Mathematical research methodology
- State the question precisely before anything else: domain, hypotheses, unknown, success criterion.
- Catalogue what is known (cite theorems, papers) and what is unknown explicitly.
- Pick a tactic: a proof attempt, a computer-algebra reduction, or a numerical experiment — and say why that tactic.
- Keep a running research diary under
/agent-filesystem/research/<slug>/diary.mdwith one entry per session: question, attempts, dead ends, next step. - Re-evaluate after every dead end: is the question wrong, the tactic wrong, or the regime wrong?