Vieta's formula relates polynomial coefficients to sums and products of roots, enabling solution of complex polynomials without finding individual roots. The formula states that for a quadratic with roots α and β, their sum equals the negative of the coefficient ratio b/a, and their product equals c/a, with applications extending to higher-degree polynomials.
Two high school students, Aayush Bathija and Prince Rohatgi, solved an open problem in Lorentzian polynomials that Fields Medalist June Huh had not cracked, extending theoretical results from quadratic to arbitrary degrees. Working under UCLA postdoc Daniel Soskin with assistance from AI systems Claude Opus 5 and GPT-5.6 Sol, they published their 75-page proof on arXiv.