I have found a conjecture in a research article (published in a good journal) on number theory, which is not well known but very reasonable. Let me be clear that, there is no counter-example that vote down the conjecture, rather, its trueness has been proved in some special situation so far. I need this conjecture to develop a *tool* in order to write a research article. Unfortunately, I am unable to prove the conjecture as of now. Maybe others can prove it after some time.


**My question:**


Is it a reasonable way to write a research article assuming truth of the conjecture?



Is it a reasonable way to write a research article assuming truth of a conjecture?
A research article which assumes the truth of a conjecture also counts (indirectly) as research on the conjecture itself. If you show that certain results follow from a conjecture and those results are later shown to be false, then the original conjecture would have been shown to be false. Another possibility is that the results that you derive could be shown to be equivalent to the original conjecture, in which case independent confirmation of those results will prove the original conjecture. Research of the sort that you are proposing increases the attack surface of the original problem.


Whether or not the result will be publishable is a question which can't be answered in the abstract and is best left to the editor of whatever journal you intend to submit it to.


