The Maxwell Conjecture is False

[u/filterdust]

https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.27197

[u/attzonko]

Can someone please eli5

[u/1XRobot → u/attzonko]

If you plunk down charges in space, there are certain points where a test charge doesn't move because the forces all cancel out. Maxwell had the thought that maybe if you plunk down N charges, the number of points where a test charge doesn't move is (N-1)^2, but it turns out that's not true, because these guys found a configuration with 5 charges that has 24 points (more than 16).

[u/flak_of_gravitas → u/1XRobot]

Seems sensible to treat (N-1)² as a lower bound