What Grigory Perelman really taught us. Mathematician Yakov Perelman: contribution to science. Famous Russian mathematician Grigory Perelman

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Magazine version of one of the chapters of the new book Nick. Gorkavy “Undiscovered Worlds” (St. Petersburg: “Astrel”, 2018).

Mathematicians are special people. They are so deeply immersed in abstract worlds that when they “return to Earth” they often cannot adapt to real life and surprise others with unusual views and actions. We will talk about perhaps the most talented and extraordinary of them - Grigory Perelman.

In 1982, sixteen-year-old Grisha Perelman, who had just won a gold medal at the International Mathematical Olympiad in Budapest, entered Leningrad University. He was noticeably different from the other students. His supervisor, Professor Yuri Dmitrievich Burago, said: “There are a lot of gifted students who speak before they think. Grisha was not like that. He always thought very carefully and deeply about what he intended to say. He wasn't very quick to make decisions. Speed of solution means nothing; mathematics is not built on speed. Mathematics is about depth.”

After graduating from the university, Grigory Perelman became an employee of the Steklov Mathematical Institute, published a number of interesting articles on three-dimensional surfaces in Euclidean spaces. The world mathematical community appreciated his achievements. In 1992, Perelman was invited to work at New York University.

Gregory ended up in one of the world centers of mathematical thought. Every week he went to a seminar in Princeton, where he once listened to a lecture by the eminent mathematician, Columbia University professor Richard Hamilton. After the lecture, Perelman approached the professor and asked several questions. Perelman later recalled about this meeting: “It was very important for me to ask him about something. He smiled and was very patient with me. He even told me a couple of things that he published only a few years later. He shared with me without hesitation. I really liked his openness and generosity. I can say that in this respect Hamilton was unlike most other mathematicians."

Perelman spent several years in the USA. He walked around New York wearing the same corduroy jacket, ate mostly bread, cheese and milk, and worked constantly. He began to be invited to the most prestigious universities in America. The young man chose Harvard and then encountered something that he categorically did not like. The hiring committee required the applicant to provide an CV and letters of recommendation from other scientists. Perelman’s reaction was harsh: “If they know my works, then they don’t need my biography. If they want my biography, then they don’t know my work.” He refused all offers and in the summer of 1995 returned to Russia, where he continued to work on the ideas that Hamilton had developed. In 1996, Perelman was awarded the European Mathematical Society Prize for Young Mathematicians, but he, who did not like any hype, refused to accept it.

When Gregory achieved some success in his research, he wrote a letter to Hamilton, hoping for working together. However, he did not answer, and Perelman had to continue to act alone. But world fame awaited him ahead.

In 2000, the Clay Mathematics Institute published the “Millennium Problem List,” which included seven classic problems in mathematics that had not been solved for many years, and promised a million-dollar prize for proving any of them. Less than two years later, on November 11, 2002, Grigory Perelman published an article on a scientific website on the Internet, in which, on 39 pages, he summed up his many years of efforts to prove one problem from the list. American mathematicians who knew Perelman personally immediately began to discuss the article in which the famous Poincaré conjecture was proved. The scientist was invited to several US universities to give a course of lectures on his proof, and in April 2003 he flew to America. There, Gregory held several seminars in which he showed how he managed to turn the Poincaré conjecture into a theorem. The mathematical community recognized Perelman's lectures as an extremely important event and made significant efforts to verify the proposed proof.

Details for the curious

Poincaré problem

Jules Henri Poincaré (1854–1912) - an outstanding French mathematician, mechanic, physicist, astronomer and philosopher, head of the Paris Academy of Sciences and member of more than 30 academies of sciences around the world. The problem formulated by Poincare in 1904 belongs to the field of topology.

For topology, the main property of space is its continuity. Any spatial forms that can be obtained from one another using stretching and curvature, without cuts and gluing, are considered identical in topology (as clear example often demonstrate the transformation of a cup into a donut). The Poincaré conjecture states that in four-dimensional space, all three-dimensional surfaces belonging to compact manifolds are topologically equivalent to a sphere.

The proof of the hypothesis by Grigory Perelman made it possible to develop a new methodological approach to solving topological problems, which has great value For further development mathematics.

