Proof Strategy and Architecture (anmath-methods)

When to trigger

• The proof is essentially complete but its logical structure is not laid out for a reader
• A referee would not be able to see the plan before drowning in the details
• The key new idea is buried; it is not clear where the real difficulty is overcome
• The argument is monolithic and should be decomposed into named lemmas/propositions

Architecture-first principle

For an Annals paper, an expert non-specialist should be able to read a proof overview and understand how the theorem is proved before verifying that it is. The architecture is part of the contribution.