Bogdanov affair

Igor and Grichka Bogdanov

The Bogdanov Affair is a controversy regarding the merit of a series of theoretical physics papers written by French twin brothers Igor and Grichka Bogdanov (or Bogdanoff). These papers were published in reputable scientific journals, and culminated in a proposed theory for describing what occurred before the Big Bang. The controversy started in 2002 when accusations were made on Usenet newsgroups that the work was a deliberate hoax targeting the physics community. While the Bogdanovs defend the veracity of their work, some physicists have alleged that the papers are nonsense, and have raised questions about the strength of the peer-review system that selected the research for publication.

The Bogdanovs' credentials to write on cosmology are based on Ph.D. degrees they obtained from the University of Bourgogne; Grichka Bogdanov received his degree in mathematics, and Igor Bogdanov received his in theoretical physics. Although there were issues related to the comprehensibility of their theses, they graduated conditionally upon publishing in journals that were respected in their fields. When later challenges to the legitimacy of the work arose, the debate spread to the question of whether the substitution of a "publication requirement" by university professors when they do not understand students' work is a valid means of determining the veracity of a paper. However, the intrinsic complexity of topics like quantum groups and topological field theory (as well as the growth of excessive jargon used by those who study these areas) makes it difficult to avoid such delegation, since often specific expertise is necessary in order to fully understand and evaluate the claims made in papers in these fields.

The brothers have been widely known in France as television presenters for a few decades; their shows like Temps X (and more recently Rayons X) deal with topics in popular science and science fiction, and have attracted a large number of viewers. The celebrity status of the Bogdanovs in their country may have helped spread this controversy from specialized scientists to mainstream media and online forums.

Origin of the affair

According to the nowadays well-established Big Bang scenario, the universe (or at least the part of it we can observe) experienced an extremely dense and hot era (bottom), possibly starting from a gravitational singularity. Since then, space has expanded, carrying matter and later galaxies with it. The history of expansion is very well known since primordial nucleosynthesis, but the earlier epochs are significantly less constrained. The present analysis of the cosmic microwave background suggests that an inflationary era occurred at a much hotter and denser epoch than nucleosynthesis. The even earlier epochs are presently left to speculations, ranging from a singular beginning of space-time to a bouncing epoch (e.g., in the pre Big Bang scenario), an eternal, non singular expansion (e.g., chaotic inflation), string theory inspired scenarios (string landscape), or even weirder scenarios involving extra dimensions such as the ekpyrotic universe. Some of these scenarios may replace the now standard inflationary framework. In the case of a singular beginning (a hypothesis which is presently impossible to prove either theoretically or observationally), present knowledge tells us nothing about what happened from the time of the singularity until around 10^-43 second, an epoch known as the Planck era, because space-time has then to be described by a quantum theory of gravity, which is presently not known. The Bogdanov publications purport to have discovered what happened during this earliest epoch and even before the moment of the singularity itself.

In 1999 and 2002 Grichka and Igor Bogdanov obtained Ph.D. degrees on the basis of two theses (Grichka in mathematics and Igor in theoretical physics) from the University of Bourgogne. In 1999 Grichka Bogdanov received the rare low passing grade of "honorable" for his thesis Quantum fluctuations of the signature of the metric at the Planck scale, on the condition that he considerably rewrite his thesis. On the same day, Igor Bogdanov failed the defense of his thesis Topological Origin of Inertia. His advisor subsequently agreed to allow him to obtain a doctorate if Igor could publish three peer-reviewed journal articles. After publishing the requisite articles, Igor successfully defended his thesis three years later on a different topic under the responsibility of two co-advisors Topological State of Spacetime at the Planck Scale, also receiving the same low passing grade of "honorable", one that is seldom given, as told to New York Times science reporter Dennis Overbye by Bogdanov Ph.D. advisor Dr. Daniel Sternheimer. In justifying the conferring of doctoral degrees to the Bogdanovs, Dr. Sternheimer told the Times, "These guys worked for 10 years without pay. They have the right to have their work recognized with a diploma, which is nothing much these days."

