Le Monde Grothendieck 7 May

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Scientific treasure or old paper illegible? The
mysterious archives of Alexander Grothendieck
The 70,000 pages of this giant of mathematics sleep in a cellar in Paris. These manuscripts, written while
living as a hermit, remain to be deciphered.

By Philipp e Douroux Post ed on 06 May 2019 at 18h01 • Updated on 07 May 2019 at 20h35

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The mathematician Alexandre Grothendieck, during a conference at the Institute of Higher Scientific
Studies of Bures-sur-Yvette (Essonne), in January 1960. IHES / AFP

Is it a scientific treasure or old papers not even good for recycling, as they are
loaded with blue ink? How many hours did it take to cover 70,000 pages between
19 August 1992 and 24 August 2014, today deposited in a cellar in Paris? Mostread

The author of these lines drawn in a very fine, very flat, sometimes readable, 1 "I do not apologize, but I
understand the cracking ":
often difficult to decrypt, the mathematician Alexandre Grothendieck {1928-
the police face their own
2014) has taken extreme care to order what looks like an indecipherable message, violence
numbering each page, dating each bundle and sometimes raising its working
hours. It is to write that he had retired from the world in August 1991, in Lasserre,
an isolated village of Ariege, limiting to the minimum the contact with the men 2 Doris Day, Hollywood star of
and women he had loved so much. the 1960s , is dead

Tireless worker
3 "General " Macron still
He whose mathematics allow the exchange of phenomenal amounts of struggles to be understood
by the armies
encrypted data via tiny devices, he whose tools forged in the 1950s and 1960s
helped to prove the existence of the Higgs boson, which explains why such
particle has a mass, whose mathematical work contributed to the demonstration
of Fermat's theorem by Andrew Wiles wanted to disappear, reducing its presence
to thousands of pages.
Read also Archives of Alexander Grothendieck: what price, between
epsilon and infinity?

A tireless worker, mainly at night between 10 pm and 6 am, he had already left 28
000 pages in Montpellier, the university where he had obtained a bachelor's
degree in mathematics in 1948, and where he had returned to teach after turning
his back on the scientific community, by posing at the beginning of the 1970s the
question of the legitimacy and the finality of science. His peers had removed him
from the College de France, when the largest American universities agreed to ask
this question. He feared that technology would eventually destroy the planet,
inaugurating a radical ecology when the word did not exist yet. How could he be
wrong today, even if he assured his students that the end of the world was to
come in 1982?

In the Parisian cellar, Georges Maltsiniotis,


It washismethod, mathematician by vocation, grothendieckien by
startingfromscratch character - he refuses to speak to journalists - could
togettotheheartof serve us as a guide. Before the archives were
thingswithout transferred there, he spent two days in Lasserre,
bothering with February 22 and 23, 2015, to examine "very
examples, exercises
or summarily" 15,000 pages written during the first
pedagogy two years that the mathematician dedicated to a
solitary reflection . The first 4,800 pages represent
mathematics "in due form ''.he notes in his account. Then comes physics, a strange
escapade for the one who practiced the purest mathematics. After, he would have
tried to resume the reconstruction of the Universe from scratch. It was his
method, starting from scratch to get to the heart of things without bothering
with examples, exercises or pedagogy.

Read also Alexandre Grothendieck: a mathematical Gothic cathedral

What can be said about his last writings? A shipwreck of thought? A subsidence of
reason? A swallowing of intelligence? Everything is true, but it should be called
this collapse of grandiose, when Alexander Grothendieck tries to tear from
oblivion the 76,000 Jewish deportees of France, among whom was his father. He
had the most orderly mind, the chaos finally took over. He left a testimony,
sometimes poignant, of this human quest or of this misguidance, constantly
attacking the devil who had removed the pleasure of seeking.

