Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
While Lu Zhou was writing his thesis, the Internet was exploding.
Some random reporter that attended the conference uploaded the entire report video onto the Internet.
When everyone saw the moment that Lu Zhou wrote down the last equation and said “I solved it” in a confident manner, the comment section exploded.
[Nutttty! He solved the general solution for the Yang-Mills equations?]
[God Lu is insane!]
[I’m honestly shook.]
[Amazing, even a video like this has millions of views…]
[What the hell is the yang mill? I came here for God Lu!]
[I’ll give everyone a brief explanation. The Yang-Mills equations problem is one of the most outstanding theoretical physics achievements of the twentieth century. It aims to describe the behavior between elementary particles using the non-abelian group. Finding the general solution to the equations gives us hope for understanding the mass gap from a mathematical perspective. This lets us take a big step toward the Grand Unified Theory!]
[What the hell is the Grand Unified Theory?]
The comment section wasn’t the only place that blew up, various media outlets had also followed suit.
Titles such as “The mathematician in his twenties shocks the world again with a unified theory!” or “Former US intelligence chief says: I regret letting Lu Zhou leave our country” were popping up on Weibo and various websites. Numerous photos of Lu Zhou standing in front of the blackboard thinking were posted in many articles.
For a long time, the Yang-Mills equations had been a milestone in the theoretical physics world. Co-invented by a Chinese physicist, this unsolvable equation was finally solved.
Of course, there was also criticism.
For example, after some social media influencer on Weibo saw this video, they immediately responded.
“I don’t care about the significance of the Yang-Mills equations. Leaving the stage in the middle of a report is a disrespectful thing to do, it’s like a comedian leaving in the middle of a set.
“As a Chinese scholar, Lu Zhou represents more than just himself; he is the image of China. In addition to academic achievements, he should be self-disciplined and well mannered.
“Not to mention, it’s extremely irresponsible to write down a conclusion that hasn’t been rigorously checked.”
After the post came out, the comment section became a war zone.
[Please show us what you’re really like in real life, show us how polite you are.]
[Oh, last time when Sir Atiyah used a five-page mathematics thesis to scam the whole world, you said he’s a brave warrior. How come now you’re criticizing Lu Zhou? Because Professor Lu isn’t a foreigner?]
[F*ck sake, what’s wrong with telling people to be more polite!]
The original poster saw that the comment section was a mess, so they left one last comment and decided to leave it alone.
In addition to the domestic media, foreign media had also been paying attention to this matter.
Like the dramfilled Daily Mail, after the report ended, they contacted a middle-aged professor who taught at St. Andrew University, who claimed to be an insider.
During the interview, when the middle-aged professor was asked about the incident, he began to respond in an awkward manner.
“I think the general solution is just a bunch of scribbles.”
The reporter said, “Why?”
Middle-aged professor: “Everyone that knows a little about mathematics would know that behind every rigorous page of a mathematical thesis, are countless pages of thesis drafts. Especially for a computationally intensive partial differential equation proposition. How can anyone solve the problem without writing anything down? You’re telling me he just solved it by standing there and using his inspiration?”
Reporter: “Why would Professor Lu need to forge anything?”
The professor shrugged and said, “I don’t know, maybe he’s too cocky? Wants research funding? I have a wonderful algorithm to prove that the general solution is correct, but unfortunately, there isn’t enough space for me to write down the algorithm.”
At night.
InterContinental Hotel.
Scholars dressed in formal attire were inside the spacious banquet hall. The gold-plated tables were filled with champagne and Chinese as well as western food. In order to make up for the morning report, Jin Ling University could only use food and drinks to try and give a better impression.
However, only a small subset of people was offended that Lu Zhou didn’t follow the rules. Most people were more concerned about the general solution left on the blackboard.
“It’s already 8 o’clock.” Fefferman looked at the banquet hall entrance and said, “Looks like our protagonist is not going to show up.”
Originally, he wanted Professor Lu to explain the general solution at the banquet, but unfortunately, that didn’t seem like it was going to happen.
Wiles, who was wearing a tuxedo, had a glass of champagne in his hand as he walked over and said, “What happened with Princeton?”
Deligne still wore the black hat that covered his head. He shook his head and said, “The calculation required is large, and the researchers told me that it would take two to three days to complete. It’s still morning over there, so the engineers responsible for arranging the supercomputer task has just woken up.”
The John von Neumann Center didn’t only serve as a supercomputer for the Princeton Institute for Advanced Study, but it also provided computational support for PPPL. The people at the John von Neumann Center obviously valued orders from NASA or the Ministry of Science and Technology more than the Institute for Advanced Study.
However, since Deligne personally arranged this task, it shouldn’t take too long.
Not to mention, the engineers at the John von Neumann Center were also interested in a world-class mathematics problem.
Fefferman sighed and said, “If only he could provide a derivation, even just an idea would be nice.”
Wiles smiled and said, “Apparently, he’s gone on another retreat? I heard Professor Lu has a unique way of thinking about problems.”
Fefferman said, “I think so. He had the habit of locking himself in his room in Princeton. Regardless, before he finishes his work, even if you go to his house, he won’t open the door.”
“I’m not sure if I should go back first or wait for the results here.” Edward Witten looked at his phone and said, “There’s going to be a new collision experiment conference in CERN in five days.”
Wiles smiled and said, “CERN has conferences every day, how often do you get a chance to witness history?”
Witten thought for a bit and shrugged.
“You’re right.
“I’ll just wait here for a couple more days.”