Volume 1: Student Life Chapter 504: The World's Most Attention-Grabbing Lecture
MIT dormitory building.
Chen Zhou hung up the phone helplessly and shrugged slightly at Liu Maosheng and others sitting next to him.
"I don't know where these media outlets got the contact information. My phone is about to explode before the seminar even started. Aren't they afraid that I might be wrong in the end?"
Chen Zhou is really annoyed now. Ever since he uploaded the paper and Princeton was preparing a lecture for him and Harold Heofgot, his phone has been ringing non-stop.
In addition to inquiries from people he knew, there were also countless unknown numbers harassing him.
Hearing Chen Zhou's words, Liu Maosheng smiled and said, "Brother, you are now under the attention of the whole world. It is normal for your phone messages to be leaked, so don't be annoyed. Just set a block on unknown numbers."
Chen Zhou remained noncommittal. If the unknown call setting was completely useful, he wouldn't be so annoyed now.
Chen Zhou looked at the unknown number that appeared again on his phone, turned his phone to silent mode, and asked Liu Maosheng and Zeng Zigu: "By the way, you should be going to Princeton too, right?"
Liu Maosheng nodded: "I will definitely go, but I don't know whether I will go with President Sun and his team, or with Professor Qiu Chengtong..."
Zeng Zigu also said: "In theory, Dean Sun will definitely arrange someone to attend this lecture, but there is no news yet. The Department of Mathematics of our school has already arranged that Professor Qiu Chengtong will attend this lecture."
"And the school also said that any student who wants to go can go at their own expense. However, we both considered that since we are so familiar with Dean Sun and his team, we should wait for news from Dean Sun and then go together."
Hearing this, Chen Zhou chuckled and said, "I'm afraid it's because you know each other too well, but Dean Sun will reimburse your travel expenses, so you want to travel at public expense, right?"
Liu Maosheng and Zeng Zigu quickly shook their heads and said in unison: "Brother Junior, how can you say that? As students from the Department of Mathematics at Yan University, we must want to do more for the Department of Mathematics at Yan University, and we must put Yan University first!"
Chen Zhou smiled and shook his head without saying anything more.
No matter when they go, he will definitely set off in two days.
Generally speaking, for a proof of the level of the Goldbach conjecture , a report conference must be held and academic colleagues must be invited to witness it.
On the one hand, witness the right and wrong of this proof.
On the other hand, I hope to gain recognition from the academic community.
In this way, the name of the prover will be associated with the proved conjecture.
Moreover, generally speaking, the choice of venue for the witness's report is generally based on the arrangements of the unit where he works or the academic institution where he conducts research.
After all, everyone wants to use such a grand event to expand the influence of their own unit or academic institution.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where Chen Zhou works, is no exception.
Even though MIT has produced several Fields Medal winners, it also has mathematics giants like Professor Artin.
However, there has never been anyone like this who has solved the difficult problem that has plagued the mathematical community for nearly three centuries.
Or to put it bluntly, the influence of mathematical problems of the level of the Goldbach conjecture has reached a point where even a world-renowned university like MIT cannot ignore it.
So, at the beginning, MIT learned that Chen Zhou had uploaded the paper and submitted it to the Annals of Mathematics.
He found Chen Zhou and planned to discuss the relevant matters of the report meeting with Chen Zhou.
Even MIT has taken into account the "competitive" relationship between Chen Zhou and Harold Heofget.
We plan to invite Harold Heofgot to MIT so that the two of them can give this lecture together.
Let’s have a world debate on the final proof of the Goldbach conjecture.
Of course, when MIT made this decision, it also considered that it would have to bear two different consequences.
But no matter what the result is, MIT's influence will inevitably be enhanced again because of this lecture.
In fact, MIT is not the only one that has taken these factors into consideration.
The École Normale Supérieure in Paris, where Harold Helfgott worked, had the same considerations.
In a sense, the École Normale Supérieure in Paris may need the influence of this lecture more.
Because the École Normale Supérieure in Paris is a normal university that has trained countless outstanding teachers, hundreds of members of the French Academy, 13 Nobel Prize winners, and 14 Fields Medal winners.
It is no exaggeration to say that this normal university has been an important center for mathematics, science and philosophy research in the world for more than 200 years since its establishment.
The outstanding talents it has had include great mathematicians in history such as Lagrange, Cauchy, Fourier, Monge, and Galois, as well as great scientific figures such as Cournot, Pasteur, Durkheim, Jaurès, and Debreu, and world-renowned philosophers such as Romain Rolland, Sartre, Beauvoir, Aron, Alain, and Bourdieu.
But as time goes by, no place can remain prosperous forever.
The influence of the École Normale Supérieure in Paris is no longer what it used to be.
So, they need the changes that Harold Heofgot will bring this time.
Moreover, in terms of chronological order, Chen Zhou's paper proving the Goldbach conjecture was published after Harold Heofgot's.
Shouldn't everything have a first come first served basis?
In this case, the École Normale Supérieure in Paris thought that they should be the organizer and host this lecture.
Chen Zhou can bring his paper to the conference.
At the same time, the mathematical community will judge whose paper is correct and whose is wrong.
MIT naturally would not agree with such a statement. The reason they gave was that Chen Zhou had discovered the fatal flaw in Harold Heofgot's paper in the process of proving the Goldbach conjecture.
So it would be best for them to host the symposium, and Harold Heofgot would come with his paper.
When this was said, MIT was actually also unsure.
Although Chen Zhou publicly stated that his paper was "the correct way to open Ge Guess".
However, they were unable to make an accurate judgment on this.
However, after careful consideration, MIT still believed that even if Chen Zhou was bragging, what they would gain in the end would still be more than if they took the initiative to go to the École Normale Supérieure in Paris.
