Volume 1: Student Life Chapter 488: The big guys who made the mistake and the schools with high returns on investment
When SLAC officials released the two pieces of news: "Glueballs were discovered" and "Collider laboratory was shut down."
Many people in the physics community are speculating whether Friedman will become the fifth person in history to win two Nobel Prizes.
Unexpectedly, the author of this paper published in Physical Review Letters is actually a mathematician.
This is something no one expected, or even thought about.
Near Princeton University is the world-renowned theoretical research institution, the Institute for Advanced Study.
At this moment, in the dean's office of the School of Natural Sciences.
Edward Witten looked at the white-haired old man with glasses in front of him with some helplessness.
You clearly saw Deligne, Langlands and others suggesting to Princeton University that they should recruit Chen Zhou to Princeton.
Some people even pour cold water on others, thinking that the young people in China are all "geniuses" with no successors.
Therefore, people are extremely pessimistic about Chen Zhou's future.
But now, why do you regret it just because of a paper published in Physical Review Letters?
The person Edward Witten was criticizing at this time was none other than the British physicist, Peter Goddard.
This old man with glasses is also the current dean of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton.
Known for his research on string theory.
In 1997, he and David Oliver jointly won the Dirac Medal, an annual award established by the International Center for Theoretical Physics in 1985 in memory of British physicist Paul Dirac.
This is the highest honor in the field of theoretical and mathematical physics.
Dean Goddard glanced at Witten, who looked helpless, and said with some regret: "Why didn't you give me some constructive advice from a professional mathematical perspective?"
Witten opened his mouth, wanting to refute this man immediately, but finally said: "My dear Goddard, Chen Zhou initially showed only a high talent in mathematics, especially in the field of number theory."
"This was the evaluation given by Faltings, Deligne, Langlands and others at the beginning. And I have always believed this. Even when we later received the Cole Prize in Number Theory, we still held the same view."
"Even when SLAC announced the discovery of glueballs, the first thing we thought of was that Friedman would once again win a Nobel Prize in Physics..."
After hearing Witten's explanation, Dean Goddard sighed softly: "Not only us, but probably no one in the entire physics community could have imagined that a young mathematician would solve the problem of glueballs theoretically and then discover the glueballs that so many high-energy physicists have been searching for..."
Witten nodded, and then said: "It's no use for us to regret now. I believe Deligne and the others regret it more than us..."
Goddard chuckled and said, "You should have guessed correctly. The value of his mathematical paper is also not low. I believe that old man Faltings is beating his chest and stamping his feet with Deligne and others at this moment..."
Goddard's words cannot be considered wrong.
At this time, Faltings, Deligne and Langlands were gathered together in Deligne's office at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton.
That’s right, the three of them “coincidentally” came across each other because of the paper published by Chen Zhou.
The three of them were a little emotional. This guy was clearly talking about studying the Goldbach conjecture, so how come he suddenly came up with a "linear representation of Artin's L function"?
But this linear representation is still in the "Galois group"...
For no reason, the three of them sneezed at the same time.
Langlands also said with emotion: "It seems that we are really old. The weather has warmed up, but we are sneezing..."
Witten, who was unaware that Goddard's words had caused some trouble to several old friends in the School of Mathematics, glanced at his old friend who had a sad face and was about to beat his chest and stamp his feet just now, but now seemed to be "gloating".
If Witten didn't know Goddard's temper, he would definitely complain about it.
But at this moment, looking at Goddard's appearance, Witten felt a little more emotional: "However, being able to reject the olive branches thrown by Faltings and others at the same time also means that Chen Zhou is destined to have no chance of going to Princeton..."
Goddard glanced at Witten, shook his head, and said softly, "I don't believe you, Faltings, Deligne, so many of you will make mistakes."
"I can only say that Chen Zhou's growth rate, learning efficiency, and his own choices and grasp of the future are far beyond what we have seen."
Wei Teng was stunned for a moment, then nodded slowly: "If you put it that way... the two papers he published this time have indeed completely refreshed the academic community's inherent perception of him."
"Moreover, in just three years, he has not only made such outstanding research results in many fields of mathematics, but also dropped a bombshell in the field of high-energy physics."
"What's more, he is too young for his current age. He has shown his unlimited potential in just three years at such a young age. I really don't know what he will be like in the future..."
"You are right. It is indeed a potential blockbuster." Dean Goddard agreed with Witten's statement. "I think everyone thought that Chen Zhou would continue to work in the field of number theory and achieve higher academic achievements until these two papers appeared."
"Because he did exactly that. He applied for the Goldbach conjecture, a number theory research topic, in China's 'Ten Thousand Talents Plan'."
"However, no one expected that Chen Zhou was not someone who was limited to the research of a single topic, but someone who had abundant energy and the courage to put it into practice."
"Whether it was other fields of mathematics or the field of physics, which everyone had always believed would be a burden to Chen Zhou and hinder his growth into an outstanding mathematician in the field of mathematics, he did not let go of any of them and devoted himself to research in every field."
Even the dean of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, who is known for his diligence and has won the highest honors in the fields of theoretical and mathematical physics, expressed great admiration for Chen Zhou when he said these words.
Goddard met many outstanding physicists and also met many outstanding mathematicians.
However, there are very few people like Chen Zhou who can achieve such outstanding academic achievements in both mathematics and physics at such a young age.
Not to mention, Chen Zhou realized his talent in just three years.
Even the legendary Edward Witten, the historian and economist in front of Goddard, who won the Fields Medal but focused on studying physics.
When Chen Zhou was his age, Witten's academic achievements could not be compared with Chen Zhou's.