Heavenly wandering and a lot of anger

We go down to this cellar in the middle of Saint-Germain-des-Pres, crowded with


a thousand things by a narrow and inconvenient wooden staircase. There are
about forty canvas boards made to measure by a bookbinder from Saint-Girons
(Ariege), which regularly received the dimensions to be respected to the
millimeter to contain sheets of A4 paper neatly arranged, or large sheets that spat
out computers when these were huge capricious machines. There are maths with
drawings, a heavenly rambling and a lot of anger. There is still a box of packing in
bad condition filled with disparate leaves recovered in the barn of the house
Ariege of Alexandre Grothendieck. Jean-Bernard Gillot, to whom the children of
Alexander, Johanna, Serge, Matthieu and Sacha, in France, and John,

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Facsimile of handwritten notes (1983-1984) preserved at the Montpellier Institute Alexandre
Grothendieck (IMAG) of the University of Montpellier. SUCCESSION ALEXANDRE GROTHENDIECK

These archives should have been there for only a few months, they seem to be
jammed, blocked for many years. Anyone who approaches them to put them in a
safe place seems to get discouraged quickly. They seize the file, weigh it and let go.
Because the law requires to set a price before the National Library of France (BNF)
can recover what belongs to him, according to the last wishes of the deceased.
The legislator wanted the children can not be disinherited by granting them an
inalienable part of the inheritance. It is therefore necessary to pose a small
problem of elementary arithmetic to calculate the part reserved. If the
inheritance is 100, the five children must recover 75, and 25 can go to a third, in
this case the BNF.But, of what, and 25 by how much?

An "undesirable"

We must therefore evaluate what the deceased leaves to his children, namely : a
bank account, his Ariege house and the thousands of pages of archives divided
into two funds, that of Paris and that of Montpellier, whose university has
finished to take care after ignoring it for years. The taxman is waiting and will
wait a long time to take what he wants. Any sale resulting in an income and a
contribution to the public effort.























Facsimile of handwritten notes (1983-1984) preserved at the Montpellier Institute Alexandre
Grothendieck (IMAG) of the University of Montpellier. SUCCESSION ALEXANDRE GROTHENDIECK

Before setting up operation x (cash)+ y (house)+ z (archives)= 100, you have to


present the man and his work. Even dead, even reduced to 100,000 pages of notes
- 28,000 in Montpellier, 70,000 in Paris - Alexander Grothendieck remains an
"undesirable", to use the name that had joined the Daladier governmentwhen,
following his mother, he had been interned, in October 1939, at the camp of
Rieucros, near Mende (Lozere). He was 11 years old. As a precaution, we locked up
all thosP WP did not want. whPthPT thPv WPTPrPfrn:,pps_ flPPini:, Nazi GPrmanv.
anarchists returned from Spain or communists. They were Hannah Arendt,
Arthur Koestler, Johanna Grothendieck, mother of the mathematician, or
Alexander Shapiro, his father. Both foreigners, undocumented and anarchists or
socialist-revolutionaries, these two could not escape the vigilance of the French
police, who followed them since they had crossed the Pyrenees with what was left
of the army Spanish republican .

Winner of the Fields Medal in 1966

Behind the barbed wire , the child discovers that there is a constant ratio between
the circumference of a circle to its diameter, before becoming one of the greatest
th
mathematicians of the XX century. Even if there is no measuring instrument
to place it in front of or behind John von Neumann, the prince of applied
mathematics, Alan Turing , the man who decrypted Enigma, the secret code of
the Nazis, or John Nash, schizophrenic who will tame his illness to win the Nobel
Prize in economics with his work on game theory, he is of this dimension.

Universite de Montpel lier lnstltut Montp ellieraln Alexander Groth end leck

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Facsimile of handwritten notes (1983-1984) preserved at the Montpellier Institute Alexandre
Grothendieck (IMAG) of the University of Montpellier. SUCCESSION ALEXANDRE GROTHENDIECK

In France, it should be measured to the Cartan, father and son, to Andre Weil,
with whom he will play to love detestation in the manner of Sartre-le-bourgeois
and Camus-the proletarian, or Jean-Pierre Serre, elected professor at the College
de France at 29, with whom he will exchange a correspondence that looks like a
game of conceptual ping-pong . He also participated in Bourbaki, the group of
anonymous mathematicians who, after the Second World War, set out to refound
the writing of axioms, demonstrations and theorems . Recognized as one of the
best, winner of the Fields Medal in 1966, Alexandre Grothendieck was going to
get angry with those who had welcomed him with kindness. In the grip of a
feeling of dereliction , he will hate with the same force what he loved.

