The mathematician claims to have solved a 160-year-old math problem. Critics probably say no.

An unresolved 160-year-old mathematical problem can finally find a solution – but critics are wary.

Michael Atiyah, eminent mathematician emeritus at the University of Edinburgh, announced Monday, Sept. 24 at the Heidelberg Prize Winners' Forum, Germany, that he had found a simple proof to solve the hypothesis of Riemann.

The hypothesis was first coined by the German mathematician Bernhard Riemann in 1859. The prime numbers, or those whose only factors are 1 and himself – such as 2, 3, 5 and 7 – do not seem not follow a regular pattern. In other words, you can not know when the next prime number occurs knowing a pattern. [The 11 Most Beautiful Mathematical Equations]

However, Riemann saw that the frequency of prime numbers closely follows an equation known as the Riemann Zeta function, according to the Clay Mathematics Institute. If the equation is true, it would describe the distribution of prime numbers up to infinity.

According to the Institute, it has only been verified for the first 10,000,000,000,000 solutions and the problem remains "unresolved". The person who resolves the function of Riemann Zeta, or one of the six other great mysteries in mathematics that constitute the "Millennium Problems", will receive a $ 1 million prize from the Institute.

Atyiyah's proof is based on a number of unrelated physics called "fine-structure constant", which describes the electromagnetic interactions between charged particles, according to Science. He describes this constant using another equation called the Todd function, to prove Riemann's hypothesis by contradiction, according to Science. In mathematics, contradiction is a type of proof in which you assume that the "thing" you want to prove is false and then show you how the results of this hypothesis are simply not possible.

Atiyah, 89, made major contributions to mathematics and physics, winning mathematics awards – the Fields Medal in 1966 and the Abel Prize in 2004. But in recent years he has also presented mathematical evidence now , many of his colleagues criticize his new claims and say they are unlikely to prove themselves, according to Science.

"The proof is simply stacking one impressive claim over another, with no binding argument or real justification," physicist John Baez, a physicist at the University of California at Riverside, told the science.

In his speech, Atiyah described the many times that many people have claimed to have proved the hypothesis, for being mistaken. "Nobody believes in the proof of Riemann's hypothesis because it's so difficult, no one has proved it, so why should we prove it now? Unless, of course, To have a totally new idea. "

Originally published on Live Science.