

Then the user wrote something like "let's try again, believe in yourself," and this, believe it or not, worked: the model coordinated about 60 sub-agents for a day and a half, running thousands of scripts and tests. Ultimately, the improved estimate came from combining ideas from recent works with results from a 2000 paper.

Peer review is not yet available, but the Lean + proof has been verified by two mathematicians from Anthropic and two external experts.

Why it matters

Analysis

This breakthrough in research could have a significant impact on understanding the Riemann Hypothesis and its connection to number theory. The use of AI to solve complex mathematical problems opens new horizons in science.

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