Hermit lost in thought

The seriousness of the man of science and the dirty character of the man are
summed up in a single anecdote. In July 2014, John Tate, a leader in the world of
math , seeks the address of his old friend , he wants to see "one last time, "he tells
us. The two men met in 1957, when the American mathematician spent a year in
France . He remembers being impressed by "the hospitality of the man as much as
his maths "and wants to make the trip, at 89, from Texas , where he lives, to
Lasserre. We must not warn Alexander Grothendieck , John Tate knows he does
not want to see anyone. He will come anyway. Fortunately, the children of the
111aL11e111auua11wnu nas ueen 111seuus1u111ur Lwe1ny-u1ree years are u1ere .
Alerted by a neighbor at the end of September , they came to take care of a man
with strength, who finally accepted their help. John Tate introduces himself and
asks ifhe can come in to greet his old friend. Matthew Grothendieck sends the
request to his father who finds the energy to refuse . John Tate leaves without
even seeing his friend, hermit lost in his thoughts.

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Facsimile of handwritten notes (1983-1984) preserved at the Montpellier Institute Alexandre
Grothendieck (IMAG) of the University of Montpellier. SUCCESSION ALEXANDRE GROTHENDIECK

When John Tate had met him, Alexandre Grothendieck was already an assertive
researcher put on the right track by Laurent Schwartz and Jean Dieudonne, who
had welcomed him to Nancy in 1949, with a mission to understand if this young
man was a born mathematician or an "amazed howling ". This is how he describes
himself in Harvests and Sowing, a 1,000-page book in which he discusses his love
and his dislike of men , women and mathematics, from which he will move away
to "take refuge in itself" , as Alain Cannes nicely says, the only major
mathematician who defends him tirelessly .

In his memoirs, Laurent Schwartz , a mathematician


Therascalfindsthe engaged at a time when there were committed
solution
toquestions writers, resolves the question unequivocally: "The
thathiselders
cannot collaboration with this talented young man was a
solvebyforgingnew fascinating and enriching experience. "The crank is
tools the solution to issues than their elders do not know
how to solve by building new tools. Jean Dieudonne,
he will put his career aside by becoming the scribe of the student, writing
relentlessly the 11,000 pages of Elements of algebraic geometry. A sum that was
hoisted by the title and by the content at the level of the Elementsof Euclid, by
attacking a world where parallels do not exist, where the plan is only an illusion
useful to the engineers but without reality when one plunges into a universe,
ours, infinitely big or infinitely small.

Unlversit~ de Montpelller lnstitul Montpelll~raln Alexander Grothendieck



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Facsimile of handwritten notes (1983-1984) preserved at the Montpellier Institute Alexandre


Grothendieck (IMAG) of the University of Montpellier. SUCCESSION ALEXANDRE GROTHENDIECK

Becoming in 1957, the young man full of enthusiasm jostled the mathematical
community the following year at the World Congress of Mathematicians,
Edinburgh {Scotland), where he presented a program that was to take a few years
and not yet completed. It will not do the trick, but it shows the direction and
describes the steps to be taken. Others do this, with one-third of the Fields medal
recipients, a four-year award to researchers under 40, working in their wake.

Claire Voisin, algebraic geometer, the first woman


Howtoexplain the mathematician hosted at the College de France, will
lassitudethatwinsall first refuse to follow in her footsteps, before
thosewhoapproach admitting that her concepts were unavoidable. To
thetreasureofthese follow it is first to take an arid path. But those who
thousands ofpages complete willingly repeat the words of the author of
andwedonotknowif crops and sowing, which speaks of a promised land
it contains
goldor "to the lush wealth multiplying endlessly wherever he
pleases hand to ask for or to pick search. And this
lead,sincenoone
overwhelming impression of wealth beyond all
couldseriously
measure has only been confirmed and deepened over
immerse himselfinhis the years, until today ".Question of point of view
writings and control. The eleven students who will take over
from Jean Dieudonne to write the "Seminars of
Algebraic Geometry" {SGA)all evoke "the wonder that lasts".

