# What does “of independent interest” mean in math papers?

Often I come across phrases like "We believe theorem $X$ is of independent interest"... I know this a phrase specific to math since I can google the phrase "of independent interest" and get mostly math papers.

I think this phrase is rather strange since it leaves out who it might be interesting to or why. Or maybe it is self-evident. Finally, when is it okay to include such a result?

I can provide specific examples if necessary, but it doesn't take long to stumble across in one's own reading.

• Well, the phrase literally means that the thorem is thought to be not only of interest in the current context, but also to a much wider application. It may be that this is more often the case with math because a result from complex ananlysis can easily be useful in number thoery, whereas a similar transfer is less likely in other sciences (well, maybe in physics, a finding in quantum/particle physics might be of interest also in cosmology or the like) – Hagen von Eitzen Oct 29 '14 at 22:07