Chapter 266 When the Stars Shine
Nassau Hall was once the federal capitol and witnessed the history of American independence. Two bronze tigers stood in front of the door. The thick brick arch door was open and red under the shade of the trees. The bricks faded, revealing light brown mottled colors.
Zhu Xiaohua and Xu Qingshan attracted many eyes as soon as they stepped into the hall.
Xu Qingshan’s eyes were deep and wide. When someone raised a glass to him, he would politely nod in response.
But in fact
he didn’t know anyone.
"Xu, nice to meet you."
Before Xu Qingshan took the initiative to talk to someone, a tall, middle-aged white man with gray hair pushed aside the crowd and said, He strode towards Xu Qingshan and stretched out his hand very actively.
The reason why it is hair is because his beard completely surrounds his head. If he grows a beard, he will definitely be able to play Santa Claus.
“Hello.”
Xu Qingshan didn't know what to call him. His eyes were wandering, searching for the identity of this energetic gentleman.
“Charles Fefferman.”
Charles smiled so warmly that it was impossible to tell that he was already 60 years old.
"We have communicated through emails many times. Please don't tell me that you don't remember me, that will make me very sad."
"Of course not!"
< br>Xu Qingshan tightly held the generous and rough hand.
“I just didn’t expect Mr. Fefferman to look like someone from the 1950s at all. He looks like he could win another Fields Medal.”
“To be precise, It should be the 1940s, but on the tail."
Charles smiled even more.
Mathematicians don’t care about age after they are 40 years old, but anyone else would be happy if they were praised for their youthfulness.
Zhu Xiaohua was waiting with a smile on the side. He did not rush forward to interrupt. It was much smoother for the junior brother to be so comfortable than he imagined.
“Hey, Zhu, I miss you so much after seeing you at Berkeley.”
Other scholars who knew Zhu Xiaohua took the initiative to greet him.
Originally, Zhu Xiaohua wanted to help his junior brother introduce the big names he met at various conferences, but now it seems that there is no need at all.
As a professor at Princeton, Professor Charles Fefferman is also the host of this conference. He is also a leader of the society and is responsible for the editing and review work of the "Annals of Mathematics".
In Princeton, Professor Fefferman’s words still carry a lot of weight.
"Xu, let's go, I'll take you to meet Sir Deligne."
Professor Fefferman enthusiastically took Xu Qingshan's arm and was about to take him to the math class Say hello to the big guys in the industry.
“Sir?”
Xu Qingshan doesn’t quite understand.
"Yes, Viscount Pierre Deligne."
"By the way, Xu, you can just call me Charles. We are friends, aren't we?"
" It’s my honor.”
Xu Qingshan replied subconsciously.
But my mind has already remembered who Professor Fefferman said Sir Deligne was.
One of the world's top mathematicians, one of the most authoritative scholars in the fields of number theory and algebraic geometry, a disciple of Grothendieck, the contemporary Pope of Mathematics, the prover of Weil's conjecture, and the so far recognized distance Riemann The top scholar with the closest conjecture, his solution to all the proofs of Weil's conjecture proved the Riemann Hypothesis on the elliptic curve.
In addition, Pierre Deligne is also currently regarded as the most likely person to become the first mathematics Grand Slam, that is, he has won the Fields Medal, the Abel Prize, and the Waugh Prize at the same time. The existence of the Wolf Prize and the Crafford Prize, the four top awards in the field of mathematics.
Currently, he is just short of the last Abel Prize, and in the opinion of industry insiders, the next Abel Prize must be won by Deligne.
"Will Sir Deligne also attend this meeting?"
Xu Qingshan asked Charles curiously.
"That's natural - Hello, yes, this is Xu - Sir Deligne is rarely absent from any mathematics conference held in Princeton, not to mention that the protagonist this time is you, I mean , the twin prime conjecture belonging to the field of number theory."
Charles smiled and greeted the scholars around him who raised their glasses while answering Xu Qingshan's question.
Not long after, Xu Qingshan was taken to a quieter corner by Charles. This place was obviously filled with older old men. Among them was an old man with sparse hair and an almost bald head who was looking at Himself, eyes bright.
"Sir Deligne, this is Xu."
Charles picked up a cup of coffee from the side.
“I want to discuss some academic issues with Xu later. I don’t want to get drunk. You also know that I am not a lively person. You must provide me with a meal this time. Mr. Grothendieck’s manuscripts are for collection.”
