Manifold Destiny
Encyclopedia
"Manifold Destiny" is an article in The New Yorker
written by Sylvia Nasar
and David Gruber and published in the August 28, 2006 issue of the magazine. It gives a detailed account (including interviews with many mathematician
s) of some of the circumstances surrounding the proof of the Poincaré conjecture
, one of the most important accomplishments of 20th and 21st century mathematics, and traces the attempts by three teams of mathematicians to verify the proof given by Grigori Perelman
.
Subtitled "A legendary problem and the battle over who solved it," the article concentrates on the human drama of the story, especially the discussion on who contributed how much to the proof of the Poincaré conjecture. Interwoven with the article is an interview with the reclusive mathematician Grigori Perelman, whom the authors tracked down to the St. Petersburg apartment he shares with his mother, as well as interviews with many mathematicians. The article describes Perelman's disillusionment and withdrawal from the mathematical community and paints an unflattering portrait of the 1982 Fields Medal
ist, Shing-Tung Yau
.
The article was selected for inclusion in the book The Best American Science Writing
2007. Sylvia Nasar
is best known for her biography of John Forbes Nash
, A Beautiful Mind
. David Gruber is a PhD recipient and graduate of Columbia University
Graduate School of Journalism, who also wrote Aglow in the Dark, published by Harvard University Press.
and Xi-Ping Zhu
, in Beijing
, on the occasion of Strings 2006, an international conference on string theory
. That paper described their effort to verify Perelman's proof. Zhu and Cao were one of the three teams that had undertaken this task.
The article then moves on to an interview with the reclusive mathematician Grigori Perelman
. The interview touches on the Fields Medal, Perelman's life prior to his proof of the Poincaré Conjecture, Richard Hamilton
's formulation of a strategy to prove the conjecture, and William Thurston
's geometrization conjecture
. Yau's long collaborative friendship with Hamilton, which started after Yau learned of the latter's work on the Ricci flow
, is also mentioned.
Subsequently, the article describes Yau in relation to the late Shiing-Shen Chern
, his PhD
advisor and the acknowledged top Chinese
mathematician, as well as Yau's activities in the Chinese mathematical community. Nasar and Gruber write, "he was increasingly anxious ... [that] a younger scholar could try to supplant him as Chern's heir."
Interweaving comments from many mathematicians, the authors present a complex narrative that touches upon matters peripheral to the Poincaré conjecture but reflective of politics in the field of mathematics:
In discussing the Poincaré conjecture, Nasar and Gruber also reveal an allegation against Yau that had apparently not been reported in the press before their article appeared:
This paper was the result of the above-mentioned work of Zhu and Cao, which Yau promoted in the Beijing conference. The New Yorker article concludes by linking the alleged actions of Yau with Perelman's withdrawal from the mathematical community, stating that Perelman claimed not to see "what new contribution [Cao and Zhu] did make"; that he had become disillusioned by the lax ethical standards of the community. As for Yau, Perelman is quoted saying, “I can’t say I’m outraged. Other people do worse. Of course, there are many mathematicians who are more or less honest. But almost all of them are conformists. They are more or less honest, but they tolerate those who are not honest”.
The article concludes with a quote from Mikhail Gromov (who earlier in the article compares Perelman's mathematical approach to that of Isaac Newton
): “To do great work, you have to have a pure mind. You can think only about the mathematics. Everything else is human weakness. Accepting prizes is showing weakness.” The article is accompanied by a full page cartoon that has garnered controversy, discussed below.
s. The controversy revolves around its emphasis on Yau's alleged stake in the Poincaré conjecture, its view that Yau was unfairly taking credit away from Perelman, and its depiction of Yau's supposed involvement in past controversies.
On August 22, 2006, Sir John M. Ball
, president of the International Mathematical Union
, made reference to the article and rushed publication of the Cao/Zhu paper at a speech given at the opening ceremony of the International Congress of Mathematicians
.
On September 18, 2006, a few weeks after publication of the article, Yau's attorneys released a letter accusing The New Yorker and the article's authors of defaming Yau. In the letter, the reporters are accused of fabricating quotes and deliberately molding facts into a narrative they knew to be inaccurate. The letter also asks for a public apology from The New Yorker. The letter appeared online on Yau's website, apparently created in response to the controversy.
The New Yorker has issued the following response to the letter:
Yau's legal efforts have not progressed beyond his September letter. The New Yorker
has stood firmly by its story.