Paradoxically, Perelman did not receive grants to prove the Poincaré conjecture, while other scientists testing its correctness received grants amounting to a million dollars. Verification was extremely important, because many mathematicians worked on the proof of this problem, and if it was actually solved, then they were left out of work.

The mathematical community tested Perelman's proof for several years and by 2006 concluded that it was correct. Yuri Burago wrote then: “The proof closes an entire branch of mathematics. After it, many scientists will have to switch to research in other areas.”

Mathematics has always been considered the most rigorous and accurate science, where there is no place for emotions and intrigue. But even here there is a struggle for priority. Passions began to boil around the proof of the Russian mathematician. Two young mathematicians, immigrants from China, having studied Perelman's work, published a much more voluminous and detailed - more than three hundred pages - article with a proof of the Poincaré conjecture. In it, they argued that Perelman's work contained many gaps that they were able to fill. According to the rules of the mathematical community, priority in proving the theorem belongs to those researchers who were able to present it in the most complete form. According to many experts, Perelman's proof was complete, although briefly stated. More detailed calculations did not introduce anything new into it.

When journalists asked Perelman what he thought about the position of Chinese mathematicians, Grigory replied: “I can’t say that I’m outraged, others do even worse. Of course, there are a lot of more or less honest mathematicians. But almost all of them are conformists. They themselves are honest, but they tolerate those who are not.” He then noted bitterly: “Those who violate ethical standards in science are not considered aliens. People like me are the ones who end up isolated.”

In 2006, Grigory Perelman was awarded the highest honor in mathematics, the Fields Medal. But the mathematician, who led a solitary, even reclusive lifestyle, refused to receive it. It was a real scandal. The President of the International Mathematical Union even flew to St. Petersburg and spent ten hours persuading Perelman to accept the well-deserved award, which was planned to be presented at a congress of mathematicians on August 22, 2006 in Madrid in the presence of the Spanish King Juan Carlos I and three thousand participants. This congress was supposed to be historical event, however, Perelman politely but adamantly said: “I refuse.” The Fields Medal, according to Gregory, did not interest him at all: “It doesn’t matter at all. Everyone understands that if the evidence is correct, then no other recognition of merit is required.”

In 2010, the Clay Institute awarded Perelman the promised million-dollar prize for proving the Poincaré conjecture, which he was about to receive at a mathematical conference in Paris. Perelman refused a million dollars and did not go to Paris.

As he himself explained, he does not like the ethical atmosphere in the mathematical community. In addition, he considered Richard Hamilton's contribution no less. Winner of many mathematical prizes, Soviet, American and French mathematician M. L. Gromov supported Perelman: “Great things require an unclouded mind. You should only think about mathematics. Everything else is human weakness. To accept a reward is to show weakness.”

Refusing a million dollars made Perelman even more famous. Many asked him to receive the prize and give it to them. Gregory did not respond to such requests.

Until now, the proof of the Poincaré conjecture remains the only solved problem on the millennium list. Perelman became the number one mathematician in the world, although he refused contacts with his colleagues. Life has shown that outstanding results in science were often achieved by individuals who were not part of the structure modern science. That's how Einstein was. While working as a clerk in a patent office, he created the theory of relativity, developed the theory of the photoelectric effect and the principle of operation of lasers. This is how Perelman became, who ignored the rules of conduct in the scientific community and at the same time achieved maximum efficiency of his work, proving the Poincaré conjecture.

The Clay Mathematics Institute (Cambridge, USA) was founded in 1998 by businessman Landon Clay and mathematician Arthur Jaffee to increase and disseminate mathematical knowledge.

The Fields Medal has been awarded for excellence in mathematics since 1936.

Grigory Yakovlevich Perelman(b. June 13, 1966, Leningrad, USSR) - outstanding Russian mathematician, who was the first to prove the Poincaré conjecture.

Grigory Perelman was born on June 13, 1966 in Leningrad into a Jewish family. His father Yakov was an electrical engineer who immigrated to Israel in 1993. Mother, Lyubov Leibovna, remained in St. Petersburg and worked as a mathematics teacher at a vocational school. It was his mother, who played the violin, who instilled in the future mathematician a love of classical music.

