Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
At exactly 2 o’clock, Lu Zhou walked onto the stage in a suit and a pair of dress shoes. The lecture hall immediately quieted down.
Everyone was tacit and pairs of eyes were locked on the person standing on the podium. They were either doubting, expecting, or remained expressionless.
If it was anyone else, they would sh*t their pants just standing in front of all these big names in mathematics.
However, Lu Zhou was calm and collected. He did not feel the pressure at all.
He had already mentally prepared himself off-stage.
Plus, it was not his first time doing a report.
“Thank you for coming to Princeton from all over the world to listen to my report on Goldbach’s conjecture.”
Lu Zhou thanked the audience for coming. He then started to describe the reporting process.
“My presentation will be divided into two parts. One part is on the Group Structure Method that I used to prove Goldbach’s conjecture, and the other part is on the proof of Goldbach’s conjecture.”
“I’m guessing that everyone has read the thesis already. I’ll keep my explanation of the thesis brief, and explain the cumbersome steps in the PowerPoint. I’ll focus on ideas and steps in my explanation.”
“Also, I will try to leave as much time as possible for the questions and answers session.”
Pre-reading the thesis before the report was common practice in the academic community. If someone asked a question that was explained in the thesis, it would be considered extremely rude.
Obviously, this would not happen with an audience like this.
Similarly, the parts of the thesis that was explained clearly would not be explained again on the PowerPoint. Everyone’s time was precious, and they did not come to Princeton to watch slides.
After the opening remarks, Lu Zhou went straight into the topic.
“The so-called “Group Structure Method” is the abbreviation of “The Whole Structure Research Method Of Group Theory”. The core idea is to use the concept of a cyclic group to study the problem of infinity from the whole. Based on integer modulus, a p multiplication group is always a cyclic group. This theorem…”
Lu Zhou pointed at the slides with his laser pointer.
[… there is a limit group G and |G|=p1α1p2α2···piαi, where pi is a prime number and αi is a positive integer. Let p∈π(G), define deg(p)=|{q∈π(G)|p~q).]
[The number of times deg(p) is the vertex p. Redefine C(G)=…]
Compared to the latter half of Goldbach’s conjecture’s proof, the Goldbach’s conjecture explanation was more crucial. As long as the audience understood the Group Structure Method, they could figure out how Lu Zhou solved Goldbach’s conjecture.
Therefore, Lu Zhou was extra meticulous when explaining. He tried to make every point as clear as possible.
The people in the crowd, whether it was invited scholars or unsolicited students, they were all listening intently.
Especially James Maynard. He sat in the middle of the venue and listened carefully.
He was also a leader in the field of analytical number theory in the United Kingdom. He was one of the hottest candidates for the Fields Medal, and he had originally intended to use the twin prime number problem to win the 18-year Fields Prize, but his glory was snatched by Lu Zhou.
One of the main reasons he came over from the UK was to create problems for his opponent.
However…
The more he watched, the more intrigued he was.
The logic of the Chinese scholar had reached an impenetrable level. In fact, he even wanted to cheer for him.
Sitting next to him was his PhD student, also an English bloke named Evan.
Evan looked at the lines of text on stage, and he started to feel lost.
Finally, he could not help but ask quietly.
“Professor, what exactly is the Group Structure Method?”
Maynard stared at the PowerPoint. He was extremely still.
He did not want to answer.
He did not want to miss any crucial details and get distracted. He was also afraid that he would not be able to convey the beauty of the Group Structure Method accurately. Just yesterday, he was talking trash about this fifty-page thesis on his blog, and how he was going to expose this Chinese person during the report at Princeton.
Even though he did not want to admit it, the skill gap between him and Lu Zhou was astronomical.
It did not matter whether or not he wanted to admit it because that was how mathematics was.
On the other side, in the back row of the lecture hall, two old people sat in the corner in a low-key manner as they watched the report and whispered to each other.
“I only left for a few years. I didn’t expect Princeton Institute for Advanced Study was able to produce another talent,” said Andrew Wiles while he looked at the young man on stage. He then nodded and said, “Not bad, it reminds me of myself.”
Since Andrew Wiles returned to Oxford in 2011, he rarely returned to Princeton Institute for Advanced Study. Princeton gave the role of head of mathematics to another genius: Charles Fefferman.
Andrew was talking about twenty years ago when the Newton Institute hosted the most important mathematics conference of the century. Only a quarter of the audience understood what was going on.
As for the remaining three quarters, they witnessed history.
It was the same now.
Although Goldbach’s conjecture was more like an IQ test than the widely applicable Fermat’s last theorem, this IQ test was one of Hilbert’s questions. It had a significant status in the field of number theory.
Solving it would not change the world, but the tools created when solving this problem were valuable to the entire mathematics community.
Without a doubt, everyone in the audience was witnessing history.
“Oh,” Deligne’s mouth twitched with a smile. He said, “Who was it that wanted to apologize to the New York Times, and return the open champagne?”
Wiles coughed and said, “A person can only become inspired in a moment of desperation. I was only pushing myself… In the end, I succeeded.”
Deligne said, “Didn’t you say it was for the art last time?”
“Fine, my good friend, let’s change the topic,” said Wiles. He looked at the content on the stage and asked, “I don’t really understand Goldbach’s conjecture. In your opinion, does his thesis count as proof?”
Deligne, “You should ask Iwaniec and Faltings this question. They are truly experts in analytic number theory. I’m only involved in the prime number problem. Of course, after reading his thesis, I’m quite optimistic.”
If he was not optimistic, he would not have arranged this report.
Wiles asked in surprise, “Faltings is here?”
“Not only is he here,” said Deligne. He paused for a moment before saying, “He didn’t want to miss it…”
Suddenly, the audience gasped.
Gasped in astonishment.
Their gasp also contained praise.
Deligne and Wiles stopped talking and looked up.
After a while, Wiles smiled and said, “It seems that our worries were redundant.”
Deligne looked at the equations on stage and finally gave him a gratifying smile.
“I was never worried.”
