Chapter 378 The counterattack starts now! (Zhang said it has been restored)
The next day.
HKUST Life Medicine Building.
Dean's Office.
"Xiao Xu, what did you say?"
Looking at Xu Yun who was covered tightly with a mask in front of him, Tian Liangwei felt a rare loss of composure:
"You said you proved the infinity of Mersenne primes?"
Although Tian Liangwei is a solid biological practitioner, this does not mean that he knows nothing about the field of mathematics.
At least he can still name some of the major existing mathematical problems.
For example, Goldbach's conjecture.
For example, the Riemann Hypothesis.
Such as twin primes and Fermat primes.
Another example.
The infinity of Mersenne primes.
True.
Compared with the seven major problems of the millennium, Mersenne primes are far from T1 level.
But this does not mean that Mersenne primes are a bad topic.
If Tian Liangwei remembers correctly.
He has several academician friends from the Department of Mathematics. For example, Academician Chen Shuxing, Academician Zhang Pingwen and others are doing research in this area.
In addition, China also approves millions of funds or supercomputing hours every year to find the latest Mersenne prime numbers.
Think of this.
Tian Liangwei couldn't help but pick up the manuscript handed over by Xu Yun, but after looking at the mathematical symbols on it for a few seconds, he slapped it back on the table:
"Mmp, I'm blind. Why do I read math papers when I have nothing to do?"
Then he picked up the water glass on the table and took a sip of water. He pondered for a moment, then picked up the phone and dialed a number.
soon.
The voice of Zhang Rui, dean of the School of Mathematics and current executive vice president of HKUST, came from the other end of the phone:
"Hello, Dean Tian?"
"It's me, Lao Zhang, would you like to come over when you have time?"
"Um, Dean Tian, I'm fishing outside, how about we talk tomorrow?"
"Maybe tomorrow. I heard Xiao Xu say that he proved the infinity of Mersenne primes, so I was thinking about letting you come back and have a look."
".???"
After a few seconds.
There were some noises from the other end of the phone, such as "Do you still want this fish?" and "I'll sell it to you cheaper."
But soon, these noises were drowned out by Zhang Rui’s high decibels:
"What did you say??"
An hour later.
Zhang Rui broke into Tian Liangwei's office in a hurry, without any sign of his previous gentle appearance:
"Dean Tian, what about the verification process?"
Tian Liangwei pointed to a thick manuscript on the table:
"Here it is."
The words just fell.
Zhang Rui quickly rushed to the desk without looking at Xu Yun. He took a pen and paper and started to read the documents.
"First prove that there are no odd perfect numbers."
"σ(n)≠2{p^（a1+1/1）-1}/{p1-1}·"
"Well, how did you skip this step? Oh, consider the multiplicative group"
"P={p1, p2,.}, in ascending order, assuming that ∑p∈P1 converges, then an is the product of some mutually different small prime numbers."
Zhang Rui just started checking his calculations in the office as if no one was around. Xu Yun and Tian Liangwei were sensible enough not to interrupt him.
For a math geek, interrupting a deduction is basically equivalent to missing a fisherman's hand when lowering the net, and it is easy to offend others.
that's all.
More than forty minutes flew by.
finally.
Zhang Rui stopped pen tip on a brand new A4 paper.
He was silent for half a minute before writing a sentence:
"So, the infinity of Mersenne primes can be proved."
Then he put down the pen in his hand, glanced at Tian Liangwei who looked expectant, and nodded slowly:
"Dean Tian, judging from my calculation this time, the result deduced by Xiao Xu should not have much problem."
"However, this is just a simple calculation, similar to an outline. It can only confirm that there are no loopholes in the key principles, but it cannot represent the final conclusion."
"The actual verification and calculation of a difficult problem like the Mersenne prime number is very large. At the same time, once it is announced that it has been deciphered, there will inevitably be countless practitioners and enthusiasts inside and outside the industry to perform calculations."
"Generally speaking, it will take at least half a year to truly confirm that Xiao Xu's verification is correct."
Tian Liangwei nodded slightly to show that he understood.
As Zhang Rui said.
The Mersenne prime number is one of the most important conjectures in mathematics. Almost every year, many people claim to have completed the proof of it.
Therefore, it is quite complicated in terms of process and time for such issues to pass final ruling.
For example, Andrew Wiles proved Fermat's theorem.
Andrew Wiles announced that he had proved Fermat's theorem in June 1993, but in December of the same year he admitted that there were problems with his steps. It was not until October 25, 1994 that the correct second version of the argument was published.
