There might be a difference in academic value between conjectures, but it was difficult to use a standard to measure the difficulty of a conjecture.
After all, how could one measure the difficulty of a conjecture that had not even been proven to be true?
That in itself was a false logic.
However, it was not impossible to divide conjectures into different levels.
If one ignored the political, economic, and other non-academic factors, and only talked about the academic value of conjectures, then the thousands of conjectures could be roughly divided into several levels.
The first tier was undoubtedly the Riemann hypothesis, the NP-complete problem, the existence of the Yang-Mills gauge field, and the mass interval hypothesis. These were the so-called world's seven major mathematical problems, as well as some of Hilbert's 23 questions, and so on.
Once these conjectures were proven, it would not only promote the development of mathematics, but it would also have a profound impact on other disciplines.
The second level was naturally the three most well-known modern mathematics problems, Goldbach's conjecture, four color problem, and Fermat's last theorem. Two of them had already been solved, and the remaining one had been "1 + 2". In addition, some of the problems in the Langlands program and Hilbert's 23 questions could also be in this level.
The difference between the third-tier conjectures and the second-tier conjectures was not obvious. Moreover, it involved subjective opinions, so there might be a large divergence. Jacobi's conjecture could be considered as a typical example.
Proving this level was not far from the Fields Award. At least one could be nominated … Of course, the premise was that one had to be under 40 years old.
As for the fourth level, Zhou's conjecture could be included. All of the first, second, and third level problems, or a "weak conjecture" could also be included in this level.
There were even more fifth echelons. Some unpopular branches that no one cared about, some conjectures proposed by some unknown mathematician, all conjectures that did not reach the fourth echelon could be included in this echelon.
According to this grading method, Polignac's conjecture could be considered as the third level, and the twin prime conjecture could be considered as a "special form" of Polignac's conjecture. However, due to the academic value being higher than the "research on the distribution law of Mersenne primes", it was between the third and fourth level, and infinitely close to the third level!
Regardless of the final result, Lu Zhou would definitely be nominated for the 2018 Fields Award based on his outstanding contribution. His biggest competitor was probably the winner of the 2013 Ramanujan Prize, the "German God of Learning", Peter Schulz. Apparently, he was challenging the famous weight-monodromy conjecture, but his progress was unknown.
Of course, the study of mathematical conjectures was only a part of theoretical mathematics research, it was not the whole. Many people had never proven a major mathematical conjecture in their lifetime, but this did not prevent them from contributing to the entire mathematics community.
For example, Mr. Grothendieck laid the foundation of modern algebraic geometry and completely changed the face of the field of functional analysis. These two contributions alone were unmatched by any other mathematical conjecture. After all, many mathematical conjectures were proposed based on his "probability theory".
There was still a long way to go to climb the peak of mathematics.
The proof of the twin prime number conjecture was only a small step on the path to Mount Everest.
Lu Zhou knew very well that the results of his research were just answers to some of the questions in Hilbert's eighth question.
Although his heart was so excited that it was about to jump out of his chest, it did not inflate his ego.
The more he knew about the world, the more things he had in his head, and the more insignificant he felt.
In fact, Lu Zhou wasn't very clear what his true feelings were at this moment. However, no matter what he thought, one thing was for sure. His name was famous in Princeton.
Everyone knew about it.
At yesterday's report, a young man from Asia solved a world-class mathematical conjecture in front of the entire audience …
…
Lu Zhou shook his dizzy head and got out of bed.
He opened the bathroom door and sat in the bathtub. He took a hot bath and changed into a new set of clothes. He then stood in front of the mirror and looked at himself.
Not bad.
I'm still as handsome as ever, but I don't have any fat.
Sigh, I can't get fat no matter how much I eat. What a headache.
Lu Zhou walked to the window and opened the curtains.
His sleep this time was exceptionally comfortable.
This was probably the most comfortable sleep he had ever had since he came to North America.
However, the sky outside the window did not seem to have changed.
If it was not for the fact that his mental state could not be better, he would have doubted if he had slept at all …
Lu Zhou's face suddenly changed.
Wait a minute, what time is it?
He looked at the time on his phone, it was already 3: 30 pm!
Lu Zhou remembered that there was still a closing ceremony waiting for him. He immediately ran to the entrance, put on his shoes, and ran out the door.
He got off the elevator and walked through the lobby. Other than the hotel staff, he did not see a single person.
