Should the reader be an informed layman, with some interest in mathematics? In that case, why are there so many pages scattered throughout the book, filled with very esoteric formulas that only a true expert will understand. Should the reader be a professional mathematician? Perhaps, but then why would half of the book be devoted to an exploration of how a mathematician works day-to-day? Mathematicians already know that. The main problem with this book, is that the author does not know who its reader should be. So, it is of great interest to physicists, as well to mathematicians. It is based on a real physical phenomenon that occurs in plasmas. VIllani collaborated with Clement Mouhot, to derive and prove a theorem related to Landau damping.

Originally written in French, I read a version that has been translated into English. This book contains memoirs of a mathematician, Cedric Villani, a recipient of the Fields medal.

In mathematics, as in any creative work, it is the thinker’s whole life that propels discovery-and with Birth of a Theorem, Cédric Villani welcomes you into his. Villani shares his favorite songs, his love of manga, and the imaginative stories he tells his children. You’re privy to the dining-hall conversations at the world’s greatest research institutions. You join him in unproductive lulls and late-night breakthroughs. Villani’s diaries, emails, and musings enmesh you in the process of discovery. It doesn’t simplify or overexplain rather, it invites readers into collaboration. It invites readers inside the mind of a great mathematician as he wrestles with the most important work of his career.But you don’t have to understand nonlinear Landau damping to love Birth of a Theorem. Birth of a Theorem is Villani’s own account of the years leading up to the award. In 2010, French mathematician Cédric Villani received the Fields Medal, the most coveted prize in mathematics, in recognition of a proof which he devised with his close collaborator Clément Mouhot to explain one of the most surprising theories in classical physics.

Birth of a Theorem by Cédric Villani