Assessing LLMs' mathematical abilities requires understanding the various mechanisms of mathematical creativity

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arXiv:2608.16118v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: How should we assess whether large language models can perform mathematical invention? I argue that this question is currently underspecified: mathematical creativity is not one capacity but several mechanistically distinct modes of meaning-making - reflexive introspection on mathematical practice, analogical import from the sciences, problem-driven construction, and the bridging of distant domains - together with a further, cross-cutting distincti