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Facsimile of handwritten notes (1983-1984) preserved at the Montpellier Institute Alexandre
Grothendieck (IMAG) of the University of Montpellier. SUCCESSION ALEXANDRE GROTHENDIECK

So, how can we explain the weariness that wins all those who approach the
treasure of these thousands of pages and of which we do not know if it contains
gold or lead, since no one could seriously immerse himself in his writings left in
Lasserre and now stored in Paris, including the "schematic elementary geometry"
(box 1, nearly 1,100 pages), or "Psyche and structure" (boxes 2 to 4), made up ,
according to Georges Maltsiniotis, "of definitions, lemmas, propositions, theorems
and corollaries " ? His maths produced gold, but the character turned everything
into lead around him.

"Determined to build a vision of the world"

The BNF,to whom the mathematician has bequeathed part of his writings, sent
the director of manuscripts in Ariege. Isabelle Le Masne de Chermont says she is
touched by what she discovered in April 2015, a few months after the death of
their author in November 2014. She has delicate words to evoke "a thought
marked by suffering and self-perception. as a victim ·; bringing him closer to the
poet Antonin Artaud , "in the determination to build a vision of the world, despite
or in favor of the crossing of limit states of consciousness ".She also tried to solve
the Grothendieck archive equation without success. Her cases are poorly filled
and she does not want to hear about sums that exceed her budget. This will
preserve public money but may open the door to Yale, Harvard or Princeton, who
have other means.

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Facsimile of handwritten notes (1983-1984) preserved at the Montpellier Institute Alexandre


Grothendieck (IMAG) of the University of Montpellier. SUCCESSION ALEXANDRE GROTHENDIECK

When asked the question to Emmanuel Ullmo, the head of the Institute of Higher
Scientific Studies (IHES},built in 1958 around Alexander Grothendieck, he
assures that everything was done for eighteen months and that no one among
the patrons He meets regularly to fund the IHES is willing to seriously discuss the
purchase of archives to entrust the BNF, IHES or the University of Montpellier.
" It's worthless "

At the Academy of Sciences, we can hear in the corridors of "it's worthless"who


have the advantage of closing the file permanently, when his new perpetual
secretary, Etienne Ghys (also contributor of the supplement "Science &
Medicine") , who has just saved from the dumpster the archives of Gustave
Choquet, the man who wanted to put France to modern math, wonders how to
act. He does not like the mathematician or his maths, preferring these applied
mathematics, useful, if not tomorrow, at least the day after tomorrow, to
transform the world, when the maturation of those of the hermit of Lasserre is
counted in decades: his "Patterns", "seen or glimpsed" in a letter to Jean-Pierre
Serre in the summer of 1964, were only described in the early 2000s by Vladimir
Voevodsky, Fields Medal (2002).

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Facsimile of handwritten notes (1983-1984) preserved at the Montpellier Institute Alexandre
Grothendieck (IMAG) of the University of Montpellier. SUCCESSION ALEXANDRE GROTHENDIECK

Contacted at the beginning of April to determine their interest in the archives of


Alexander Grothendieck, the Ministry of Culture and that of research will not
respond to our requests. Not even to capture the more general question of the
attractiveness of public science heritage. To insist is useless. Culture, in charge of
the preservation of this heritage, we have nothing to say. In search, we simply
manage the Palace of Discovery or the City of Science, so Grothendieck's topos or
motives can wait.

Administrative Garrigue

How to do ? Perhaps to resume the method applied in Montpellier. By taking over


the direction of the university's mathematics department, Jean-Michel Marin
found himself facing 28,000 pages of archives that nobody cared about. They
remained years in a cupboard and the efforts of Luc Gomel, state curator, were
lost in the administrative scrubland. Then Jean-Michel Marin saw children at
length, together or separately, he convinced them of the importance of correctly
archiving the writings of their father and to make the content available to the
scientific community. It is done, the fund is fully digitized and all mathematical
texts have been made available to those who want to seize it. The mail will remain
confidential until the deaths of the persons concerned,
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Facsimile of handwritten notes (1983-1984) preserved at the Montpellier Institute Alexandre
Grothendieck (IMAG) of the University of Montpellier. SUCCESSION ALEXANDRE GROTHENDIECK