Two of the mathematicians interviewed in The New Yorker article — Stroock and Anderson— have allegedly issued statements in opposition to The New Yorker article, after it became available online. On Oct 6, 2006, the statements attributed to Stroock and Andersen were posted on Yau's website. It has not been confirmed if these mathematicians actually wrote the statements since they are not posted on their own websites and Stroock's "official" letter in the September 11, 2006 issue of The New Yorker is not critical of the article. However, to date none of these mathematicians has publicly denied writing the letters posted on Yau's website either.
On September 25, 2006, a letter from Richard Hamilton
was posted on Yau's website. Hamilton detailed a personal account of the history of the Ricci flow approach to the Poincaré conjecture, saying he was very disturbed by the unfair manner in which Yau had been portrayed in The New Yorker article.
As of October 16, 2006, eight mathematicians in total have posted letters expressing support for Yau on his web site.
On October 17, 2006, a profile of Yau in the New York Times
devoted about half its length to the Perelman dispute. The article said that Yau's promotion of the Cao–Zhu paper "annoyed many mathematicians, who felt that Dr. Yau had slighted Dr. Perelman," but also presented Yau's position, namely that he had never claimed there were gaps in Perelman’s proof, but merely that it was "not understood by all people", and that he "had a duty to dig out the truth of the proof".
The same New York Times article also noted that it had been discovered that a crucial argument of the Cao–Zhu paper was identical to one from a note by Bruce Kleiner
and John Lott
posted online in 2003. This led to an erratum being issued by Cao and Zhu in the December 2006 issue of the same journal where the original article had appeared.
On December 22, 2006, Science Magazine
honored Perelman's proof of the Poincaré Conjecture as the scientific "Breakthrough of the Year
," the first time this had been bestowed in the area of mathematics. The article mentioned how Cao and Zhu had copied from Kleiner and Lott and reported that Cao and Zhu "grudgingly printed an erratum acknowledging Kleiner and Lott's priority". The article also quoted Yau as saying of the Poincaré conjecture, "The methods developed … should shed light on many natural systems, such as the Navier-Stokes equation [of fluid dynamics] and the Einstein equation [of general relativity]." It also talks of animosity among mathematicians following this episode where the AMS attempted to have a panel on the Poincaré and geometrization conjectures at its January 2007 meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana. However, this attempt by the organizer John Ewing fell through after Lott refused to share the stage with Zhu.
On December 26, 2006, National Public Radio (NPR) released an account of the Poincaré conjecture and the controversy surrounding The New Yorker article. David Kestenbaum, a former Harvard Physics graduate student, reported on the story. In his interview, Yau called Perelman’s work “truly original and genius”, and the New Yorker article as inaccurate, denying having given a quote concerning credit contributions at a specific press conference referenced by the New Yorker. He did not directly answer if he had ever made such a statement. "NPR translated an audiotape provided by Yau" and their analysis was in agreement with Yau's statements. Sylvia Nasar was said to have declined multiple attempts for interview by NPR.
On December 3, 2006, Cao and Zhu retracted the original version of their paper, which was titled “A Complete Proof of the Poincaré and Geometrization Conjectures — Application of the Hamilton–Perelman Theory of the Ricci Flow” and posted a revised version, renamed, more modestly, "Hamilton–Perelman's Proof of the Poincaré Conjecture and the Geometrization Conjecture". Rather than the claim of the original abstract, "we give a complete proof", suggesting the proof is by the authors, the revised abstract states: "we give a detailed exposition of a complete proof". The authors also took out the phrase "crowning achievement" from the abstract.
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
written by Sylvia Nasar
Sylvia Nasar
Sylvia Nasar is a German-born American economist and author, best known for her biography of John Forbes Nash, A Beautiful Mind.- Early life and history :...
and David Gruber and published in the August 28, 2006 issue of the magazine. It gives a detailed account (including interviews with many mathematician
Mathematician
A mathematician is a person whose primary area of study is the field of mathematics. Mathematicians are concerned with quantity, structure, space, and change....
s) of some of the circumstances surrounding the proof of the Poincaré conjecture
Poincaré conjecture
In mathematics, the Poincaré conjecture is a theorem about the characterization of the three-dimensional sphere , which is the hypersphere that bounds the unit ball in four-dimensional space...
, one of the most important accomplishments of 20th and 21st century mathematics, and traces the attempts by three teams of mathematicians to verify the proof given by Grigori Perelman
Grigori Perelman
Grigori Yakovlevich Perelman is a Russian mathematician who has made landmark contributions to Riemannian geometry and geometric topology.In 1992, Perelman proved the soul conjecture. In 2002, he proved Thurston's geometrization conjecture...
