Daniel Litt
@littmath.bsky.social
Assistant professor (of mathematics) at the University of Toronto. Algebraic geometry, number theory, forever distracted and confused, etc. He/him.
Pinned
Daniel Litt
@littmath.bsky.social
· Jan 24
Yeuk Hay Joshua Lam, Daniel Litt
Algebraicity and integrality of solutions to differential equations
https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.13175
Algebraicity and integrality of solutions to differential equations
https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.13175
I want to explain in down-to-earth terms what this paper is about, since it ultimately boils down to what I think are some really concrete and fundamental questions. 1/n
Toddler, post-museum, refusing to go up to her bath: “I’m art so don’t touch me!”
Toddler on art during recent museum visits:
Left—“They started drawing a house! *matter-of-factly* They’ll finish it tomorrow.”
Right—“That baby’s in a tissue box!”
Left—“They started drawing a house! *matter-of-factly* They’ll finish it tomorrow.”
Right—“That baby’s in a tissue box!”
February 17, 2026 at 11:46 PM
Toddler, post-museum, refusing to go up to her bath: “I’m art so don’t touch me!”
Toddler on art during recent museum visits:
Left—“They started drawing a house! *matter-of-factly* They’ll finish it tomorrow.”
Right—“That baby’s in a tissue box!”
Left—“They started drawing a house! *matter-of-factly* They’ll finish it tomorrow.”
Right—“That baby’s in a tissue box!”
February 16, 2026 at 10:57 PM
Toddler on art during recent museum visits:
Left—“They started drawing a house! *matter-of-factly* They’ll finish it tomorrow.”
Right—“That baby’s in a tissue box!”
Left—“They started drawing a house! *matter-of-factly* They’ll finish it tomorrow.”
Right—“That baby’s in a tissue box!”
toddler (on the way to preschool): I can see the CN tower
me: it was too cloudy to see it yesterday. isn’t it nice we can see the whole thing today?
toddler *patiently*: daddy, we can only see the front of it.
me: it was too cloudy to see it yesterday. isn’t it nice we can see the whole thing today?
toddler *patiently*: daddy, we can only see the front of it.
February 11, 2026 at 2:53 PM
toddler (on the way to preschool): I can see the CN tower
me: it was too cloudy to see it yesterday. isn’t it nice we can see the whole thing today?
toddler *patiently*: daddy, we can only see the front of it.
me: it was too cloudy to see it yesterday. isn’t it nice we can see the whole thing today?
toddler *patiently*: daddy, we can only see the front of it.
me: *reading “The Lorax”* NOW…thanks to your hacking my trees to the ground, there's not enough Truffula Fruit to go 'round.
And my poor Bar-ba-loots are all getting the crummies because they have gas, and no food, in their tummies!
toddler: They should get sushi!
And my poor Bar-ba-loots are all getting the crummies because they have gas, and no food, in their tummies!
toddler: They should get sushi!
February 9, 2026 at 12:45 AM
me: *reading “The Lorax”* NOW…thanks to your hacking my trees to the ground, there's not enough Truffula Fruit to go 'round.
And my poor Bar-ba-loots are all getting the crummies because they have gas, and no food, in their tummies!
toddler: They should get sushi!
And my poor Bar-ba-loots are all getting the crummies because they have gas, and no food, in their tummies!
toddler: They should get sushi!
Toddler (sitting down in a restaurant she’s never been to): I’ve been here before! When I was little!
Me *dubious*: Really? When?
Toddler *thinks, nods*: When I was medium!
Me *dubious*: Really? When?
Toddler *thinks, nods*: When I was medium!
February 6, 2026 at 11:07 PM
Toddler (sitting down in a restaurant she’s never been to): I’ve been here before! When I was little!
Me *dubious*: Really? When?
Toddler *thinks, nods*: When I was medium!
Me *dubious*: Really? When?
Toddler *thinks, nods*: When I was medium!
Toddler: I want to do “Lady and the Tramp” all by myself! *sticks both ends of a string of spaghetti in her mouth*
February 3, 2026 at 12:52 AM
Toddler: I want to do “Lady and the Tramp” all by myself! *sticks both ends of a string of spaghetti in her mouth*
Toddler: I want two apricots, because I’m two-and-a-half. *Pause* When I turn three, I can have three apricots. *Pause, realization* When I turn four, I can have four apricots! When I turn five, I can have FIVE apricots!
