Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
The lights were turned on.
Lu Zhou steadily walked onto the auditorium stage.
The second he walked to the microphone stand, the noise died down, and the venue instantly became quiet.
As Lu Zhou stood on the stage and looked around the venue, he felt ice in his veins.
This wasn’t his first report session.
It also wasn’t his first time challenging a world-class problem.
Lu Zhou reached out and adjusted the microphone stand. He then said in a clear voice, “Thank you all very much for taking the time out of your busy schedules to come here. I won’t waste any more of your time, let’s get straight to the point.”
After the opening remarks, Lu Zhou paused for a second and continued, “I’m sure you all have read my thesis before coming here. I will briefly repeat the proof process and explain in detail my thought process for this proof.
“I’m sure that after my explanation, there will no longer be any confusion in your minds.
“If there are any questions, feel free to ask during the Q&A session.”
The PowerPoint on the projector screen flipped to a new page, showing everyone the lines of formulas.
[F^i(μv)≡δμ·Av^i-δv·Aμ^i+g(f^ijk)·(Aμ^j)·(Av^k).]
[…]
“When we set a Schwarz non-dispersion vector field μ0 to the equation and set the time interval I ⊂ [0, + ∞), we can then define a generalized solution N9 of the Yang-Mills equations as an integral equation μ, ie μ→ H10df (R3)…
“It is difficult to solve this nonlinear partial differential equation using conventional methods, and it’s also difficult to prove the existence of its solution. We must introduce a three-dimensional manifold and bridge the gap between the dimensionless equations and geometric principles by introducing topological ideas…”
Lu Zhou picked up a piece of rather long chalk from the desk and walked to the blackboard. He then began to write.
In the crowd.
The first row.
As Academician Lu looked at Lu Zhou who was writing on the blackboard, he felt emotional.
“This is incredible.”
Professor Tang was sitting next to him. He smiled and asked, “What is incredible?”
Academician Lu didn’t answer this question. Instead, he began to reminisce.
“Five years ago, at CERN’s European Nuclear Research Conference, I had a disagreement with him regarding the 750 GeV energy characteristic peak. My opinion was that the signal could be a two-photon signal produced by the gluon during polymerization. He insisted that there might be something beyond the standard model.”
“Then what happened?” Professor Tang smiled and asked, “Was he correct or were you correct?”
“There wasn’t a conclusion.” Academician Lu shook his head and said, “CERN did research on his discovery for an entire year, and the theoretical physics community also paved a way for this new particle for an entire year, then… It was almost like the universe was fooling us, some said that it’s quantum fluctuations, others said that it’s a two-photon signal generated by the polymerization of gluons… But this isn’t the main point.”
Academician Lu paused for a second and smiled. He said, “Being able to stick with your opinions when challenged by a higher authority is a rare personality trait, especially for students that have been trained in our education system. This quality is extremely commendable. Ever since then, I knew this kid was going to make something of himself. I didn’t expect that I actually underestimated him. I can’t believe he’s gotten to this point in just five short years.”
That last sentence finally answered Tang Zhiwei’s question.
He just thought that with Lu Zhou’s talent and hard work, he was bound to earn a place in the mathematics world as well as the physics world. However, he didn’t expect that in these five short years, not only did he become stronger, but he also made Jin Ling University, as well as the Chinese academia, stronger.
Professor Tang smiled. “Yeah…
“He’s the fastest-learning student I have ever seen before.”
The report continued.
After the part about the L Manifold finished, Lu Zhou quickly accelerated the speed of the report.
The thesis was forty pages long, and the main proof process was at least twenty pages.
If he didn’t want to leave the Q&A session to the afternoon, he had to finish speaking within two hours.
As Lu Zhou’s reporting speed gradually increased, the scholars in the venue intently stared at each line of equations. They didn’t want to miss a single detail or a single letter.
For people like them, they didn’t have to worry about not understanding the report. At most, they just didn’t have the time to leisurely talk with their peers while listening to the report.
The PowerPoint pages were shown one after another.
There were more and more equations on the blackboard.
Lu Zhou completely forgot about where he was, and he had completely forgotten about the audience behind him. He had entered the “zone”, where all of his attention was focused on the chalk and the half-filled blackboard.
While writing and explaining, Lu Zhou also organized his thoughts regarding the proof of the existence of a solution to the Yang-Mills equations.
While he was organizing his thoughts, new inspirations and ideas were also brewing in his mind.
It was the 36th page of the thesis.
The report was about to end.
Professor Klitzing could finally take a break since he had already grasped the essence of the proof process. He looked at Professor Faltings, who was sitting next to him, and asked, “Amazing proof… What do you think?”
Faltings stared straight at the lines of equations on the blackboard, and he seemed to be analyzing something. He didn’t speak for a long time.
Before he came to China, he studied the L Manifold and the proof of the existence of a solution to the Yang-Mills equations. He also talked with several PhDs that were in this field, who were from the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics. However, he still had some doubts regarding some details.
However, most of his questions had already been answered.
Five or six minutes had gone by… He looked at the PowerPoint presentation. After that, he looked at the blackboard. He then said with a poker face, “He answered some of my doubts… but not all of them.”
Professor Klitzing chuckled.
Since Faltings said so, I’m guessing there are no problems with the proof.
However, when he was waiting for Lu Zhou to finish so that he could stand up and give him a round of applause…
Lu Zhou suddenly stopped writing.