Thinking of this, Goddard couldn't help but shake his head. Even at this age, with him added, they might not be able to match Chen Zhou's current achievements.
Both Witten and Goddard were silent for a while.
It has to be said that the talent displayed by Chen Zhou has already won great admiration and regret from these two big names in the physics community.
Otherwise, Peter Goddard, the dean of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, would not have had such a conversation with Witten.
However, the Institute for Advanced Study and Princeton University are not affiliated with each other.
But there is a deep connection between the two.
The Institute for Advanced Study initially borrowed offices from the Princeton Department of Mathematics to oversee its research work.
The early key personnel, such as von Neumann, Van Buren and others, also came from the Department of Mathematics at Princeton University.
At the same time, many professors at the Institute for Advanced Study also serve as part-time professors at Princeton University.
Even now, it is still the same.
Just like Deligne, Langlands, Witten and others, they are all professors at Princeton University.
Therefore, Dean Goddard felt very sorry from the bottom of his heart that he did not bring Chen Zhou to Princeton when he graduated from college.
But as he said, even the olive branches thrown by Faltings and others did not move Chen Zhou.
It was destined that this young man would have no chance of attending Princeton.
Therefore, Goddard felt nothing but regret in his heart.
After a long while, Goddard looked at Witten and said, "Have you read the paper on the rubber ball carefully?"
Witten looked up at Goddard. He naturally understood what the dean meant: "As soon as I got it, I studied it carefully, but..."
Goddard motioned for Witten to continue, but he opened the latest issue of Physical Review Letters.
"However, this is probably not the experimental guidance paper for SLAC to discover glueballs. The theoretical research content in this paper is indeed very in-depth, and it contains extremely profound understandings of both conventional quantum number glueballs and exotic quantum number glueballs."
"Including the collider experiment, the method of detecting glue balls and the detector itself are also eye-catching innovations, but I feel that this is not enough."
After Witten finished speaking, Goddard was silent for a moment, then said, "Your opinion is the same as mine. Although this paper has given the next step in the glueball experiment, it still feels a little bit short."
"It is highly unlikely that the glueball discovery experiment will be completed through this paper. I think at least several more collider experiments are needed to further advance the theory of this paper."
Witten reached out and took the Physical Review Letters from Goddard and turned to Chen Zhou's paper.
Looking at the author's name "ZHOU CHEN" clearly printed on it, Witten said with emotion again: "We all thought that it was Friedman who had the latest research results in this field, and eventually helped the SLAC collider laboratory to discover the glue ball before it was shut down."
"But I didn't expect that the person who helped Friedman and the SLAC collider laboratory to 'retire' in an honorable way was actually a young mathematician. It's a pity that we have been guessing for so long..."
Goddard also said: "Although the final SLAC experimental paper has not been published, and Chen Zhou himself has not officially responded. But the paper published in Physical Review Letters has basically told the physics community what the answer is."
"I am now looking forward to SLAC's follow-up actions, Friedman's final decision, and the paper on the final experiment."
Witten nodded gently: "Not only us, I believe the entire physics community is waiting for news from SLAC and the next paper."
Goddard thought for a moment and suddenly said, "I think they should hold a physicists' conference..."
Fortunately, the scenes at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton are not visible to outsiders.
Otherwise, not only Chen Zhou, but probably no one would think of it.
Chen Zhou's two papers actually attracted a lot of bigwigs from the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton.
As Dean Goddard said, it was quite heart-wrenching.
I feel regret for not seeing things clearly, but also regret for not persisting.
They felt even more uncomfortable when they thought that when Chen Zhou just graduated from Yenching University, Princeton had a great chance.
This also caused the students at Princeton University to feel a little strange.
These are the big guys who usually like to express their opinions on the latest research results .
Why is it so quiet this time?
It’s as if you didn’t see the two papers published by that shining new star?
But this is impossible. The journal that published other people's mathematical papers was our "Annals of Mathematics", so how could we not know about it?
No one can explain it clearly...
Except for the somewhat strange atmosphere at Princeton University and the Institute for Advanced Study, the atmosphere at MIT is extremely cheerful.
MIT managers, in particular, are in a very good mood.
I was originally worried that the joint training program signed with Yenching University regarding Chen Zhou would have a negative impact on MIT.
In other words, can the protagonist of this joint training program grow up as expected?
Unexpectedly, Chen Zhou had only been at MIT for less than a year.
He has already brought back the highest honor in the field of number theory, the Cole Medal in Number Theory.
Now, it is helping Professor Friedman to complete the glue ball experiment at a time when SLAC is about to shut down all collider laboratories.
This glueball, which has puzzled the physics community for decades and existed only in theoretical predictions, has been detected.
This is simply an over-repayment of the investment in the joint training program!
If it were in the investment field, this would be considered double the return.
Because the discovery of colloids meant the birth of a Nobel Prize in Physics.
Even though the outside world is still speculating through the paper in Physical Review Letters who provided the theoretical guidance for the final glueball experiment.
But MIT managers had already learned the whole story from Friedman.
They had almost seen Chen Zhou win the Nobel Prize in Physics.
No matter how many times this school has won such awards and honors.
It will definitely not let go of the opportunity to receive this supreme honor again.
Moreover, this also means that the school’s current academic research level is still at the forefront of the world.
If it is said that the bigwigs in Princeton "made a mistake".
Then, MIT is truly a great return on investment.
The other party in the joint training program is Yenching University’s School of Mathematics and School of Physics, as well as the school’s leaders.
An emergency meeting is also being held at this moment.
