Chapter 787: Big News

In fact, the official publication of the sixth issue of the Annals of Mathematics in 1999 was slightly earlier than Chang Haonan expected at the end of November.

Just after the middle of the month, he received an email stating that his paper had been published and was selected as the back cover of this issue of the journal.

Along with the email, there was also an invitation letter from Michael Lagstedt with a theme basically the same as last time.

However, the content was much richer.

The other party said that this mathematics annual meeting at the end of next month, because it happened to be at the junction of the millennium, was regarded as "a summary of the last millennium and a prospect for the next millennium", so it would bring together many well-known mathematicians of the last era and this era.

Among them, of course, Richard Hamilton, Isadore Singer, Michael Atiyah, Shing-Tung Yau and other big names in the field of differential geometry.

Moreover, Lagstedt also said that the annual meeting would not involve topics such as award selection and project sponsorship, but only simple academic exchanges and eating and drinking.

This basically implies that although the annual meeting is hosted by Princeton, it will not involve disputes over the interests of different schools of thought.

There are also factions in foreign academic circles.

And because of the high academic level and longer history, the relationship between factions is even more complicated than in China.

Many love-hate relationships can even be written into a book.

However, people who are not at a certain level cannot even enter other people's circles, and of course they cannot feel it from the outside.

Of course, any faction is ultimately for fame and money.

Therefore, if there is no award or sponsorship involved, there will be less trouble.

Looking at this even lengthy invitation letter, Chang Haonan smiled helplessly.

The other party probably regarded him as a strange person who was detached from the world like Perelman.

I thought that the reason I didn't reply to the email last time was because I didn't want to participate in the complicated struggle between schools of thought.

It should be said that as a senior editor, he still has some level.

It's a pity that I guessed the direction completely wrong.

He didn't go to the conference simply because it was inconvenient for him to go abroad with his current status, and it had nothing to do with being indifferent to fame and fortune.

If the annual meeting was held in China, he would definitely go more actively than anyone else...

While thinking this, Chang Haonan copied the link attached to the email into the address bar of the browser -

In this era, the technology to directly recognize text-formatted links still does not exist.

Not surprisingly, it was the reading page of the current issue of the journal.

In the first few years of the digital version of the Annals of Mathematics, free reading and downloading were provided. Later, it was found that no one would buy the physical version, so it became a paid subscription.

It must be said that as the most influential journal in the theoretical mathematics community, there is probably no other. In addition to Princeton University's reputation in the field of mathematics, the publisher's foundation in typesetting and proofreading is indeed amazing.

Even Chang Haonan, the author, felt much more comfortable reading it than the original manuscript he wrote on Word.

By the way, he also took a look at other articles published at the same time as his own.

"A pair of orthogonal incomplete Latin squares complete large sets..."

"The unique extension of the wave equation on the hyperplane..."

"Mathematical study of multiphase flow under shear through order parameter formula and asymptotic analysis..."

"..."

It must be admitted that China still has a long way to go in theoretical science.

Except for Chang Haonan, there is no other author from China.

Even if there are some Chinese names, the institutions are from the United States or Europe.

However, in terms of the content of this issue of the journal, except for Chang Haonan's article, there are not many highlights.

On the one hand, it is impossible to have so many earth-shaking results. Even in the world's top journals, many articles are inevitably suspected of being watered down.

On the other hand, as the last issue of 1999, almost half of the space is reserved for review articles signed by various bigwigs.

It also fits the slogan of the banquet next month, "Prospects for the next millennium".

One of the articles even mentioned his results.

The author is Richard Hamilton...

Considering that the two were actually published at the same time, it is obvious that the other party is also one of the reviewers...

Chang Haonan shook his head, closed the webpage, and then looked at the newspaper that he had kept next to him these days.

South City News.

Before, the reason why he asked Tang Lintian to stay put was to wait for this opportunity.

Now, the time is obviously ripe.

And at this moment, his email interface suddenly sounded a prompt.

A new email.

Judging from the website address, it should be from Yenching University.

