Chapter 840 Million Dollars
A little later after watching the press conference, Chang Haonan returned to the bedroom and turned on the computer, preparing to submit the certification process in three languages and an unwritten document as agreed. The documentation published on arXiv was sent to Tang Lintian.
Although he himself was basically sure that his proof process was correct from the beginning, Beijing Hang University, as a serious scientific research institution, must wait until the results are confirmed before posting the results.
If you open champagne in advance, even if it turns out that the champagne was opened correctly, it will always seem a little unreserved.
However, the first time he opened the mailbox, Chang Haonan was shocked by the situation inside——
Due to server resource issues, most mailboxes will set a storage capacity limit.
Around the millennium, this upper limit is basically at the level of several hundred MB to several GB.
Considering that emails in this era do not support attachments that are too large, it is generally difficult for normal people to save so many emails.
But Chang Haonan did it.
When he uploaded the paper to arXiv, he didn’t think too much, and habitually attached the school email he used for several previous submissions.
The result...
One can imagine.
Because I have received too many emails these days.
His mailbox space exploded...
Of course, it doesn't mean that the emails sent after it exploded will disappear.
If processed in time, it can still be queued in from the server.
But it is still very exaggerated...
"Woc, you made a mistake... I should have registered a new email address at that time..."
Chang Haonan sighed with emotion, "This I've never seen this scene before." He began to check whether there was anything important contained in it.
In fact, judging from the sending date, his mailbox was actually filled three days ago.
At that time, because the final review results had not yet come out.
So most of the people who sent him emails were people Chang Haonan had never heard of.
For example, a student or researcher from the mathematics department of a certain school asks if he can explain a certain part of the paper.
After all, it is a proof of Poincaré's conjecture. The so-called "simple and easy to understand" method is also compared to the method of Perelman in the previous life that took others three years to understand.
There are still thresholds.
However, there is no need to reply to this type of email.
Because soon someone who can understand will explain it to them.
Except for this most important category, the rest have no rules.
Some are simply advertising, some are promoting newly founded academic journals, and there are even several students from different countries who have sent their personal information and asked if they can study here at Chang Haonan...< br>
To be honest, one of them has a really good resume.
Moreover, the other party also stated in the email that although the mathematical community has not yet reached a conclusion, he has read the entire content and is very convinced that the proof process is correct.
More importantly, she found that every step in the paper was set up just right, and she could not see the large number of mental jumps in general mathematics papers and the confusing expressions when describing new theoretical frameworks. Therefore, she was very disappointed with the author. I am very interested in the unique writing style, so I hope to continue studying for a doctoral degree in Chang Haonan's research group after receiving my master's degree this year...
To be honest, after reading this, even Chang Haonan was a little tempted. .
It’s a pity that the nature of his research group is very special and he cannot recruit foreign students casually.
However, after a brief hesitation, he did not throw it directly into the recycling bin like other emails. Instead, he specifically wrote a reply to the student named Mariam Mirzakhani, confirming the other person's past. Resume, but said that mathematics research is currently only his personal interest, so there are no plans to recruit graduate students in this direction.
Originally, he was going to recommend Perelman, another author of the paper, to Mirzakhani, but he gave up after thinking about it.
After all, the latter is the master of the "jumping thinking" writing method mentioned by the other party. Even his colleagues would call it outrageous after seeing it...
As Chang Haonan cleared out the mailbox space, some emails sent in recent days are also being transferred in from the server.
In fact, the review team basically understood the entire proof process in just three days. In the next four days, they conducted multiple rounds of repeated inspections and confirmations just because they felt it was too outrageous.
Just to avoid the situation like Wiles's, it was not disclosed to the media until the final result was announced.
But within the mathematics community, it has actually been known for a long time.
So, the emails sent to Chang Haonan's mailbox at this stage already contain a lot of heavyweight content...
"They are really active..."
Chang Haonan looked at the four web pages arranged in a 2*2 arrangement in front of him with a bit of laughter and tears.
The above are invitations for manuscripts sent by the four major mathematics journals to myself and Perelman at almost the same time.