The two brothers published a total of six papers in physics and mathematics journals, including Annals of Physics and Classical and Quantum Gravity, which are both reviewed by referees. After reading the abstracts of both theses, German physicist Max Niedermaier formed the opinion that the papers were pseudoscientific, consisting of dense technical jargon written to sound scientific without having real content. In Niedermaier's view, the Bogdanovs had tried to prove the existence of weaknesses within the peer-review system, much the way that physicist Alan Sokal had published a deliberately fraudulent paper in the humanities journal Social Text. On 22 October, 2002, Niedermaier sent an email to this effect to physicist Ted Newman, and the email was then widely distributed. An eventual recipient of the email, the American mathematical physicist John Baez, created a discussion thread on the Usenet newsgroup sci.physics.research titled "Physics bitten by reverse Alan Sokal hoax?" which quickly grew to hundreds of posts in length.

This controversy immediately attracted worldwide attention, both in the physics community and in the international popular press. Following Niedermaier, the majority of the participants in the Usenet discussion thread created by Baez also made the assumption that the work was a deliberate hoax, which the Bogdanov brothers have continued to deny. After hearing that the Bogdanovs disputed that their work was a hoax, Niedermaier issued a private and public apology to the Bogdanov brothers on 24 October 2002 for having so assumed from the outset. However, Niedermaier has endorsed neither the validity nor merit of the work in question.

Reports and comments from scientists

Thesis reports

The following are excerpts from the 15 Thesis Reports of Igor and Grichka Bogdanov:

Roman Jackiw, from MIT: "The author proposes a novel, speculative solution to the problem of the pre-Big-Bang initial singularity ... the thesis and the published papers provide an excellent introduction to these ideas, and can serve as a useful springboard for further research in this area".

Costas Kounnas, from ENS Paris: "I found this work very interesting, with many new ideas about quantum gravity ... the author proposes an original and interesting cosmological scenario.".

Jack Morava, from the Johns Hopkins University: "the thesis work of Igor Bogdanov is of great interest, dominated by new ideas with fundamental physical implications in cosmology and in many other fields connected with gravitation."

Published papers

In May 2001, the journal Classical and Quantum Gravity (CQG) reviewed an article authored by Igor & Grickha Bogdanov, entitled "Topological theory of the initial singularity of spacetime". One of the referee reports stated that the article was "Sound, original, and of interest. With revisions I expect the paper to be suitable for publication." The paper was accepted seven months later.

However, after the publication of the article and the publicity surrounding the controversy, Andrew Wray and Herman Nicolaî, editors of the journal issued by email dated around november 1rst a briefing note (the issuing date is not certain since this internal breifing note was never supposed to be published as an official position of the journal) for some of their editorial board members, saying, in part:

"Regrettably, despite the best efforts, the refereeing process cannot be 100% effective. Thus the paper [...] made it through the review process even though, in retrospect, it does not meet the standards expected of articles in this journal. The paper was discussed extensively at the annual Editorial Board meeting [...] and there was general agreement that it should not have been published. Since then several steps have been taken to further improve the peer review process in order to improve the quality assessment on articles submitted to the journal and reduce the likelihood that this could happen again."

However there is a problem about the authenticity of this email whose source has never been clearly established. Ten days later, on november 10, after sound discussions with the editorial board of Classical & Quantum Gravity and the Institute of Physics, Andrew Wray and Herman Nicolaï issued an official statement in the Physics-Astronomy-Mathematics bulletin which was clearly released into the public domain. In this official version, all the critical aspects of the first suspicious briefing note were removed  :

"Our position is this: Classical and Quantum Gravity endeavours to publish original research of the highest calibre on gravitational physics. It is one of the highest standard journals in its field and makes continuous effort to maintain and improve the quality of research communication. In common with many journals, we consult among a worldwide pool of over 1,000 referees asking two independent experts to review each paper. A third referee is selected if the first two disagree. 45% of submitted articles are rejected and almost all accepted articles are revised before publication. The paper 'Topological field theory of the initial singularity of spacetime' by G Bogdanov and I Bogdanov made it through this review process and was therefore published in the normal way. (..) We have passed this information on to the community and ask that if your colleagues enquire about this, you forward this e-mail on to them."

