Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
There may be a distinction between the academic value of conjectures, but it was difficult to measure the objective difficulty of conjectures.
After all, how would one even begin to measure it?
This in itself is a pseudo-logic.
However, it was not impossible to get a general idea of the conjecture’s classification.
If one ignored all the non-academic factors such as political significance, economic significance, and media influence, the thousands of mathematics conjectures could be divided into a couple of levels.
The first level was undoubtedly the millennial problems such as Riemann’s conjecture and Yang-Mills existence and mass gap. These were the so-called world’s seven major mathematical problems.
Once these conjectures were proven, they would not only promote the development of the field of mathematics, but it would also have far-reaching effects on other disciplines and industries.
The second level was the most well known three modern time mathematics problems; Goldbach’s conjecture, four-color problem, and Fermat’s last theorem. Two of them had been solved, and Mr. Chen was working on the last one.
The third level would be very subjective and not so obvious. Something such as the Jacobian conjecture would be in this category.
Proof of a problem at this level would get one close to a Fields Medal, or at least a nomination. Of course, one would have to be under 40 years old.
Zhou’s conjecture could be counted in the fourth classification. Other “weak conjectures” could also be included in this category.
The fifth level would be those niche conjectures speculated by unknown mathematicians.
The Polignac’s conjecture would be considered the third level while the twin prime guess conjecture would be between the third and the fourth level.
Lu Zhou’s 2018 Fields Medal nomination was secured. His biggest competitor would probably be the 2013 Ramanujan gold award winner, “German god” Peter Schultz. It was said that Schultz was challenging the famous weight-monodromy conjecture, but his progress was unknown.
Of course, the research on conjectures was only a part of mathematics. Most people had not even proved a single conjecture in their lifetime, but that did not hinder their contribution to the mathematics community.
For example, Mr. Grottendieck laid the foundation of modern algebraic geometry and completely changed the field of functional analysis. His accomplishment was bigger than any proof of a conjecture. After all, many of today’s mathematical conjectures were based on his “probability theory”.
The road of mathematics was long.
The proof of the twin prime number was only a small step.
Lu Zhou knew that his research result was only able to answer some of Hilbert’s eighth questions.
Although his heart was excited, he was not arrogant at all.
The more he learned, the less he thought he knew about the world.
Actually, Lu Zhou did not know exactly what his feeling was. However, one thing was certain. His name was famous at Princeton.
Everyone knew of it.
That during the presentations yesterday, a young man from Asia solved a world-class mathematics problem in front of the audience.
…
Lu Zhou shook his groggy head and climbed out of bed.
He pushed open the bathroom door and took a hot bath. He then got dressed and stood in front of the mirror.
Ah, not bad.
I’m just as handsome as always, I’m just a bit skinny.
Ah, I can’t get fat no matter how much I eat.
Lu Zhou walked over to the windows and opened the curtains.
He had not felt this relaxed in a long time.
It was his most comfortable night of sleep in America.
The sky outside was bright.
If he did not feel so good, he would have doubted if he slept at all…
Lu Zhou suddenly thought.
Wait, what time is it?
He looked at the time on his phone. It was already half past three!
There was a closing ceremony waiting for him, so Lu Zhou immediately put on his shoes and rushed out of the door.
He got off the elevator and walked through the lobby.
Lu Zhou bumped into a Caucasian guy looking at his phone, and asked, “Sorry, what day of the conference is it?”
The dude said impatiently, “The sixth day, bro, take it easy!”
Close!
Lu Zhou relaxed.
It seemed that he had not missed the ceremony.
However, it did make sense. Even if he had worked really hard, it would be impossible to sleep for two days straight.
The Caucasian guy stared at Lu Zhou for a long time before he suddenly said, “Wait… You’re Lu Zhou?”
The f*ck?
Lu Zhou nearly jumped.
How does he know my name?
What?
The Caucasian guy said to Lu Zhou.
“Hey, listen, guess what my thesis is about? I cleverly searched for a lambda function, which proved that there are infinitely many primes numbers with differences of 242! You ruined my research results!”
Lu Zhou did not know what to say as he looked at the American guy like he was crazy. He was about to wave to the security guard.
Fortunately, this guy did not make any radical move.
“… Goddamnit, but nicely done! I didn’t expect the sieve method to be used like this… Let me introduce myself. My name is Carist. Let’s get drinks tonight? Hey, don’t run, hey!”
Lu Zhou ran away.
…
The crowd was sitting inside the auditorium.
Even though there were not that many people inside, the closing ceremony was about to begin.
Lu Zhou remembered that he heard Luo Wenxuan mentioned about this. Most people would not stay until the end of the academic conference. Most of them left after listening to the presentations.
Lu Zhou looked around but he could not find Luo Wenxuan. However, he did saw an unexpected person which was the Indian guy named Dijan.
What a surprise, this guy didn’t leave yet?
Can he handle the pressure?
When the Indian guy noticed Lu Zhou, he did not say anything. He merely ignored him.
Lu Zhou did not care.
He did not know why the Indian guy was still here.
The closing ceremony began.
The auditorium became silent.
After a while, an old man walked up stage with the help of a black cane.
Francis, the president of the Federal Mathematician Society, was also a member of the International Union of Mathematicians.
His slow movements made it look like he was about to trip and fall.
“Let me introduce myself. My name is Francis. There’s not much else to say, so let’s get right into it,” said the old man with a smile.
The audience also smiled and applauded him for encouragement.
The old man pushed his glasses and began his speech.
“First of all, I would like to thank all of you for participating in this conference. I would also like to thank companies such as Parker, Amazon, and etc, for sponsoring this event. We wouldn’t be able to hose this event without them…
“… The work we all do is the same, regardless of whether it’s a mistake. Even if your conclusions are temporarily wrong, even if you’ve been vehemently refuted, it does not mean that you’re not excellent. On the contrary, you’re more courageous and talented than 99% of the world. I hope that I’ll see you here next year…
“There’s also a party tonight…
“Oh yeah, I nearly forgot about the most important thing,” said the old man as he pushed his glasses. He smiled apologetically as he continued, “The best young presenter of this conference will receive a $10,000 prize sponsored by Amazon and a certificate issued by the Federal Mathematics Society. As expected, the winner is Lu Zhou.”
Mr. Francis raised his spirits and looked at everyone.
“Then, have a great time!
“Also, the Superbowl championship belongs to the Eagles!”
The young people in the audience whistled.
With this, the academic conference came to a successful conclusion.