The unparalleled talent of the country started from Harbin Institute of Technology

Chapter 112: Yau's praise: Does the paper review require consultation with the White House? Annals of Mathematics Special Issue

In early November 1978, Smale's personal office in the Mathematics Department's teaching and research office building at the University of California, Berkeley.

"Oh my god, this is amazing! This paper is so perfect! The four-dimensional Poincaré conjecture has actually been proven."

Smale was amazed. He did not expect that more than ten years after he proved the Poincaré conjecture in five dimensions and above, someone actually proved the Poincaré conjecture in four dimensions.

Although the Poincare conjecture was not completely proved in one go, such progress is still incredible.

From the beginning of this century, when the French mathematician Poincaré proposed a conjecture about topology, to 1961, when he initially proved the existence of five-dimensional and higher-dimensional space, to now in 1978, a full 74 years have passed, and finally there has been some progress.

When it comes to four dimensions, we are not far from completely proving the Poincare conjecture.

Immediately, Smale picked up the manuscript and went to another office on the same floor, which was Qiu Chengtong's personal office.

Because the youngest and most powerful mathematics professor at the University of California, Berkeley is Shing-Tung Yau.

"ShingTung, have you finished reading the paper "The Compact Four-Dimensional Manifold of a Four-Dimensional Sphere is Topologically Equivalent to the Four-Dimensional Sphere"?

After knocking on the door and coming in, Smale saw Qiu Chengtong busy writing something at his desk, and couldn't help but ask hurriedly.

A month ago, Victor King, editor-in-chief of the Annals of Mathematics at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, arranged for someone to airlift a copy of a paper to him. Smale personally studied it for more than half a month and felt that there was a high probability that the paper would be approved.

So he made several copies of the paper and distributed them to several other mathematics professors at the same school, such as Shiing-Shen Chern and Shing-Tung Yau.

Although neither Chern nor Shing-Tung Yau has ever won the Fields Medal, this does not hinder their status.

The status of Chinese in the overseas mathematics community is also very high, from Xiong Qinglai, Hua Luogeng, Wu Wenjun, Su Buqing and others, to Chen Shengshen, Zhou Weiliang, and Qiu Chengtong.

Of course, Xiong Qinglai and others have always been Chinese, but Chen Shengshen, Zhou Weiliang, and Yau Shing-Tung have become Chinese.

But if we just talk about mathematical achievements, Chen Xingshen and others are really awesome, and Hua Luogeng and his apprentice Chen Jingrun also have very impressive reputations overseas.

"I have finished reading it and am now doing the final calculation," said Shing-Tung Yau without raising his head, and then continued to write mathematical symbols quickly.

Smale didn't say anything, but stood quietly by the side, waiting for the other party to complete the final calculation.

It is very important to verify the paper, even if Smale thinks he has completed the argument, then the paper should be passed.

But in fact, this is not the case. For top papers like the Poincare conjecture, if there is even the slightest mistake, the paper will be invalid.

Mathematics is so rigorous that there is no logic at all.

Just like the Scottish black sheep, the black sheep seen while traveling on the train, in the eyes of mathematicians, what everyone sees is the truth, and it is not certain whether the other side is the same.

After more than half an hour, Qiu Chengtong exhaled lightly and exclaimed:
"It's really sharp. He proved everything. So powerful."

Because he was excited, he blurted out his words in fluent native Cantonese and used swear words.

Shing-Tung Yau was born in 1949 and moved to Hong Kong Island with his family in the same year. Since he was a child, his neighbors spoke Cantonese.

"ShingTung, have you figured it out yet? Have you found any loopholes?"

Smel was a little confused because he didn't understand the Cantonese that Qiu Chengtong said. He cursed in his heart, but still interrupted anxiously.

When Qiu Chengtong came to his senses, he remembered that Smale was also in his office.

This is his personal office. Most of the time, he would think and work quietly here. Only on Mondays would he go to the public office to communicate with others.

"No, I didn't find any loopholes. I have carefully deduced the theory in this paper. The theory is perfect, and the tools used in the paper are also amazing."

"The paper has fully demonstrated the existence of four-dimensional manifolds that are not differentiable manifolds, a special case of which is the four-dimensional Poincaré conjecture."

Yau pointed to a passage in the paper that read:

The fourth property of circular topology is finiteness and unboundedness. Our Earth is a structure like this: finite in volume, but with no boundaries on its surface. This embodies the ingenious creativity of the universe, allowing it to interconnect, cyclically interdependent, and naturally self-contained.

