On Thursday morning, Mr. Tobias Ekholm appeared on time in the editorial office of "Acta. Math." at the Mittag-Leffler Institute of Mathematics. He was of medium height and energetic. Except for a slight balding on his forehead, he looked like

Except for this middle-aged man, regardless of his vigorous movements or quick thinking, it is difficult to imagine that he has obtained a doctorate for more than 20 years.

"Good morning, professor!"

The attentive female office worker promptly brought a cup of light roasted coffee and a cinnamon roll.

That's right, Tobias is not only the director of this mathematical institute and the editor-in-chief of the top journal "Acta. Math.", he is also a professor of mathematics at Uppsala University, and he has always been proud of it.

Because he received his doctorate at Uppsala University under the tutelage of the famous mathematician Oleg Yanovich Viro (who was an invited speaker at the International Congress of Mathematicians in 1983 and 2000), and won the Wolf Prize and the Abel Prize.

Double award winner Lennart Carleson became a colleague.

"Good morning!" Tobias responded enthusiastically, "I have to say, the coffee you brew is getting better and better! And of course, there are cinnamon rolls."

"Thank you!"

The female staff has a smile as bright as a flower.

After putting away the tableware and cutlery, Tobias officially entered working mode.

His assistant, the young Dr. Federico, quickly walked in with a pile of typed papers, and at the same time complained: "Professor, you really should keep up with the times and give up paper, ink and chalk.

, get familiar with kindle, even if you are reading PDF files on your computer, you can save at least thousands of sheets of paper every month."

"Let's wait until the editorial department can't afford the paper and printing costs!" Tobias said as he took the paper, "Also, Federico, you have to know that every middle-aged person has some inappropriate hobbies.

You either accept it or ignore it, you don’t need to tell me once a month.”

Federico shrugged: "That's why I came to work in the editorial department instead of seeking a teaching position at a university."

Tobias stopped trying to convince the other party: "So, are there any eye-catching breakthrough results among the newly received papers?"

As one of the most authoritative and difficult-to-publish journals in the field of mathematics, "Acta. Math." aims to publish the highest quality research papers in various fields of mathematics, and has very high requirements for original articles to be innovative. Because of this, many mathematics researchers

They all regard it as a place for enlightenment.

Publish an article and become famous all over the world!

Therefore, even though everyone knows that "Acta. Math." publishes only about 10 articles every year, including invitations to submit articles, the enthusiasm for submitting articles remains undiminished. Almost every day, the website's submission system is filled with various papers, many of which are from the world.

Civil scientists from all over the world have cracked the Goldbach conjecture and proved the "major work" of the Riemann hypothesis. This requires editorial staff, including Federico, to regularly clean, classify and preliminary screen the papers in the submission system.

Submit papers they think are valuable to the editorial board.

The job seems simple, but in fact it tests both knowledge and vision, and it is simply difficult for an ordinary PhD student in mathematics to be competent.

——This is why Professor Tobias can tolerate Federico, a nagging and stubborn environmentalist!

Federico picked up the top paper without hesitation. Yes, it is a paper. It has 320 pages, isn’t it just a paper? He handed it to Tobias: "If you want me to recommend it,

That must be this paper."

"Because it wastes the most paper?" Tobias joked.

Federico said: "Although it is very thick, it is worthy of every page of paper. Unlike some papers, it is a waste to take a second look. No, writing them out is creating garbage and pollution."

Tobias looked at the title: ""Spatially Ergodic Theory" (Space Traversal Theory)?"

"The theoretical tool created by the author himself integrates statistical physics, probability theory, algebraic geometry and other multi-disciplinary theories to analyze the shape of complex objects. Although I can't understand many of them, there is no doubt that this is a very rich

The theory of creativity!" Federico tried to explain.

Tobias frowned: "The author comes from a normal university in the Far East, or is he a doctoral student?"

"He is Qiu Xindong's doctoral student."

A name is worth a thousand words.

Perhaps this is the benefit of becoming a disciple of a famous teacher.

Tobias finally became serious and looked at the author's name carefully: "The name looks familiar. Federico, do you remember it?"

Finding and grasping the identities of contributors is also one of the responsibilities of the editorial staff. After all, those mathematics professors from famous universities, creative mathematical geniuses, and researchers who have published famous papers always make people more interested in their submissions.

You're confident, aren't you?

