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I've come across this a few times and have yet to find a general consensus on how to format a proof inside of a proof. Should there be a proof environment within the proof environment that is indented? Should there be a different QED.

This thread somewhat talks about an approach, but cases are a bit different that "inner proofs".

I checked AMS' Mathematics in Type but it had no mention of such a scenario.

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Reck
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    Is this a TeX question? Or is it really better suited to Maths SE? That is, is it about how to typeset something - perhaps you could provide an example of the desired output - or is it about what the something should look like? – cfr Mar 10 '14 at 03:31
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    I suppose it could be either or, but I reasoned that it is best suited for TeX since it relates more to typesetting than it does computation. Also, if there is a standard way, it would be defined by AMS (or another society) and would likely be included in a TeX package. I have no example because I'm unsure of what the convention is. – Reck Mar 10 '14 at 03:36
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    I just thought that Maths SE might be more likely to know what the convention is (or if there isn't one). Just in terms of density of mathematicians. – cfr Mar 10 '14 at 03:42
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    This is off topic for this site, but how about using lemmas to build your proof? I think it would be best to give your readers bite-sized, easy-to-follow results, and then combine them together to make your point. You could use several lemma environments outside your main proof; no need for too much nesting. – jub0bs Mar 10 '14 at 07:38
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    i've changed the tag from amsmath to theorems -- amsmath deals mainly with the formatting of display math; it has nothing to do with theorems. and i used a more generic tag than amsthm since there are several available theorem packages. however, the topic is still better suited to the math se. (the ams doesn't have a specified format for this situation. i've seen proofs "discontinued", other material including proofs inserted, and finally the original proof completed; but there wasn't any indentation, just explanatory prose and a final tombstone.) – barbara beeton Mar 10 '14 at 14:04

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