Henri Poincaré is one of the most famous French scientists of all time. During his life he managed to achieve a lot. Besides the fact that he made many discoveries in various fields of knowledge, he also taught for many years at the Sorbonne and was a member of the French Academy of Sciences, and from 1906 until his death in 1912 was its president.
In the modern world, the most famous achievement is Poincare’s theorem, which was proved by Gregory Perelman.
Attempted evidence
Many scientists have been studying the theorem for many years, but only a few people have achieved success. One of the main breakthroughs was made by the American scientist Thurston. The essence of his work is that he was able to visually illustrate the variety of elements of the three-dimensional plane. Thurston's work was called the geometrization hypothesis, and for it he was awarded the Fields Prize.
Several Chinese scientists were also interested in proving the Poincare theorem. Among them, Shin Tong Yau stands out, who even made statements that he and his students managed to do this.
Perelman's work
Gregory Perelman proved the Poincare theorem after many years of hard work on it. He began his research while in America, where he lectured at various universities for a long time. After meeting with the American scientist Hamilton, who helped him clarify some aspects of string theory, he thought about proving the theorem. After some time, he decided to return to his native St. Petersburg, where he diligently set to work.
In 2002, Perelman published the first part of his work and sent a copy of Shin Tong Yau so that he could give her an objective assessment. Even then, the scientific world became aware that the Poincare theorem was proved. Within a few months, Perelman published two more parts of the article, in which his work was presented in a very concise form.
In the scientific world, it is accepted that before an official statement on the discovery is made, several different scientists must confirm it, and only then the work can be officially published. Before the proof was published, the Poincare-Perelman theorem was tested many times, and this work was further complicated by the fact that it used a significant number of abbreviations and there was little explanation for such a serious work.
Nevertheless, after some time it was recognized that Perelman was able to solve the problem over which many generations of scientists fought.
Fields Prize
This prize is awarded only every four years to no more than four scientists who have made a serious contribution to the study of mathematics. Perelman was also awarded it in 2006 for proving the Poincare conjecture, but, strangely enough, he refused such an honorable award and was not present at the ceremony. According to the scientist himself, honors are not important for him; the fact that the hypothesis has been proved has already brought him pleasure.
Poincare’s theorem was a mystery to many scientists, but it was the eccentric Russian mathematician who was able to solve it and find answers to questions that worried the whole scientific world for a long time.