Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Not only did the crowd respond well to Vera’s report, but her report attracted the attention of various media outlets that attended the International Congress of Mathematicians.
For a long time, mathematics had always been viewed as a male-dominated field. Very few women were able to make outstanding mathematics achievements. This meant that any mathematics achievements by a woman were amplified.
Not to mention, the Collatz conjecture was a difficult conjecture in and of itself.
However, unfortunately for the media, this female mathematician didn’t like to be interviewed, and she was almost scared of the camera.
But even though the media wasn’t able to interview Vera, they were able to get ahold of Vera’s supervisor.
The fourth day of the International Congress of Mathematicians.
A reporter from BBC science arranged a time to interview Lu Zhou at a coffee shop near the Barra Da Tijuca Hotel.
BBC reporter: “… We all know you had a hand in both of the reports. The proof of the Collatz conjecture was completed by your student, Vera Pulyuy. What do you think of your student?”
Lu Zhou said, “Vera is a stellar student. Whether it was her, Qin Yue, or Hardy, they are all extremely talented in number theory. I don’t think we should pay attention to gender as I’ve met many outstanding female scholars.”
BBC reporter: “I heard Vera received guidance from you when researching the Collatz conjecture, and many people think that you were the one who solved this conjecture. What do you think about those rumors?”
Lu Zhou smiled and said, “I only provided an idea to the solution, the entire proof process was done by them. There is no doubt about that. Also, as you can see, the Group Structure Method is an excellent additive number theory tool which I believe can be used to solve a variety of problems.”
Reporter: “Which problem do you think the Group Structure Method can solve? Or rather, which field?”
Lu Zhou smiled and said, “Do you really want me to say it? Actually, even if I don’t say it, I’m sure my peers could’ve guessed it by now.”
The reporter smiled and said, “Just say it, say it for the people outside of the mathematics field.”
Lu Zhou gave a simple answer—”Waring’s Conjecture.”
Waring’s Conjecture was a classic additive number theory conjecture.
This conjecture originated from the “Depths of Algebra” published by Waring in 1770. Edward Waring guessed that for every natural number k, k had an associated positive integer g(k) such that every natural number was the sum of at most g(k) natural numbers to the power of k.
As a classic additive number theory problem, there were many people who were conducting research on this problem.
The existence of g(k) had been proved by Hilbert in a rather complicated way where the case of g(2) = 4 was the quadratic sum theorem, which was proved by Larter in the eighteenth century.
Wieferich, Chandrasekhar, and Chen Jingrun proved the cases for g(3), g(4), and g(5).
If Lu Zhou had to answer which conjecture he was the most optimistic he could solve, then it undoubtedly would be the Waring’s Conjecture.
“That’s surprising…” the reporter said as she looked at Lu Zhou with surprise. Although she wasn’t an academic scholar, she was still a science journalist, and she had a good understanding of mathematics conjectures.
The BBC reporter continued to ask, “Then, regarding your other report, we all know you have proved a solution to the Navier–Stokes equations, and the academic community also validates your proof… But, hypothetically speaking, if this proposition isn’t proved, but rather disproved, how will that impact our lives?”
Lu Zhou rested his hands on his knees. He smiled and said in a relaxed tone, “If this proposition is falsified, then its meaning would be more significant. Take the smooth solution as an example, if we find that in one particular point in time, the equations are no longer smooth, then it would mean that no only have we solved an unanswered mathematics problem, but we also have discovered a new physics theorem.”
The reporter said, “Then… are you disappointed?”
Lu Zhou sighed and said, “Kind of disappointed… Actually, when I worked with Professor Fefferman on this project, we always thought we found this special point in time. Unfortunately, it was just an illusion.”
“How did you discover it was an illusion?”
“When I was running around the lake… As for the specific thought process…” Lu Zhou looked around and asked, “Is there a blackboard? If there is, I can explain it in detail.”
The reporter said, “There’s… no need.”
The media reports were released the day after the interview. Some fragments of the report were edited out by BBC science, but it kept most of the original interview content.
Lu Zhou watched the news on Youtube and looked at the comment section.
Unfortunately, foreign people didn’t seem to be interested in mathematics and learning, and the attention was all on Vera.
The most liked comments were basically “This chick is hot!”, “I want to visit Ukraine”, “Does she have a boyfriend?”, etc.
Lu Zhou admitted that Vera, who stood on stage despite her fears and completed her report bravely, was an attractive sight. However, Vera’s physical appearance shouldn’t be the center of attention.
They’re so superficial!
Lu Zhou shook his head and closed the video tab. He wasn’t happy that the foreign netizens completely ignored his part of the video…
The main part of the International Congress of Mathematicians was the exchange of academic ideas; many wonderful theses and reports had also emerged due to this conference. Lu Zhou gained a lot through this conference.
After spending each day at the conference meaningfully, the nine-day International Congress of Mathematicians finally came to a close. The closing ceremony was of a type of dance by South Americans.
After the closing ceremony, the conference logo was taken down from the Barra Da Tijuca Hotel, and the scholars from all over the world flew back home.
It was worth mentioning that Birkar didn’t find his medal.
However, the conference organizer generously held a special ceremony and made up for the lost medal.
Professor Fefferman was sitting on the plane when he said, “… Rio’s public safety is disappointing. There are even participants who have been robbed on the beach. There is no doubt that this is the worst ICM in history as there has never been a theft of the Fields Medal medal before. Not to mention, the theft happened half an hour after the prize ceremony.”
South America, particularly Brazil, was strong in the field of dynamical systems. This was one of the reasons why the conference was held in Rio de Janeiro.
Although the International Mathematical Union team had some security concerns about Rio de Janeiro, they didn’t expect the situation to be this bad and for something unfortunate like this to happen.
The local police of Rio de Janeiro was even more disappointing.
If it weren’t for the excellent conference reports, this conference would have been a complete failure…
Lu Zhou smiled and said, “Why don’t they hold it in Beijing? I can guarantee the medal would have been found.”
Of course, Lu Zhou felt like before the thief could even reach for the medal, the thief’s hand would have been chopped off.
After being overseas for so long, other than his friends and family, Lu Zhou missed China’s safety the most.
Professor Fefferman smiled.
“This is a good idea, I’m sure it will happen one day!”