“Don’t worry, Charles,”
Deligne said with a smile.
“I won’t give it to you.”
“Oh, then at least you have to treat me to a good meal.”
Charles didn't care about appreciation. He just said that he didn't really expect Deligne to give him anything.
“Of course, you can choose anything under $100.”
“Don’t be like this, Pierre, you just received the Wolf Prize bonus last year.”
Watching the two old men arguing at the side, Xu Qingshan first responded to the greetings of a group of energetic young old men next to him.
Xu Qingshan did some homework before coming.
The small gathering in this small hall clearly represents the existence of another circle, and Xu Qingshan, one of the protagonists of this meeting, has the circle of people who came to "see" him. Chance.
Tell the truth.
Xu Qingshan himself felt that there was nothing wrong with him.
He doesn't think that his current achievements can be compared with the old guys in front of him.
Although the Fields Medal should be considered a certainty for Xu Qingshan after this year, among people in this circle, there is only one Fields Medal per person.
Sir Francis Burgan, a winner of the Fields Medal, a foreign academician of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, and a foreign academician of Europe, Poland, and France. He has won a large number of awards before, and will also win the Crafford Prize in the future, and will be Created a baron.
The king of gambling, Enrique Bombieri, winner of the Fields Medal, was particularly keen on gambling and would bet with everyone, especially Professor Nash, the prototype of "Good Will Hunting" who came up with game theory. , is his favorite betting opponent.
He is the guardian knight of the Riemann Hypothesis and is called a "mathematical aristocrat" by his colleagues.
This chic and romantic Italian mathematician has a winery at home. When he was young, he always drove a beautiful sports car to meetings in Europe. He was even rumored to have participated in 6 24-hour rallies as a racing driver. Later, after he came to teach at Princeton, he stopped driving and switched to painting.
The gambling king’s initial extreme interest in the Riemann Hypothesis came from “father’s power”.
Bombieri’s father was an economist. He promised Bombieri, who was 15 years old at the time, that if he could solve the Riemann Hypothesis, he would buy Bombieri a Ferrari.
As an unsolved historical problem, the Riemann Hypothesis is a milestone in analytic number theory and the Mount Everest of prime number theory. Almost every few years, someone announces that they have proved it.
If we say, Goldbach's conjecture is a carnival in the civil science community.
The Riemann Hypothesis is simply a carnival in the academic world.
It is hard to imagine that a group of full-time mathematicians would be as enthusiastic as Minke in announcing that they had solved and proved the Riemann Hypothesis. It can be said that every time the Riemann Hypothesis is proved, Bombelli's heart will beat hard.
“Seeing that our young men in mathematics are so young and energetic, I feel like my body is warming up.”
The old Italian man looked at Xu Qingshan and smiled very happily .
“Maybe you will lose the chance of getting a Ferrari forever.”
Bruce Burroughs also jokingly joked.
Bang Gambling King took Xu Qingshan’s arm warmly and intimately, and asked with a smile.
"Xu, have you ever considered coming to Princeton, I mean, the Institute for Advanced Study."
Over there, Charles was still bickering with Deligne to negotiate terms, and here the gambling king He has already begun to win over Xu Qingshan.
Xu Qingshan knew what Bang Gambling King was talking about.
In fact, everyone in the world knows about Princeton, but not many people know that Princeton is actually divided into two.
Princeton University is Princeton University, and Princeton Institute for Advanced Study is Institute for Advanced Study, or IAS for short.
The two are actually independent entities in terms of structure. However, most of the researchers at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton will hold teaching positions in Princeton, which is different from the School of Mathematics and the Institute of Mathematics at Peking University.
The former is a parallel relationship, and even IAS is the real academic holy place, not Princeton.
Including top scholars such as Einstein, von Neumann, Oppenheimer, etc., IAS was also the one who settled in that year.
The latter is a subordinate relationship. The Institute of Mathematics is completely established in the Institute of Mathematics.
The transcendent status of IAS allows its top scholars to do whatever experiments and theoretical directions they want without being pressured by any teaching tasks, scientific research funds or sponsors.
Normally, if you want to join the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, there are only two possibilities.
First, come and be a visiting scholar for a few years.
Second, you are invited to become a researcher, and after achieving some achievements, you can join a small group of lifelong researchers under the Research School.
The invitation from the gambling king will naturally not be the former.
