The International Conference on Probability Theory and Number Theory (ICPTNT 2026) is taking place in Palanga on 13–19 September. This year’s conference marks two anniversaries: the 75th birthday of Professor Rimantas Rudzkis and the 70th anniversary of the establishment of the Institute of Physics and Mathematics (FMI), which operated from 1956 to 1977.
The FMI laid the foundations for the rapid development of research in physics and mathematics in Lithuania. One of the institutes that grew out of it is the Institute of Data Science and Digital Technologies at Vilnius University’s Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics (VU MIF DMSTI).
ICPTNT 2026 participants in Palanga
The conference continues a tradition of international mathematics conferences in Palanga dating back to 1991, when the first such conferences were dedicated to Prof. Jonas Kubilius, a prominent professor in mathematics and long-serving Rector of Vilnius University.
"This year's conference has attracted a particularly large number of participants. More than 60 researchers are taking part, many of them guests from Japan, Czechia, Greece, Sweden, and France," says mathematician Assoc. Prof. Dr. Andrius Grigutis, one of the conference organizers and a researcher at Vilnius University's Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics.
He also adds that the international format also offers an opportunity to see Lithuanian mathematics in a wider context.
"The level of mathematical research in Lithuania is fully consistent with the international level. Conferences like this make that particularly clear," says Dr. Grigutis.
On 13 September, presentations covered topics including the universality of zeta functions, applications of probability theory to risk measurement, covering the plane with different geometric shapes, and applications of mathematics in optics. Historical presentations on the Institute of Physics and Mathematics, Prof. Rudzkis, and the Cathedra of Applied Mathematics are scheduled for 17 and 18 September.
AI as a tool
While the conference focuses primarily on the latest research in probability theory, number theory, and other areas of mathematics, artificial intelligence is also inevitably part of mathematicians' conversations.
Assoc. Prof. Dr Andrius Grigutis, VU MIF
"Recently, we have seen several significant breakthroughs achieved with the help of AI," says the conference organizer. He points to recent work on the Navier–Stokes equations, which describe how fluids flow and underpin one of the seven Millennium Prize Problems, and to progress on the Riemann hypothesis – a 166-year-old conjecture about the distribution of prime numbers, and perhaps the most famous open problem in mathematics. In the latter case, researchers have improved the known bound on how many of the zeta function's zeros lie on the so-called critical line, where the hypothesis predicts all of them should be.
"Many of these results have not yet been reviewed and confirmed by the mathematical community. But what is happening is impossible to ignore and makes us think about the future," says Dr Grigutis.
As a mathematician working in the Analytical Number Theory Group at the VU MIF Institute of Mathematics, Dr Grigutis believes that AI's role in mathematics is likely to grow.
"It is very likely that AI will be used increasingly often to solve mathematical problems, and that it will help solve more famous problems that humans have struggled with for many years," says the mathematician.
This, he believes, will also change the skills mathematicians need.
"Mathematicians will probably need to focus more on understanding and making use of what AI can do, formulating new problems for it and finding new ways to use AI for their purposes," says Dr Grigutis.
The conference in Palanga is therefore about more than presenting research results. It provides researchers with an opportunity to exchange ideas, establish new collaborations, and discuss the directions mathematics may take in the future.
The event is organized in collaboration with the Lithuanian Mathematical Society, VU Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics, VU Šiauliai Academy, and the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences.
15 September 2026
