A few days later.
At home.
The car was already waiting outside.
Wu Zeqing smiled as she helped him pack his luggage. "It's all packed."
Zhang Ye smiled and said, "Sure."
Mom reminded him again and again, "Don't cause trouble!"
"Aiya, I know," Zhang Ye said.
His mother said, "You mustn't fight this time!"
Zhang Ye rolled his eyes. "Why would I fight at the Nobel Prize ceremony?"
His mother snorted. "When have you not caused a ruckus when you went abroad?"
"Alright." Dad said, "I still have a plane to catch."
Sisi said in a childish voice, "Daddy, when are you coming home?"
Zhang Ye lowered his head and kissed her, "Daddy will be back in two days. Be good and listen to Mommy and Grandpa and Grandma. When Daddy comes home, I will bring you a little present."
Sisi nodded vigorously. "En!"
Zhang Ye waved it off. "I'm leaving."
His father said, "If you really can't win, then forget it."
Zhang Ye smiled. "I know."
He was about to set off for England. This time, Zhang Ye maintained a very good state of mind. There was only so much time and so much power. He had already done what he needed to do and what he could do. Now, it was all up to the Nobel Prize Committee to decide. It would be best if they could give him the prize, but there was nothing he could do if they didn't.
…
In the evening.
At the airport.
Zhang Ye and company boarded the plane.
Zhang Ye was in first class. As there were not many direct flights from Beijing to the United Kingdom, there were very few tickets available. This flight was also operated by British Airways, so Ha Qiqi and Little Wang were seated in economy class. If not for Zhang Ye's reputation, they probably wouldn't even have been able to complete the upgrade procedures.
Little Wang came over with a blanket. "I brought you a blanket."
Zhang Ye smiled and said, "There's one here."
"That's thin. Cover yourself more. Don't catch a cold when you sleep at night," Xiaowang said.
Ha Qiqi smiled. "Then we'll be going back. Call us if you need anything."
Zhang Ye said, "Let's go back. Sleep early tonight."
Ha Qiqi said, "OK."
Zhang Ye said, "If it's too crowded, come and call me. I'll switch seats with you."
Little Wang said, "Aiya, there's no need."
Ha Qiqi chuckled and said, "Don't worry about us."
The two of them returned to the economy class area.
At this time, the British stewardess came over and asked the passengers to fasten their seatbelts. The plane was about to take off.
Zhang Ye looked at his watch and knew that the plane would only land tomorrow morning. Hence, he covered himself with a blanket, adjusted the back of his chair, and closed his eyes to sleep.
Half an hour.
One hour.
After an unknown period of time, he was awakened by the sound of voices in his ears.
It was a few foreigners talking. Actually, their voices were not loud and were clearly suppressed by them. However, as their seats were very close to Zhang Ye, he could still hear them.
"This model is unsolvable!"
"I think it's a good idea."
"I don't think my train of thought is right. I've been on the wrong track since the beginning."
"Well, this is still a three-dimensional quantum system that cannot be calculated."
"I want to use the precise diagonalization method to find the low-energy state of the system."
All of them spoke in English. Some of them had an average level of English, while others were slightly better. These people were obviously not from the same country. Their skin color was different. Two of the foreigners were alone, and the other two foreigners might be master and apprentice. The older one was arguing with them, while the younger one did not say a word. He looked up at them while writing and drawing in a small notebook, as if he was recording their opinions.
Zhang Ye became interested as he listened.
As he could not sleep, he casually replied in English.
Zhang Ye said calmly, "Density matrix renormalization group?"
The foreigners looked at this young man in surprise.
The oldest white-haired foreigner said, "Do you know what we're talking about?"
His student asked, "You're all in physics?"
Zhang Ye smiled. "You can say that. I know a little."
The 40-year-old woman sitting in front of him got excited. She turned around and handed a piece of paper to Zhang Ye. "Take a look at my algorithm and model."
Zhang Ye took it from her and looked at it. His eyes lit up. "Interesting."
The white-haired foreigner immediately said, "Her method isn't right. It's definitely not right."
Finally, the balding foreigner said, "I think it's still feasible. It's a breakthrough. When I get back, I'll start a research project."
Zhang Ye looked at it for a long time before suddenly shaking his head and saying, "This method is quite interesting, but it still won't work. You want to reduce the system's degrees of freedom, and then use a specific renormalization technique in this reduced space to maintain the same number of degrees of freedom in the iterative process. Then, the reduced system will eventually converge to the true low-energy state of the system. But the NRG is generally only suitable for impurity systems. When calculating a typical lattice system, there will often be a huge error."
When the few of them heard this, they were immediately shocked.
The woman said in surprise, "You actually know about it?"
Zhang Ye smiled and said, "I've researched a project before that is very similar to this."
The balding foreigner said, "There will be some errors, but it should be solvable."
Zhang Ye shook his head. "For this kind of error, even a difference of 0.01 won't be able to solve it."
The white-haired foreigner said in a serious tone, "What do you think?"
"I'm thinking —" Zhang Ye said, "— can we treat the entire system as two parts? One part is the system, and the other part is the environment. The system and the environment as a whole are called the superblock. Then, he calculated the ground state of the superblock. Once he had the ground state, he calculated the reduced density matrix. Then, he diagonalized the reduced density matrix and chose the eigenstates with larger eigenvalues. These eigenstates with larger eigenvalues are the most important states for the ground state properties. Then, we renormalize the system according to this standard. "
The woman said excitedly, "This is a brilliant idea!"
The white-haired foreigner frowned. "But there's also a problem inside."
Zhang Ye did not avoid the topic and said, "Yes, there are some problems that cannot be solved. For example, when it comes to specific applications, it's very difficult to build a model."