He is fully qualified to propose that Xu Qingshan join the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton as a resident researcher and receive lifetime honors after he has crossed the threshold.
Xu Qingshan’s mind was spinning a lot, but after a moment of thinking, he declined politely.
“Princeton is a holy place for every scholar, and every scholar who wants to concentrate on academics will definitely come to Princeton.”
Xu Qingshan’s answer was very emotional.
However, a smile has begun to appear on his face, and he is starting to think about how to join forces with other big guys to train and train this genius, who is the most popular little fried chicken in the mathematics world this year. Xu Qingshan’s next words The Italian scholar, who had lived a life of chicness, suppressed his smile.
“It’s just that I still want to lay a solid foundation at Beijing University, and I can also devote myself to the mathematical construction of my motherland.”
Xu Qingshan smiled sincerely, and gave more Reasonable reasons.
“I think my motherland has such a large population that I am not the only young person who loves mathematics. I hope to set an example and let more people take this path.”
< br>"Of course, if there is an opportunity to visit Princeton in the future after things stabilize, I will definitely not miss it."
The gambling king put away his pitiful eyes just now and approved of the location. nod.
"Okay, but if you want to come to Princeton as a senior research fellow, you can do it at any time. Just an email and Princeton's door will always be open for you."
"Okay, Enrique, let me Let’s talk to our dear little Chopin.”
Deligne, who had finished the bargaining battle, finally had his hands free. He had been impatient for a long time.
“Chopin?”
Xu Qingshan didn’t know why.
“Because Pierre heard people say that Tao is Mozart in mathematics, he insisted on saying that you must be at least Chopin in mathematics, and you are all geniuses.”
Xu Qingshan:
I also said that I am Nicholas Zhao Si of Mathematics.
"The main reason is that the name of Huaxia is really difficult to pronounce. How do you pronounce it like "Zhuqiongmulberry"?"
"Why don't you call me Chopin, Sir?"
Xu Qingshan compromised.
Deligne's pronunciation sounds really standard and non-standard Chinese.
Xu Qingshan also had perfect scores in Chinese, and he also learned some linguistics in his spare time to adjust himself. He could tell that the old man had tried his best, but the name sounded particularly Japanese when he pronounced it.
“Sorry.”
Professor Deligne smiled awkwardly. Although he was old, his apples were well maintained.
“I really like the symmetry you used in the proof. Can you tell me how your idea came about?”
Pierre Deligne laughed. Very brilliant.
But the original smiles of Charles and others on the side stopped.
"holyshit! Pierre starts again."
"Symmetry symmetry symmetry, fxxk symmetry!"
"Ohno!"
Several gentle old men suddenly cursed at the same time. Looking at their constipated expressions, Xu Qingshan always felt that this was not a good development.
But looking at Deligne, who was standing still with a bright smile in front of him, he could only bite the bullet and start chatting.
After chatting with him, he realized why those old men were so out of control.
“Oh! Perfect symmetry. I pay great attention to symmetry. I think if you read every article of mine, you can find that there are symmetry-based ideas in almost every article of mine. Demonstration."
"Yes, I think you will definitely agree with my idea."
"Mr. Jacques Titz, you know, he is also a winner of the Abel Prize, He is also my teacher. He won the Abel Prize for his discoveries in group theory a few years ago. What I want to say is that when I was studying before, he explained to me that the center of the group is an invariant subgroup. He started He paused to prove it. I have defined the center! That’s what he said.”
“You must think this is wonderful, right!”
Talked about his pride. In the field, Deligne seemed extremely excited. He spoke for an hour at a time, and during this hour, although it was said to be communication, in fact, neither Xu Qingshan nor the others had a chance to interrupt at all.
Xu Qingshan heard the whispers of Lord Bu and Gambling King beside him with their lips curled up.
"Is this the 524th time that Pierre has mentioned this story?"
"527, I remember the three times you were absent."
Xu Qingshan kept smiling and kept smiling. Nodding in approval of Deligne's dancing.
Zhu Xiaohua, who was outside the small hall, searched for a long time before he found this place. However, he did not rush in rashly, but saw Deligne dancing and talking excitedly to Xu Qingshan. What? Several other old men were also talking to Xu Qingshan.
He subconsciously took out his mobile phone to record this moment.
“When the stars shine, this should count, right?”
He looked at this classic photo on his phone because of its characters.
(End of this chapter)