Of course, the main thing remains : to transform the "scribbles" - the word belongs
to Alexandre Grothendieck - into readable text. This is a huge job that will surely
require the expertise of a software capable of reading the writing of the hermit of
Lasserre. After , we'll know if we should talk about gold or lead. When you ask the
mathematician x, y or z in a three-dimensional space, the answer is always the
same. He breathes deeply , assures that there is probably nothing to gain from it
and immediately adds: "But it's Grothendieck, so you have to watch. "

The cost of the operation? Less than 500 000 for shelter and human mathematical
cathedral that will monitor how the brain, which created tools for ordering spaces
that escape us yet , could sink into chaos. We can also say that these writings are
undesirable. Otherwise, we must solve the operation of the inheritance and say
how much it is worth, between epsilon and infinity.

Philippe Douroux

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Scientific treasure or old paper


illegible? The mysterious archives
of Alexander Grothendieck
THE WORLD SCIENCE AND TECHNO I 06.05.2019 at 18:01 • Updated 07.05.2019 at
20:35

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EDITION ABONNES
J.. JPA Yesterday
This example illustrates the absurdity of a world where one claims to give
a price to everything , where everything would be merchandise. No one
The newspaper dated May 14
can seriously say today what these archives are worth, let alone what is
their price and what they will bring to the mathematics of tomorrow.
~ ftlflo ndt ■ I
surl'qrenage
En:joote deswolences
polici!res
JOSEPH MOUTIEN 3 days ago ~
f=~.g_~:-':C!. --7"~ :.:.--
1- Remove the archives from their cellar , because we are still waiting for
the great flood of the Seine 2-Digitize the whole and put it in open
archives 3-lndemnize the right-holders for the conservation of this
national treasure.
a
like, I said you! 3 days ago > Read this edition
some maths, I only remember: how to demonstrate that , for a right > The last 30 editions (the Kiosk)
triangle , a2 + b2 = c2. the photo of the "conference" in bures on yvette
makes me laugh: less than 15 spectators-worshipers. and the diagrams
shown do not rise to the thousandth of the creations of pollock. I am a
geneticist, I have identified a gene responsible for a human genetic
disease. what did this guy do for man? not much, since it was not even
considered useful to analyze his latest productions.

this obscure object 3 days ago


It is to wonder if France knows how to 11manage 11 its rare geniuses.

Leo the periwinkle 4 days ago


Thank you for this geat article.

LGT LYCEE AUDIBERT! 4 days ago


You have to ask Terence Tao to look at the documents, right?

Eyes open 4 days ago


The first thing is to respect the man. The latter had slammed the door of
the IHES by learning that it benefited from funds from NATO ... Only an
entity whose morality is above all suspicions (if it exists) would be
legitimate in the occurrence. We can not do anything either , under the
pretext of keeping his work .

FRAN(:01S LAMBEL 4 days ago


Outstanding investigation and writing. Congratulations and thank you
J.. ODILE PITON 5 days ago
Treasure of course. Precision: Tate came in 67-68. Qq remarks: some
words are to take the 2nd degree: quibble, "it's worthless" , scribbles. The
great scholar Grothendieck , speaking of his work incomprehensible to
almost everyone , made this joke (Even a math can joke) This article
seems to take this word to the 1st degree. Am I mistaken? It is necessary
to save this treasure and to launch a subscription but of grace do not
speak of scribbles, the donors would flee.

andy 5 days ago


To say of G. Choquet that he is the man who wanted to introduce modern
mathematics is a bit simplistic and confusing. He certainly introduced
modern mathematics into higher education in the 1950s, but then he
enrolled against Bourbakism in high school , which caused so much
damage in about twenty age groups (between 1965 and 1960). and
1985). It's people like A. Lichnerowicz who have basically taught maths in
high school.

a reader 5 days ago


Well done on this article!

gbouvier 5 days ago


It is obvious that these writings are worthless. That 's why we must keep
them preciously.

Nashville 5 days ago


By speculating, it reminds something of the kind , topologies of complex
graphs, exchanges , networks of dynamic interactions , applicable to
social , economy , cell metabolism, digital , etc.

Yse 5 days ago


We could not discreetly transfer 500 000 € from the pot for Notre-Dame?

