Although the technical subtleties will be over many readers' heads, seeing some of the original words and equations that led to the theorem better communicates the way mathematics truly works. Villani takes the unusual approach of not trying to translate all of the mathematical language in discussions or letters, but rather sharing them verbatim. He shares many emails between himself and his main collaborator, as well as conversations with colleagues, his own thought processes and calculations and even dreams that offered insight into his problem. He tells the story of the thrill of discovering the nut of a new problem, the exhilaration of making a breakthrough, as well as the devastation of realizing he has made a mistake and the frustration of reaching an impasse. Like few have before, Villani-a mathematician at the University of Lyon in France and director of the Henri Poincaré institute-imparts a sense of what it is like to search for mathematical truths. The subject of the book is not the math-which has to do with the stability of waves in a hot gas-but rather the world of mathematicians. If that sounds like Greek to you, have no worries. Cédric Villani’s new book describes the work that went into a mathematical proof of nonlinear Landau damping.
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