In 2001, the Czechoslovak Journal of Physics accepted an article written by Igor Bogdanov, entitled "Topological Origin of Inertia". The referee's report concluded: "In my opinion the results of the paper can be considered as original ones. I recommend the paper for publication but in a revised form."

Chinese Journal of Physics

Chinese Journal of Physics

In 2002, the Chinese Journal of Physics published "The KMS state of spacetime at the Planck scale", from Igor Bogdanov. The report stated that "the viewpoint presented in this paper can be interesting as a possible approach of the Planck scale physics." Some corrections were requested.

Not all review evaluations were positive. Eli Hawkins, acting as a referee for the Journal of Physics A, suggested rejecting one of the Bogdanovs' papers: "It would take up too much space to enumerate all the mistakes: indeed it is difficult to say where one error ends and the next begins. In conclusion, I would not recommend that this paper be published in this, or any, journal."

Several of the published papers are nearly identical, differing only in minor respects and in their publication title.

Criticism of the papers

After the start of the controversy on Usenet, most comments were critical of the Bogdanovs' work. The following are examples:

John Baez commented that their work "is a mishmash of superficially plausible sentences containing the right buzzwords in approximately the right order. There is no logic or cohesion in what they write."

Alain Connes, recipient of the 1982 Fields medal: "It didn't take me long to make sure that they were talking about things they don't fully understand."

Peter Woit: "The Bogdanoffs' work is significantly more incoherent than just about anything else being published. But the increasingly low standard of coherence in the whole field is what allowed them to think they were doing something sensible and to get it published."

Jacques Distler: "The Bogdanov's papers consist of buzzwords from various fields of mathematical physics, string theory and quantum gravity, strung together into syntactically correct, but semantically meaningless prose."

Georges Charpak, recipient of the 1992 Nobel Prize in Physics: "The Bogdanovs are inexistent [sic] in Science."

Some comments were more positive:

Lubos Motl: "[T]he Bogdanoff brothers are proposing something that has, speculatively, the potential to be an alternative story about quantum gravity ... What they are proposing is a potential new calculational framework for gravity. I find it unlikely that these things will work but it is probably more likely than loop quantum gravity and other discrete approaches whose lethal problems have already been identified in detail"

Implications for the peer-review system

Prior to the controversy, the reports on the Bogdanov theses and most of the journal referees' reports spoke favorably of their work, describing it as original and containing interesting ideas. This has been the basis of concerns raised about the efficacy of the peer-review system that the scientific community and academia use to determine the merit of submitted manuscripts for publication; one concern is that over-worked and unpaid referees may not be able to thoroughly judge the value of a paper in the little time they can afford to spend on it. Questions were also raised in the sci.physics.research newsgroup about the fact that some aspects of theoretical physics have become so abstract, extensively relying on unproven conjectures, that verifying many statements written in published papers has become somewhat impossible.

Regarding the Bogdanov publications, physicist Steve Carlip remarked:

The referees made a mistake. Well, accidents happen. Referees are volunteers, and get very little reward for their service to the community. Sometimes they get overwhelmed (...) and get careless. Sometimes they don't want to admit that they don't understand a paper. Sometimes they read their own ideas into a paper. Two referees are better than one, but once in a while they'll both make mistakes.

Whereas theoretical physicist Lubos Motl commented:

... Some of the papers of the Bogdanoff brothers are really painful and clearly silly [...] But the most famous paper about the solution of the initial singularity is a bit different; it is more sophisticated.

[...] it does not surprise me much that [one of the referees of the thesis and for "Annals of Physics"] Roman Jackiw said that the paper satisfied everything he expects from an acceptable paper - the knowledge of the jargon and some degree of original ideas. (And be sure that Jackiw, Kounnas, and Majid were not the only ones with this kind of a conclusion.)

[...] Technically, their paper connects too many things. It would be too good if all these ideas and (correct) formulae were necessary for a justification of a working solution to the initial singularity problem. But if one accepts that the papers about these difficult questions don't have to be just a well-defined science but maybe also a bit of inspiring art, the brothers have done a pretty good job, I think. And I want to know the answers to many questions that are opened in their paper.