.
Subtitled "A legendary problem and the battle over who solved it," the article concentrates on the human drama of the story, especially the discussion on who contributed how much to the proof of the Poincaré conjecture. Interwoven with the article is an interview with the reclusive mathematician Grigori Perelman, whom the authors tracked down to the St. Petersburg apartment he shares with his mother, as well as interviews with many mathematicians. The article describes Perelman's disillusionment and withdrawal from the mathematical community and paints an unflattering portrait of the 1982 Fields Medal
Fields Medal
The Fields Medal, officially known as International Medal for Outstanding Discoveries in Mathematics, is a prize awarded to two, three, or four mathematicians not over 40 years of age at each International Congress of the International Mathematical Union , a meeting that takes place every four...
ist, Shing-Tung Yau
Shing-Tung Yau
Shing-Tung Yau is a Chinese American mathematician working in differential geometry. He was born in Shantou, Guangdong Province, China into a family of scholars from Jiaoling, Guangdong Province....
.
The article was selected for inclusion in the book The Best American Science Writing
The Best American Science Writing
The Best American Science Writing is a yearly anthology of popular science magazine articles published in the United States. It was started in 2000 and published by Harper Perennial...
2007. Sylvia Nasar
Sylvia Nasar
Sylvia Nasar is a German-born American economist and author, best known for her biography of John Forbes Nash, A Beautiful Mind.- Early life and history :...
is best known for her biography of John Forbes Nash
John Forbes Nash
John Forbes Nash, Jr. is an American mathematician whose works in game theory, differential geometry, and partial differential equations have provided insight into the forces that govern chance and events inside complex systems in daily life...
, A Beautiful Mind
A Beautiful Mind (book)
A Beautiful Mind is an unauthorized biography of Nobel Prize-winning economist and mathematician John Forbes Nash, Jr. by Sylvia Nasar, professor of journalism at Columbia University...
. David Gruber is a PhD recipient and graduate of Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
Graduate School of Journalism, who also wrote Aglow in the Dark, published by Harvard University Press.
Summary
The article begins on the evening of June 20, 2006, with a description of Yau lecturing on a paper by his students, Huai-Dong CaoHuai-Dong Cao
Huai-Dong Cao is A. Everett Pitcher Professor of Mathematics at Lehigh University. He collaborated with Xi-Ping Zhu of Zhongshan University in verifying Grigori Perelman's proof of the Poincaré conjecture. The Cao–Zhu team is one of three teams formed for this purpose...
and Xi-Ping Zhu
Xi-Ping Zhu
Zhu Xiping is a Professor of Mathematics at Sun Yat-sen University. He collaborated with Cao Huaidong of Lehigh University in verifying Grigori Perelman's proof of the Poincaré conjecture. The Cao–Zhu team was one of three teams formed for this purpose...
, in Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
, on the occasion of Strings 2006, an international conference on string theory
String theory
String theory is an active research framework in particle physics that attempts to reconcile quantum mechanics and general relativity. It is a contender for a theory of everything , a manner of describing the known fundamental forces and matter in a mathematically complete system...
. That paper described their effort to verify Perelman's proof. Zhu and Cao were one of the three teams that had undertaken this task.
The article then moves on to an interview with the reclusive mathematician Grigori Perelman
Grigori Perelman
Grigori Yakovlevich Perelman is a Russian mathematician who has made landmark contributions to Riemannian geometry and geometric topology.In 1992, Perelman proved the soul conjecture. In 2002, he proved Thurston's geometrization conjecture...
. The interview touches on the Fields Medal, Perelman's life prior to his proof of the Poincaré Conjecture, Richard Hamilton
Richard Hamilton (professor)
Richard Streit Hamilton is Davies Professor of mathematics at Columbia University.He received his B.A in 1963 from Yale University and Ph.D. in 1966 from Princeton University. Robert Gunning supervised his thesis...
's formulation of a strategy to prove the conjecture, and William Thurston
William Thurston
William Paul Thurston is an American mathematician. He is a pioneer in the field of low-dimensional topology. In 1982, he was awarded the Fields Medal for his contributions to the study of 3-manifolds...
's geometrization conjecture
Geometrization conjecture
Thurston's geometrization conjecture states that compact 3-manifolds can be decomposed canonically into submanifolds that have geometric structures. The geometrization conjecture is an analogue for 3-manifolds of the uniformization theorem for surfaces...
