Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
After a long period of preparation, the time for oral defense finally arrived.
There were four oral defense judges.
Other than Dean Qin of the mathematics department, Professor Tang was also present.
Normally there would be an avoidance system to ensure fairness, but for Lu Zhou, little things like this did not matter.
Other than the two people who Lu Zhou knew, there were two other people. Lu Shenjian from the University of Jin Ling and Xiang Huanan from the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
These two people were big names, and Lu Zhou was already familiar with them.
Lu Zhou stood on the podium and looked casual.
He had prepared for this moment for a long time, so he was not nervous at all.
The PowerPoint presentation began.
Lu Zhou introduced himself and started to talk about his thesis. He briefly talked about the main points and conclusion of the thesis.
This process was very short, and it only took five minutes.
Next was the important questions and answers stage!
Xiang Huanan looked at Lu Zhou.
“Fifth page of the thesis, I noticed that you mentioned that C is a nonempty closed convex subset in Hilbert space, and is introduced for a class of quasi-nonexpansive images T:C→C. A Halpern-type viscous iterative algorithm. What does this mean? Can you explain it in detail?”
A normal judge for an undergraduate student’s graduation thesis would not ask such a technical question. However, Lu Zhuo was no normal student, and this judge was no normal judge.
Therefore, the question was also out of the ordinary.
Lu Zhou did not have to refer to his thesis. He remembered exactly what he wrote on the fifth page.
“The sequence {xn} used to prove ‘8’ strongly converges to a fixed point on T, and this point is the only solution to the variational inequality V. Can I use the blackboard? It’s difficult to explain with words.”
Professor Xiang Huanan smiled and said, “Of course.”
Normally this would not be allowed.
Lu Zhou picked up the chalk and started to write on the blackboard.
[x1∈C, x(n+1)=αn·f·xn+βn·xn+γn·T·xn, n≥1. Where f:C→C is a compressed image, where T:C→C is a non-stretch impression…]
Xiang Huanan smiled and nodded his head, “Not bad.”
This answer was sufficient, even by PhD standards.
Therefore, the judge was satisfied with this answer.
Professor Lu Shenjian said, “Let me ask a few questions too.”
Lu Zhou replied, “Professor, please go ahead.”
Professor Lu Shenjian said, “I noticed that you mentioned in the paper that by applying your set of viscous iterative algorithms, it can also be used to study the pre-solution of the maximal monotone operator in Banach space. This can become a tool for quantum mechanics. This is similar to the algorithm mentioned by Professor Kohsaka in Japan when he introduced the non-stretching image in 2008, but you have not made further extensions on this basis. Why?”
Lu Zhou was surprised at this question.
What do you mean by why?
Because the focus on the thesis is not on this!
Lu Zhou coughed and said, “Because further expansion of this topic would count as a thesis in and of itself. This thesis is only about mathematics problems. Although there are references to quantum mechanics applications, that is not the focus.”
Academic problems were endless, and everything could be further expanded upon. He only briefly mentioned his possible application of this set of viscous iterative algorithms in quantum mechanics.
Lu Shenjian shook his head and said with a heavy tone, “This is not the mentality that a scholar should have. You should strive to learn perfectly. If you have also discovered this possibility, why don’t you further expand on it?”
Professor Xiang Huanan suddenly smiled and said, “Old Lu, stop giving Lu Zhou a hard time. People that are good at mathematics aren’t necessarily good at physics. I think Lu Zhou is more suited for mathematics research.”
Lu Shenjian said, “I didn’t mean it like that. I meant that if he’s interested, he can study under my wing. The movement of microscopic particles requires Hilbert space to regulate, and vice versa. The observation of microscopic particles will certainly have a great inspiration for his research in the field of mathematics!”
Professor Xiang shook his head and said, “I respectfully disagree. I’ve studied subgroup theory and the Yang-Baxter equation. Although mathematics can be a tool for physics research, mathematics itself is self-contained. Physics and mathematics are two different things.”
Professor Xiang smiled and looked at Lu Zhou before he said, “Like what Professor Lu said, if you discovered a possibility, why don’t you expand on it? If you’re interested, the China Institute of Mathematics has a similar research project…”
Dean Qin interrupted them, “There are so many talents in the Chinese Academy of Science already, stop trying to steal ours.”
Professor Xiang Huanan smiled and said, “What do you mean by stealing? I’m just making a suggestion.”
Professor Tang smiled and said, “There’s still some time left, so let’s continue the oral defense.”
In fact, there was not much else to ask.
The level of the thesis was way too high for a graduation thesis.
The so-called oral defense was only to test the student’s skill level, which was obviously unnecessary in this case.
“Ask about what? Screw these formalisms!” said Professor Xiang as he smiled and stood up.
He looked at Lu Zhou and nodded, “Your work in functional analysis surprised me, I rarely see undergraduate students who are able to reply so wonderfully.”
Lu Zhou sincerely said, “Thank you, professor.”
Professor Xiang Huanan said, “No need to thank me, the oral defense is over. You can leave now.”
Lu Zhou looked at Professor Tang.
Professor Tang nodded and said, “You can leave. We’ll inform you of the results soon.”
After the oral defense, the student usually waited for the judges to exchange opinions and give a score out of 100.
There was no doubt that Lu Zhou would pass.
If he did not pass, then no one else in the school could.
Lu Zhou was curious to know what his score would be.
Once Lu Zhou left, the classroom was quiet.
Professor Xiang looked at Professor Tang and smiled as he said, “Old Tang, I’ve never taken a student after all these years. I’m about to retire, and I want to find someone to inherit the clock. What if… we make a deal?”
Professor Tang smiled and looked at his old friend as he said, “There’s no point asking me, I don’t care where the kid goes. Go ask Old Qin.”
Dean Qin smiled and interrupted the academician, “Don’t even think about it!”
Professor Xiang Huanan shook his head and said, “Selfish.”
He was just joking. It would be a miracle for the University of Jin Ling to let go of Lu Zhou.
At the very least, his curiosity was satisfied.
Professor Wang Yuping bragged to him that the University of Jin Ling had a once in a generation genius who would win the Fields Medal.
He had not believed it at first.
After today, he was convinced.
Professor Xiang could not help but think.
“Young scholars are so prosperous, so lucky…”
Actually, it did not matter too much that Lu Zhou refused his offer.
He had been around a lot, so he was bored at most things.
And for the things he was not bored with…
He believed that he would get a chance to see them.