Volume 1: Student Life Chapter 505: That fatal flaw!
Princeton is probably best known for Princeton University and the Institute for Advanced Study.
Because there are so many scientific masters who came from here.
Even now, it is the world's mathematics center.
Any famous scholar you mention will probably have some connection with this place.
Today, Princeton welcomes many "outsiders" of different skin colors, different countries, and different professions.
The reason why everyone came here today is for only one purpose.
That is the lecture that will begin tomorrow, which will attract worldwide attention.
They are all looking forward to the "exciting showdown" between Chen Zhou and Harold Heofgot starting tomorrow.
We are also looking forward to the final result of the Goldbach conjecture, a difficult problem that originated in 1742, has challenged humanity for nearly three centuries, shocked the world many times, exhausted the energy of many of humanity's most outstanding minds, and also fascinated thousands of amateurs.
In short, this will definitely be a report meeting that is destined to go down in history in the 21st century.
Although only a very small number of people can understand the content of the lecture that will begin tomorrow.
But this does not prevent others from coming here to witness the truly meaningful moment they are looking forward to.
Take the guy on Chen Zhou’s Weibo who said he wanted to live broadcast the event. What he wanted was to witness this historic moment with his own eyes and record it with his own hands.
At this time, the old man had already arrived in Princeton and was guarding the door of the hotel where the lecture was held.
If nothing else, he just wanted to bring the blessings of countless netizens to cheer Chen Zhou up.
He hoped that Chen Zhou would keep the right to prove the Goldbach conjecture, which the Chinese people had longed for, in the hands of the Chinese.
However, he waited until it got dark but still didn't see Chen Zhou.
He dared to guarantee that he had never made a mistake or let go of anyone who looked similar to Chen Zhou.
But, Chen Zhou did not appear.
With no other options, he could only return to his hotel and wait quietly for the lecture tomorrow.
In fact, Chen Zhou did pass by this old man.
However, Chen Zhou was wearing a hat with the brim pulled down very low.
Except for Professor Ating and others who were traveling with him, no one else knew that the man wearing the hat was Chen Zhou.
Therefore, the old man who came with good wishes did not notice Chen Zhou.
As for Chen Zhou, he has been staying in his room since entering the hotel and has not come out.
He is replying to the reviewer's email.
The email contained some questions raised in the paper.
Although the report meeting is about to begin, the length of the report meeting should be taken into consideration.
It is impossible to put all the problems on the report meeting.
Therefore, these reviewers sent some of the questions to Chen Zhou via email.
Chen Zhou was actually happy about this. At least he didn't have to worry about being recognized when he went out.
Then it brings some unnecessary trouble.
This way, I can stay in the room and sort out my thoughts while replying to emails.
Look for details that you may have overlooked.
Make full preparations for the lecture that will begin tomorrow.
Speaking of which, Chen Zhou’s paper reviewers can all be considered his “old friends”.
Among them were the three mathematics giants Faltings, Deligne and Langlands, who were responsible for reviewing his paper on the proof of Cramer's conjecture.
While Chen Zhou was answering the questions in the email, Faltings and his colleagues were also carefully reviewing the paper.
"Deligne, how's the progress over there?"
Faltings glanced at the person sitting not far away and gently pinched his eyebrows.
Hearing the voice, Deligne turned his head to look at Faltings and replied, "It's going well on my end. He has answered all the questions I sent to Chen Zhou. It won't take long for the preliminary review of the part I'm responsible for to be completed."
After a pause, Deligne smiled and said, "However, I think you are not in a good condition. I think you may need a bottle of German dark beer to refresh yourself."
Faltings released his hand that was pinching his brows and shook his head helplessly at Deligne: "After all, I am old, and my mind is not as active as when I was young..."
Deligne put away his smile, nodded slightly, and said with emotion: "As we get older, although we have more knowledge and experience, we have gradually lost the active thinking that is most needed for mathematical innovation. We are all old..."
"Mathematics has always been the domain of young people, and the future also belongs to these young people." After saying this, Faltings put down his pen, gently closed the printed manuscript of the paper, stood up and said to Deligne, "Let's go, just as you said, let's go have some beer first and then come back to continue."