. Yau's long collaborative friendship with Hamilton, which started after Yau learned of the latter's work on the Ricci flow
Ricci flow
In differential geometry, the Ricci flow is an intrinsic geometric flow. It is a process that deforms the metric of a Riemannian manifold in a way formally analogous to the diffusion of heat, smoothing out irregularities in the metric....
, is also mentioned.
Subsequently, the article describes Yau in relation to the late Shiing-Shen Chern
Shiing-Shen Chern
Shiing-Shen Chern was a Chinese American mathematician, one of the leaders in differential geometry of the twentieth century.-Early years in China:...
, his PhD
PHD
PHD may refer to:*Ph.D., a doctorate of philosophy*Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*PHD finger, a protein sequence*PHD Mountain Software, an outdoor clothing and equipment company*PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
advisor and the acknowledged top Chinese
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
mathematician, as well as Yau's activities in the Chinese mathematical community. Nasar and Gruber write, "he was increasingly anxious ... [that] a younger scholar could try to supplant him as Chern's heir."
Interweaving comments from many mathematicians, the authors present a complex narrative that touches upon matters peripheral to the Poincaré conjecture but reflective of politics in the field of mathematics:
- Yau's supposed involvement in the controversy surrounding Alexander GiventalAlexander GiventalAlexander Givental is a Russian American mathematician working in the area of symplectic topology, singularity theory and their relations to topological string theories. He got his Ph. D. under the supervision of V. I. Arnold. He, first, proved the mirror conjecture for toric Calabi-Yau manifolds,...
's proof of a conjecture in the mathematics of mirror symmetry. - his alleged attempt (which he denied, according to the article) to bring the ICMInternational Congress of MathematiciansThe International Congress of Mathematicians is the largest conference for the topic of mathematics. It meets once every four years, hosted by the International Mathematical Union ....
2002 to Hong KongHong KongHong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
instead of Beijing, and the tussle between him and the Chinese mathematical community that allegedly resulted. - a conflict in 2005, in which Yau allegedly accused his student Gang TianGang TianTian Gang is a Chinese mathematician and an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He is known for his contributions to geometric analysis and quantum cohomology, among other fields...
(a member of another team verifying Perelman's proof) of plagiarismPlagiarismPlagiarism is defined in dictionaries as the "wrongful appropriation," "close imitation," or "purloining and publication" of another author's "language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions," and the representation of them as one's own original work, but the notion remains problematic with nebulous...
and poor scholarship while criticizing Peking UniversityPeking UniversityPeking University , colloquially known in Chinese as Beida , is a major research university located in Beijing, China, and a member of the C9 League. It is the first established modern national university of China. It was founded as Imperial University of Peking in 1898 as a replacement of the...
in an interview.
In discussing the Poincaré conjecture, Nasar and Gruber also reveal an allegation against Yau that had apparently not been reported in the press before their article appeared:
On April 13th of this year, the thirty-one mathematicians on the editorial board of the Asian Journal of Mathematics received a brief e-mail from Yau and the journal’s co-editor informing them that they had three days to comment on a paper by Xi-Ping Zhu and Huai-Dong Cao titled “The Hamilton–Perelman Theory of Ricci Flow: The Poincaré and Geometrization Conjectures”, which Yau planned to publish in the journal. The e-mail did not include a copy of the paper, reports from referees, or an abstract. At least one board member asked to see the paper but was told that it was not available.The authors also report that a week after this April email, the title of the paper dramatically changed to "A Complete Proof of the Poincaré and Geometrization Conjecture — Application of the Hamilton–Perelman Theory of The Ricci Flow". (This title was retracted on December 3, 2006.) This alleged incident with the journal has not been confirmed by an outside source; however, no one involved has yet made a statement claiming that it is false.
This paper was the result of the above-mentioned work of Zhu and Cao, which Yau promoted in the Beijing conference. The New Yorker article concludes by linking the alleged actions of Yau with Perelman's withdrawal from the mathematical community, stating that Perelman claimed not to see "what new contribution [Cao and Zhu] did make"; that he had become disillusioned by the lax ethical standards of the community. As for Yau, Perelman is quoted saying, “I can’t say I’m outraged. Other people do worse. Of course, there are many mathematicians who are more or less honest. But almost all of them are conformists. They are more or less honest, but they tolerate those who are not honest”.