January 31, 2026 at 10:22 PM
Toddler: I want two apricots, because I’m two-and-a-half. *Pause* When I turn three, I can have three apricots. *Pause, realization* When I turn four, I can have four apricots! When I turn five, I can have FIVE apricots!
Reposted by Daniel Litt
How does math research change when the cost of trying your first dumb idea goes to zero?
University of Toronto mathematician Daniel Litt joins hosts Greg Burnham & Anson Ho to discuss what today’s models can and can’t do in math, and how far they are from doing high-quality research.
Video below!
University of Toronto mathematician Daniel Litt joins hosts Greg Burnham & Anson Ho to discuss what today’s models can and can’t do in math, and how far they are from doing high-quality research.
Video below!
January 29, 2026 at 8:11 PM
How does math research change when the cost of trying your first dumb idea goes to zero?
University of Toronto mathematician Daniel Litt joins hosts Greg Burnham & Anson Ho to discuss what today’s models can and can’t do in math, and how far they are from doing high-quality research.
Video below!
University of Toronto mathematician Daniel Litt joins hosts Greg Burnham & Anson Ho to discuss what today’s models can and can’t do in math, and how far they are from doing high-quality research.
Video below!
Reposted by Daniel Litt
Watch the full episode here: youtu.be/jFJku8sxLWY
Full transcript & references available here: epoch.ai/epoch-after...
Full transcript & references available here: epoch.ai/epoch-after...
AI math capabilities could be jagged for a long time – Daniel Litt
Daniel Litt is a professor of mathematics at the University of Toronto. He has been a careful observer of AI’s progress toward accelerating mathematical disc...
www.youtube.com
January 29, 2026 at 8:11 PM
Watch the full episode here: youtu.be/jFJku8sxLWY
Full transcript & references available here: epoch.ai/epoch-after...
Full transcript & references available here: epoch.ai/epoch-after...
Toddler, talking to her uncle on the phone: Where are you?
Uncle: I’m at work. What about you?
Toddler: I don’t work. I just play! You’re SO silly!
Uncle: I’m at work. What about you?
Toddler: I don’t work. I just play! You’re SO silly!
January 27, 2026 at 10:40 PM
Toddler, talking to her uncle on the phone: Where are you?
Uncle: I’m at work. What about you?
Toddler: I don’t work. I just play! You’re SO silly!
Uncle: I’m at work. What about you?
Toddler: I don’t work. I just play! You’re SO silly!
Toddler, melting down due to broken granola bar.
Me: How bout I glue it together with honey.
Toddler *tearfully*: OK
Me: Did you know bees make honey?
Toddler: *nods* they make pizza too!
Me: How bout I glue it together with honey.
Toddler *tearfully*: OK
Me: Did you know bees make honey?
Toddler: *nods* they make pizza too!
January 25, 2026 at 5:39 PM
Toddler, melting down due to broken granola bar.
Me: How bout I glue it together with honey.
Toddler *tearfully*: OK
Me: Did you know bees make honey?
Toddler: *nods* they make pizza too!
Me: How bout I glue it together with honey.
Toddler *tearfully*: OK
Me: Did you know bees make honey?
Toddler: *nods* they make pizza too!
Toddler: “I opened the fridge all by myself! I tried and tried with all my might! I am super STRONG!”
January 25, 2026 at 1:34 PM
Toddler: “I opened the fridge all by myself! I tried and tried with all my might! I am super STRONG!”
Toddler: *grabs slice of toast, turns to me* I want this Frenched!
January 23, 2026 at 1:32 PM
Toddler: *grabs slice of toast, turns to me* I want this Frenched!
Toddler asked to buy 3 donut holes yesterday, one each for her, mommy, and daddy. On getting home—
Her: “Daddy, only take ONE. Just ONE!”
Me: How many are you going to take?
Her: Just…one?
Her: “Daddy, only take ONE. Just ONE!”
Me: How many are you going to take?
Her: Just…one?
January 22, 2026 at 5:38 PM
Toddler asked to buy 3 donut holes yesterday, one each for her, mommy, and daddy. On getting home—
Her: “Daddy, only take ONE. Just ONE!”
Me: How many are you going to take?
Her: Just…one?
Her: “Daddy, only take ONE. Just ONE!”
