"… To Langton?? Clay and his wife, Lavinia?? To the Clay family, to the members of the Riemann family, and to all mathematicians who came to this historic event.
"Twenty-three years ago, at a conference in Paris, the Clay Mathematics Institute announced an award for the seven most famous problems in the world. Even though we don't need those awards, and they won't make real mathematicians more excited about mathematics.
"But that doesn't mean it's unimportant.
"Instead, it records the great unsolved problems of the twentieth century for future generations. It also makes the non-mathematical world more passionate about mathematics. In particular, it has always been a lighthouse, attracting young people, children, and students to develop an interest in mathematics and math-related problems.
"Whether it's for love or for the million-dollar prize money."
Institut de France.
The spacious auditorium was a bit crowded.
Because this was the award ceremony for the Riemann conjecture, almost all of the top scholars in the French mathematics community, as well as members of major mathematics organizations, were invited to stand here.
Before the millennium, this place was the center of Europe and even the world of mathematics. Being able to give a speech here was a dream of countless mathematicians.
Even today, this glory had withered due to the decline of the European mathematics community. However, many things had not changed.
Professor Carlson stood on the podium and looked at the solemn venue. He paused for a second and spoke in a solemn tone.
"Niels Henrik Abel once wrote in his memoirs that in order to solve a difficult problem, one must first express it correctly …
"… Especially, the correct formulaic expression."
"What we can see is often not as easy to understand as we think it is. Just like the theorems that we are all familiar with, behind each theorem is centuries of hard work and the efforts of countless generations of scholars, and it is in this accumulation that our discipline is able to advance."
"On this thorny road, we have gained a lot. Just like Professor Lu Zhou's work revealed to us, we know the mystery of the distribution of zeros of the Riemann function and the profound mathematical meaning behind it — the 'unification of geometry and algebra'. The birth of this theory reconstructed algebraic geometry after the millennium, and even redefined our understanding of numbers and geometric figures. "
"Perhaps, we may need to spend decades, or even longer, to build a new building on the land he has opened up. But we have already taken the first step towards a new world, and I believe that there will always be someone who will see that day for us. "
The long speech was finally over.
Professor Carlson bowed slightly, and the audience burst into thunderous applause.
Lu Zhou walked to the front of the stage and took the million-dollar check from Professor Carlson's hand. He smiled and politely shook hands with Carlson.
"Thank you."
Of course it was good to have money.
Although compared to the ten billion yuan project yesterday, the one million yuan bonus might be a little less, but no matter how small a mosquito was, it was still meat. Who would complain about having more money?
Professor Carlson finally completed this difficult task, and he had a look of relief on his face.
He felt that in this world, there was probably no one more lowly than him.
It was supposed to be a million dollar prize, but the winners were getting harder and harder to invite.
Professor Carlson held Lu Zhou's hand tightly and spoke with excitement.
"Do you have any acceptance speech? Just tell me your thoughts. "
Acceptance speech?
After hearing Professor Carlson's words, Lu Zhou thought for a while and had an embarrassed smile on his face.
"As for my thoughts … I've already said it last time, so just the same as last time."
Professor Carlson's voice was drowned in the applause, and it seemed like only he could hear it.
Lu Zhou looked at Carlson's face, which was gradually turning red due to the rising blood pressure. Lu Zhou suddenly felt lucky that the applause was loud enough, and he didn't get close to the microphone …
…
In the evening, the French Mathematical Society and the Clay Institute of Mathematics jointly hosted a dinner party in the banquet hall of the Collège de France. Almost all of the famous mathematicians in Paris attended the dinner party, regardless of whether they were at the award ceremony or not.
At the dinner party, Lu Zhou met a lot of old friends that he hadn't seen in a long time.
Especially Professor Helfgott, who worked at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris.
This Peruvian French number theorist provided a lot of help when Lu Zhou was researching Goldbach's conjecture. In particular, the proof of the weak Goldbach's conjecture provided a lot of inspiration for Lu Zhou's fusion of the circle method and the sieve method.
Ever since Goldbach's conjecture was solved, Lu Zhou rarely published in the field of number theory. Therefore, the two hadn't talked for many years. Although they didn't see each other often, their friendship was still there.
This time, Professor Helfgott was quite enthusiastic, and he chatted with Lu Zhou for a long time. Lu Zhou also heard a lot about Professor Grothendieck's life, as well as some rumors about Professor Abel.
"Let's make a hypothesis."
Helfgott: "Hypothesis?"
Lu Zhou poured himself a glass of champagne and smiled as he said, "If there are aliens in this universe … Of course, I'm just saying if. How can we establish a good communication relationship with them when they are completely different species and it is difficult to have direct contact with them? "
Professor Helfgott paused for a second and looked at Lu Zhou strangely.
"You found aliens?"
Lu Zhou paused for a second and laughed.
"How is that possible? Isn't this just a hypothesis? Why do you think I already found them? "
Helfgott smiled and said, "Because every time you ask a problem, it seems like you've already solved half of the problem. You're a person who doesn't leave opportunities to others, am I right? "
Huh?
Really?
Lu Zhou thought about it carefully and it seemed like this was true.
Even though in his opinion, it took him a lot of effort to get those results, in the eyes of others, the mathematical propositions that were supposed to take years to calculate were solved by him in a few months or even a few weeks. This sounded like an exaggeration.
Helfgott looked at Lu Zhou and smiled. He took a sip of red wine and thought for a while. He then returned to the previous interesting question.
"If there's a need to communicate at the first moment of contact … I think it's mathematics."
Lu Zhou raised his eyebrows with interest.
"Oh yeah?"
What a coincidence, they had the same idea.
"The key to communication between two civilizations is to find a common language. Just like the cup in my hand, if they don't use the cup as a container and don't drink, then there is no way to communicate." Professor Helfgott put down the wine glass in his hand and thought for a while. He then said, "Science is a means to solve the problems we face. The problems we face may be different, but one thing should be the same, which is the tools for scientific research.
"Whether it is natural science or applied technology, both are inseparable from mathematics.
"So I think it should be mathematics."
Lu Zhou: "Then if you were an alien, and you wanted to discuss what to eat for lunch tomorrow, what would you do?"
Helfgott leaned back in his chair and spoke with a smile.
"Me? I would first throw you two large prime numbers … Of course, I wouldn't throw them directly to you, but I would multiply them together. If you can solve it, at least … you won't be the one eating lunch tomorrow. "
"Interesting." Lu Zhou was amused by this humorous statement. He smiled and said, "And then?"
Helfgott: "And then? Using the distance between us to unify the measurement? And then the periodic table of elements? How to do this is a systematic discipline. I remember it is called cosmic linguistics. There are people studying this at École Normale Supérieure, but I don't know that professor very well …
"In short, I think if we can achieve basic communication, nothing will be a problem. Maybe after confirming that we aren't eating each other's lunch, we can even exchange students. Once the cultural exchange begins, we will be able to understand each other very quickly. "
Professor Helfgott paused for a second and shrugged. He then spoke.
"And think about it optimistically. If they decide to contact us and take the initiative to find us, they probably already have a certain understanding of us. They may even have been observing us for a while. Whether it's the electromagnetic wave signal or the postcard we sent out, if they really want to communicate with us, they will definitely think of a way. "
Lu Zhou paused for a second and spoke with a smile.
"To be honest, your imagination can be used to write sci-fi novels."
Helfgott laughed.
"Thank you for the compliment, but science fiction is not as interesting as mathematics. I'll leave the opportunity to others!"
Lamp pen
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
