Gap in Wiles proof?

[Joseph Lipman]

There are many rumors buzzing around about one or more gaps in Wiles' proof.
Does gap mean crack, fissure, crevasse, chasm, or abyss? Does anyone have
RELIABLE information?

[Len Evens]

I don't have any first hand information, and I don't feel at liberty
to discuss second hand information. I think the best advice for
everyone is to keep calm and let the very competent referees who
are carefully examining Wiles's paper do their work. They will
report their findings when they have something definite to
say. Anyone who has written a paper or refereed a paper will
be familiar with the fact that often questions will arise in
the process of checking proofs. It would be amazing were this
not to happen for such an important result with a long difficult
proof.

Leonard Evens l...@math.nwu.edu 708-491-5537
Dept. of Mathematics, Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL 60208