At that time, he sent a complete proof of Fermat's last theorem to major mathematical societies around the world through his former student Carl Rubin, a professor at Ohio State University in the United States.
But it was not until a year and six months later that the mathematical community officially recognized that his derivation was correct.
And Grigory Perelman, who proved the Poincaré conjecture.
This hermit in the mathematical community announced the relevant proof steps in November 2002, but it was not until 2006 that he was actually recognized as having cracked the Poincaré conjecture.
Because the amount of calculation involved in this kind of problem is really too large.
It was so big that even if Xu Yun obtained Gauss's proof of the non-existence of odd-perfect numbers in advance, he would still need an hour of "wheat possession" to calculate the relevant results.
Therefore, even Zhang Rui can only say that it is a 'hasty calculation' at this time.
Generally speaking.
After this proof is released.
First, the school where the derivation is located will issue a statement, and then a journal will be selected to publish the main text or preprint version.
At the same time, add the relevant proofs to the school website or send them to established institutions such as the European Mathematical Society and the Oxford Mathematical Society, and then conduct a lengthy re-examination.
Normally.
The conjecture of the cardinality of the Mersenne prime number must at least be verified by schools such as ETH, Weizmann, Oxford, Cambridge, Bonn, Max Planck Institute, Paris VI, NYU, and UCLA before the final verification can be completed.
If it weren’t for the special circumstances in recent years that made it difficult for me to go abroad, I would normally have to participate in some offline forums to accept ‘torture’.
Of course.
Still the same sentence.
Honor is honor, popularity is popularity.
Even if it takes up to ten years for the award to be finalized, it does not affect the fact that Xu Yun can gain a lot of attention through this.
After all, there are many domestic institutions studying this direction.
Perhaps there is still a gap between the domestic mathematics teaching level and the international level, but there is no doubt about the ability in retesting.
With verification from domestic universities, it can become popular in minutes.
At most, some cynics will say that this is a domestic "self-pleasure" or "waiting for international organizations to slap you in the face."
Incomplete guarantees can also lead to some dark histories of domestic scientific research and even athlete fraud.
But generally speaking, those remarks are not cause for concern.
Think of this.
Zhang Rui couldn't help but glance at Xu Yun and admired:
"Dean Tian, your student is really limitless."
"With such results at this critical moment, our University of Science and Technology may really make big news this time,"
Although Zhang Rui was surprised that Xu Yun could verify the infinity of Mersenne prime numbers, he was not exaggerated enough to question it.
After all, although Xu Yun only studied biology and physics, this does not mean that his mathematics level is very low.
The mathematical knowledge involved in physics these days is not just simple calculations, but requires a lot of in-depth concepts.
For example, the theory of relativity.
Its basis is Riemannian geometry, and the entire text is described by tensors.
If you don’t have a foundation in mathematics, you won’t be able to learn very deeply.
There was an unlucky guy named Tian Rui who said talismans next door, and he was tortured to death by this thing.
So Zhang Rui must be surprised at this time, but it is far more than just some other pictures in his mind.
Being one step ahead is genius, and Xu Yun has been grasping this speed from beginning to end.
Then Tian Liangwei raised his chin towards the document in Zhang Rui's hand and asked:
"Old Zhang, I don't know much about mathematics papers, so I came to you today for one more thing."
“I just want to ask you, how should Xiao Xu’s article be published appropriately.”
"How to publish it?"
Zhang Rui picked up the water glass on the table and took a sip of water. He pondered for a moment and said:
"Dean Tian, this matter is actually quite complicated. It probably needs to be divided into several stages."
"The first thing to do is to take these manuscripts to our mathematical institute for a complete re-examination."
"Wait until there are no problems with the internal verification before proceeding to the next step."
Tian Liangwei nodded, this truth is not difficult to understand:
"No problem, but Lao Zhang, how long will this process take?"
Hearing this, Zhang Rui pinched Xu Yun's manuscript and thought:
"Xiao Xu has about seventy manuscripts. I estimate that a detailed verification - not a rough calculation like I just did, will take about six to seven hours."
"Well, I'll go back and arrange some manpower to complete the re-inspection task by this time tomorrow."
Tian Liangwei originally thought that Zhang Rui would give him an answer in two to three days. Although he was a little surprised, he naturally did not choose to refuse:
"Thank you very much."
Zhang Rui smiled and waved his hand.
This is a two-way behavior. After all, Xu Yun's achievements are too heavy.
If there are no problems with Xu Yun's derivation process, then the Department of Mathematics of HKUST will also benefit from it, and he will naturally do his best.