Eric 5 days ago


Simple solution: a subscription. For my part I will give without hesitation.
Otherwise, I would see the little genius of Google put their hand in their
pockets. In the rarefied universe of the US elite where zeros are not
counting so much , 500,000 euros is small change. But the citizen solution
is to try first.

Deirdre 5 days ago


The economic value of these 100,000 pages is currently impossible to
identify, I think I engage a bet Pascal in their favor. That the State put 20
or 50 million € to buy this sum and make it decipher to study. In the worst
case , he loses 50 M € , which is not so huge for him, and will be anyway
neither the first time nor the last. In the best case , it acquires an
inestimable treasure , with innumerable potential repercussions. There is
no hesitation.

Sativo 5 days ago


Once I had done small drawings of this kind, before finishing at the
asylum ... But I'm not a mathematician , maybe in the middle of all these
sheets there are some good stuff.

Corbin Colby 5 days ago


Comment so ridiculous! Algebraic geometry , topology are immense
expanses of mathematics and "scribbles" (so called by Rothendiek
himself) are maps to visualize the geography of the place studied to
understand them.

Sativo 5 days ago


That's what I'm saying , you only understand what you want to
understand. Especially that in the article we have specialists who say that
all this is worthless , I have not even been until the, since I am only an
incompetent in the matter, take a breath ;)
Delrare 5 aays ago
..L @Sativo The mathematicians mentioned (member of the College de
France , but it is not said that they are eminent specialists in the Theory of
Topos) say that "it is worthless" but "that it is still necessary to look" ,
which means that they consider that it has" no value "without having read
the corpus. There are better opinions .

J.. NRV 5 days ago


Open a book of algebraic geometry a little serious , try to understand
about fifty pages (it should not take you more than a few years) and you
probably have less desire to tell bullshit.

Birmin 5 days ago


Can anybody explain to me "The mail will remain confidential until the
deaths of the persons concerned, unless they agree to its publication. "? I
do not understand the meaning of this sentence in the text (which by the
way is very interesting!)

Jerome 5 days ago


Couriers are not made public as long as people mentioned in these
letters are alive

An @ r 5 days ago
If you correspond with someone (a great scientist in this case), you may
not want your letters to be published in your lifetime even though the
recipient has passed away.

Birmin 5 days ago


Thank you!

BERNARD GEORGES 5 days ago


Bad, strange: we can not find 500 000 euros , 500 times less than the
price of a single Airbus plane? we dream.!!!! How much are the
manuscripts , if any, of Pascal , or Einstein , or even pages of Leonard De
Vinci?

Fiouck 6 days ago


Oh. Beautiful article.

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11&§-ii+IHM
ENCHERES COURS
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Scientific treasure or old paper


illegible? The mysterious archives
of Alexander Grothendieck
THE WORLD SCIENCE AND TECHNO I 06.05.2019 at 18:01 • Updated 07.05.2019 at
20:35

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EDITION ABONNES
J.. Bishop 6 days ago
We now expect the reaction of Mr. Vilani on the subject
The newspaper dated May 14

Without Rancor 6 days ago ~ ftlflo ndt ■I


Exciting article that enlightens us on the genius of this misanthropic
mathematician and keeps us in suspense as a very good crime novel If fn:iootesur l'qrenagedeswolences
polici!res
someone launches a subscription I am. Even if I am part of the ~
f=~.g_~:-':C!. --7"~ :.:.--
generation sacrificed on the altar of maths modern

source verified 6 days ago a


The heirs need money? Here is a double page of the World that will help
them. Next step , a call from mathematicians to spend public money for
small drawings. I am a taxpayer and I say we do not need it right away. > Read this edition
> The last 30 editions (the Kiosk)

BERNARD LEGRAS 6 days ago


These small drawings reflect the thought of one of the greatest
mathematicians who has ever lived. It is not a bad use of your tax to save
them. In a few centuries we will still talk about Grothendieck and these
diagrams may have delivered their meaning.

Albatros 6 days ago


These small drawings reflect the thought of one of the greatest
mathematicians who has ever lived. It is not a bad use of your tax to save
them. In a few centuries we will still talk about Grothendieck and these
diagrams may have delivered their meaning.