The balding foreigner immediately said, "Let me calculate, let me calculate!"
The white-haired foreigner said, "There's no need to calculate. The young man is right. It's very difficult to build a model."
Once they started chatting, they could not stop.
Analysis.
Debate.
Research.
Calculate.
They chatted for the whole night, and in the end, none of them slept.
Models, blueprints, and formulas were scattered all over the seats. There were more than fifty pieces of paper written on them.
It wasn't until the plane landed that they woke up from a dream.
The white-haired foreigner looked out the window. "We've arrived?"
The balding foreigner sighed and said, "Time sure flies."
The woman said, "Thank you for today. I've opened up a lot of new ideas on this topic. Let's exchange our contact details. I wonder when we'll be able to meet again."
But the white-haired foreigner smiled. "I'm afraid we'll be able to meet again in the next few days, right?"
The balding foreigner smiled and said, "I think so too."
The woman looked at Zhang Ye and the others. "And you are?"
"My name is Hans." The white-haired foreigner pointed to the student next to him and said, "This is my student. He's here to attend this year's Nobel Prize award ceremony."
The woman said in surprise, "You're Professor Hans! The world's leading authority in physics?! "
The white-haired foreigner smiled and said, "I wouldn't dare to claim such authority."
The woman introduced herself. "My name is Anna, and I'm also a candidate for the Nobel Prize in physics."
Hans said in surprise, "You're Anna?"
The balding foreigner also looked at her. "Anna from quantum physics?"
Anna said, "That's me."
The balding foreigner said, "My name is Paige."
Anna exclaimed, "It's you? Professor Paige? I've read your paper before! "
Paige said, "I've also read your paper before."
Anna gave a wry smile. "I've heard so much about you. So you're all here to participate in the Nobel Prize." She looked at Zhang Ye and the others. "I was wondering how it could be such a coincidence that there were so many physicists on the same plane. Our country doesn't have direct flights to the UK, so we had to make a transfer in China."
Hans smiled and said, "Me too."
Paige noticed that Zhang Ye had already started packing his luggage. She couldn't help but ask, "Which professor are you?"
Zhang Ye smiled and introduced himself. "Zhang Ye."
Anna asked, "Are you also a Nobel Prize nominee?"
Zhang Ye smiled and nodded.
The few world-famous physicists looked at each other. Clearly, they had never heard of him before. But they also knew that there were too many famous physicists in the world, so it was impossible for them to know everyone. None of those who could be nominated for the Nobel Prize were pushovers. They would surely have made great contributions to physics in some way.
Anna said happily, "We'll have to interact more in the next few days."
Hans smiled and nodded. "The car that will pick us up should be here by now. Let's talk in the car."
Paige said, "Alright!"
Zhang Ye smiled and said, "No problem."
A moment later, the cabin door opened.
Zhang Ye chatted with the physicists as they got off the plane.
On the way, the few of them discussed another issue. This time, Zhang Ye and Hans were on two different sides. Anna supported Zhang Ye's point of view, while Paige supported Hans's point of view. The two groups of people started debating again at the baggage claim area.
In the distance.
Ha Qiqi and Little Wang also came over.
Little Wang was taken aback. "Who is Director Zhang talking to?"
Ha Qiqi didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "Who knows?"
Little Wang sighed. "Director Zhang is really good at talking. He makes friends everywhere he goes."
The two of them couldn't understand what this group of people were talking about. They knew that it was English, but they couldn't understand any of the technical terms used. After collecting their luggage, they followed Zhang Ye and the others out of the airport.
The people who were supposed to pick them up had already arrived.
There were two cars over there.
An English man was holding up a sign with Zhang Ye's name on it.
Zhang Ye walked over. "You've worked hard."
The English man asked, "Are you Teacher Zhang Ye?"
Zhang Ye smiled and said, "That's me."
The English man smiled. "Please get in."
Beside him, Hans, Anna, and the others also wanted to get in.
But they were stopped by the driver of the other car.
The English driver said, "Are you Professor Anna, Professor Hans, and Professor Paige? I'm here to pick you up and take you to the hotel. Please get in this car. "
Zhang Ye waved at them. "See you later."
Hans and the others were taken aback. They asked, "Why aren't we in the same car?"
Anna was not done chatting either. "Isn't there a place in the car?"
The English driver looked at Zhang Ye's car and said, "Oh, he's not in the same car as you guys."
Paige said in a speechless manner, "Why? We're all physicists. It'd be nice to sit together. "
The English driver was taken aback. "Physicists? That car isn't here to pick up physicists. "
"Ah?" Anna was dumbfounded.
Hans said in amusement, "How is that possible!"
The English driver didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "That car is here to pick up the Nobel Prize in Literature nominees."
Paige said in shock, "The Nobel Prize in Literature? Did you make a mistake? "
The English driver wiped his sweat. "I can't be mistaken."
Anna said, "He's clearly a physicist. We've been talking about the frontiers of physics all night!"
"I saw the license plate just now." The English driver gave a wry smile and said, "That person's name is Zhang Ye, right?"
Hans said dumbfoundedly, "Yes, his name is Zhang Ye!"
The English driver coughed and said, "Then it can't be wrong. He's a nominee for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Don't you guys know him? Gone with the Wind was written by him. "
Gone with the Wind?
He was the one who wrote Gone with the Wind?
Hans, Anna, and Paige nearly spat out a mouthful of blood!
We've been talking about physics all night!
And now you're telling us that he's actually in the field of literature?!
Are you f * cking kidding me!?
Looking at the minivan carrying Zhang Ye driving off into the distance, the three of them were in a state of disarray!
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