During this period of time, Lu Zhou had been busy with superconducting materials research and his students' graduation.
Even though he followed Sir Atiyah's thesis and the progress of the Riemann conjecture, he did not have the time to pay attention to the Heidelberg Prize Winners Forum. Coupled with the sudden phone call from the Nobel Prize, he completely forgot about this matter.
Until recently, he suddenly received an invitation from Annual Mathematics.
The editor-in-chief, Professor Peter Sarnak, wanted him to write a short review of Sir Atiyah's thesis. Lu Zhou suddenly remembered the sensational news in the mathematics world.
In the morning, Lu Zhou went to his office. Hadi walked over with a few pieces of A4 paper.
"Professor, I've printed the thesis you wanted for you."
Lu Zhou took Sir Atiyah's thesis from Hardy's hand. He paused for a second and looked at Hardy suspiciously.
"That's all?"
"Yes, Professor," Hadi nodded and said, "I'm sure that's all."
The thesis had a total of five pages and only three citations. There was a small typesetting error in the third and fourth sections, but it was not a big problem.
If it was a PhD thesis, this thesis would definitely not pass. However, for the big names in the academic world, everyone was more tolerant.
For example, when Wiles first proved Fermat's last theorem, he even added a "preface" to the abstract. He used a long paragraph to describe Fermat's last theorem and his childhood. Everyone just smiled when they saw it.
Of course, Sir Atiyah had the right to be capricious. After all, he was the winner of the Fields Prize and the Abel Prize. His research on the Atiyah-Singer index theorem was one of the most important mathematics achievements of the twentieth century.
However, this was not the main point.
Would the mathematics world blindly trust a person just because of his or her past achievements?
The invitation was sent by Professor Sarnak, and it was also out of respect for a respected scholar. Even though Lu Zhou did not have much hope, he still sat in his office chair and began to read the five-page thesis.
However, the more he read, the more he frowned.
As Sir Atiyah had claimed, he had "solved" the problem in a very simple way.
Sure enough, such claims were often unreliable …
Lu Zhou read the thesis from beginning to end, and he had a basic understanding of the thesis's proof ideas.
Simply put, Sir Atiyah introduced a weak analytic Todd function that he created in his proof, and hypothetically related this Todd function to the fine structure constant in physics.
The worst part wasn't that he didn't describe what the Todd function was, nor did he describe the relationship between the Todd function and the Riemann zeta function. It was that he used the reductio ad absurdum in his thesis.
Yes, he actually used the method of proof by contradiction.
If Riemann's conjecture was wrong, then "my theory" was contradictory.
Because my theory can't be contradictory, Riemann's conjecture must be correct …
At this point, one could already draw a conclusion.
Even though it was a shame, it seemed that his initial hunch was correct.
Seeing that Lu Zhou's expression didn't seem right, Hadi asked, "Professor, what do you think about this thesis?"
Lu Zhou suddenly smiled and put the thesis aside.
"You're also in the field of number theory, don't you have your own opinions?"
Hadi scratched his head and said, "My field of research isn't the Riemann zeta function … To be honest, Sir Atiyah's thesis is too esoteric, I think he used some physics terms."
Lu Zhou: "That's right, Sir Atiyah used some physics terms. I once heard from Professor Witten that Sir Atiyah seemed to have only entered the field of physics a few years ago, and his physics intuition wasn't very good. As for this thesis, he constructed a weak analytic Todd function in the thesis and combined this function with a concept from physics. "
"Is there a problem with the weak analytic Todd function?" Hadi couldn't help but ask.
Lu Zhou: "Whether there is a problem with the weak analytic Todd function itself is debatable … Because there is too little information about this function, I can't judge it. The biggest problem in his thesis is the introduction of the fine structure constant in physics. "
Hadi: "… Fine structure constant?"
"Yeah," Lu Zhou nodded and said, "This is an important dimensionless number in physics, the symbol α, commonly seen in quantum electrodynamics."
This was a very important concept in physics. It was often used to measure the strength of the interaction between charged particles and electromagnetic fields.
Interestingly, physicists spent more than a century trying to derive the value of α from a physics perspective, then "fabricate" a mathematical formula for it.
Unfortunately, no one had succeeded so far, so most people had given up.
However, in Sir Atiyah's thesis, he used this concept directly as the foundation of his thesis.
Even though Lu Zhou didn't want to say this, most people who did this kind of thing were people like Professor Enoch …
Hadi said, "… If you're right, then Sir Atiyah won't be able to keep his reputation."
"Not really." Lu Zhou shook his head and said, "Even if he's wrong, his courage is still commendable."
In academia, there was a fundamental difference between "honest mistakes" and "academic fraud".
In his later years, Einstein repeatedly claimed that he had found a way to unify the field theory, and he was still calculating it until the moment of his death … Even then, no one believed in his calculations. They just quietly accompanied him to the end.
In any case, it was not easy to be able to do research at the age of 90.
It was even more commendable to bet his life's honor and the courage to challenge Mount Everest.
In short, it was still the same as before, as long as the old man was happy …
…
Lu Zhou thought for a bit about the Annual Mathematics article. In the end, he politely wrote a reply. He said that he was busy with research and tactfully declined Professor Peter Sarnak's article invitation.
This was different from Shinichi Mochizuki's long and complicated thesis. When no one knew if he was right or wrong, anyone who understood had the obligation to stand up and testify.
However, the problems in Sir Atiyah's thesis were so obvious that one didn't need a particularly advanced mathematical knowledge to see the problems.
Even if he didn't say anything, everyone actually knew in their hearts.
However, this kind of thing was better left to Mr. Faltings.
Anyway, Mr. Faltings was famous in the mathematics world for being "mean". No one would think it was strange, let alone feel embarrassed.
But asking a 25-year-old young man to do this kind of thing …
It was too disrespectful of the old man's feelings.
After writing this reply, Lu Zhou suddenly understood why no one at the Princeton Institute for Advanced Study discussed such an important matter.
After all, everyone would grow old one day, and everyone needed dignity and dignity …
Especially for a respectable scholar.
Also, even though the media liked to use eye-catching things to exaggerate the facts, they were more willing to believe that Sir Atiyah was nearly 90 years old …
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