On 27 March 2006, E. Capelas de Oliveira and Waldyr A. Rodriguez, Jr. submitted a comment to the arXiv preprint server, claiming that an earlier paper, "On Some Contradictory Computations in Multi-Dimensional Mathematics" by L. A. V. Carvalho, is "a potpourri of nonsense". According to Rodriguez and de Oliveira, the "proofs" in the earlier paper are trivial errors based on nothing more than misunderstandings of calculus concepts. Author and philosopher of mathematics David Corfield posted a blog entry the next day, asking if this event constituted "another Bogdanoff affair".

Internet discussions

In addition to a few articles in print, the Bogdanov affair has been discussed extensively in various webpages and blogs on the Internet; these discussions have taken place on various newsgroups and forums, and the Bogdanov brothers have often participated in the discussions, both under their real names, and under several pseudonyms; they later acknowledged doing so. Most of the pseudonyms were the names of other physicists or mathematicians, purportedly defending the Bogdanovs' work and sometimes insulting their critics (among them the Nobel prize recipient Georges Charpak). A few participants in these discussions responded in a similar manner, specifically accusing the Bogdanovs of evading scientific criticism, or lying about what they actually wrote or said.

At the start of the controversy in the moderated group sci.physics.research, Igor Bogdanov denied that their published papers were a hoax, but when asked precise questions from physicists Steve Carlip and John Baez regarding mathematical details in the papers, failed to convince any other participants that these papers had any real scientific value. New York Times reporter George Johnson described reading through the debate as "like watching someone trying to nail Jell-O to a wall", for the Bogdanovs had "developed their own private language, one that impinges on the vocabulary of science only at the edges."

Participants in the discussions were particularly unconvinced by the affirmation in one of the Bogdanov papers that "whatever the orientation, the plane of oscillation of Foucault pendulum is necessarily aligned with the initial singularity marking the origin of physical space." The Bogdanovs explained that this sentence would only be clear in the context of topological field theory. Some physicists found this statement and subsequent attempts at its explanation somewhat peculiar, since Foucault's pendulum trajectory is accurately predicted by classical mechanics and even more precisely by general relativity.

At the beginning of 2004, Igor Bogdanov began to post on French Usenet physics groups and internet forums, continuing the same pattern of behavior.

The HKU confusion

For months, the domain name of the International Institute of Mathematical Physics created by the Bogdanovs, th-phys.edu.hk, created erroneous suggestions amongst forum participants as to a possible link with the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

The participation of an unidentified "Professor Yang" created additional problems in determining the truth of the matter; an individual publishing under this name wrote to a number of individuals and on the Internet to defend the Bogdanov papers. This individual wrote to physicists John Baez, Jacques Diestler and Peter Woit; journalist Dennis Overbye from the New York Times; and on numerous physics blogs and forums, signing his name "Professor L. Yang - Theoretical Physics Laboratory, International Institute of Mathematical Physics - HKU/Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong." using an e-mail address at the domain th-phys.edu.hk.

The Bogdanovs have alleged several times that the "domain name "th-phys.edu.hk" was officially owned by Hong Kong University." This was not confirmed officially by HKU and no Prof. Yang existed on the roster of the HKU Physics department. The DNS record of th-phys.edu.hk did list the HKUST street address, but the domain had been registered by Igor Bogdanov, and e-mail messages from Professor L. Yang originated from a dial-up IP address in Paris, France. The registration of th-phys.edu.hk has not been renewed.

Suspicions were consequently raised that Professor L. Yang was in fact a pseudonym of the Bogdanovs. However, Igor Bogdanov has maintained that Professor Yang is a real mathematical physicist with expertise in KMS theory, a friend of his, and that he was posting anonymously from Igor's apartment. As yet, no such individual has come forward publicly to unambiguously identify himself as this "Professor Yang" and to identify his credentials and institutional affiliation, and no published record of this "Professor Yang" has been offered for examination.

Following this pattern, another academic domain name was also registered in Latvia (http://phys-maths.edu.lv/), hosting the Mathematical Center of Riemannian Cosmology. Again, this apparent educational institution was registered by Igor Bogdanov. However, in this case, no claim was implied of an affiliation with an official educational institution.

Media involvement

At the start of the controversy in 2002, numerous articles were published in worldwide media, such as the New York Times, the Washington Post, the International Herald Tribune, the Economist, the The Chronicle of Higher Education, as well as Pravda and Die Zeit.

