Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Lu Zhou looked at an Indian guy who had also noticed him.
When Lu Zhou approached, the Indian guy’s face was full of smiles. He immediately greeted Lu Zhou with an Indian accent.
“Oi, bro, you also research number theory?”
“I guess. Very shocking research results,” said Lu Zhou even though he could barely understand the guy’s accent. He looked around and when he saw that no one was interested in the poster, he said, “Why isn’t there anyone here?”
“Because of the arrogance and the prejudice of the people at Princeton, they can’t accept that a native Indian had beaten them at mathematics. They even refused to let me present on stage without any reason. It seems that only friends on across the Pacific can understand my feelings,” said the Indian guy with slightly darker skin. With a smile, he reached out, “Dijan, a master’s student from Nehru University. What’s your name?”
Lu Zhou actually wanted to say that he did not understand his feelings because he would be presenting on the fifth day. However, he decided not to anger his new foreign friend.
“Lu Zhou, University of Jin Ling,” said Lu Zhou. He did not mention his degree. Instead, he shook the man’s hand and asked, “Can I read your thesis?”
“The thesis is here, but I don’t recommend you to read it,” said Dijan as he patted the stack of paper on his hand. He then threw the paper aside before he started to write on a large whiteboard. He said, “The process is a bit cumbersome, but the principal is easy. I can explain it and you will soon understand the mystery of reverse mathematics.”
“Reverse mathematics?” said Lu Zhou. As he looked at the Indian guy suspiciously, he asked, “You used reverse mathematics to prove it? I thought you were studying algebraic number theory.”
“Algebra is only a tool for studying number theory, it’s not the only way… I know you might not want to hear this. After all, you discovered a good method to prove the prime number bounded distance.”
Lu Zhou said impatiently, “I want to hear it, can you just spit it out?”
Dijan hung up the blackboard and turned around to look at Lu Zhou.
“I’ll be ready soon!”
While this Indian guy was painting on the whiteboard, Lu Zhou noticed that many people had turned their interests toward this side.
Lu Zhou was curious, so he stood next to the poster and followed the proof of this Indian guy.
In fact, his ideas were simple.
First, assume that the twin prime numbers were finite pairs and that the largest twin prime pairs were (Pn-1, Pn). It could then be seen that the prime numbers within Pn were limited, and were set to P1, P2, Pn-1, and Pn.
Then, to construct a large prime number P = (P1P2P3 * … * Pn) +1.
Obviously, P could not be divided by all the prime numbers from P1 to Pn, and it always had a reminder of 1. So P was a prime number. Similarly, it could be proved that P-2=(P1P2P3*…*Pn)-1 was obviously a prime number.
Since P was a prime number, P-2 was also a prime number. These two constituted a pair of twin prime numbers.
The problem arrived when the pair of twin primes formed by P and P-2 was larger than the “maximum prime pair”. Thus, negating (Pn, Pn-1) as the largest twin prime pair.
It was like climbing a ladder, no matter how big (Pn-1, Pn) was, one could always find a larger prime pair.
Thus, “twin primes are infinite” was correct.
There were still many steps in the middle, but the overall gist was this.
Lu Zhou looked at the entire process on the blackboard.
What surprised him was that this guy had not used any existing research results to solve the problem.
This type of out of the box thinking was sophisticated.
But…
Lu Zhou finally understood why no one took an interest in the Indian guy.
“The large prime number P you built can guarantee not to be divisible by a series of prime numbers from P1 to Pn, but only if Pn is the largest prime number. Obviously, you fell into a logical trap. How do you prove that Pn is known as the maximum prime number?”
Dijan raised his eyebrows and said, “Did you not see what I wrote on the first line? The case of a limited number of twins, take the largest pair of twins (Pn-1, Pn)…”
Lu Zhou, “2*3*5*7*11*13+1=30031.”
When the people around heard Lu Zhou’s line of calculations, they laughed. Some of them had already guessed it.
Some people…
Started to clap.
Dijan was stunned. He felt something was wrong and asked, “What do you mean?”
Lu Zhou sighed and said, “30031 can be disassembled into the product of two prime numbers of 59 and 509, so this number is a composite number… Did you pay to come to Princeton yourself? If I was your professor, I definitely wouldn’t fund you.”
People around cheered for Lu Zhou.
“Fine, shut up.”
Dijan clearly realized that he had made a low-level mistake, so his face turned bright red. He slammed the poster on the table and stuffed the things on the table into his backpack. He then ignored the crowd and left.
Lu Zhou shrugged.
In fact, he wanted to tell the Indian guy why (Pn-1, Pn) could not be the largest prime pair, but the Indian guy obviously did not want to hear his explanation. Therefore, Lu Zhou gave up.
The drama was over and the crowd quickly dissipated.
Only one person stayed, and she looked at him with a smile.
Lu Zhou looked at her face and felt familiar.
This was the blonde lady who took him to the hotel yesterday.
Molina looked at Lu Zhou and smiled, “Destroying a player on the first day?”
Lu Zhou shrugged and said, “I just pointed out his mistakes, what’s wrong with that?”
“Nothing, similar things happen all the time,” said Molina. She continued, “This is the “arrogance” of Princeton. If you want to present your work here, you can’t just be smart. You have to be confident as well.”
Obviously, she heard their entire conversation.
This is interesting…
Lu Zhou did not notice her standing there.
Molina saw that Lu Zhou did not speak, so she asked, “Did you think of the calculation on the spot? Or did you prepare it in advance to attack him?”
“I thought of it on the spot. This should be an easy calculation for the geniuses at Princeton, right?”
Lu Zhou was not that bored. He did not learn mathematics to attack people.
Molina raised her eyebrows and said, “You may have some misunderstandings about the word “genius”. The power of the brain is its creativity and logical thinking, not just raw calculations. If someone in his group knew some programming, they could’ve helped him find a counterexample. And he wouldn’t be here embarrassing himself.”
Lu Zhou said, “There is no “maybe” in mathematics, right?”
“Correct,” said Molina. She grinned and took out a piece of gum, “Do you want one?”
Lu Zhou hesitated before he reached out and took a piece.
“Thanks…”
Even though as a child, his parents told him not to accept food from strangers, but it should be okay, right?
Molina saw that Lu Zhou took the gum and smiled.
“You’re welcome. Since you accepted my little gift, I want something in exchange. Can you give me your email address and Facebook account?”
“I can give you my email address, but I don’t have a Facebook… Is this a custom here?”
Lu Zhou suddenly felt like he was being set up.
Molina smiled and joked, “Not, this is just a gentleman’s custom.”