Until the 9th grade, Perelman studied at high school on the outskirts of the city, however, in the 5th grade he began studying at the mathematics center at the Palace of Pioneers under the guidance of RGPU associate professor Sergei Rukshin, whose students won many awards at mathematical Olympiads. In 1982, as part of a team of Soviet schoolchildren, he won a gold medal at the International Mathematical Olympiad in Budapest, receiving full marks for flawlessly solving all problems. Perelman graduated from the 239th Physics and Mathematics School in Leningrad. Played well table tennis, visited music school. Gold medal I didn’t get it only because of physical education, without passing the GTO standards.

Was enrolled in the Faculty of Mathematics and Mechanics of Leningrad University without exams state university. He won faculty, city and all-Union student mathematical Olympiads. All the years I studied only with “excellent” marks. For academic success he received a Lenin scholarship. After graduating with honors from the university, he entered graduate school (headed by Academician A.D. Aleksandrov) at the Leningrad branch of the Mathematical Institute. V. A. Steklova (LOMI - until 1992; then - POMI). Having defended his Ph.D. thesis in 1990, he remained to work at the institute as a senior researcher.

In the early 1990s, Perelman came to the USA, where he worked as a research assistant at various universities, where his attention was drawn to one of the most difficult, at that time unsolved, problems of modern mathematics - the Poincaré Conjecture. He surprised his colleagues with his ascetic lifestyle; his favorite foods were milk, bread and cheese. In 1996, he returned to St. Petersburg, continuing to work at POMI, where he worked alone on solving the Poincaré Problem.

In 2002-2003, Grigory Perelman published his three famous articles on the Internet, in which he briefly outlined his original method solutions to the Poincaré Problem:

The entropy formula for the Ricci flow and its geometric applications
Ricci flow with surgery on three-manifolds
Finite extinction time for the solutions to the Ricci flow on certain three-manifolds

The appearance on the Internet of Perelman's first article on the entropy formula for the Ricci flow caused an immediate international sensation in scientific circles. In 2003, Grigory Perelman accepted an invitation to visit a number of American universities, where he gave a series of talks on his work on the proof of the Poincaré Problem. In America, Perelman spent a lot of time explaining his ideas and methods, both in public lectures organized for him and during personal meetings with a number of mathematicians. After his return to Russia, he answered numerous questions from his foreign colleagues by email.

In 2004-2006, three independent groups of mathematicians were engaged in the verification of Perelman’s results: 1) Bruce Kleiner, John Lott, University of Michigan; 2) Zhu Xiping, Sun Yat-sen University, Cao Huaidong, Lehigh University; 3) John Morgan, Columbia University, Gan Tian, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. All three groups concluded that Poincaré's Problem had been successfully solved, but Chinese mathematicians Zhu Xiping and Cao Huaidong, along with their teacher Yau Shintang, attempted plagiarism, claiming that they had found a "complete proof". They later retracted this statement.

In December 2005, Grigory Perelman resigned from his post as a leading researcher at the Laboratory of Mathematical Physics, resigned from POMI and almost completely broke off contacts with colleagues.

He showed no interest in a further scientific career. Currently lives in Kupchino in the same apartment with his mother, leads a secluded lifestyle, ignores the press.

Scientific contribution

Main article: Poincaré conjecture

In 1994 he proved the hypothesis about the soul (differential geometry).

Grigory Perelman, in addition to his outstanding natural talent, being a representative of the Leningrad geometric school, at the beginning of his work on the Poincaré Problem also had a broader scientific outlook than his foreign colleagues. In addition to other major mathematical innovations that made it possible to overcome all the difficulties faced by mathematicians dealing with this problem, Perelman developed and applied the purely Leningrad theory of Alexandrov spaces to analyze Ricci flows. In 2002, Perelman first published his innovative work devoted to the solution of one of the special cases of William Thurston's geometrization conjecture, from which the validity of the famous Poincaré conjecture, formulated by the French mathematician, physicist and philosopher Henri Poincaré in 1904, follows. The method of studying the Ricci flow described by the scientist was called Hamilton-Perelman theory.