Deligne was stunned for a moment, then teased, "Aren't you afraid that the elderly's brains will completely lose their sharp thinking ability due to the paralysis of alcohol?"
Upon hearing this, Faltings glared and asked, "Are you going or not?"
"Go, go, go..." Deligne said hurriedly, "As long as it doesn't affect the normal progress of tomorrow's report meeting..."
Faltings, who was taking his coat, heard the second half of Deligne's words. He glanced sharply at the folded printout on the table and said softly, "I'm ready to ask the questions."
Deligne raised his head slightly and glanced at the old German man.
Faltings also happened to look up and look at the Belgian viscount.
The two looked at each other and smiled.
Even though they are indeed old, they have been worried a lot about the review of Ge Guess's proof paper in the past few days.
However, they were extremely serious about the Goldbach conjecture.
This is also the correct attitude and the most basic respect we should have towards a mathematical problem that has been around for nearly three hundred years.
In any case, the proof of the Goldbach conjecture needs to be recognized by the entire academic community.
You have to get past them first.
They won't let up on the report meeting that starts tomorrow.
Like Faltings and Deligne, there are Langlands, Fefferman, Wiles and others.
They also encountered considerable trouble during the review process.
Just like Wiles' paper proving Fermat's Last Theorem, Chen Zhou and Harold Heofgot also carefully examined every logical link of the parts they were responsible for in their papers.
If the paper itself is not logically consistent, there is no need to continue reviewing it.
But this is an extremely mentally taxing job.
This waste is not only reflected in time and details, but also in the content of the paper itself.
Both papers are a melting pot of mathematical tools and ideas such as sieve method, circle method, density method, distribution deconstruction method, etc.
I want to fully understand the relationship between these mathematical tools, especially Chen Zhou's distribution deconstruction method, which was invented not long ago.
The difficulty can be imagined.
Although due to the special nature of the paper, reviewers can ask questions to the contributors at any time in order to get answers.
However, there is always a process of discovering problems and raising questions, right?
In this process, they need to do much more than just ask a question.
Simply put, if you can't understand the content of the paper, how can you ask questions?
How do you judge whether the other party’s answer is right or wrong?
Deligne and Faltings said they were out for a drink, but in fact they just went out for dinner.
Had some beer along the way.
It is very necessary to keep a clear mind while working.
Those were just jokes between the two of them before.
However, Faltings also took a can back with him and planned to drink it before going to bed.
In response, Deligne could only shake his head helplessly.
Germans are probably the most beer lovers in the world, right?
After nightfall, time moves forward at its own inherent frequency.
Although some people think it jumps too fast, others think it jumps too slow.
But time is equal for everyone.
The speed just depends on the different state of mind.
Looking out the window at Harold Heofget, it seemed that time was passing too slowly.
From the time he uploaded the first draft of the paper to the preprint website e-Print arXiv until now, time has passed too slowly.
He was so eager to prove the Goldbach conjecture just to claim this difficult mathematical problem that attracted worldwide attention as his own.
But in the end, he had to wait for so long.
But fortunately, there will be a final result tomorrow.
Harold Heofgot has great confidence in his proof process.
He believed that not everyone could catch that moment of inspiration.
Even when facing Chen Zhou, a sudden rising star in mathematics, even if Chen Zhou said that his proof was the correct way to open it.
Harold Heofgot was not afraid either.
He believed that it was he, not Chen Zhou, who seized the opportunity to prove the Goldbach conjecture.
Even though he was a little anxious at the time, he only wanted to prove the correctness of the Goldbach conjecture.
Thus, some details in the proof are ignored.
But after this period of revisions, coupled with the issues raised by the reviewers.
He felt that there were no more problems with his thesis.
At least there are no fatal flaws.
As long as there are no fatal flaws, he will definitely be the final winner of this conference!
Therefore, the closer the time got, the more anxious he became.
After all, the honor that should have belonged to him had been delayed until now, which was really frustrating.
Looking out the window again, Harold Heofgot took a deep breath, closed the window and drew down the curtains.
But, unfortunately, he just couldn't fall asleep.
I would glance at the time from time to time, calculating how long it would take for the report meeting to begin.
The next morning, intermittent voices were heard in the hotel corridor.
This is the waiter who got up early to clean the place, and is discussing the lecture that will begin today.