Then he paused and said:
"After the re-inspection is completed, we can officially issue an announcement through the official channels of HKUST and send verification emails to major mathematics institutions."
"At the same time, you can also contact a top mathematics journal and ask them to expedite the review - I personally recommend "Annals of Mathematics"."
Tian Liangwei was slightly startled:
"Annals of Mathematics?"
As everyone knows.
In the journal field, in addition to CNS, each discipline usually has its own so-called top journals.
For example, the ‘four major journals’ in mathematics.
These four major magazines are:
Annual Journal of Mathematics:
《AnnalsofMathematics》
New progress in mathematics:
《Inventionesmathematicae》
Journal of Mathematics:
《ActaMathematica》
Journal of the American Mathematical Society:
《JournaloftheAmericanMathematicalSociety》
In the field of mathematics, the status of the Big Four is basically equivalent to that of CNS in chemical physics.
Due to the large gap between the mainland mathematics community and the frontiers, the total number of articles published by domestic scholars in the four major mathematics circles in China - excluding Chinese here - has not exceeded 100 from the founding of the People's Republic of China to 2022.
If a domestic professor can publish a paper in the above-mentioned journal, there is basically no problem in judging the doctoral supervisor.
Even a local mathematician like Zhang Rui, who is said to have the best chance of winning the Wolf Prize, has only published one "ActaMathematica" before.
Of course.
If Xu Yun's derivation process is confirmed to be successful, these so-called journal barriers will disappear in an instant, and the offensive may even turn around.
Although it is not as exaggerated as several major journals hugging their thighs and shouting "Dad, choose me", the priority will inevitably be reduced countless times.
Then Tian Liangwei thought for a while and asked:
"So Lao Zhang, if you vote for "Annals of Mathematics", does arXiv need to consider it?"
arXiv.
Different from regular journals, this is one of the most influential preprint websites currently, established in 1991.
At that time, a group of physicists wanted to communicate with each other about articles they were about to publish. However, given the network conditions and data storage capabilities of that era, it was too difficult to communicate by email.
So this group of physicists became a shared platform LANL, which was the prototype of arXiv.
It was operated by Los Alamos National Laboratory and is now taken over by Cornell University
arXiv is currently the oldest and most comprehensive preprint website covering disciplines, covering mathematics, materials, physics, computers, statistics, astronomy, biology, finance and other fields.
This website is somewhat similar to the current Tieba, with a very low threshold in the early stages.
Regardless of whether you are a civilian or a regular soldier, as long as you have access to the Internet, you can publish content on it.
However, due to the large number of submissions, the website began to introduce a review system in 2004. Articles only on materials science can still be exempted from review.
So far.
arXiv has included as many as 1.7 million academic articles, the largest number in the industry.
Papers published on this website are equivalent to occupying a pit, and the results will not be snatched away - after all, the traditional publishing method takes a lot of time, from writing to peer review to online publication, typesetting and printing, it is very likely to take several months or even a year or two.
For example, Zhang Yitang, who was previously rumored to have cracked the Landau-Siegel zero-point conjecture, is expected to publish his paper on arXiv within November. (So I am reviewing number theory recently, hoping to catch up. If it is published, I can share my humble opinion with everyone. I am still looking forward to it. Although there is a high probability of proving that the zero point does not exist, it would be great fun if it does exist) < br>
"arXiv?"
Zhang Rui touched his chin and said thoughtfully:
"That's okay. After all, arXiv is a public site. Although it will definitely attract some civilians, there will undoubtedly be more professionals."
"Let's do this. I'll organize a small meeting when I go back and see if I can send a letter in the name of the University of Science and Technology and even the Academy of Sciences, so that a group of reviewers can be quickly organized there."
Tian Liangwei nodded:
"Okay, then I'll trouble you."
Considering the emergency, Zhang Rui did not chat with Tian Liangwei.
After briefly mentioning relevant matters, he hurriedly left the office with Xu Yun's manuscript.
Xu Yun was kept for about ten minutes by Tian Liangwei to make sure that his condition as a student was okay before he was released.
that's all.
Time passes day by day.
The denunciation of Xu Yun and HKUST became more and more powerful on the Internet, and even spread to other unrelated news stories.
The common saying is [Sorry for occupying the building, please pay attention to the #XuYun##中国科大学# incident. The school protects the scumbag PUA to death. Where is the justice? 】
This kind of building within a building is full of dissing remarks about domestic academics, and it seems to be a mess.
And in this atmosphere.
Two days later.
A Weibo post quietly appeared at the end of the hot search:
#中科大学announces the proof of the infinity of Mersenne primes#! (End of chapter)