The article concludes with a quote from Mikhail Gromov (who earlier in the article compares Perelman's mathematical approach to that of Isaac Newton
Isaac Newton
Sir Isaac Newton PRS was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, alchemist, and theologian, who has been "considered by many to be the greatest and most influential scientist who ever lived."...
): “To do great work, you have to have a pure mind. You can think only about the mathematics. Everything else is human weakness. Accepting prizes is showing weakness.” The article is accompanied by a full page cartoon that has garnered controversy, discussed below.
Controversy
The article, and an included full-page color illustration of Yau grabbing the Fields Medal hanging around Perelman's neck, has garnered controversy. It has been the subject of extensive commentaries in blogBlog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
s. The controversy revolves around its emphasis on Yau's alleged stake in the Poincaré conjecture, its view that Yau was unfairly taking credit away from Perelman, and its depiction of Yau's supposed involvement in past controversies.
On August 22, 2006, Sir John M. Ball
John M. Ball
Sir John Macleod Ball, FRSE FRS is Sedleian Professor of Natural Philosophy at the University of Oxford. He was the President of the International Mathematical Union from 2003-06 and a Fellow of Queen's College, Oxford...
, president of the International Mathematical Union
International Mathematical Union
The International Mathematical Union is an international non-governmental organisation devoted to international cooperation in the field of mathematics across the world. It is a member of the International Council for Science and supports the International Congress of Mathematicians...
, made reference to the article and rushed publication of the Cao/Zhu paper at a speech given at the opening ceremony of the International Congress of Mathematicians
International Congress of Mathematicians
The International Congress of Mathematicians is the largest conference for the topic of mathematics. It meets once every four years, hosted by the International Mathematical Union ....
.
Mathematics is a profession of high standards and integrity. We freely discuss our work with others, without fear of it being stolen, and research is communicated openly prior to formal publication. Editorial procedures are fair and proper, and work gains its reputation through merit and not by how it is promoted. These are the norms operated by the vast majority of mathematicians. The exceptions are rare, and they are noticed....
On September 18, 2006, a few weeks after publication of the article, Yau's attorneys released a letter accusing The New Yorker and the article's authors of defaming Yau. In the letter, the reporters are accused of fabricating quotes and deliberately molding facts into a narrative they knew to be inaccurate. The letter also asks for a public apology from The New Yorker. The letter appeared online on Yau's website, apparently created in response to the controversy.
The New Yorker has issued the following response to the letter:
"’Manifold Destiny,’ a 10,000-word article by Sylvia Nasar and David Gruber published in the August 28, 2006 issue of The New Yorker, is the product of more than four months of thorough, careful reporting and meticulous fact-checking. Ms. Nasar and Mr. Gruber spent over twenty hours interviewing Dr. Yau; they conducted approximately 100 other interviews with people in the field; corresponded by email with Dr. Yau and many others; and traveled to China where they conducted interviews and attended speeches and events discussed in the article. In addition, the magazine’s fact-checkers spoke with Dr. Yau for approximately eight hours, they examined notes, tapes, and documents gathered by the authors, and the checkers conducted their own thorough research. Contrary to Dr. Yau’s assertions, the article is nuanced and fair, and was prepared using ethical standards of journalism. Dr. Yau, his supporters and his point of view were given ample space in the article. We stand by the piece and the journalists."
Yau's legal efforts have not progressed beyond his September letter. The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
has stood firmly by its story.
Two of the mathematicians interviewed in The New Yorker article — Stroock and Anderson— have allegedly issued statements in opposition to The New Yorker article, after it became available online. On Oct 6, 2006, the statements attributed to Stroock and Andersen were posted on Yau's website. It has not been confirmed if these mathematicians actually wrote the statements since they are not posted on their own websites and Stroock's "official" letter in the September 11, 2006 issue of The New Yorker is not critical of the article. However, to date none of these mathematicians has publicly denied writing the letters posted on Yau's website either.
On September 25, 2006, a letter from Richard Hamilton
Richard Hamilton (professor)
Richard Streit Hamilton is Davies Professor of mathematics at Columbia University.He received his B.A in 1963 from Yale University and Ph.D. in 1966 from Princeton University. Robert Gunning supervised his thesis...
was posted on Yau's website. Hamilton detailed a personal account of the history of the Ricci flow approach to the Poincaré conjecture, saying he was very disturbed by the unfair manner in which Yau had been portrayed in The New Yorker article.