Recognition and ratings

In 1996 he was awarded the European Mathematical Society Prize for Young Mathematicians, but refused to receive it.

In 2006, Grigory Perelman was awarded the international Fields Medal Prize for solving the Poincaré conjecture (the official wording for the award: “For his contribution to geometry and his revolutionary ideas in the study of the geometric and analytical structure of the Ricci flow”), but he refused it too.

In 2006, Science magazine named the proof of Poincaré's theorem the scientific breakthrough of the year. Breakthrough of the Year). This is the first work in mathematics to earn this title.

In 2006, Sylvia Nasar and David Gruber published the article "Manifold Destiny", which talks about Grigory Perelman, his work on solving the Poincaré Problem, ethical principles in science and the mathematical community, and also contains a rare interview with him. The article devotes considerable space to criticism of the Chinese mathematician Yau Shintan, who, together with his students, tried to challenge the completeness of the proof of the Poincaré Hypothesis proposed by Grigory Perelman. From an interview with Grigory Perelman:

In 2006, The New York Times published an article by Dennis Overbye, “Scientist at Work: Shing-Tung Yau. The Emperor of Math." The article is devoted to the biography of Professor Yau Shintan and the scandal associated with accusations against him of attempts to belittle Perelman's contribution to the proof of the Poincaré Hypothesis. The article cites a fact unheard of in mathematical science - Yau Shintan hired a law firm to defend his case and threatened to prosecute his critics.

In 2007, the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph published a list of “One Hundred Living Geniuses”, in which Grigory Perelman ranks 9th. In addition to Perelman, only 2 Russians were included in this list - Garry Kasparov (25th place) and Mikhail Kalashnikov (83rd place).

In March 2010, the Clay Mathematics Institute awarded Grigory Perelman a US$1 million prize for his proof of the Poincaré conjecture, the first ever prize awarded for solving one of the Millennium Problems. In June 2010, Perelman ignored a mathematical conference in Paris, at which the Millennium Prize was supposed to be awarded for the proof of the Poincaré conjecture, and on July 1, 2010, he publicly announced his refusal of the prize, citing the following reasons:

Note that such a public assessment of the merits of Richard Hamilton by the mathematician who proved the Poincaré Hypothesis may be an example of nobility in science, since, according to Perelman himself, Hamilton, who collaborated with Yau Shintan, noticeably slowed down in his research, encountering insurmountable technical difficulties.

In September 2011, the Clay Institute, together with the Henri Poincaré Institute (Paris), created a position for young mathematicians, the money for which will come from the Millennium Prize awarded but not accepted by Grigory Perelman.

In 2011, Richard Hamilton and Demetrios Christodoulou were awarded the so-called. The $1,000,000 Shao Prize in Mathematics, also sometimes called Nobel Prize East. Richard Hamilton was awarded for creating a mathematical theory, which was then developed by Grigory Perelman in his work to prove the Poincaré conjecture. It is known that Hamilton accepted this award.

Interesting Facts

In his work “The entropy formula for Ricci flow and its geometric applications” (eng. The entropy formula for the Ricci flow and its geometric applications) Grigory Perelman, not without humor, modestly points out that his work was partly financed by personal savings during his visits to the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, the State University of New York (SUNY), the State University of New York at Stony Brook and the University of California in Berkeley, and thanks the organizers of these trips. At the same time, the official mathematical community allocated millions in grants to individual research groups in order to understand and test Perelman’s work.
When a member of the Stanford University hiring committee asked Perelman for C.V. (resume), as well as letters of recommendation, Perelman opposed:

The Manifold Destiny article was noticed by the outstanding mathematician Vladimir Arnold, who proposed reprinting it in the Moscow journal Uspekhi Matematicheskikh Nauk, where he was a member of the editorial board. The magazine's editor-in-chief, Sergei Novikov, refused him. According to Arnold, the refusal was due to the fact that Chief Editor magazine feared retaliation from Yau, since he also worked in the USA.
The biographical book of Masha Gessen tells about the fate of Perelman “Perfect severity. Grigory Perelman: genius and the task of the millennium", based on numerous interviews with his teachers, classmates, co-workers and colleagues. Perelman's teacher Sergei Rukshin was critical of the book.