Federico nodded: "I checked after receiving the submission. He had previously published three papers in "Invent. Math." and "Ann. Math.", and also published a book about Horoscope by Princeton University Press

A monograph on the Hodge Conjecture. According to Professor Okunkov, he is the person closest to solving the Hodge Conjecture today."

Although Tobias looks down upon "Invent. Math." and "Ann. Math." and feels that "Acta. Math." is the highest-level mathematics journal, he does not deny that the quality of the papers in these two journals is indeed good.

At least it won't be shoddy. As a leader in the scientific publishing industry, Princeton University Press and Professor Okunkov, as a Fields Medal winner, will not do anything unethical.

"Then I have to take a good look!"

Federico also agreed: "We need to take a closer look. In his paper, he used his own theory to prove the hail conjecture."

"Hail conjecture proved?"

Tobias was even more curious, and at the same time he prayed secretly: God, forgive me! I hope this paper will not be as difficult to understand as Mr. Mochizuki Shinichi's Teichmuller theory of the universe! If I read such an incomprehensible paper, I would

Will be depressed!

Seeing Tobias start reading, Federico exits the office.

Although Tobias's research fields are symplectic geometry, symplectic topology and low-dimensional topology, after being the editor-in-chief for so many years, he still has a good vision and the breadth of knowledge is no problem. This made him not feel that when he first entered

How difficult it was. As the paper gradually deepened and unfolded layer by layer, he felt the obstacles and constraints.

Finally, he stopped on page 14 of the paper, because the paper began to make extensive use of the latest results in statistical physics.

But that's enough!

Tobias rubbed his eyes, pondered for a moment, then turned back a few pages, then turned to the end and looked carefully at the references of the paper, then took out the letter paper and wrote quickly and scribbled on it:
p>

Dear Editorial Board Members:

Attached is the latest paper "Space Traversal Theory" received.

I do not have enough knowledge to make a professional evaluation of this paper, because I stopped in the first 20 pages of the paper due to lack of understanding of statistical physics. But I believe that this is a rigorous and serious academic article.

paper, because the author gives a concise "proof of concept" at the beginning of the paper, and the method he developed can be quickly used in the corresponding field to obtain some interesting non-trivial new results, or give some existing

New proof of non-trivial conclusion.

For example, on page 5 of the paper, he has given a new explanation of algebraic closed chains, which seems to have great potential. On page 7, he uses this explanation to establish a wonderful theorem about algebraic closed chains. Although this

The theorem is still far from his final proof of the hail conjecture - yes, the author finally used the theory he created to prove the hail conjecture - but the theorem itself is a novel and interesting result that can be quickly recognized by experts in this field

There are more "good things" hidden in this paper.

For another example, on page 13 of the paper, the author uses Drum's cohomology to make an extraordinary observation, that is, the problem is mathematically equivalent to phenomena related to thermodynamics. This is not the most profound part of this paper.

But it simplifies the original problem into a richer and more tractable problem, which is undoubtedly a feasible method.

In short, whether this paper is correct or not, it is very meaningful and worthy of discussion.

But to read this paper carefully, you may need experts in statistical physics, probability theory, algebraic geometry and many other fields to conduct a comprehensive review of it. Before that, I need to ask for your quick opinion on whether to accept this article.

.

Looking forward to your valuable opinions.

Tobias.

After he finished writing, he read it again and changed a few words. He called Federico into the office through the intercom. Federico walked in and shouted: "Oh my God, have you already finished reading that paper?! This

Impossible, I would rather believe that Moses parted the Red Sea with a shepherd’s staff!”

Tobias said angrily: "If I can finish reading it so quickly, there are only two results, either this paper is worthless, or the International Congress of Mathematicians owes me a Fields Medal."
p>

"Then there is no doubt that you haven't finished reading it."

"..." Tobias really wanted to push him to the ground, punch him, and kick him a few times!

Federico was still unconscious: "Professor, why did you call me here——"

Tobias threw the pieces of letterhead he had just written on the table in front of him: "Put this letter together, attach the paper just now, send it to other editorial members of the editorial department via email, and say

I need their quick opinion. Please give them timely feedback."

Federico looked at the flourishing handwriting on the letterhead and suddenly had a constipated look on his face. He couldn't help but suggest: "Professor, I really think you should learn to use email. Look, write it out first, and then let others know."

Organizing and sending them via email not only wastes time and energy of others, but also wastes paper——"

"Get out!"
Chapter completed!