In 2002, the Bogdanovs launched a new weekly TV show Rayons X on French public channel France 2. In August 2004, they presented a 90-minute special cosmology program in which they introduced their theory among other cosmological scenarios. They were also frequently invited to numerous TV talk shows to promote their book. The French mainstream media, in both the press and on the Internet, covered the renewed controversy to some extent; media outlets that have reported upon it include Europe 1, Acrimed, Ciel et Espace, and Le Monde.

A thesis reporter, Shahn Majid from the University of London, claimed on a Usenet post that Grichka Bogdanov was intentionally misquoting his opinion, in an addendum to Avant Le Big-Bang, on the way the interview he gave to a journalist from Ciel et Espace was eventually transcribed. Majid wrote that the French version of his report on Grishka's thesis is "an unauthorized translation partially invented by the Bogdanovs". In one sentence, the word "interesting" was translated as "important". A "draft (mathematical) construction" becomes "the seminal (mathematical) construction". Elsewhere, an added word demonstrates that "Bogdanov does not understand his own draft results", notes Majid as well as more than ten other modifications of meaning. Every one of them is biased towards "shameless overestimation". The report regards a "very weak" student, who has demonstrated "an impressive amount of determination to obtain a doctorate".

Additionally, in the same addendum, a critical analysis of their work made by post-doc Urs Schreiber, and affirmed by the Bogdanovs as "very accurate", was included with the exception of the concluding remark "Just to make sure: I do not think that any of the above is valid reasoning", thus inverting the meaning from criticism into ostensible support of the work. Moreover, physicist Peter Woit has written that a polite comment of his, "It's certainly possible that you have some new worthwhile results on quantum groups", was translated as "It is completely certain that you have obtained new worthwhile results on quantum groups" and published by the Bogdanovs in the addendum of their book.

In early 2005, the Bogdanovs sued Ciel et Espace for defamation over the publication of a critical article entitled "The Mystification of the Bogdanovs". The trial should take place at the beginning of 2006.

Follow ups to the Bogdanovs' work

An indication of the impact that these theories may have on theoretical physics can be inferred by the references made to them in subsequent papers by other theoretical physicists. The Bogdanov papers are cited a total of 3 times on the SPIRES database, for 6 published papers and one unpublished preprint. For comparison, a recent detailed analysis of citation statistics reveals that between 1000 and 2000 citations are expected from someone who advances to a full professor position or for a fellowship of the American Physical Society, and around 8000 citations are expected for members of the US National Academy of Sciences. To focus on cosmological scenarios, a recent and somewhat controversial cosmological model known as the "ekpyrotic universe" was published in 2001 and has already been cited more than 360 times. Before the controversy arose, the scientific community had shown practically no interest in the Bogdanov papers; indeed, according to Stony Brook physics professor Jacobus Verbaarschot, without the hoax rumors "probably no one would have ever known about their articles."

The Bogdanovs have not, at the time of writing, published any scientific paper since 2003; however, in collaboration with theoretical physicist Arkadiusz Jadczyk, they have founded the International Institute of Mathematical Physics in order to study and develop their theories. Despite the similarity of name, this is unaffiliated with the reputable Erwin Schrödinger International Institute for Mathematical Physics in Vienna, Austria. In 2004, two papers have been published in peer-reviewed journals by A. Jadczyk within the framework of this Institute. These two papers are not closely related to the issues addressed in the Bogdanovs' previous papers.

File:AvantLeBgBang.jpeg

In 2004, the Bogdanovs published a successful popular science book, Avant Le Big-Bang (Before the Big Bang), based on a simplified version of their theses, where they also presented their point of view about the affair. Both the book and the Bogdanovs' television shows have been criticized for elementary scientific inaccuracies. Examples cited from Avant Le Big-Bang by critics include a statement that the "golden number" φ (Phi) is transcendental, which the Bogdanovs allege to be an editorial misprint, and an assumption that the limit of a decreasing sequence is always zero. Despite these criticisms, some point out that the Bogdanovs deserve credit for bringing the subjects of cosmology and relativity to a wider audience.

