AgentMath MATH+ EF-LiOpt-3 â–¶ ongoing

Agentic AI in Mathematics

This project aims to develop agentic AI systems for mathematical research: autonomous discovery of patterns and conjectures, design and execution of computational experiments, and integration with formal verification tools.

Sep 2025 to Aug 2028Sep 25 to Aug 28
3
7

🧑‍🎓 IOL Project Members

Sebastian Pokutta
Principal Investigator
pokutta (at) zib.de
Max Zimmer
zimmer (at) zib.de
Nico Pelleriti
pelleriti (at) zib.de

🪙 Funding

This project is being funded by the Berlin Mathematics Research Center MATH+ (project ID EF-LiOpt-3), itself funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) under Germany's Excellence Strategy (EXC-2046/1, project ID 390685689) from September 2025 to August 2028.

🔬 Project Description

Recent AI breakthroughs—discovering knot invariant relationships, generating Hirsch conjecture counterexamples, finding new plane colorings—demonstrate the AI4Math paradigm’s potential.

This project pursues three directions: (1) multi-agent systems for pattern recognition and conjecture generation in discrete mathematics, (2) frameworks that design computational experiments with adaptive parameter tuning, and (3) integration with LEAN for automated proof formalization. A human-in-the-loop approach combines AI’s systematic exploration with mathematical intuition.

đź“ť Publications and preprints

Preprints

  1. Kaibel, V., and Pokutta, S. (2026). A Counterexample to Ziegler’s Cross-Polytope Conjecture for Simplicial 0/1-Polytopes. [arXiv]
    [BibTeX]
    @misc{2026_KaibelPokutta_ZieglerCounterexample_2606-31640,
  archiveprefix = {arXiv},
  eprint = {2606.31640},
  arxiv = {arXiv:2606.31640},
  primaryclass = {math.CO},
  year = {2026},
  author = {Kaibel, Volker and Pokutta, Sebastian},
  title = {A Counterexample to Ziegler's Cross-Polytope Conjecture for Simplicial 0/1-Polytopes},
  date = {2026-06-30}
}
  2. Xu, L., Zhou, Y., and Pokutta, S. (2026). Agentic MIP Research: Accelerated Constraint Handler Generation. [arXiv]
    [BibTeX]
    @misc{2026_LidingxuYugengSebastianpokutta_Agenticmip_2605-09186,
  archiveprefix = {arXiv},
  eprint = {2605.09186},
  arxiv = {arXiv:2605.09186},
  primaryclass = {cs.AI},
  year = {2026},
  author = {Xu, Liding and Zhou, Yugeng and Pokutta, Sebastian},
  title = {Agentic MIP Research: Accelerated Constraint Handler Generation},
  date = {2026-05-09}
}
  3. Zimmer, M., Pelleriti, N., Roux, C., and Pokutta, S. (2026). The Agentic Researcher: A Practical Guide to AI-Assisted Research in Mathematics and Machine Learning. [arXiv]
    [BibTeX]
    @misc{2026_MaxzimmerNicopelleritiChristopherouxSebastianpokutta_Airesearchframework_2603-15914,
  archiveprefix = {arXiv},
  eprint = {2603.15914},
  arxiv = {arXiv:2603.15914},
  primaryclass = {cs.LG},
  year = {2026},
  author = {Zimmer, Max and Pelleriti, Nico and Roux, Christophe and Pokutta, Sebastian},
  title = {The Agentic Researcher: A Practical Guide to AI-Assisted Research in Mathematics and Machine Learning},
  date = {2026-03-16}
}
  4. Pelleriti, N., Nelaturu, S. H., Zhou, Z., Li, Z., Zimmer, M., Han, B., and Pokutta, S. (2026). What Do Evolutionary Coding Agents Evolve? [arXiv]
    [BibTeX]
    @misc{2026_PelleritiEtAl_Evotrace_2605-20086,
  archiveprefix = {arXiv},
  eprint = {2605.20086},
  arxiv = {arXiv:2605.20086},
  primaryclass = {cs.NE},
  year = {2026},
  author = {Pelleriti, Nico and Nelaturu, Sree Harsha and Zhou, Zhanke and Li, Zongze and Zimmer, Max and Han, Bo and Pokutta, Sebastian},
  title = {What Do Evolutionary Coding Agents Evolve?},
  date = {2026-05-19}
}
  5. Pokutta, S. (2026). Symmetric Extension Complexity of the Spanning Tree Polytope. [arXiv]
    [BibTeX]
    @misc{2026_Pokutta_Symmetricextensioncomplexity_2606-17017,
  archiveprefix = {arXiv},
  eprint = {2606.17017},
  arxiv = {arXiv:2606.17017},
  primaryclass = {math.CO},
  year = {2026},
  author = {Pokutta, Sebastian},
  title = {Symmetric Extension Complexity of the Spanning Tree Polytope},
  date = {2026-06-15}
}
  6. Pokutta, S. (2026). Frank-Wolfe Beyond 1/t Convergence. [arXiv]
    [BibTeX]
    @misc{2026_Sebastianpokutta_Localdualsharpness_2604-28006,
  archiveprefix = {arXiv},
  eprint = {2604.28006},
  arxiv = {arXiv:2604.28006},
  primaryclass = {math.OC},
  year = {2026},
  author = {Pokutta, Sebastian},
  title = {Frank-Wolfe Beyond 1/t Convergence},
  date = {2026-04-30}
}
  7. Pokutta, S. (2025). Scalable DC Optimization Via Adaptive Frank-Wolfe Algorithms. [arXiv]
    [BibTeX]
    @misc{2025_Pokutta_DcoptimizationFrankwolfe_2507-17545,
  archiveprefix = {arXiv},
  eprint = {2507.17545},
  arxiv = {arXiv:2507.17545},
  primaryclass = {math.OC},
  year = {2025},
  author = {Pokutta, Sebastian},
  title = {Scalable DC Optimization Via Adaptive Frank-Wolfe Algorithms},
  date = {2025-07-23}
}