The content, without exception, is all about the proof of Poincaré's conjecture.
In fact, normally speaking, although there is competition between different journals, considering the image problem of the academic circle, they will not take away food from their friends.
It looks too ugly to eat like that.
So in the first few days, everyone thought that this paper had been submitted elsewhere, so everything was fine.
But after realizing that this paper was not actually submitted, the situation was completely different——
Everyone can predict that this paper will be cited by dozens or millions of later generations, just like the paper by Watson and Crick that discovered the double helix structure of DNA.
Even the top journals cannot completely ignore the impact factor brought about by this terrifying number of citations.
In the end, of course, he still didn’t reply.
But I took a screenshot of this famous scene, and then collected these four emails... It can be regarded as an unprecedented achievement, and it is difficult for others to achieve it in the future...
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...
In this way, it was not until this afternoon that Chang Haonan finally sent the planned email to Tang Lintian.
Then, I received a reply from the other party almost immediately.
Only one short sentence.
“Your mobile phone has been unable to reach you for several days.”
"..."
Chang Haonan finally came to his senses.
Why do I always feel like something is not right today——
Under normal circumstances, when this kind of news comes out, there should be countless calls coming in.
But the place where Chang Haonan lives is quite special, so only a few comrades in the Science and Technology Commission system and some comrades who are responsible for providing logistical support know the phone number at home here, even if it is an outside phone number.
Since he started to retreat last month, he has never taken care of his mobile phone again.
Even though the current battery life of the mobile phone in standby mode is quite exaggerated, it has been out of power for a long time...
Thinking of this, Chang Haonan hurried downstairs to the living room and put the already long Charge the powered off mobile phone.
The first person to call was Tang Lintian.
“Are you watching the press conference?”
After being connected, the other party got straight to the point.
"Uh..."
This question made Chang Haonan stunned:
"Isn't it over already?"
He obviously is After watching the interview, I went upstairs to reply to the email.
"No, you are talking about the interview with the review committee this morning. That must have ended long ago."
Tang Lintian explained:
"Now it is the interview with the Clay Institute of Mathematics. The press conference held was the same organization that announced the reward for the seven major mathematical problems of the millennium... CCTV 9 (CCTV9 is still an English channel at this time, not a documentary channel) is broadcasting the entire event. "
Chang Haonan came immediately. interested.
One million dollars or something, for him now, it is secondary.
The key is that he wants to see the other party's reaction.
He also read some newspapers in the past two days and found that the day he uploaded the paper to arXiv happened to be the same day when the institute released the reward...
Turn on the TV.
What appears on the screen is Langton Clay, the sponsor of the Clay Research Institute, and Arthur Jeff, the person in charge.
The two of them are surrounded by a group of microphones.
And the reporter just asked the most critical question.
That's the reward.
Does it count or not.
After all, this is such a coincidence.
Many people have speculated whether the Poincaré conjecture will be eliminated and a new one added.
When he heard this question, the muscles on Langton Clay's face visibly twitched.
A million dollars.
It's not that he can't afford the money, but he is really not mentally prepared at all now.
According to Arthur Jeff, it would be difficult to solve all these seven problems in the next century. It would be quite good if someone could solve one of them within 10 years.
And spending money is secondary.
Mainly a slap in the face.
At the Millennium Mathematics Conference, Jeff directly performed a physical act that made him unable to get off the stage.
But it’s uncomfortable to feel uncomfortable.
Clay still has to have his face.
I can’t give it away.
And judging from the results alone, the impact of this coincidence on the research far exceeds the value of one million dollars.
Therefore, he adjusted his mentality slightly and replied in a deep voice:
"I have to say, this is indeed a wonderful coincidence."
"Maybe from the law From a perspective, whether the proof of Poincaré's conjecture meets the scope of the bounty is a question that can be discussed, but personally, I prefer to understand this coincidence as an arrangement of fate."
" Therefore, the Clay Institute will recognize the validity of this reward and, in accordance with the previously agreed terms, will officially award US$1 million to the two authors one year after the proof is submitted, that is, on May 24, 2001. Bonus! ”
(End of this chapter)