

First Clay Millennium Prize goes to Grigoriy Perelman - Panoramix
http://www.claymath.org/poincare/
The full press release is here:
http://www.claymath.org/poincare/millenniumPrizeFull.pdf
======
cool-RR
After Perelman rejected the Fields medal for this proof, he said about the
Clay Millennium prize: _"I'm not going to decide whether to accept the prize
until it is offered"_. This was a few years ago.

Now that it is offered I would like to know now if he decided to accept it.

------
larryfreeman
Although this was expected, it is very exciting now that it is official.

Now, we'll have to see whether Dr. Perelman will accept this honor. He
astonished people worldwide when he declined the Field Medal:
<http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/22/science/22cnd-math.html>

~~~
dsplittgerber
I recommend reading "Perfect Rigor - A genius & the mathematical breakthrough
of the century" by Masha Gessen. It provides the best possible insights into
Perelman's life and work and details why he most probably will not ever accept
this prize.

~~~
andrewcooke
hmmm. <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1008102>

~~~
dsplittgerber
She certainly isn't a Ph.D., but a journalist who writes stories. I found the
book interesting nonetheless, one can read it pretty quickly. It illuminated
Perelman's decisions and provided insights into his character. Relating to
math, it's certainly only for laymen.

------
rdtsc
I admire Dr. Perelman for his work (even though I don't completely understand
the proof), but most of all I admire him for his integrity. He withdrew from
mathematics because he felt dishonesty was tolerated and he didn't want to be
part of it. He refers to Shing-Tung Yau of course:

 _"I can't say I'm outraged. Other people do worse. Of course, there are many
mathematicians who are more or less honest. But almost all of them are
conformists. They are more or less honest, but they tolerate those who are not
honest."_

( from "Manifold Destiny", New Yorker, Aug 28, 2006:
[http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/08/28/060828fa_fact2?p...](http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/08/28/060828fa_fact2?printable=true)
)

~~~
barrkel
Of course, if the good people leave, where does that leave mathematics?

------
Sukotto
Not mentioned in the title. Perelman proved that the Poincare Conjecture is
true.

Imagine a sphere (in our 3 dimensions). If you drip a bit of water on it, the
water will run down to a particular point. It goes down to the same point no
matter where you drip the water. If you rotate it, the water will still all
drip down to a particular point (just not the same one as before).

The above is true for some shapes (eggs, lima beans) and not true for others
(Lego bricks)

So the question is: what about a 4 dimensional sphere? If you could somehow
drip water on it... would the drips all converge to a particular point?

The answer is "yes"

~~~
trominos
That isn't the Poincare Conjecture at all... you're asking, essentially,
whether a smooth, connected, finite surface has a single local minimum that's
also an absolute minimum. That's not a hard question.

The Poincare Conjecture postulates that if any loop on a "nice" surface can be
shrunk to a point, it's topologically equivalent to a sphere. ("Nice" here
means connected, finite, and without a boundary -- like a sphere or pyramid,
but not a disk or infinite plane.) For instance, if the conjecture is true, a
cube is topologically equivalent to a sphere, because if you draw a loop on it
you can always shrink it down to a point; but a torus (donut) isn't, because a
loop around a vertical cross-section can't be shrunk.

Perelman proved the conjecture for three-dimensional surfaces (which are the
boundaries of four-dimensional objects).

~~~
mnemonicsloth
_If the conjecture is true, a cube is topologically equivalent to a sphere_

No, the cube and sphere are homeomorphic regardless. (Pf: Points on S^3 are
unit 4-vectors. Projecting onto the unit cube is continuous and invertible)

If the conjecture is true, and if you find yourself on a nice 3-surface, then
you can conclude you're on the 3 sphere.