In M-theory, the topological transformations and dimensional expansion of open strings, closed strings, and membranes ultimately evolve into the complex structure of the entire universe.

From the perspective of four-dimensional space, the Earth is actually a three-dimensional membrane, and the singularity of a black hole is precisely the point formed by the contraction of the three-dimensional membrane.

After reading this passage, he continued:

"In a sense, the authors have indeed used the ability to flip the inner surface of a hollow sphere over to its outer surface without tearing or jumping, proving the origin of the arrow of time and linking thermodynamics with quantum theory, relativity, superstring theory, and loop quantum gravity."

Upon hearing this, Smel nodded in agreement and gave a thumbs up in praise.

I have to say that this paper is really awesome, and Smale is definitely better than me.

When he was in his seaside villa in Rio de Janeiro, trying to verify the Poincare conjecture for five-dimensional and higher spaces, he had already used up all his life's energy and luck. At that time, he was 30 years old, in the prime of his life, full of energy and vigor, and his mind was particularly clear.

But he is now 48 years old. Although he is still in his prime, he is already at the end of his strength and no longer as brave as he used to be.

If he had been a little more capable, he might have completed the proof of the Poincare conjecture in four-dimensional space a few years after publishing the paper at the Kiev Conference on Nonlinear Vibrations in 1961.

Unfortunately, he worked hard for more than ten years but still got nothing.

After chatting with Shing-Tung Yau for an afternoon, Smale called Victor King at Princeton that evening.

But the latter invited him and Shing-Tung Yau to go to Princeton to discuss with other mathematicians whether to approve the paper and publish it in the Annals of Mathematics.

Two days later, in the city of Princeton, a meeting officially began in the editorial office of the Annals of Mathematics at the Institute for Advanced Study.

The meeting lasted for three days and the discussion was basically completed. There were no problems with the paper and it passed the paper review completely.

But whether to publish it in the Annals of Mathematics may require consulting the White House, because the author of the paper is from the Ice City in mainland China!
In Washington, USA, Bonnie Roberts, who lives in an apartment, got up early this morning, went for a run and walked her dog, then went home for breakfast before driving to work.

Her work address was the White House office because she was a telephone operator.

Before entering the office, she had to go through three rounds of security checks before being allowed into the work area. Not long after she started working, Bonnie Roberts received a call from the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. The other party's application surprised her.

But because the matter was of great importance, she took the initiative to bring it up with her direct supervisor.

The news was quickly passed up, and White House owner Carter James personally answered the call from Victor King, editor-in-chief of the Annals of Mathematics, and gave a positive response.

"Okay, thank you, Mr. President. I know what to do."

Victor King expressed his gratitude and, after hanging up the phone, immediately made arrangements: a special issue of the paper "The Compact Four-Dimensional Manifold of a Four-Dimensional Sphere is Topologically Equivalent to This Four-Dimensional Sphere" from Ice City in mainland China would be printed immediately and delivered to our readers next Monday.

The news was soon known to Shing-Tung Yau, who immediately informed his teacher Shiing-Shen Chern.

Because this matter has a huge impact and is of extraordinary significance.

After listening to this, Chen Shiing-Shen was silent for a while, and suddenly asked:
"Xiaotong, how long have you not been home?"

Qiu Chengtong, who was sitting on the other side, was very surprised and responded, "Teacher, I just came out of the house this morning."

"I'm not talking about your home in the United States. I'm talking about your home in Hong Kong Island."

Since 1969, when he received the recommendation of a professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong to study at the University of California, Berkeley and become a disciple of Shiing-Shen Chern, Shing-Tung Yau has basically stayed in the United States.

In almost ten years, I have only been back to Hong Kong Island a handful of times.

When asked this by the teacher, Qiu Chengtong was stunned. At this moment, he sighed again:
"Maybe we should go home!"

This time, Shing-Tung Yau understood that the home his teacher was referring to was probably not Hong Kong Island, but the mainland.

In 1949, because the Academia Sinica moved to Taiwan, Chen Shiing-Shen moved his family to the United States at the invitation of Oppenheimer, the then director of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. It has been 29 years since then.

This year, Chen Shiing-Shen is 67 years old. Although he is still in good health, if he doesn't go back, he may not have the chance again in this life.