So MIT and the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, each holding their own opinion, began competing for the venue for the lecture.
And, in order to maximize the impact of the lecture.
MIT and the École Normale Supérieure in Paris also specifically instructed Chen Zhou and Harold Hoofget not to make any remarks in public or on social media.
We'll talk about everything after the report meeting is over.
This is also the case when Chen Zhou’s Weibo exploded and he was bombarded from many sides.
He still has not made any further comments, nor has he given any further explanation for the message he posted on Weibo.
In fact, it was precisely because of Chen Zhou's silence once again that the curiosity of those who were paying attention to this matter was aroused.
This led to the leakage of Chen Zhou's phone number and the continuous ringing of the phone.
After two days of discussion, MIT and the École Normale Supérieure in Paris still failed to come up with a feasible plan.
Both sides have also begun to tend to hold their own press conferences and engage in a remote "duel".
But this would be disadvantageous to Chen Zhou and Harold Heofgot.
In any case, there is no reason for either of them to miss the other's presentation.
The results of the report meeting are also extremely important to both of them.
Besides, where can we find so many big names in mathematics?
Which lecture will the big guys attend?
What if one family is bustling and the other is deserted? Wouldn't that be slapping yourself in the face?
Just at this time, the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton began to contact people from both sides and began to seek the opinions of Chen Zhou and Harold Heofgot.
Because of the two papers received at the same time, mathematicians at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton have been busy.
World-renowned mathematicians such as Wiles, Faltings, Deligne, Langlands, and Freeman all participated in the review of the paper.
So, if the lecture was held at MIT, or at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, both of which are located.
Then it is very likely that these reviewers will not be able to spare the time.
It would be even more troublesome if they were held separately.
Ultimately, MIT and the École Normale Supérieure in Paris reached an agreement and accepted the Institute for Advanced Study's proposal.
Of course, this is mainly because Chen Zhou and Harold Heofgot also hope to hold a lecture in Princeton.
After all, if MIT and the École Normale Supérieure were allowed to continue the discussion, they would probably just have to hold separate seminars.
This is actually what neither Chen Zhou nor Harold Heofgot wanted to see.
Mathematicians have their own unique pride.
What's the point if you can't defeat your opponent face to face?
Even if you fail, you should accept it with your head held high.
From the perspective of mathematical inheritance , the answer to the Goldbach conjecture, a difficult problem that has troubled the mathematical community for nearly three centuries, should also be announced to the world in the world's mathematical center!
In fact, as for Chen Zhou himself, he had another idea.
That is, he hoped to solve the Goldbach conjecture in one go.
Simply put, it was to defeat Harold Heofgot head-on while making the entire mathematics community recognize and accept his proof.
Two days passed quickly.
During these two days, Chen Zhou also carefully checked his proof process again.
At the same time, we once again verified the proof process of Harold Heofgot's paper and carefully studied the fatal flaw he discovered.
This was also the first time that Chen Zhou attached so much importance to something before a report meeting.
If it were in the past, Chen Zhou would probably be copying a PPT, trying to modify it, and using it as the PPT for his own report.
But now, his heart was longing for a word: foolproof.
Of course, during these two days, Chen Zhou was still being harassed.
His Weibo has completely exploded.
On Weibo, almost all the messages were asking him why he said that his proof paper was "the correct way to open it as I guessed."
Everyone's curiosity has been piqued to the highest point.
There were even many netizens who did not receive a reply and began leaving messages saying that they wanted to go to the lecture in person to witness this historic moment with their own eyes. They also wanted to see with their own eyes whether Boss Chen Zhou would go back on his word.
At the same time, the netizen also said that if possible, he would definitely broadcast it live to everyone...
Chen Zhou actually also saw these situations on Weibo.
I almost couldn't help but reply to this netizen with a [dog head].
Fortunately, I managed to hold back in the end and did not reveal my posture of quietly lurking and observing secretly.
The reason why Chen Zhou did not reply was not entirely because of MIT's instructions.
Rather, he believed that there was an opportunity for a public "confrontation".
Then there would be no point in him making any more comments on this matter.
In other words, Chen Zhou felt that this was totally inconsistent with his perfect temperament and was really ungentlemanly.
He plans to wait until he defeats his opponent before replying to these cute and silly netizens.
In addition, as Liu Maosheng and Zeng Zigu saw that day.
Chen Zhou’s cell phone also completely “exploded”.
It rings almost every three minutes.
Chen Zhou actually admires these people's perseverance. With so much time and persistence, what can't they do?
If we give him this time, he might solve another mathematical conjecture...
But no matter what, it doesn’t matter whether any netizens will actually go to the lecture in person.
Chen Zhou and Harold Heofgot's lecture in Princeton is really about to begin.
While on the plane, Chen Zhou was very glad that he bought a hat to wear.
Otherwise, he estimated that he would be surrounded by the media friends on the plane.
He would never have imagined that this plane would become the "special plane for the news media."
Because Chen Zhou was surprised to find from their conversation that most of these people were reporters, and they were rushing to Princeton.
The target was exactly the report meeting between him and Harold Heofgot.
Chen Zhou also went to Princeton with his mentor, Professor Michael Artin.
This master of algebraic geometry has not left Boston or MIT for a long time.
This time, he took the initiative to propose going to Princeton with Chen Zhou.
In addition to Professor Artin, there were also many professors and students from the Department of Mathematics.
Looking at Chen Zhou, who had his hat pulled down low, Professor Ating said with a smile, "It is not an exaggeration to say that a world-famous mathematical conjecture is accompanied by a world-renowned lecture."
The plane landed on time at Philadelphia International Airport.
Chen Zhou, Professor Ating and others took the airport car to Princeton.
This is a small town that is not very big and even looks a bit classic.
At this moment, it seems particularly lively.
