Chapter 215: Princeton Math Reference Book

In fact, many of the major mathematical problems in today's mathematical community were actually expounded by the Chinese Jun in his set of "Shuimu-Princeton Mathematical Guide" twenty years ago, and the continuous development of the mathematical community in the past twenty years has fulfilled the ideas mentioned in his book in the discussion of the major problems in the mathematical community in the next twenty years. In fact, this is why he is unanimously regarded by the mathematical community as the greatest mathematician after Hilbert and Grothendieck. - Excerpt from "Professor Wiles on the History of Fermat's Theorem", December 2000.

"In fact, I finally chose to leave Princeton and come to Mizuki University, where Jun is located, after reading Jun's "Mizuki-Princeton Guide to Mathematics", and a lot of my research on Banach space was influenced by him, and at least half of the credit for this Fields gold medal is Dear Jun!" - Excerpt from Professor William Timothy Gowers' speech at the 1998 World Congress of Mathematicians and Fields Medal Ceremony.

“…… Yes, there is such a person, he is really difficult to make people fathom, you can't imagine that he has done such a huge pioneering work at such a young age, and he may have written a lot, but for us mathematicians, the "Mizuki-Princeton Guide to Mathematics" completed at the age of eighteen completely surpassed the legendary mathematician Kokomolov of Moscow University in Russia. That book is a myth in mathematics for the last two decades of the twentieth century. …… Yes, I was honored to be invited by you to leave a piece of experience in mathematics at the end of that book, and in fact, I think many of the professors here at that time, such as Professor Mirno, Professor Thurston, and so on, had this idea. - From Professor Richard Feverman, Dean of the School of Mathematics at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, at the 2001 Mizuki-Princeton Joint 20-Year Academic Exchange Conference.

Let's refocus on Jun Xin, who brought the manuscript to the formal afternoon tea discussion among the professors, in fact, he was really a little nervous at the moment looking at the professors who were silently looking at the manuscript and not saying a word. Of course, they mainly look at the discussion of major mathematical problems written by Junxin about the next 20 years, and as for the previous content, they don't pay much attention to it.

After waiting for a long time, he didn't see them come back to his senses, so Jun Xin had to break this embarrassing situation first: "I said, gentlemen, even if this book is poorly written, you have to give me a message, why are you so silent?" ”

Professor Thurston, who was the first to read Junxin's manuscript and the first to come back to his senses but didn't say a word, finally spoke: "Well, I'm really sorry, I was thinking about your article on the topological structure of three-dimensional manifolds, so I was a little fascinated for a while. What a genius book, great article, Jun, you are such an amazing guy, a genius, it's incredible!! ”

The communication between Thurston and Junxin also woke up one by one people who were immersed in thinking, and then one by one they began to frantically flock to Junxin, and one after another questions were constantly thrown at Junxin, and this huge enthusiasm suddenly stunned Junxin.

"Don't worry, everyone, take your time, I'm here, I can't run, what questions do you have one by one, okay?" Jun Xin, who came back to his senses, said with a little crying and laughing.

"Jun, when did you write this book?" The questioner was Professor Shelton, who was reconciled and analyzed by the professor, and Junxin used to borrow the phone in his office, and the two had a good relationship.

"Last year, or this year, in February this year, when we were still last year in China, I taught algebraic geometry for a period of time in the Hua Luogeng class held at the University of Science and Technology of China, and came up with the idea of writing an extracurricular textbook. Then I sorted out some ideas and research on mathematics one after another, especially the last communication with my peers, which gave me a certain understanding of various disciplines, and finally completed all the work not long ago. Junxin was talking nonsense seriously.

"A masterpiece of genius, a genius of the devil, the eye of God! The book almost predicted the development of mathematics in the last two decades of the twentieth century. Professor Wiles shook his head, clearly speaking highly of the book.

"I can find some things in the direction of my research on this, and there is no doubt that these ideas, although imperfect, have formed a certain line of thought." Professor Stein shook his head and sighed. He was the winner of the Wolf Prize in Mathematics, but not yet, of course. However, what makes Junxin remember him is that he has a genius disciple, the famous Chinese mathematician Tao Zhexuan.

Tao entered college at the age of seventeen (the same as Junxin) and attended Princeton University under the same faculty as Professor Elias Stein, who had already won the Wolf Prize in Mathematics at the time, then at the age of twenty-one, he received his Ph.D., and at the age of twenty-four, he became a full professor in the Department of Mathematics at UCLA, setting a record.

Professor Stein is not only outstanding in learning, but also excellent in teaching, so Junxin often asks him some questions, and the relationship between the two is also very good.

……

After the professors finished their speeches, Professor Mirno, who had not spoken, suddenly got up and asked, "Jun, the copyright of this book is still in your hands, right?" ”

Jun Xin was stunned when he heard this, but he quickly understood what Professor Mirno meant, and then nodded and said, "Yes, at present, this book has not been published except as a reference book for Mizuki University, and the copyright is still in my hands." ”

"On behalf of the Princeton Department of Mathematics, I bought the rights to the U.S. distribution of your book as an internal bibliography for our school to be published through the distribution channels of Princeton University, what do you think?" Professor Mirno asked.

"It's... I'm worried that my level is insufficient, especially the second volume is not very good at summarizing the major problems of mathematics since the twentieth century, I'm afraid I can't do it, okay? ”

"It doesn't matter, we at Princeton have mathematicians from all areas of mathematics, and I think they're all happy to do a review of this book, and I'll give me the algebra K problem, and that's it, how?"

"If you don't dislike it, then there is no problem on my side, but this book was originally used by me as a reference book for the Department of Mathematics of Mizuki University, so it was finally named "Mizuki University Mathematics Guide" at the suggestion of my teacher, but now you have made a lot of modifications, and it is going to be used as a mathematics reference book for Princeton, and it is a bit inappropriate to call it this name, it is better to call it "Mizuki-Princeton Mathematics Guide", how about it?"

"No problem with Princeton!" Professor Mirno said dryly.