Professor Grothendieck's tombstone was in an inconspicuous corner of the cemetery. It was covered with dust and looked like no one had visited it for a long time.
Grothendieck had stopped contacting people in his later years. Other than a few friends who knew where he lived, most people didn't even know where he was buried.
According to the old priest, except for the last two months of his life, Grothendieck would come here to pray almost every weekend before that.
Lu Zhou nodded his head and placed the bouquet in front of the tombstone.
Lu Zhou used his own way to bless this great scholar in his heart, and at the same time, he thanked the great scholar for leaving him valuable information. After that, Lu Zhou turned around and left.
It wasn't that he didn't want to stay here.
It was just that he really didn't want to embarrass Director Giacobino next to him, so he stood there with a sad and deep expression.
In fact, there was nothing to be sad about at all. It was human nature to live the rest of one's life. Many people envied one's life for the rest of one's life. His seclusion was a big loss to the mathematics world, but for him, it was a blessing.
After leaving the cemetery, Lu Zhou followed the old priest to his home not far from the church. He saw the remaining pile of materials in his garage.
The reason why he used the word "pile" was because there was really a lot of materials; it was like a small mountain.
Apparently, in the 18th century, when academic communication was not developed, European mathematicians mostly relied on letters and manuscripts to "disclose" their research results. Lu Zhou didn't expect to see such a "primitive" communication method in the 21st century.
Although the materials were piled up here, it was obvious that the old man took some effort to separate the drafts and official notes. He also covered them with a layer of plastic to prevent dust.
Seeing how well these notes were kept, Lu Zhou fulfilled his promise and symbolically donated a million euros to the Saint-Lizier Church. This would be the storage fee for the documents for the next eight years.
Regardless of how happy the old priest was about this huge sum of money, Lu Zhou took out his phone and called Chen Yushan. He asked her to help him contact a local airline in Paris that did logistics business. After entrusting them to send the books and manuscripts back to China, he got on the bus back to Paris.
What happened next was very simple.
Star Sky Technology offered an irresistible price. The airline company that accepted the entrustment came to the small town of Omites after Lu Zhou and his team left. Professionals were responsible for packing the precious materials and sending them to Jinling on the same day. The only thing missing was a fighter escort.
Lu Zhou rushed back to the hotel in the evening. After eating dinner in the cafeteria, he returned to his room and spread out Professor Grothendieck's notes on the table. He then excitedly opened the title page.
"A problem that even Professor Grothendieck can't solve? Let me take a look … "
Rumor had it that before Professor Grothendieck went into seclusion, his student Deligné had been working on the Riemann's conjecture and its generalization in the field of algebraic geometry. The famous Weil's conjecture was solved by Deligné during this period.
If Professor Grothendieck was still researching mathematics, then there was a high probability that he was researching the Riemann's conjecture.
However, when Lu Zhou thought he would see a research note on the Riemann's conjecture, he suddenly had a strange look in his eyes.
"What is this?"
Motive theory?
No way!
Even though it used abstract numbers, it was completely different from the motive theory that he knew a lot about.
Lu Zhou continued to read and flipped a page. He soon discovered that the things recorded in this notebook were completely beyond his expectations. This wasn't the Riemann's conjecture at all, it was … a mathematical proposition that he had never seen or even heard of before.
For the first proposition, Professor Grothendieck had already given a proof method. As for the second proposition, it seemed like Professor Grothendieck had not solved it yet.
Lu Zhou was interested in Professor Grothendieck's conjecture. He picked up a pen from the table and pulled out a piece of draft paper. He used the unified theorem of algebraic geometry and made a simple transformation for proposition 2.
However, the moment he finished this, he looked at the result on the paper and was stunned.
Another expression of the Riemann's conjecture?!
Lu Zhou quickly flipped through a few pages and sighed in relief when he saw the latter part of the notes.
"Obviously, Professor Grothendieck did not prove it."
Maybe he had a premonition that this proposition was actually the Riemann's conjecture, but he did not give a reasonable proof.
After all, Lu Zhou only solved the unified theorem of algebra and geometry last year.
He used the pencil to tick proposition 2, indicating that he had solved the proposition. Lu Zhou looked at the calculations in the notes and went into deep thought.
"… This is definitely not as simple as some mathematics problems."
These complex propositions could even be published as mathematical conjectures.
Regardless of the academic value, they were no less difficult than the Millennium Prize Problems. They didn't seem like something that could be solved by one person.
However, this was the problem.
If Professor Grothendieck wanted an answer, he could release this notebook to the public.
The internet was so advanced that even if he didn't want to publish his research results, he could publish it anonymously.
Having more people didn't mean there was more power, but there was a better chance of solving the problem than when one person was thinking alone.
Lu Zhou's pen gently tapped on the draft paper as he frowned.
Suddenly, he remembered a rumor.
According to Professor Grothendieck's friends, in his later years, his mind was in a rather unstable state, and he was addicted to the imagination of the devil.
For example, he believed that the devil turned the speed of light, which should have been 300000 kilometers per second, into an ugly 299792.458 kilometers per second.
Although it was not clear why an outstanding mathematician would make such a basic mistake in weights and measures, if his friend didn't fabricate the facts, there must be a reason.
After that, the retired pope suddenly wrote a letter to his former student, Professor Illusi, in January 2010, announcing that all of his works published after his "disappearance" would not be published again.
This matter caused a lot of uproar at the time. This was because the two books "Foundations of Algebraic Geometry" and "Algebraic Geometry Seminar Materials" were the bible of algebraic geometry. Because of the author's own request, they could not be published or translated. This would only make it more difficult for people to obtain them.
Lu Zhou thought back to the words in the letter. He didn't believe that a mentally ill person could write those things.
He was more willing to believe that something incomprehensible must have happened to this scholar.
For example …
Lu Zhou's pupils contracted, and he suddenly thought of a possibility.
"… Physics is the universal law, and mathematics is the universal language."
Lu Zhou repeated the words he heard from Professor Lane and looked at the mathematical formulas in the notebook. He felt like his mind was instantly enlightened, and his pupils became brighter and brighter.
If his speculation was correct …
This wasn't just a mathematical proposition …
It was a language!
A lamp pen
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