Nathalie Dupont 5 days ago


read this article again , you probably did not understand who or what it
was

Cinoshe 6 days ago


The myth of solitary genius still has a bright future ahead of him .
unfortunately.

NRV 6 days ago


You must never have come close to mathematical creation to utter such
nonsense , unfortunately.
J.. Yo! 6 days ago
Yes, @Cinoshe , it makes you c ... the geniuses, the truth seekers who
surpass themselves because they do not support the cheating and the
roughly summary of the normal man.

Force is to see ... 6 days ago


My God , but what does the state do (at first sight , nothing to wait for its
share of the IRS , appalling, but so revealing of our current policies and
values in power ... ) and its normally representatives? A genius. And
bureaucrats ... Sad

It all depends on the point of view that we place ourselves,


compared to the idea we have ... 6 days ago
"What good is it to change the lead into gold , if there is to be exchanged
for gold, only lead?"

JOSE SEKNADJE-ASKENAZI 6 days ago


I absolutely do not understand the bias of the author of the article to
qualify the last course of this great thinker as a "dereliction". I was able to
consult a few dozen pages (unfortunately no more - his writing is too
difficult to decipher-: on the contrary is highly interesting.

ortho gonal 6 days ago


superb article that "summarizes" well this mathematician. As for the idiocy
of the property of his works .... are there any doctoral students to launch
the assault on the classification and deciphering?

Claude Hulin 6 days ago


Excellent article , it is all the more meritorious on a subject by nature a
little arid

LEBRETON 6 days ago


It seems to me that there are funds provided by higher education for the
conservation of scientific heritage. Could the conference of university
presidents not intervene with the higher education directorate to unblock
the file?

Eyes open 6 days ago


When we see that the British Universities have managed to collect more
than 1 billion pounds last year ... There are really battles that we have
definitely lost! In an ideal world , our jewels that are Normale Sup+
Polytechnique + the College of France + the IHES (I do not dare to speak
of the University of Montpellier) would easily fulfill these 500 000 € .

Diogene 6 days ago


Very nice article, which gives to think about the human being , its size and
its fragility.

Corbin Colby 6 days ago


These archives will be much better preserved , made available, studied in
the American universities than lost in the cellars of an administration in
France. The mediocrity of the leading French mathematicians before the
production of a genius shows that the latter had good reason to flee
them! Like Perelman today and Ramanujan before him.

mediocrity? 5 days ago


@ Corbin Colby oh good , JP Serre , A. Connes and others V. Lafforgue
(who 's that one?) Would be mediocre ... wow!

RENAUD DEFRANCE ii ya 6 jours


You have to open a national subscription! We will find 5000 math lovers
ready to put 100 € to know what is in the papers of this genius!

a Christophe BKOUCHE ii ya 6 jours


I am on it!

J.. YES ii ya 6 jours


Organize a collection!

Jose B. 6 days ago


Hence , idem.

TRISTAN DERAY 5 days ago


You are 100% right It would already be enough to open a pot as you see
it bloom everywhere .... and begin to fund raise: It would be enough to call
two or three renowned mathematicians and / or public figures for to vouch
for this kitty and manage it? C Bkouche , son of Rudolf no doubt: are you
ready to open it: We will follow you and support in the transmission of this
heritage legacy!

HB 6 days ago
There is nothing to expect from politicians in France, between their
personal ambition and their scientific ignorance. Let's bet that it will end in
the United States, where in a few decades we will understand the hidden
treasures of these writings ... and we will say in France "well thin we did
not know" ... as the shame of liquid crystals, whose physics has been
discovered in France since Friedel up to Gennes and whose Japan made
its richness in the 80s because of having filed patents!

Alaini 6 days ago


Same for lithium batteries more recently

Deirdre 5 days ago


On a more directly industrial level , there is also the case of GemPlus, the
world 's leading French smart card company , whose encryption
technologies were looted some 15 years ago by the French investment
fund. the CIA lln-Q-Tel , before the French state wakes up and rises to the
capital , but 7 years too late.

Graphisto 6 days ago


Poor country, France , who can not find 500 000 €fora fabulous lottery
ticket. Bernard Arnaud only buys what is listed at Christie's , and rebuilds
only after a fire.

Jasons 1 weeks ago


Excellent.

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