IHES Editorial Department

The IHES mathematics journal is highly renowned in the math community, with an impact factor exceeding 6, placing it among the highest of all mathematics journals.

Even the Four Top Journals don't have an impact factor as high as theirs.

For instance, the journal with the lowest impact factor among the Four Top Journals, the Journal of the American Mathematical Society, has an impact factor of less than 3, while the highest, Annals of Mathematics, doesn't exceed 5.

This makes the editors at IHES quite proud, as it signifies that the papers published there are of truly high quality. They even feel that the Four Top Journals are only called that due to historical reasons.

Otherwise, it would be the "Big Five."

Perhaps precisely because it's not one of the "Big Four," they appear a bit more "approachable," which often attracts some overconfident individuals to submit their work, hoping for acceptance.

Unfortunately, this is a thankless task for the editors, as they have to review every single submission and provide a response.

Evans shook his head helplessly, "Let's get to work!"

Even if they couldn't finish them all, it wasn't a big deal. Overtime was impossible; it was a once-in-a-lifetime commitment. Today's work would be pushed to tomorrow, tomorrow's to the day after, and eventually, they'd get through them all.

Asking them, the French, to work overtime? Absolutely not.

And so, he began to read the papers.

Fortunately, the first few papers were essentially impossible to get through. Either the value of their conclusions didn't meet their requirements, or they were so poorly written that even the abstract was incomprehensible.

All were immediately rejected, saving considerable time.

These editors were also researchers at IHES. While their abilities might not match those of the big names, they were more than capable of conducting an initial review of these submissions.

Just like that, Evans reached the fifth submission.

"Hmm?"

Suddenly, Evans paused, noticing a star symbol next to the title of this submission.

This usually indicated that the paper had caught the attention of their Editor-in-Chief, Bojielun, and was being fast-tracked.

Papers that received such attention were typically from scholars who were already well-known in the mathematics community.

Why not the "big names"?

Because the Editor-in-Chief usually reviewed papers from the big names directly, without needing them, the regular editors, to assess them first. Then, the Editor-in-Chief would decide whether to send it for expert review or accept it directly.

Of course, besides this scenario, there was another possibility: papers from "connections," allowing them to jump the queue.

Where there are people, there are connections. This place was no exception.

However, due to IHES's stringent requirements for papers, these "connections" papers could at most jump the queue and get an expedited review; relaxing the standards was out of the question.

They weren't like Advanced in Mathematics, a journal that could almost be called MIT's school newspaper. As a top-tier mathematics journal, it almost allowed every mathematics graduate from MIT to publish a paper in it.

This was considered a perk for MIT's mathematics graduate students, providing them with a certain employment guarantee after graduation, thanks to their top-tier publication.

While it sounded good, as an IHES editor, Evans somewhat disdained such practices.

"Let's take a look at this paper first."

"Hmm... Non-singular Analytic and the Absolute Remote Abelian Conjecture?"

Upon seeing the title, his eyebrows slightly raised. It seemed rather significant.

It was a paper on Far Abelian Geometry. This author seemed quite remarkable.

Was this a rising star in the mathematics world that had caught the Editor-in-Chief's attention?

He became curious and immediately looked at the submitter's information.

But then, he froze.

"Uh...? A... high school student from China??"

Evans found it absurd.

A high school student daring to submit a paper to Publications Mathematiques de l'IHES?

He doubted if he had read it correctly, rubbed his eyes, and leaned closer to look again, finally confirming he hadn't made a mistake.

A high school student, or more accurately, a high school student who had just graduated this year. But whether they had graduated or not, or even if they were an undergraduate, this was simply too preposterous.

"Could Editor-in-Chief Bojielun have made a mistake in marking it?"

He thought to himself, and to verify this, he immediately left his seat and walked towards the Editor-in-Chief's office.

He knocked.

"Come in," a voice called from the office.

Evans opened the door and entered. Seeing Editor-in-Chief Bojielun sitting inside, he explained his question.

Bojielun seemed to have already anticipated Evans's question. He smiled and said, "No mistake, it's that paper, written by a high school student. Just review it thoroughly. Also, don't use a template for the reply email; provide some specific comments, explaining the strengths and weaknesses, and so on."

Evans immediately replied with a hint of helplessness, "This paper... review it thoroughly? And provide comments? I suspect I won't want to continue reading after the abstract."

Bojielun chuckled and said, "Anyway, this is something you have to do every day at work. Going through it again won't be a problem."

"The main thing is, the person who called me was Mr. Hu, who visited and studied here before. He's also from China, and we have a good relationship. According to him, this is a paper written by a mathematical prodigy he discovered. Maybe you'll actually be able to get through this paper?"

"How about we bet 50 euros?"

Evans twitched the corner of his mouth. Alright, he understood now. Bojielun himself didn't think the paper would be that good, but since it was a request from an old friend, he couldn't refuse, so he was passing the task on to torment him.

Hmm… these 50 euros were probably given to him as compensation, right?

"Alright."

Having accepted the "bet," Evans returned to his seat and resumed reading the paper before him.

His colleague David, sitting next to him, asked, "What were you doing at the editor-in-chief's office?"

Evans gestured towards his computer screen. "A paper submitted by a high school student. Bojielun gave me 50 euros and asked me to figure out how to reject it without crushing the kid's confidence."

David immediately understood, patted Evans on the shoulder, and gave him a sympathetic look.

Everything was understood without a word.

Evans didn't feel like elaborating and began to read.

He wanted to see just how good this paper, which Mr. Hu had called a "genius," truly was.

Coincidentally, his doctoral dissertation was in Far Abelian Geometry, which was likely why Bojielun had assigned this paper to him.

However, Evans had initially started thinking about how to tactfully reject the manuscript so that Bojielun's old friend, the editor-in-chief, wouldn't lose face. But as he began reading the paper, all those distracting thoughts vanished.

This paper seemed…

not absurd at all. On the contrary, it was excellent!

As he looked at the rigorous derivations and explanations in the paper, Evans's eyes widened.

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