Manifold Destiny - Controversy

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 blogs. 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.

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, who made a response.

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. 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. A number of 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.

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 and the Einstein equation ." 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.

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.

In a letter published in the January 2007 Notices of the American Mathematical Society, commenting on the New Yorker article, Joan Birman asserts that the mathematical profession has taken a "very public and very bad black mark" from the circumstances of the publication in the Asian Journal of Mathematics of the Cao-Zhu paper. Describing the paper as making "a serious assertion" about gaps in Perelman's proof and their filling by Cao and Zhu, she questions why the AJM editorial board apparently assented to publication of such a paper by authors known to have "deep personal attachments" to the AJM editors-in-chief, and based not on consultation but on notification a few days before publication, without a copy of the paper, its abstract or the reports of independent referees.