A few days later, a plane took off from Los Angeles, and Chern and his apprentice Shing-Tung Yau returned to Hong Kong Island, which they had been away from for a long time.

Although it was not his hometown, Chen Shiing-Shen was very happy to return to Hong Kong Island. After all, he was surrounded by yellow people who spoke Cantonese and Mandarin.

Ho Ying-tung sent someone to pick them up at the airport and personally entertained Chern and his apprentice.

In the middle of the banquet, Shing-Tung Yau curiously asked about the matter of asking him for a professional journal two months ago. Henry Fok originally wanted to hide it, but when his eyes swept over Shiing-Shen Chern, he suddenly confessed.

When he learned that it was Yang Zongli of China Resources who made the request, Qiu Chengtong suddenly realized:
"I should have guessed this from the beginning. No wonder someone at Harbin Institute of Technology in the Ice City was able to write such a paper."

As soon as these words were spoken, Ho Ying-Tong asked in surprise. Qiu Chengtong did not hide anything and confessed the matter immediately.

"Mr. Qiu, you mean to say that someone from Harbin Institute of Technology submitted a paper to the Annals of Mathematics, and that the paper has been published, right?"

Ho Ying-tung was very excited. This was indeed very good news.

Although he did not understand mathematics, he invested in Shing-Tung Yau. In addition, Yang Zongli took the initiative to ask him to collect foreign mathematics journals, so he took the initiative to pay attention to mathematics-related news.

Moreover, how could Ho Ying-tung not know what the situation was on the mainland from 1949 to 1978?

Now, from Yang Zongli and others, Ho Ying-tung has roughly understood that the other side of the strait is about to open up.

In early October, Peking University President Zhou Peiyuan visited Stanford University and Berkeley.

Various signs have already explained many problems, which Ho Ying-tung is naturally very clear about. So what is needed now is to be able to make a voice in the international arena and increase more influence.

Someone from Harbin Institute of Technology submitted a paper to the American "Annals of Mathematics" and it was successfully published. The significance of this event is certainly different.

Shing-Tung Yau was one of the co-reviewers, and the authenticity of this matter is beyond doubt. In addition, Ho Ying-Tong also heard from the other party that the editor-in-chief of the "Annals of Mathematics" personally called Carter James to confirm it.

In this case, of course, this matter will be handled specially.

Just because of one paper, the Annals of Mathematics even arranged a special issue with full space.

What made Ho Ying-tung even happier was that this paper had a very high status in the mathematics community. If he had to give an example as a reference, then Professor Smale, who won the Fields Medal twelve years ago, would be the best example.

Since Ho Ying-tung was an outsider, he certainly didn't understand what the four-dimensional Poincaré conjecture was. But after Shing-Tung Yau briefly explained the status of the Fields Medal and Professor Smale's identity, he understood.

That night, after seeing off Master and Apprentice Chen, Ho Ying-tung immediately called Yang Zongli.

After receiving the call, the latter was so excited that he trembled all over, and then immediately went to the Huo Mansion to pick up the special issue of "Mathematical Annals".

A special issue was written entirely in English, and only the author's name sounded familiar to Yang Zongli: Duo-Yu Wang!

"Wang Duoyu?"

Yang Zongli muttered to himself, the joy on his face was too obvious.

Two days later, this special issue of the Annals of Mathematics, which had traveled across the ocean, appeared in the office of Director Hua Luogeng of the Institute of Mathematics at the University of Science and Technology of China.

A week ago, Hua Luogeng, Su Buqing, Chen Jingrun, Wu Wenjun, Tao Fangqi and others finally finished reviewing Wang Duoyu's paper after more than a month.

After review, the paper was published in Science China Mathematics.

The reason is very simple. The paper "The Compact Four-Dimensional Manifold of a Four-Dimensional Sphere is Topologically Equivalent to This Four-Dimensional Sphere" is too long, and other papers cannot be published together with it, so it can be published directly in the form of a special issue.

After it was published, Su Buqing proposed to translate it into English and publish it abroad.

But this matter is still under discussion because it requires approval from higher authorities. Moreover, neither "Science China Mathematics" nor "Acta Mathematica Sinica" has an English version, let alone subscribers.

I never expected that before I received a reply, I received a special issue of the Annals of Mathematics sent from the United States. What the hell is going on?
Who translated the paper? How did it get published in Annals of Mathematics?

(End of this chapter)