Although the sound seemed abrupt, it was not loud.
Therefore, the two waiters did not expect that someone would open the door of the room and take a look at them.
And this person was none other than Harold Heofgot, who was looking forward to the lecture.
According to the process of the conference, he and Chen Zhou will give their respective mathematics lectures in the order in which their papers are published.
He went first, followed by Chen Zhou.
To Harold Heofgot, this was an excellent arrangement.
As long as in his lectures, no one asked the fatal questions.
Then, the uncertainty of the final result will be completely eliminated.
Chen Zhou’s subsequent lecture became dispensable.
Therefore, he must seize the opportunity and make the final decision.
So Harold Heofgot got up early in the morning and began to check his PPT, sort out the questions asked by the reviewers, and review the content he had sorted out.
After what had happened last night, Harold Heofcott happened to hear a conversation outside.
He thought it was a participant in the meeting.
So he walked out of the room and prepared to go to the venue of the lecture.
Although Harold Heofgot got up early and arrived early.
However, when he arrived at the venue, there were already quite a few people there.
Everyone was talking excitedly and discussing the papers by Harold Heofgot and Chen Zhou.
After listening for a while, Harold Heofgott showed a smile.
Everyone has the same idea.
Because he was the first to publish, he had the advantage of time.
As long as his paper is not "opened in the wrong way" as Chen Zhou said.
Then, he wins.
As time approached 9 a.m., more and more people came into the venue .
After Wiles proved Fermat's Last Theorem, there were as many as two hundred mathematicians attending his lecture at the Newton Institute at Cambridge University.
Today, the number of mathematicians on the scene far exceeds two hundred.
Perhaps compared to Wiles' lecture, today's lecture had more sparks of collision?
When Chen Zhou arrived at the venue, Harold Heofgot had already gone backstage to prepare.
Therefore, the two did not meet.
Together with Chen Zhou were Yang Yiyi, Shen Jing and others.
Shen Jing had finally managed to get a spot with Wu Xiping and came to Princeton.
Therefore, when he saw Chen Zhou yesterday, he immediately said, "Boss, please don't let me make this trip in vain! I'm waiting to go back and brag to my brothers!"
Chen Zhou just smiled at the time but didn't say much.
9:00 AM sharp.
This report conference attracted worldwide attention and was called the "Battle of the Century" by the media and countless netizens.
Officially begins.
On the stage, Harold Heofgot had already opened the PPT and began to explain his proof process.
Below the stage, the auditorium, which could accommodate thousands of people, was packed.
Moreover, there are no less than five hundred mathematicians among them!
Among these five hundred mathematicians, there are big names in various fields of mathematics.
Among them are people Chen Zhou is relatively familiar with, such as Qiu Chengtong, Tao Terence, Arting, Faltings, Deligne, Langlands and others.
There are also winners of the Fields Medal and Wolf Prize in Mathematics, such as Quillen, Baker, Smale, and Griffith, who are not very familiar to Chen Zhou.
At first, Harold Heofgot was a little nervous facing so many colleagues in the mathematics field .
But as the lecture continued, he gradually adjusted himself.
The speed of switching slides and his speaking speed have also increased a lot.
There were already many people in the audience who were gradually unable to keep up with Harold Heofgot's pace.
Even though many people have studied Harold Heofgot's papers.
But I still couldn't follow Harold Heofgot's ideas all the way through.
After all, some content cannot be understood just by preparation.
If you don’t understand, you still don’t understand.
People like Terence Tao and Faltings also write down possible questions while listening.
If you get the answer in the following content.
Then they cross it out.
If you don’t get an answer, wait for the question session.
As for Chen Zhou, he also placed two sheets of draft paper in front of him.
But until now, no one has written a single word or symbol.
He was waiting for the flaw that had already been discovered.
Harold Heofgot on the stage was completely immersed in his own narration.
He had already seen the honor that would come after proving the Goldbach conjecture, beckoning him.
Then he switched the slide again.
When Chen Zhou saw this slide in the audience, his eyes narrowed slightly, and he picked up a pen and began to write down the problem he had already discovered.
That is a fatal flaw!
Harold Heofgot did not see this problem.
The content of this part has not been modified at all!
