The ABC conjecture was solved!
Whether it was for the mathematics community or for the future fate of human civilization, this was definitely a history-making day.
As the manager of the arXiv electronic preprint library, Cornell University was honored to feel this earlier and more deeply than anyone else.
Cornell University School of Computer Engineering.
The tranquility of the morning was broken by a sudden accident.
The arXiv database, which had been running stably, suddenly seemed to have suffered a violent DOS attack. It was overwhelmed by the explosive growth of traffic.
"Damn it! Is there a special holiday today? Why are we all logging in at this time … "
"The traffic has increased by a hundredfold … God, what happened last night?"
"Who knows! Hurry up and call Los Alamos National Laboratory and ask them to use the backup server! "
"It's already used … Give up, there must be a problem with such a huge traffic volume. It's definitely not caused by normal access behavior!"
The laboratory was in a mess.
Faced with the paralyzed server, several professors who were invited tried their best, but they were still helpless.
The traffic volume of arXiv had always been relatively stable, with one peak in the morning and one peak in the evening. Most of the time, people would choose these two time periods to check if there was any new research progress in several research directions they were tracking.
Because of this, Los Alamos National Laboratory, which was responsible for operating the server, allocated additional server resources to arXiv. However, unexpectedly, the plan still couldn't keep up with the changes.
The additional backup server resources were simply a drop in the bucket. The skyrocketing traffic instantly paralyzed the entire website, and now no one could squeeze in …
Dr. Osmond, who was responsible for maintaining the database, was sweating profusely. Seeing that the situation was out of control, he immediately called Los Alamos National Laboratory and asked the engineers there to pull the plug on the server. He then began to check the server's memory to find the cause of the failure in offline mode.
ArXiv was different from other non-academic databases for profit. As an open electronic preprint library, even if the traffic increased several times, they would not rely on this for profit. Therefore, he was not excited at all.
Dr. Osmond looked at the system engineer walking over. He stopped him and asked anxiously.
"What about Los Alamos National Laboratory? How is the server troubleshooting going? "
The expression on the engineer's face was also filled with the same seriousness.
Although they had encountered similar situations in the past, it was far less exaggerated than what they were facing now.
"The cause of the malfunction is still being investigated … There's no new information for now."
"Damn it!" Dr. Osmond couldn't help but curse. "Which b * stard has nothing better to do and is eyeing the electronic literature library? If you're so awesome, then go and hack the Federal Reserve! "
"Maybe he was rejected and wants to vent his anger?" The engineer shrugged his shoulders and helplessly proposed a hypothesis, but Dr. Osmond rejected it without even thinking about it.
"That's impossible. Whether that idiot can even use a computer properly is a problem."
It was quite difficult to be rejected by arXiv because even "folk mathematics" had a separate category here, which was reserved for folk scholars to entertain themselves.
Only those who couldn't find the position of their own paper could be "rejected" because of non-compliance. Therefore, Dr. Osmond ruled out this possibility almost without hesitation.
Just when the group of people was anxious like ants on a hot pan, footsteps suddenly came from outside the laboratory.
A man in a suit almost trotted in and said as he walked.
"The results of the investigation at Los Alamos National Laboratory are out!"
Dr. Osmond didn't hesitate for even a second. He immediately looked at him and asked anxiously.
"What the hell is going on?!"
"The proof of the ABC conjecture …"
Dr. Osmond froze and looked at him in surprise.
"The proof of the ABC conjecture?! What do you mean … "
"The engineers at Los Alamos National Laboratory retrieved the error log and found that all the traffic almost pointed to the same third-level domain name." The expression on the man's face was like he had seen a ghost. He gulped and said with difficulty, "What the hell! A paper, a preprint, crashed the server … This is the first time in my life that I've encountered such an absurd thing! "
…
The collapse of the arXiv server was just the beginning.
The news that the ABC conjecture was proven quickly spread throughout the mathematics community along the network cable. A wave of surprise spread like a tsunami.
Because the arXiv server was completely paralyzed and the website could not be accessed, many people who could not download the paper could only rush to the LSPM forum left on Lu Zhou's personal page to share and exchange information about the ABC conjecture.
On the other hand, Princeton Institute for Advanced Study.
Dr. Woolley Vernal, who studied mathematics, walked quickly into Professor Sarnak's office.
Because he was too excited, he even forgot to knock on the door. He pushed open the office door and reported in an incoherent voice.
"Professor!"
Professor Sarnak frowned slightly when he heard the voice from the door. He stopped writing and looked in the direction of his student.
"Good morning, Mr. Vernal, I want to know what happened? So much so that you forgot the courtesy of knocking before opening the door. "
"Sorry! But this is just too shocking! " Vernal swallowed hard and calmed his breathing. He continued in a trembling tone, "You would never have thought —"
The sound of the pen cap hitting the table interrupted his speech. Professor Sarnak spoke in an impatient tone.
"I hope you can explain it clearly in a minute, otherwise —"
"It's the LSPM research group! Just an hour ago, they uploaded the complete proof process of the ABC conjecture to arXiv! "
LSPM research group …
Complete proof of the ABC conjecture?!
The moment Professor Sarnak heard these words, his eyes widened. He immediately stood up from behind the desk and spoke anxiously.
"Where's the paper? Did you download it? "
"No …" Dr. Vernal gulped. His face was full of bitterness. He said, "When I found out about this, the arXiv website was already down."
Paralyzed?!
Sarnak was stunned when he heard this completely unexpected news.
After about five minutes, he slowly came back to his senses.
His eyes unconsciously moved to the corner of the office table. He looked at the calendar placed there, only to see the date April 30th printed on it.
Sarnak thought of what Professor Fefferman said some time ago. A touch of shock gradually appeared in his eyes. His pupils were full of disbelief.
They really did it before the end of the month?!
This is unbelievable!
At the same time, almost in the same building.
Professor Fefferman, who was sitting in his office, also looked at the calendar on his desk after learning that the ABC conjecture had been proven.
Sighing softly, he muttered to himself regretfully.
"What a big loss …"
If only I persisted at the time.
Perhaps if he persisted a little longer, that old thing Sarnak's gambling nature would get to his head, and he would make that bet with him?
Even if he didn't extort a large sum of money from him, at least someone would be paying for his coffee this week …
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