As of October 16, 2006, eight mathematicians in total have posted letters expressing support for Yau on his web site.
On October 17, 2006, a profile of Yau in the New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
devoted about half its length to the Perelman dispute. The article said that Yau's promotion of the Cao–Zhu paper "annoyed many mathematicians, who felt that Dr. Yau had slighted Dr. Perelman," but also presented Yau's position, namely that he had never claimed there were gaps in Perelman’s proof, but merely that it was "not understood by all people", and that he "had a duty to dig out the truth of the proof".
The same New York Times article also noted that it had been discovered that a crucial argument of the Cao–Zhu paper was identical to one from a note by Bruce Kleiner
Bruce Kleiner
Bruce Alan Kleiner is an American mathematician, working in differential geometry and topology and geometric group theory.He received his Ph.D. in 1990 from the University of California, Berkeley. His advisor was Wu-Yi Hsiang. He is now Professor of Mathematics at New York University.Kleiner has...
and John Lott
John Lott (mathematician)
John Lott is a Professor of Mathematics at the University of California, Berkeley. He is working on Ricci flow....
posted online in 2003. This led to an erratum being issued by Cao and Zhu in the December 2006 issue of the same journal where the original article had appeared.
On December 22, 2006, Science Magazine
Science (journal)
Science is the academic journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and is one of the world's top scientific journals....
honored Perelman's proof of the Poincaré Conjecture as the scientific "Breakthrough of the Year
Breakthrough of the Year
The Breakthrough of the Year is an annual award made by the journal Science for the most significant development in scientific research. Originating in 1989 as the Molecule of the Year, inspired by Time's Man of the Year, it was renamed the Breakthrough of the Year in 1996...
," the first time this had been bestowed in the area of mathematics. The article mentioned how Cao and Zhu had copied from Kleiner and Lott and reported that Cao and Zhu "grudgingly printed an erratum acknowledging Kleiner and Lott's priority". The article also quoted Yau as saying of the Poincaré conjecture, "The methods developed … should shed light on many natural systems, such as the Navier-Stokes equation [of fluid dynamics] and the Einstein equation [of general relativity]." It also talks of animosity among mathematicians following this episode where the AMS attempted to have a panel on the Poincaré and geometrization conjectures at its January 2007 meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana. However, this attempt by the organizer John Ewing fell through after Lott refused to share the stage with Zhu.
On December 26, 2006, National Public Radio (NPR) released an account of the Poincaré conjecture and the controversy surrounding The New Yorker article. David Kestenbaum, a former Harvard Physics graduate student, reported on the story. In his interview, Yau called Perelman’s work “truly original and genius”, and the New Yorker article as inaccurate, denying having given a quote concerning credit contributions at a specific press conference referenced by the New Yorker. He did not directly answer if he had ever made such a statement. "NPR translated an audiotape provided by Yau" and their analysis was in agreement with Yau's statements. Sylvia Nasar was said to have declined multiple attempts for interview by NPR.
Revision of the Cao–Zhu article
After the similarity with the argument by Kleiner and Lott had been pointed out, Cao and Zhu published an erratum that appeared in the November 2006 issue of the Asian Journal of Mathematics, confirming that the material was by Kleiner and Lott, stating that its uncredited appearance in the Cao–Zhu paper was due to an oversight, and apologizing for failing to properly attribute the copied argument. In the same issue, the AJM editorial board issued an apology for what it called "incautions" in the Cao–Zhu paper.On December 3, 2006, Cao and Zhu retracted the original version of their paper, which was titled “A Complete Proof of the Poincaré and Geometrization Conjectures — Application of the Hamilton–Perelman Theory of the Ricci Flow” and posted a revised version, renamed, more modestly, "Hamilton–Perelman's Proof of the Poincaré Conjecture and the Geometrization Conjecture". Rather than the claim of the original abstract, "we give a complete proof", suggesting the proof is by the authors, the revised abstract states: "we give a detailed exposition of a complete proof". The authors also took out the phrase "crowning achievement" from the abstract.
External links
- Letter from Yau's legal counsel, September 18, 2006
- New Yorker response to Yau's letter (mirror)
- Richard S Hamilton' Letter to Yau Shing-Tung' Attorney on September 25, 2006 Richard S Hamilton's letter in response to New Yorker's Article about Yau, etc.
- "Letters to the Editor" in relation to Manifold Destiny in the January 2007 Notices of the AMS
- NPR: Solving an Old Math Problem Nets Award, Trouble