Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
There was no doubt that this was an unexpected request.
Lu Zhou went silent for a while before he said, “… Although I did do research on a smooth Navier-Stokes equations solution, I didn’t intend to aim for the Millennium Prize.”
Lu Zhou was telling the truth.
The reason why he researched the Navier-Stokes equations was to create a suitable theoretical model for the turbulence phenomenon in plasma.
This research was Old Qiu’s suggestion.
As for finding a complete solution to the Millennium Prize Navier–Stokes equations…
Lu Zhou had honestly never thought about it.
“I know that it isn’t easy, if it was, it would’ve been solved by now. Even I’m not confident enough to go against it,” Professor Fefferman said with a smile. He then added, “However, if we join forces, I think it is worth trying.”
Lu Zhou asked, “Are you sure this thing can be solved by joining forces?”
“I don’t know, but my intuition tells me that it might be the right path.”
Professor Fefferman looked at the equations on the whiteboard and nodded to himself.
Then, he looked at Lu Zhou before he offered his right hand.
“What do you think?”
The classroom was quiet.
Professor Fefferman wasn’t the only one waiting for Lu Zhou’s decision; everyone in the classroom was holding their breaths.
Lu Zhou stared at his hand and began to think.
Speaking of which, he hadn’t challenged a difficult mathematics problem ever since he solved the Goldbach’s conjecture and reached Level 6 in mathematics.
Lu Zhou suddenly laughed and shook Fefferman’s hand.
“This will be interesting.”
Millennium Prize Problems…
This does sound interesting.
Just like Professor Fefferman, Lu Zhou wasn’t confident enough to challenge the problem alone.
But if they joined forces, it would be a different story altogether.
“Haha, I’m happy to reach an agreement with you!” Professor Fefferman grasped Lu Zhou’s right hand firmly as he said, “It seems that the world will contain one less mystery.”
Lu Zhou wasn’t as optimistic, so he only smiled slightly.
“Hopefully it will work out.”
The classroom was heating up like a boiling pot of water.
“Oh, god…”
A Caucasian guy with freckles took out his phone and took a photo of the two professors. He couldn’t wait to record this exciting moment.
Two men joining forces to fight the Navier-Stokes equation!
There is nothing…
Nuttier than this!
If the professors succeed, then everyone sitting in this classroom will be witnessing history!
This photo will be a record of this historic moment!
After Lu Zhou reached an agreement with Professor Fefferman, the Institute for Advanced Study officially opened the research on “the existence of a smooth solution to the three-dimensional incompressible Navier-Stokes equations”.
The name of the research project was simple; it was only two letters— “NS”.
The two professors decided to adopt the traditional method of “independently researching and regularly exchanging research results”.
The second day after the NS research project was created, the He3 project team finally received their small particle accelerator.
Lazerson chose a piece of used equipment from the Brookhaven National Laboratory. Although getting it from CERN was also a possibility, CERN’s small accelerator needed customs clearance, which took a long time. Brookhaven National Laboratory was in New York, and they were happy to get rid of their old equipment.
Although it was considered as a “small” particle accelerator, it wasn’t small at all. It occupied a decent amount of space in the laboratory.
After all, the initial velocity of the particle was determined by the strength of the magnetic field and the radius of the particle orbit.
The newly arrived accelerator had a magnetic field strength of 1T and a maximum radius of 5 meters. It took five days for the He3 project team to assemble the accelerator.
And this was with Professor Lazerson personally helping the engineers by working overtime.
Normally, this would take a team of engineers a month to assemble this thing.
Professor Lazerson was inside the PPPL laboratory wearing a safety hat. He was checking the circuit condition of the superconducting coil using some professional equipment when he asked Lu Zhou who was standing behind him.
“Why?”
Lu Zhou was caught off guard.
“What do you mean why?”
“This technology won’t bring you any patents. Even if it will, the patent won’t be as popular as the cryo-electron microscope. I’d be willing to bet that there will be less than ten laboratories that are willing to pay for this technology.”
Professor Lazerson didn’t know the answer to this question.
Even though he knew how rich the mathematics professor was, he didn’t know the professor’s intentions.
Was it for a Nobel Prize?
That would be too superficial.
Lu Zhou thought for a bit and suddenly smiled as he explained, “For the glory of the human spirit… Is this reason not enough?”
Professor Lazerson’s eyes were wide open. He had nothing to say.
After a long time, he slowly gave him a thumbs up.
“There are only three Chinese scholars that I respect, and you are the most…”
Professor Lazerson thought for a bit; he didn’t know what word to use.
Young?
Doesn’t sound serious enough.
Smart?
That would be insulting to the other two Chinese scholars.
Lu Zhou spoke first.
“Most what?”
After a while, Lazerson finally found the adjective.
“The one with the most money to burn…”
Lu Zhou: “…”
What the hell do you mean by most money to burn?
Can’t you find a better quality of mine?
Like the highest IQ, knowledgeable, most handsome…
Anything would be better than burning money!
The experiment was scheduled to take place two days after the equipment was assembled.
Which was two days before Christmas.
If the experiment was successful, everyone could enjoy a wonderful Christmas break.
If the experiment failed…
They would still go on Christmas break.
But their holiday wouldn’t be as pleasant.
They didn’t have time to make big changes to the experiment; this was the He3 project team’s last chance.
If they couldn’t succeed, they would have to wait until next year June for the Wendelstein 7-X overhaul and reschedule their experiment plan.
This meant that they would have to waste half a year.
However, Lu Zhou was optimistic.
He was full of confidence, especially now that the atomic gun was upgraded.
A 1T magnetic field was definitely enough.
Both his calculations and intuition were telling him this.
The He3 project team anxiously waited.
At last, the experiment day had arrived…