The Bogdanov Affair also had some unexpected consequences in the world of theoretical physics. Some media articles have cast a negative light on this field, stating that it has become impossible to distinguish a valid paper from a hoax. Some people used the affair to criticize the present status of string theory. Many comments have been made on the possible shortcomings of the referral system for published articles, and also on the criteria for acceptance of a thesis and subsequent delivery of a Ph.D degree.

Comparisons with the Sokal Affair

Some sources have referred to the Bogdanov Affair as a "reverse Sokal" hoax, drawing a comparison with the Sokal Affair, where the physicist Alan Sokal published a deliberately fraudulent article in the humanities journal Social Text in order to demonstrate the risk of postmodernist academics accepting scientific validation without adequate evaluation. One of the earliest to draw a comparison between the two events was physicist John Baez, in the seminal post of October 2002 to the sci.physics.research newsgroup.

Both Igor and Grichka Bogdanov have vigorously insisted upon the validity of their work, and possess academic qualifications in the fields in which they are publishing, although some people question the bona fides of both the validity of the papers and the academic credentials of the writers. In comparison, Alan Sokal was an outsider to the field in which he was publishing – a physicist, publishing in a humanities journal – and promptly himself issued a statement that his paper was a deliberate hoax; indeed, Sokal published the article to expose the weakness of the journal's peer review process. Replying on sci.physics.research, Sokal referred readers to his follow-up essay, in which he notes "the mere fact of publication of my parody" only proved that one particular journal's editors were "derelict in their intellectual duty". (According to the New York Times, Sokal was almost disappointed that the Bogdanovs had not attempted a hoax after his own style. "What's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander," he said.) Baez, one of the first to make the comparison, later retracted, saying that the brothers "have lost too much face for this to be a plausible course of action".

Cornell physics professor Paul Ginsparg writes that the contrast between the cases is plainly evident: "here, the authors were evidently aiming to be credentialed by the intellectual prestige of the discipline rather than trying to puncture any intellectual pretension." He adds that the fact some journals and scientific institutions have low or variable standards is "hardly a revelation." Both matters have, however, provoked discussion of peer-review reliability, veracity of academic papers published under credentials alone, and adequate evaluation of the nature of papers by academia at large.

External links

Initial discussion thread:

• Physics bitten by reverse Alan Sokal hoax?

Thesis and papers:

• Scientific publications by Igor and Grichka Bogdanov
• Template:Fr Grichka Bogdanov's PhD thesis
• Template:Fr Igor Bogdanov's PhD thesis
• Unpublished preprint by Grichka Bogdanov, put online soon after the beginning of the affair

Some websites critical of the Bogdanovs:

• John Baez's discussion of the Bogdanov affair
• «Pot-Pourri» from Igor & Grichka Bogdanov's Before the Big Bang by Jean-Pierre Messager
• A small journey in the Bogdanoff universe by Alain Riazuelo
• Review of "Topological field theory of the initial singularity of spacetime" by Robert Oeckl
• Template:Fr Comments on Grichka Bogdanov's unpublished preprint by Damien Calaque

Bogdanov-related sites (pro-Bogdanov):

• Mathematical Center of Riemannian Cosmology, an Igor Bogdanoff website
• International Institute of Mathematical Physics, Igor Bogdanov's institute, hosted by Arkadiusz Jadczyk
• Cassiopaea, Arkadiusz Jadczyk's website, offers some additional discussion

Some news items about the controversy:

• Publish and perish, by J. Giorgis in The Economist.
• Physics hoaxers discover Quantum Bogosity, by Andrew Orlowski in The Register.
• French TV Stars Rock the World of Theoretical Physics, by Richard Monastersky in The Chronicle of Higher Education.
• Are They a) Geniuses or b) Jokers?; French Physicists' Cosmic Theory Creates a Big Bang of Its Own, by Dennis Overbye in The New York Times
• Theoretical Physics Breakthrough or Hoax? Slashdot thread

Blog entries

• Jacques Distler (1, 2) blog entries (critical of the Bogdanovs)
• Peter Woit (1, 2, 3) blog entries (critical of the Bogdanovs)
• Urs Schreiber blog entry (critical of the Bogdanovs)
• Luboš Motl blog entry (pro-Bogdanov)