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2Very interesting. Do you have a reference where this story is told, or where Birkhoff made the admission you mention?– Dan RomikCommented Apr 19 at 20:32
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2For context, in some circles, G.D. Birkhoff has reputation for being ... "ingenerous". Oh, ok, yeah, also vocally anti-semitic (von Neumann was ethnically jewish...) I do think that this taints some of these situations...– paul garrettCommented Apr 20 at 1:33
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3Birkhoff's theorem is several orders more complicated than vin Neumann's mean ergodic theorem . Birkhoff's proof was so complicated that over the years several illustrious mathematicians provided gradually simpler proofs.– Liviu NicolaescuCommented Apr 20 at 10:37
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2It’s a great answer and story, upvoted. And thanks for the cool reference @usr1234567, I agree with you that the relevance to OP’s actual question is limited, both because it appears Birkhoff was not the reviewer for von Neumann’s paper, and (perhaps more importantly) because von Neumann did not upload his paper to arXiv.– Dan RomikCommented Apr 20 at 14:02
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2@usr1234567 George Birkhoff acknoledges the work of von Neumann on the first page of of his paper on ergodic theory. pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.17.2.656– Liviu NicolaescuCommented Apr 20 at 17:05
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