雙語暢銷書《艾倫圖靈傳》第4章:彼岸新星(40)

The months from January to April 1937 were absorbed in writing up a paper on the lambda-calculus, and two on group theory.

1937年1月到4月，艾倫一直在專心寫論文，一篇關於λ算子，兩篇關於羣論。

Of these, the logic paper represented a small development of Kleene's ideas.

其中，邏輯論文是在克林的基礎上提出一些新觀點。

The first group theory paper was work related to that of Reinhold Baer, the German algebraist now attached to the IAS, which had mostly been done in 1935.

一篇羣論論文與萊恩赫·巴爾1935年的研究有關，這位德國代數學家現在也來到了高級研究院。

But the second was a new departure, which arose through contact with von Neumann.

另一篇羣論論文則是一項創新的工作，是通過與馮·諾伊曼交流而入手的，

It was a problem suggested by the emigré Polish mathematician S. Ulam, that of asking whether continuous groups could be approximated by finite groups, rather like approximating a sphere by polyhedra.

關於一個由波蘭數學家S.烏拉姆提出的問題：能不能用有限羣來逼近連續羣，比如說能不能用多邊體來逼近一個球。

Von Neumann had passed the problem on to Alan, who successfully dealt with it by April, when it was submitted.

馮·諾伊曼把這個問題交給艾倫，艾倫在4月時成功解決並提交了論文。

This was fast work, although as he had shown that continuous groups could not in general be approximated in this way, it was a rather negative result. Nor, he wrote, was he 'taking these things so seriously as the logic.'

這項工作做得很快，艾倫的結論是，在一般情形下，連續羣不能被這樣逼近。

Meanwhile the possibility had arisen of staying at Princeton for a second year. Alan wrote home on 22 February:

這時候，艾倫得到了繼續留在普林斯頓的機會。2月22日，他寫信回家：

I went to the Eisenharts regular Sunday tea yesterday and they took me in relays to try and persuade me to stay another year.

我昨天去艾森哈特家，參加例行的星期天茶會，他們勸我再留一年。

Mrs. Eisenhart mostly put forward social or semi-moral semi-sociological reasons why it would be a good thing to have a second year.

艾森哈特夫人從社會的角度，或者說半道德半社會的角度，給我講爲什麼再留一年是有好處的。

The Dean weighed in with hints that the Procter Fellowship was mine for the asking (this is worth $2000 p.a.)

院長讓我申請保潔獎學金，並暗示說我能得到（2000美元）。

I said I thought King's would probably prefer that I return, but gave some vague promise that I would sound them on the matter.

我說國王學院可能更希望我能回去，又說了一些模棱兩可的承諾。

The people I know here will all be leaving, and I don't much care about the idea of spending a long summer in this country.

我在這裏認識的人都會離開，而且我也不想在這個國家度過漫長的夏天。