Grigory Perelman became the main actor documentary film "The Spell of the Poincaré Hypothesis" directed by Masahito Kasuga, produced by the Japanese public broadcaster NHK in 2008.
In April 2010, the “Khrushchev Millionaire” episode of the talk show “Let Them Talk” was dedicated to Grigory Perelman. Gregory’s friends took part in it, his school teachers, as well as journalists who communicated with Perelman.
In the 27th episode of “Big Difference” on Channel One, a parody of Grigory Perelman was presented in the hall. The role of Perelman was simultaneously performed by 9 actors.
It is a common misconception that the father of Grigory Yakovlevich Perelman is Yakov Isidorovich Perelman, a famous popularizer of physics, mathematics and astronomy. However, Ya. I. Perelman died more than 20 years before the birth of Grigory Perelman.
On April 28, 2011, Komsomolskaya Pravda reported that Perelman gave an interview to the executive producer of the Moscow film company President Film, Alexander Zabrovsky, and agreed to shoot a feature film about him. Masha Gessen, however, doubts that these statements are true. Vladimir Gubailovsky also believes that the interview with Perelman is fictitious.

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Grigory Yakovlevich Perelman was born on June 13, 1966 in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) in the family of a mathematics teacher and an electrical engineer. From early childhood, Perelman became interested not only in mathematics, but also in music. His mother, Lyubov Leibovna, plays the violin beautifully, and it is thanks to her that he loves classical music genius mathematician still kept it. My father taught me to play chess and gave me “Entertaining Physics,” which was popular in the last century.

The talented child studied in a regular Leningrad high school, located far from the city center, until the 9th grade. However, already in the 5th grade he actively attended the mathematics center, the head of which was S. Rukshin, associate professor of the Russian State Pedagogical University.

The first victory was won at the International School Olympiad in Mathematics in Hungary. The only award in his life that Perelman did not refuse is the gold medal, which he was awarded in Budapest. After 9th grade, G. Perelman studied at the 239th Leningrad Physics and Mathematics School. At the same time I went to music school. He did not receive a gold medal at the end of high school, since the not very athletic young man failed to pass the GTO standards. Today there is an unprecedented competition at the lyceum - up to ten people per place.

He received his higher education at the Faculty of Mathematics and Mechanics of Leningrad State University, where he was admitted without any exams. All the time he had increased scholarships them. V.I. Lenin. He graduated from the university with honors, and Perelman entered graduate school under his leadership. A.D. Alexandrov under LOMI, and later POMI. V. A. Steklova. After defending his dissertation for a candidate's degree (1990), he remains at his own university as a senior researcher.

At the dawn of the 90s, G. Ya. Perelman worked as a researcher at several higher educational institutions in America - New York and Stony Brook. Since 1993, an internship for two years in the same place where he writes whole line scientific works. In 1994 he speaks at the Zurich IMC Congress. He is offered a job at Stanford, Tel Aviv, etc. Unassuming and simple in everyday life, the Russian scientist amazed his American scientific friends with his modesty, eating mostly bread and cheese and washing them down with milk.

In 1996, Perelman was awarded the European Society Prize for Young Mathematicians. The scientist does not accept it. In November 2002, Perelman blew up the minds of all mathematicians in the world. He publishes not somewhere in a reputable scientific journal, but directly on the Internet his conclusions on the Poincaré conjecture. Despite the lack of clear references and its brevity, the publication excited many. In 2003, Perelman gave lectures to US students and scientists about his work. Upon returning to St. Petersburg, the scientist stops all communication with former colleagues.

In 2005, Perelman stopped visiting his place of work, as they say, of his own free will, and in 2006, the proof of the St. Petersburg resident was recognized as the scientific breakthrough of the year, which happened for the first time in relation to “mental gymnastics”. Let us recall that the hypothesis about the probable forms of the Universe was put forward by a French mathematician a century ago. It was for her proof that Perelman was awarded the prestigious Fields Medal. There was a refusal from the Russian scientist. In March 2010, the Clay Mathematical Institute awarded him $1 million. Perelman also did not agree to accept them. Subsequently (2011) it was obtained by the Henri Poincaré Institute in Paris.