Lu Zhou had a bad feeling in his heart. He ran to the door and accidentally bumped into a guy who was looking at his phone. He didn't have time to explain. After saying "sorry", he immediately asked, "Which day of the academic conference is it?"
The guy said unhappily, "It's the sixth day. Buddy, be careful!"
That was close!
Lu Zhou heaved a sigh of relief.
It seemed like he did not miss the closing ceremony.
However, it made sense. Even if he worked hard for a few nights, it was impossible for him to sleep for two days and two nights.
The guy stared at Lu Zhou for a long time and suddenly came back to his senses. His eyes widened as he said, "Wait a minute, you … are you Lu Zhou?"
The f * ck?
Lu Zhou almost spat on his face.
MMP！ You want to Lu Zhou?!
How cruel!
The guy looked at his phone. He might have confirmed the photo from Twitter, but his eyes suddenly lit up. He grabbed Lu Zhou and did not let him go.
"Hehe, listen, you ruined my graduation thesis. Guess what I wrote in my thesis? I cleverly found a Lamda function and proved that there are infinitely many prime numbers with a difference of less than 242, which shortened the gap between 2 and 246! And just yesterday, not only did you kill this hen that lays golden eggs, but you also ruined the results of my two months of research! "
Lu Zhou did not know what to say. He looked at this guy like he was crazy and was ready to wave at the security guard.
Fortunately, this guy did not do anything extreme. He only pulled Lu Zhou aside and said, "Damn it, but well done!
"… Damn it, but you did well! Let's get to know each other, my name is Callist. Let's have a drink tonight? Since you delayed my graduation, you owe me this drink. Hey, don't run, hey! " For the sake of delaying my graduation, you owe me this glass of wine no matter what. Hey, hey, don't run, hey! "
Lu Zhou did not even look back as he decisively ran away.
…
Inside the auditorium, there were a lot of people.
The closing ceremony was about to begin, but it felt like there weren't as many people as there were at the beginning.
Lu Zhou remembered that Luo Wenxuan said that many people who attended academic conferences did not stay until the end. Many people finished their reports, listened to the lectures they wanted to hear, or talked to like-minded people, and then they went out to explore the world.
Lu Zhou looked around and did not see Luo Wenxuan. Instead, he saw an unexpected person, the Indian guy named Diran.
What was surprising was that this fellow still hadn't left?
Is he that good at resisting pressure?
The Indian guy noticed Lu Zhou's gaze and did not say anything. He only responded with a dirty look and ignored Lu Zhou.
Lu Zhou made a helpless expression.
If he had cited someone else's unpublished research results, he would feel a little guilty, but this person … He couldn't be blamed for this.
The closing ceremony began.
The hall quickly quieted down.
After a while, an unreliable looking old man slowly walked onto the podium with a black cane.
Francis, the president of the Federal Mathematics Society, and also a member of the International Mathematical Union.
The reason why he didn't look reliable was because his slow movements always made people worry that he would suddenly fall asleep while talking, or fall down while walking up the stairs.
"Let me introduce myself, Francis. There's nothing else to introduce … The young people are getting impatient, so let's just start," said the old man with a kind smile.
The audience also smiled kindly and gave her an encouraging round of applause.
The old man pushed up his glasses, flipped a page of his speech, and muttered to himself.
"First of all, thank you all very much for attending this mathematics conference. I also thank Parker, Amazon … and other companies for sponsoring us. No matter how noble our cause is, without the help of good people, we can't move forward …
"… In the face of a great cause, the work we do is the same, regardless of whether you are rich or poor. Even if your conclusion is temporarily wrong, even if you are fiercely refuted, it does not mean that you are not good enough. On the contrary, standing here, you are more courageous and talented than 99% of the people in the world. I hope that at this time next year, I can still see youthful young men and young ladies … Of course, old men like me are also welcome, always welcome. "
"There's also a party tonight …
"Oh yeah, I almost forgot the most important thing." The old man pushed his glasses and smiled apologetically. He cleared his throat and continued, "The best young speaker of this academic conference will receive a US $10,000 prize sponsored by Amazon and a certificate from the Federal Mathematics Society … The winner is Lu Zhou. There seems to be no suspense? I thought about it, so I won't keep you guessing. "
Mr. Francis slammed his walking stick on the wooden floor as he said to the audience with a smile, "You're right, Mr. Francis.
"Then, have fun!"
"Also, the championship belongs to the Philadelphia Eagles!"
The young people in the audience whistled.
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.
