932 Sullivan's Conjecture (2/4)

Chapter 932 Sullivan's Conjecture (24)

For most journals, editors do not necessarily have strong academic ability. They are mainly responsible for checking the format and word count of papers, and then contacting professional reviewers for approved manuscripts. able to pass the audit.

However this is only true for most journals.

For journals such as the "Annual of Mathematics", which was founded by Princeton, a top university in the mathematics field, the editors-in-chief of the editorial department are generally experts in the academic world.

For example, the former editor-in-chief Peter Sarnak is a great scholar in the field of number theory, and he is also the winner of the 2014 Wolf Prize in Mathematics, a lifetime achievement award.

As the third editor-in-chief after Professor Peter Sarnak, although Professor Frakes has a slightly weaker reputation and is regarded as a scholar who has only emerged in recent years, his ability is still beyond doubt. If it hadn't been for the age limit of forty, relying on his research results in the field of differential manifolds, there is still a little hope of competing for the Fields Medal.

Of course, the reason why "Annals of Mathematics" chose him as the editor-in-chief was not entirely due to his academic ability, but another factor was also considered.

Because of the global popularity of controlled nuclear fusion research, the research enthusiasm of plasma physics has also increased. Due to the miraculous effect of "L-manifolds" in solving NS equations and plasma turbulence problems a few years ago, the investment in scientific research in the field of mathematics in these years has invariably increased the research on partial differential equations and differential manifolds. A piece of resources is inclined to encourage domestic scholars to enter research in these fields.

Although "Annals of Mathematics" seldom keeps up with hot topics, since Professor Lu's century report on NS equations, the entire field of partial differential equations and differential manifolds has indeed not produced any outstanding results. It was as if the aura of the entire research direction had been sucked dry by Professor Lu alone.

Therefore, choosing Prof. Frakes as the editor-in-chief and also the board of directors of "Annual Mathematics" is based on the consideration of supporting the research directions of partial differential equations and differential manifolds.

Generally speaking, when the editor-in-chief arranges the submission of the paper, he has a certain tendency to submit the manuscript in the field of his own research...

Princeton.

Editorial Office of Annals of Mathematics.

Professor Frakes, who is taking over the job from the previous editor-in-chief, has moved his office to the editorial department with his students, and is busy dealing with a mountain of work.

Although the general editor-in-chief of the Annual Mathematical Journal does not take this job seriously, Frakes is different. He can only be regarded as a calf at best, especially in a place like Princeton where there are hidden dragons and crouching tigers , it can be said that there is no sense of existence at all.

Others may not care about the academic qualifications of being the editor-in-chief of the "Annals of Mathematics", but he can't care less, so he attaches great importance to this job, and even to a certain extent, even temporarily put aside the topic he is working on .

Sitting in front of a computer full of documents, a doctoral student with curly hair took a sip of coffee, stared at the screen for a moment, and coughed as if he was choking.

"...Professor, ahem! Your mailbox has received a submission letter!"

Being busy with the matter at hand, Professor Frakes didn't have time to look up, so he casually replied, "Please print it out for me. I will take the time to read it when I have time."

"But... the contributor is Lu Zhou."

The hand that was typing on the keyboard stopped suddenly, and Professor Frakes stood up from the chair with a bang, and walked quickly towards the doctoral student's desk.

"Give me the computer!"

"Okay, okay..."

Going to the computer, Frakes first checked every letter of the email address, and after confirming that the manuscript was indeed delivered by Professor Lu, he downloaded the PDF file attached to the email with great interest.

"Let me see what interesting results Professor Lu has made..."

One of the most direct benefits of being an editor of a well-known journal is that you can immediately know what amazing research results those big cows have made.

With anticipation, Professor Frakes opened the newly downloaded paper.

However, when he saw the content of the abstract, his eyes gradually turned from excitement to a hint of disappointment.

Noticing the change in the instructor's expression, the curly-haired doctor who gave up his seat asked in a low voice, "What's wrong?"

"It's not a novel research result, it's just a supplement to the theory of hyperelliptic curve analysis," Professor Frakes shook his head after reading the abstract, and continued with a somewhat disappointed tone, "It's a bit of a no-brainer. It feels, at least not an outstanding result.”

The doctor continued to ask: "Then... shall we reject the manuscript?"

"Not really." Shaking his head, Professor Frakes continued, "If the text is not long and it is really important enough, you can submit the manuscript... In short, this troublesome matter is left to the reviewers to worry about. Well, it’s too offensive to kill manuscripts outside of peer review...Well, you can print out the paper for me, and I’ll think about it carefully.”

"Good professor."

The printer whines.

Soon the thesis was printed on paper.

Returning to his seat with the thesis paper that was still smelling of oil, Professor Frakes looked at the main text of the thesis while sipping his coffee.

To be honest, after reading the abstract, he actually doesn't have great expectations for the research results in this paper.

However, just when he saw the third page, he suddenly let out a small sigh.

"...when n is greater than 2, two n-dimensional complexes completely intersect X^n(d), X^n(d') diffeomorphisms if and only if their Euler number, total degree and Pontrjagin class are all equal... ..."

"...Why does this inference look so familiar to me?"

It's not familiarity in the intuitive sense, but familiarity in the sense of understanding.

It's as if this corollary, another representation of it he'd seen in that place...

He didn't see the citation mark next to him, and Professor Frakes gradually felt a little doubtful, and then he sat up from the chair, picked up the ballpoint pen and calculated a few strokes on the draft paper next to him.

However, his strokes had just passed two lines on the paper, and then stopped there.

"..."

This, this line of expression!

Could it be...

The pupils contracted slightly, and then dilated rapidly, Professor Frakes stood up abruptly from his seat.

"Sullivan's guess!?"

This conjecture is a conjecture made by Professor Sullivan when he studied the work on "classifying simply connected manifolds under finite uncertainty" and "rational homotopy". It belongs to the classification problem of a class of smooth manifolds.

At the same time, it is also one of the core issues in differential topology!

If you don’t know differential topology, it’s normal not to have heard of this conjecture. After all, as a branch direction in the research of a branch of mathematics, this conjecture is far from being considered even if it is very important for people engaged in research in this field. How well known.

And because of the difficulty, there are not many people who study this topic, and even he, a maverick in the field of differential topology, can't see at a glance that this thing is actually just another form of expression.

However, it is a bit scary to be able to make such research results without knowing this conjecture at all, or even the branch of mathematics called differential topology...

Judging from the lack of citations for this inference, it is obvious that Professor Lu did not know that the line of inference he wrote down in the paper was actually another form of expression of Sullivan's conjecture...

Thinking of this, Professor Frakes' face was filled with shock, and even the fingers holding the paper were trembling slightly.

Seeing the mentor who suddenly stood up and stood there stunned, Dr. Curly, who was sitting at the desk not far away, thought that something had happened, and hurriedly asked, "What's wrong, Professor?"

I don't know if I heard it, or didn't hear my student's question at all.

Focusing on the paper, Professor Frakes muttered to himself in an excited tone.

"God……"

"We found the treasure!"