So, Perelman is the winner of three prizes, which he himself voluntarily refused. These include: awards of the European Mathematical Society (1996), Fields Medal (2006), Clay Mathematical Institute Millennium Prize (2010). In 2011, they decided to nominate Grigory Perelman from the St. Petersburg branch of the Mathematical Institute named after. Steklov into Russian academicians. The scientist did not give personal consent, they could not even find him, so at the moment the brilliant mathematician is not an academician.

The main work of the scientist is considered to be the Poincaré Hypothesis, but his work is not limited to this. There are three known articles, “The entropy formula for the Ricci flow and its geometric applications,” and the method of cognition itself is now called the Hamilton-Perelman theory. Previously, scientists proved the hypothesis about the soul (1994). Perelman is often credited with the authorship of the famous " Entertaining physics". In fact, the author of the book is another person - Yakov Isidorovich Perelman (1882-1942).

The personality of G. Ya. Perelman is so unusual that a lot of jokes have already been invented about him. It is worth noting that Perelman’s character in these masterpieces folk art He is always characterized positively, and if they laugh at him, it is in a very kind way, as at a favorite fairy-tale hero. For example:

Sonya, are you aware that the mathematician Grigory Perelman has not indicated in any way his desire to become an academician of the Russian Academy. He didn't even respond to letters or calls.
- Apparently, at this time, as usual, mushrooms appeared...

In addition to funny stories, even proverbs and sayings appeared. Grigory Perelman's law: there is no offer that cannot be refused.

Today, the world-famous scientist lives in a modest St. Petersburg apartment in Kupchino with his old mother. However, at the place of registration on the street. He appears to Furshtatskaya extremely rarely, only to collect bills. He avoids journalists and communicates with few people. The scientist is still friends with his teacher and mentor, S. Rukshin, who works at Lyceum No. 239, and turns to him for advice. According to the latest data, quiet genius Perelman is unemployed.

Grigory Perelman gained the reputation of an eccentric hermit and a strange person. Some even call him the St. Petersburg “rain man.” It’s probably not a matter of some disease, rumors about which journalists love to savor. It’s just that real science, which opens up new worlds for humanity, does not tolerate fuss. It is to Perelman that the words of his colleague at the institute Yu. Burago can be attributed: “Mathematics depends on depth.” The world-famous quiet genius rightfully ranks 9th among the hundred brilliant people of our time.

Russian mathematician who proved the Poincaré conjecture

Russian scientist who proved the Poincaré conjecture, one of the fundamental problems of mathematics. Candidate of Physical and Mathematical Sciences. He worked at the Leningrad (St. Petersburg) department of the Steklov Mathematical Institute and taught at a number of US universities. Since 2003, he has not worked and hardly communicates with outsiders.

Grigory Yakovlevich Perelman was born on June 13, 1966 in Leningrad. His father was an electrical engineer who immigrated to Israel in 1993. Mother remained in St. Petersburg, worked as a mathematics teacher at a vocational school.

Perelman graduated from high school No. 239 with in-depth study of mathematics. In 1982, as part of a team of schoolchildren, he participated in the International Mathematical Olympiad in Budapest. In the same year, he was enrolled in the Faculty of Mathematics and Mechanics of Leningrad State University without exams. He won faculty, city and all-Union student mathematical Olympiads. He received a Lenin scholarship and graduated from the university with honors.

In November 2002 - July 2003, Perelman posted three scientific articles on the website arXiv.org, which in an extremely condensed form contained a solution to one of the special cases of William Thurston's geometrization hypothesis, leading to a proof of the Poincaré conjecture. The proof of this conjecture (which states that every simply connected closed three-dimensional manifold is homeomorphic to a three-dimensional sphere) was considered one of the fundamental problems of mathematics. The method of studying Ricci flow described by the scientist was called the Hamilton-Perelman theory. These works by Perelman did not receive official scientific publication status, since arXiv.org is a preprint library and not a peer-reviewed journal. Perelman made no attempts to officially publish these works.

