Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
As it turned out, a person would never know how much potential he had unless he pushed himself.
Lu Zhou was surprised by his own speed. It took him only a week to sort out his thesis.
Of course, it was given since he had already done most of the work before. His week was spent only on sorting out the thesis.
The thesis was 15 pages long. The title was simple: “The Structure of the Group Theory.”
Of course, he had to prove the superiority of his mathematical method. He used two examples.
One was the infinite prime problem, and the other was Wilson’s theorem.
These two questions were the touchstone of number theory. The summary of the various methods could be written into a touchstone, standard or criterion by which something was judged.
Similar to these two were the Euler’s theorem and Fermat’s theorem. Lu Zhou originally planned to use these two examples, but these two already had a fairly simple group theory proof method.
Especially the latter, it only took three lines to prove. There was no room for improvement.
Using his method would be a little redundant.
Finally, Lu Zhou submitted his thesis the day before the deadline.
…
On the morning of 20th October, Lu Zhou dragged his suitcase and went on the airplane with Professor Lu. They flew from Jin Ling to Beijing.
This year’s academic conference host was Beijing Normal University, and the organizer was the China Mathematics Society.
Since it was also the 80th anniversary of the China Mathematics Society, the conference was exceptionally grand. Many internationally well-known mathematicians were invited to attend this conference.
Lu Zhou’s accommodation was at the Emperor Dragon Hotel. The invited guests already had their food and room expenses paid for, so he only had to pay for the $800 yuan registration fee.
However, this fee was already paid by Professor Lu.
He had to admit that it was nice working with a rich supervisor.
Of course, one also had to be worthy enough to be his student.
Once they arrived at the airport, they got on Yan Xinjue’s car.
When they arrived at the hotel, Yan Xinjue went to park the car while the two went in first. When they stepped in the elevator, Lu Zhou saw Yan Xinjue walking toward them and he could not help but ask, “Student Yan, you’re also attending this conference?”
Yan Xinjue smiled. Before he could say anything else, Professor Lu interrupted and said, “This kid’s coming for fun. Don’t mind him.”
Yan Xinjue smiled and said, “What do you mean for fun? I’m supporting Lu Zhou.”
Lu Zhou was embarrassed as he said, “I’m only doing a report. Nothing major.”
Yan Xinjue patted his shoulder and said, “Humble, but I’ll congratulate you in advance! Oh yeah, aren’t you doing a report on stage? What hairstyle should you do? Make it handsome.”
Lu Zhou, “…?”
Professor Lu smiled but he did not speak. Lu Zhou was confused by both of them.
I feel like these two are hiding something from me.
Why am I not in the loop…
…
After Lu Zhou went to his hotel room and left his suitcase there, he then went to the hall to eat.
Today was mainly for admission. The conference would officially start tomorrow.
The conference would last for five days. It would end on the 25th.
Due to the importance of the conference, the entire hotel was booked by the China Mathematics Society.
Once Lu Zhou finished eating, he looked around. He noticed that the average age of the people here was around 40 years old, and only the waiter was as young as him.
Lu Zhou quickly finished his dinner and he planned to go back to his room.
Suddenly, while he was walking to the elevator, someone greeted him and walked over with a smile.
“Hello, you’re Lu Zhou, right?”
“Yes, you are…?” asked Lu Zhou as he looked at him suspiciously. He could not recognize this guy at all.
“Wei Siyang, PhD student at Aurora University,” said the young man as he shook Lu Zhou’s hand. With a smile, he said, “I saw you at the Princeton Conference, but I didn’t get the chance to speak with you. You’re too famous!”
“What do you mean famous… Nice to meet you,” said Lu Zhou as he forced a smile.
Even though he knew he was nutty, he still did not like being complimented.
Wei Siyang smiled and introduced Lu Zhou to the old man behind him, “Let me introduce you to my boss, Professor Ma Changan. He’s in the algebraic geometry field, 2017 academician nominee!”
Professor Ma had a majestic face.
Professor Ma Changan smiled and waved his hand. He said to his student, “What do you mean nominee, stop bragging about me. The organization hasn’t even decided yet.”
Even though he reprimanded his student, it was obvious he liked to be complimented.
Professor Ma smiled at Lu Zhou and said, “I’ve done thirty years of research, but have little success. You young people really are impressive. It’s quite admirable”
With a smile, Lu Zhou replied humbly, “Professor Ma, you’re too kind. I still have lots to learn.”
“Being humble is good. If I achieved as much as you at your age, I would’ve been bragging my ass off,” said Professor Ma with a smile. He then said, “I heard you were researching Polignac’s conjecture?”
The Ten Thousand People Initiative research projects were not confidential.
Lu Zhou smiled and replied, “Yeah.”
Professor Ma lifted his eyebrows and said, “How’s the research going?”
Lu Zhou smiled and said, “There’s some progress.”
The review process for major mathematics conjecture process was slow. It could take months.
The Annual Mathematics journal had not responded yet. His thesis status was still in “peer review” so he could not just say he proved it.
Professor Ma was interested as he smiled and said, “Oh, it seems that you have some ideas?”
Lu Zhou smiled and said, “You could say that.”
Professor Ma smiled and said, “I’m doing some research on number theory as well. Why don’t you look at my thesis and we can exchange some ideas?”
Lu Zhou was stunned. He looked at this professor with doubts in his mind.
It was very rash to request others to look at unfinished research work.
Not to mention, Lu Zhou was not his student, so there was no reason for him to look at the professor’s work.
In the end, Lu Zhou smiled and said, “There’s no need for that. I like to study mathematics alone so I won’t waste your precious time.”