Me: How many are you going to take?
Her: Just…one?
Toddler refused to eat her cheese after slightly tearing it, demanding I tape it back together. After some negotiation she was satisfied with me using “avocado tape,” i.e. laying thin slices of avocado over the tear.
January 18, 2026 at 12:29 AM
Toddler refused to eat her cheese after slightly tearing it, demanding I tape it back together. After some negotiation she was satisfied with me using “avocado tape,” i.e. laying thin slices of avocado over the tear.
Very happy to finally have this paper out!
Yeuk Hay Joshua Lam, Daniel Litt: p-Curvature and Non-Abelian Cohomology https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.07933 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2601.07933 https://arxiv.org/html/2601.07933
January 15, 2026 at 2:50 AM
Very happy to finally have this paper out!
Reposted by Daniel Litt
Yeuk Hay Joshua Lam, Daniel Litt: p-Curvature and Non-Abelian Cohomology https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.07933 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2601.07933 https://arxiv.org/html/2601.07933
January 14, 2026 at 6:37 AM
Yeuk Hay Joshua Lam, Daniel Litt: p-Curvature and Non-Abelian Cohomology https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.07933 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2601.07933 https://arxiv.org/html/2601.07933
New MathOverflow questions each month since the site's beginning. Decline seems to start in ~2021 (due to site moderation changes?), with a notably steeper decline in 2025, since the advent of reasoning models.
January 5, 2026 at 7:13 PM
New MathOverflow questions each month since the site's beginning. Decline seems to start in ~2021 (due to site moderation changes?), with a notably steeper decline in 2025, since the advent of reasoning models.
Reposted by Daniel Litt
I find it hard to square the preciousness about "why would someone ever stay on Twitter?" when everyone on this site knows that the community here intentionally chased off lots of people.
January 5, 2026 at 5:41 PM
I find it hard to square the preciousness about "why would someone ever stay on Twitter?" when everyone on this site knows that the community here intentionally chased off lots of people.
Reposted by Daniel Litt
Alice and Bob on 𝕏: Reversal, Coupling, Renewal
@joinmaa.bsky.social @tandfresearch.bsky.social www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
@joinmaa.bsky.social @tandfresearch.bsky.social www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Alice and Bob on 𝕏: Reversal, Coupling, Renewal
A neat question involving coin flips surfaced on X, and generated an intensive “storm” of “social mathematics.” In a sequence of flips of a fair coin, Alice wins a point at each appearance of two c...
www.tandfonline.com
December 6, 2025 at 1:13 PM
Alice and Bob on 𝕏: Reversal, Coupling, Renewal
@joinmaa.bsky.social @tandfresearch.bsky.social www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
@joinmaa.bsky.social @tandfresearch.bsky.social www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Much more true now than it was 6 months ago.
If the last time you tried to use an LLM for math was ~4 or 5 months ago it’s worth firing up Gemini 2.5 (which you can try for free) or ChatGPT o3 and getting a sense of how rapidly things have progressed.
December 9, 2025 at 12:16 AM
Much more true now than it was 6 months ago.
new trolley problem just dropped: Elon vs. 10^58 randomly chosen people. let's see what Grok has to say
November 21, 2025 at 3:43 PM
new trolley problem just dropped: Elon vs. 10^58 randomly chosen people. let's see what Grok has to say
Reposted by Daniel Litt
Congratulations to the forty mathematical scientists named Fellows of the American Mathematical Society for 2026. Recognized by their peers, AMS Fellows have made outstanding contributions to the creation, exposition, advancement, communication, and utilization of mathematics.
October 31, 2025 at 4:45 PM
Congratulations to the forty mathematical scientists named Fellows of the American Mathematical Society for 2026. Recognized by their peers, AMS Fellows have made outstanding contributions to the creation, exposition, advancement, communication, and utilization of mathematics.
We finally have a proof of Fermat’s last theorem that fits in a margin, achieving the dream of centuries of mathematicians. Namely, “by [TayWi95]…”
October 20, 2025 at 4:18 PM
We finally have a proof of Fermat’s last theorem that fits in a margin, achieving the dream of centuries of mathematicians. Namely, “by [TayWi95]…”
Experiencing extreme levels of “someone is wrong on the internet” today.
October 18, 2025 at 2:18 AM
Experiencing extreme levels of “someone is wrong on the internet” today.