In 2003, Perelman gave a series of lectures in the United States on his work, after which he returned to St. Petersburg and settled in his mother’s apartment in Kupchino. In December 2005, he resigned from his post as a leading researcher at the Laboratory of Mathematical Physics, resigned from the Mathematical Institute and almost completely broke off contacts with colleagues.

After Perelman's work appeared, several groups of mathematicians began to verify the correctness of his proofs. Over four years of checking and detailing Perelman's calculations, leading experts in this field did not find any errors. On August 22, 2006, Perelman was awarded the Fields Medal "for his contributions to geometry and revolutionary advances in understanding the analytical and geometric structure of the Ricci flow." Perelman refused to accept the award and communicate with journalists. At the same time, he said that he said goodbye to the scientific community and no longer considered himself a professional mathematician.

In December 2006, Perelman's proof of Poincare's theory was named the main scientific breakthrough of the year by Science magazine.

For the proof of the Poincaré conjecture, the Clay Mathematical Institute (USA) awarded a prize of one million dollars, the “Millennium Prize”. According to the prize's rules, Perelman can be awarded the award upon publication of his work in a peer-reviewed journal. Despite this, in March 2010 he was announced as the winner of the prize, but as The Daily Mail reported at the end of the same month, Perelman refused this prize as well. Nevertheless, in June 2010, the award ceremony was held: a symbolic certificate of the Millennium Prize was given to the Russian mathematician Mikhail Gromov, who worked in France, and Francois Poincaré, the grandson of Henri Poincaré, who put forward the hypothesis confirmed by Perelman. At the end of the same month, Perelman officially notified the Clay Institute of his final refusal of the award. The mathematician cited disagreement with the unfair decisions of the mathematical community as the reason for the refusal. At the same time, he emphasized that his contribution to the proof of the Poincaré conjecture was no greater than that of Hamilton.

In April 2011, after a long silence, Perelman gave his first interview to the Israeli journalist and executive producer of the Moscow film company "President Film" Alexander Zabrovsky. In this interview, the mathematician, when asked why he did not take a million dollars, replied that this money was nothing for “the man who rules the Universe.” In addition, Perelman agreed to star in Zbarovsky’s film, which was supposed to be about “the cooperation and confrontation of the three main world mathematical schools: Russian, Chinese and American, which are the most advanced along the path of studying and managing the Universe.”

In September 2011, it became known that the Clay Institute had decided to allocate a million dollars intended for Perelman to scholarships for young gifted mathematicians. In the same month, the academic council of the St. Petersburg branch of the Steklov Institute nominated Perelman for the post of academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, but the scientist did not react to this initiative and was not included in the list of candidates for academician.

In The Sunday Telegraph's list of 100 living geniuses published in October 2007, Perelman shared ninth place with Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer and American minimalist composer Philip Glass.

Used materials

Perelman refused to become an academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences. - Interfax, 03.10.2011

Modest math man"s million goes to young scholars. - Russia Today, 23.09.2011

Math genius’ $1m to go to charity. - Voice of Russia, 22.09.2011

RAS: to elect Perelman as an academician, his consent is required. - Vesti.Ru, 14.09.2011

Irina Tumakova. Grigory Perelman has been nominated as an academician. - News, 13.09.2011

Anna Veligzhanina. Interview with mathematician Grigory Perelman: Why do I need a million dollars? I can control the Universe. - TVNZ, 28.04.2011

Grigory Yakovlevich Perelman(b. June 13, 1966, Leningrad, USSR) - an outstanding Russian mathematician who was the first to prove the Poincaré conjecture.

Until the 9th grade, Perelman studied at a high school on the outskirts of the city, however, in the 5th grade he began studying at the mathematical center at the Palace of Pioneers under the guidance of RGPU associate professor Sergei Rukshin, whose students won many awards at mathematical Olympiads. In 1982, as part of a team of Soviet schoolchildren, he won a gold medal at the International Mathematical Olympiad in Budapest, receiving full marks for flawlessly solving all problems. Perelman graduated from the 239th Physics and Mathematics School in Leningrad. He played table tennis well and attended music school. I didn’t receive a gold medal only because of physical education, not passing the GTO standards.

