This problem is also referred to as the identity problem^[1] or the method of zero estimates. It has no formal statement as such but refers to a general problem prevalent in transcendental number theory. Often proofs in transcendence theory are proofs by contradiction. Specifically, they use some auxiliary function to create an integer n ≥ 0, which is shown to satisfy n < 1. Clearly, this means that n must have the value zero, and so a contradiction arises if one can show that in fact n is not zero.

In many transcendence proofs, proving that n ≠ 0 is very difficult, and hence a lot of work has been done to develop methods that can be used to prove the non-vanishing of certain expressions. The sheer generality of the problem is what makes it difficult to prove general results or come up with general methods for attacking it. The number n that arises may involve integrals, limits, polynomials, other functions, and determinants of matrices.

In certain cases, algorithms or other methods exist for proving that a given expression is non-zero, or of showing that the problem is undecidable. For example, if x₁, ..., x_n are real numbers, then there is an algorithm^[2] for deciding whether there are integers a₁, ..., a_n such that

${\displaystyle a_{1}x_{1}+\cdots +a_{n}x_{n}=0\,.}$ 

If the expression we are interested in contains an oscillating function, such as the sine or cosine function, then it has been shown that the problem is undecidable, a result known as Richardson's theorem. In general, methods specific to the expression being studied are required to prove that it cannot be zero.

• Integer relation algorithm