"Tian Gang?"

Chang Haonan was stunned for a moment, and then remembered that he and the other party had met at a dinner party after National Day.

It was a physical encounter.

They only said a few words in total, and they were not even acquaintances.

In the main text, Tian Gang first congratulated Chang Haonan on the publication of his article in the Annals of Mathematics, and said that his "Chang's Lemma", or "Millennium Lemma", can be listed as the most important achievement in the field of differential geometry in the past five years, and if we look at it from the perspective of China, it can be regarded as the most important achievement in the entire field of mathematics since the 1990s...

He wrote two long paragraphs of flattery, and then got to the point, saying that Yenching University has plans to establish a mathematics research center and is currently widely inviting world-renowned scholars in the field of mathematics to hold a lecture. He hopes that Chang Haonan can accept the invitation and give a report on the field of differential geometry.

Chang Haonan was not surprised by this kind of invitation.

In particular, the other party mentioned "Chang's Lemma" in the email, which shows that this name has at least been recognized to a certain extent within the international mathematics community.

It has been a long time since such a representative achievement appeared in the Chinese local mathematics community.

Considering that the author is not a mathematician, or even a science major, this article is undoubtedly equivalent to a blockbuster.

However, the paper was only published a few hours ago. It is unlikely that he could finish reading the article, write such a long email, and send it to him on the same day. Therefore, Chang Haonan guessed that Tian Gang was probably one of the reviewers, and these things were prepared long ago. Just waiting for this day. This can also explain why the other party wanted to come up and talk to him rather stiffly at the National Day dinner. However, Chang Haonan was still prepared to decline the invitation in the email. If the Mathematics Center of Yenching University still develops according to the original timeline, it will involve a series of meaningless verbal attacks. There is no need to get involved. After thinking for a while, he also replied to an email. First, he praised the other party as the entry came out of Google, and then said that he was not a professional mathematician and had projects to do. The paper was just some "accidental discoveries" in the research process, so he really didn't have the energy to take care of other things in the short term, but promised to introduce his research results on stage at the "right time"... Then, click send. …

At the same time, in the president’s office of Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Tang Lintian received a call from the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

“President Tang, congratulations, you have found a talented person!”

Yuan Xiangya’s voice rang out from the other end of the phone:

“It’s been less than half a year, and you have quietly produced such a great achievement. We who specialize in mathematics are a little ashamed.”

He started with a round of flattery, which made Tang Lintian confused.

He raised his head slightly, spent a few seconds recalling, and was very sure that he had not heard of any earth-shattering achievements in the school recently.

“Professor Yuan, what are you talking about?”

Tang Lintian asked in confusion.

The two were obviously not on the same channel.

"President Tang, you don't need to hide anything from me, right?"

Yuan Xiangya said in a half-joking tone:

"When he defended his doctoral thesis, wasn't I still a member of the review committee?"

"Is it... Chang Haonan, Professor Chang?"

He asked tentatively.

It was not until this time that Tang Lintian vaguely guessed that the other party should be talking about Chang Haonan.

After all, the latter had promised him last week that there would be a big result soon.

However, he didn't expect that this "soon" would be so soon.

"Who else could it be?"

At this point, Yuan Xiangya probably realized that Tang Lintian seemed to be really unaware of the situation, so he explained:

"Professor Chang's paper was published in the December 1999 issue of the Mathematical Annals, and in a review in the same issue, the leader of differential geometry, Professor Richard Hamilton, directly used 'Chang's Lemma' to name the two conjectures he proved."

"Old Tang, although you are not a math person, you should be able to think of the significance of a result named after him..."

After hearing this, Tang Lintian's hand holding the receiver trembled slightly, and he opened his mouth, but he didn't say anything for a long time.

Chang's Lemma...

You know, Yuan Xiangya also has a "Yuan's Lemma" named after him.

And the latter was able to become a "half-step academician", that is, a second-level professor, at the age of 39, precisely because of this achievement.

And Chang Haonan's first step into the math world actually reached this height...