He was enrolled in the Faculty of Mathematics and Mechanics of Leningrad State University without exams. He won faculty, city and all-Union student mathematical Olympiads. All the years I studied only with “excellent” marks. For academic success he received a Lenin scholarship. After graduating with honors from the university, he entered graduate school (headed by Academician A.D. Aleksandrov) at the Leningrad branch of the Mathematical Institute. V. A. Steklova (LOMI - until 1992; then - POMI). Having defended his Ph.D. thesis in 1990, he remained to work at the institute as a senior researcher.

In 2002-2003, Grigory Perelman published his three famous articles on the Internet, in which he briefly outlined his original method for solving the Poincaré Problem:

The entropy formula for the Ricci flow and its geometric applications
Ricci flow with surgery on three-manifolds
Finite extinction time for the solutions to the Ricci flow on certain three-manifolds

He showed no interest in a further scientific career. Currently lives in Kupchino in the same apartment with his mother, leads a secluded lifestyle, ignores the press.

Scientific contribution

Main article: Poincaré conjecture

In 1994 he proved the hypothesis about the soul (differential geometry).

Recognition and ratings

In 1996 he was awarded the European Mathematical Society Prize for Young Mathematicians, but refused to receive it.

In 2006, Science magazine named the proof of Poincaré's theorem the scientific breakthrough of the year. Breakthrough of the Year). This is the first work in mathematics to earn this title.

In 2011, Richard Hamilton and Demetrios Christodoulou were awarded the so-called. The $1,000,000 Shao Prize in Mathematics, also sometimes called the Nobel Prize of the East. Richard Hamilton was awarded for creating a mathematical theory, which was then developed by Grigory Perelman in his work to prove the Poincaré conjecture. It is known that Hamilton accepted this award.

Interesting Facts

In his work “The entropy formula for Ricci flow and its geometric applications” (eng. The entropy formula for the Ricci flow and its geometric applications) Grigory Perelman, not without humor, modestly points out that his work was partly financed by personal savings during his visits to the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, the State University of New York (SUNY), the State University of New York at Stony Brook and the University of California in Berkeley, and thanks the organizers of these trips. At the same time, the official mathematical community allocated millions in grants to individual research groups in order to understand and test Perelman’s work.
When a member of the Stanford University hiring committee asked Perelman for C.V. (resume), as well as letters of recommendation, Perelman opposed:

The Manifold Destiny article was noticed by the outstanding mathematician Vladimir Arnold, who proposed reprinting it in the Moscow journal Uspekhi Matematicheskikh Nauk, where he was a member of the editorial board. The magazine's editor-in-chief, Sergei Novikov, refused him. According to Arnold, the refusal was due to the fact that the editor-in-chief of the magazine feared retaliation from Yau, since he also worked in the USA.
The biographical book of Masha Gessen tells about the fate of Perelman “Perfect severity. Grigory Perelman: genius and the task of the millennium", based on numerous interviews with his teachers, classmates, co-workers and colleagues. Perelman's teacher Sergei Rukshin was critical of the book.

Grigory Perelman became the protagonist of the documentary film “The Spell of the Poincaré Hypothesis” directed by Masahito Kasuga, filmed by the Japanese public broadcaster NHK in 2008.
In April 2010, the “Khrushchev Millionaire” episode of the talk show “Let Them Talk” was dedicated to Grigory Perelman. It was attended by Grigory’s friends, his school teachers, as well as journalists who communicated with Perelman.
In the 27th episode of “Big Difference” on Channel One, a parody of Grigory Perelman was presented in the hall. The role of Perelman was simultaneously performed by 9 actors.
It is a common misconception that the father of Grigory Yakovlevich Perelman is Yakov Isidorovich Perelman, a famous popularizer of physics, mathematics and astronomy. However, Ya. I. Perelman died more than 20 years before the birth of Grigory Perelman.
On April 28, 2011, Komsomolskaya Pravda reported that Perelman gave an interview to the executive producer of the Moscow film company President Film, Alexander Zabrovsky, and agreed to shoot a feature film about him. Masha Gessen, however, doubts that these statements are true. Vladimir Gubailovsky also believes that the interview with Perelman is fictitious.

Details for the curious

Poincaré problem

Used materials

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