Great Country Academician

Two days later, the news that Xu Chuan would teach an open mathematics class at Nantah University spread quickly throughout the campus.

On the NTU campus, on Stone Forum, Penguin, Weixin, and various places and software, it has become the hottest topic.

Not only the students of Nantah University are discussing, but even the lecturers and professors of the school are preparing, and even some students from other colleges and universities in Jinling who have received the news are preparing to take the subway to attend the lecture.

This is the first time in China that such an opportunity should not be missed.

Although the course submitted on NTU's official website is only the most common "Linear Algebra and Spatial Analytical Geometry", which is an undergraduate course, it must have its own uniqueness when told by a Nobel Prize winner and Fields Medal winner. insights.

In addition, since it is a lecture, it is normal for the lecturers to raise their doubts to the lecturer.

For mathematics students, a Fields Medal winner is basically a god in the field of mathematics.

Of course, in addition to mathematics students, Xu Chuan's lectures also attracted the interest of many student tutors from the School of Physics and Astronomy.

This boss won the Nobel Prize in Physics through computational astronomy. Nantah University has offered this course two years ago, and in the second half of last year, it was defined as a compulsory course for students of the astronomy department.

Although there are not many things to learn, compulsory and minor are two completely different concepts.

And when it comes to computational astronomy, this big guy who is about to start the course can be said to be the originator of computational astronomy.

Betelgeuse is still a key observation object in the astronomical community. Today, the astronomical community has confirmed that there is an accompanying star in the hydrogen envelope of Betelgeuse, and it is being observed and studied.

After all, Betelgeuse is too close to the solar system. The originally confirmed supernova explosion did not pose a threat to the earth. Now, with the appearance of the companion star, this has become an uncertain matter again.

If you don't figure it out, this may become a heart disease for many people.

In the villa, after Xu Chuan finished the course arrangement, he found a manuscript of the analytic function in the study and read it.

This manuscript was brought back from Princeton by him, given to him by Deligne, and left by the grandfather Grothendieck.

Although he had seen it several times when he was in Princeton, the contents were still worth reading.

Since winning the Fields Medal in August last year, he hasn't done much study, research and thinking in the field of mathematics.

Now that the nuclear energy beta radiation energy concentration and conversion mechanism project has come to an end, he can now spare some energy to focus on mathematics.

Although he has won the Fields Medal, Xu Chuan does not think he has reached the pinnacle of mathematics.

The profoundness of this subject, the more in-depth research, the more you can understand it, and the more you need to learn.

What's more, he still has a goal of controlled nuclear fusion that needs to be conquered in the distant future, and in this technology, it is quite critical to establish a mathematical model for the control of the ultra-high temperature plasma in the controllable nuclear fusion reactor chamber step.

There is no doubt that to solve this problem, we can only start from mathematics.

The corresponding direction probably falls on the NS equation.

Before returning to China, he had cooperated with Fefferman, the dean of the Department of Mathematics at Princeton, to study the NS equation. The two explored the NS equation from different perspectives.

If he is still in Princeton and the two continue to cooperate, it may be possible to solve this difficult problem or conduct a deeper research.

But now he can only figure out a solution by himself.

However, Xu Chuan will not regret it. It is already the greatest luck to come back from the United States safely.

In the deep winter of January, Xu Chuan was leaning on the wicker chair and flipping through the manuscripts in his hand. The orange-yellow oven gave off a warm atmosphere, dispelling the cold in the room.

On the desk, the phone rang.

Xu Chuan woke up with a start, and took a look at his cell phone. It was Liu Gaojun, the principal of Nantah University, who called him.

"Hey, principal. What can I do for you?" He slid his finger on the screen lightly, and he answered the phone and asked with a smile.

"It's like this. Didn't you submit a course yesterday? This has attracted attention both inside and outside the school. Many students and professors have expressed their hope that they can choose a larger place to teach, so as not to be unable to grab a seat at that time. .”

On the other end of the phone, Liu Gaojun directly stated the reason for his visit: "So we want to adjust the professor you teach from the No. 1 public classroom in the West Building to our auditorium."

Xu Chuan blushed and said, "This is a bit too exaggerated, principal, the public classroom in the West Building is already big enough to seat three or four hundred people."

Liu Gaojun laughed and said, "You underestimate your influence too much. Students from the Department of Mathematics at Nantah University have expressed that they will participate, and many students from the Faculty of Physics and Astronomy will also listen. Even Hehai, Southeast There are students from Nanli and Nanli who are ready to come to attend classes, and the public classrooms in the West Building are definitely not enough."

Xu Chuan coughed and said, "It's fine to move to the auditorium. After all, this is a lecture, not a report or speech."

"In addition, this is just a math class. What are the students from the School of Physics and the School of Astronomy running here to do? This is too exaggerated."

Liu Gaojun thought for a while and said, "Well, how about changing the classroom to No. 1 public classroom in Run Run Shaw Building? After all, many students want to listen to your lectures, so we can't let people have no place to sit."

Xu Chuan: "Okay, these are all trivial matters."

"Then let's talk about it, and I won't bother you any more." Liu Gaojun hung up the phone with a smile.

Xu Chuan shook his head and put the phone back on the desk.

Just as he was about to continue reading, the phone rang again. This time it was his mentor Deligne at Princeton who called him.

"Sir Atiyah has passed away. The funeral is a week away. Can you attend?"

When the phone was connected, Professor Deligne broke out a shocking news.

Xu Chuan opened his mouth, but stopped talking.

Sir Atiyah, a mathematician in the country where the sun never sets, winner of the Fields Medal, president of the Royal Society of the country where the sun never sets, is known as one of the greatest mathematicians of the twentieth century.

He established a cooperative relationship with Aishador Singer and jointly proved the Atiyah-Singer index theorem, which is one of the most important mathematical achievements of the twentieth century.

In addition, he has made many outstanding achievements in topology, differential equations, mathematical physics, algebra and other fields.

In 18 years, that is, in September last year, Sir Atiya declared that he had proved the Riemann conjecture, and then posted a preprint to prove the Riemann hypothesis (conjecture).

At that time, Xu Chuan also received review invitations from many journals such as "New Advances in Mathematics", "Journal of the Mathematical Society", and hoped that he could make a review or opinion on Sir Atiyah's paper.

Although the mathematics community at the time was not very optimistic about Sir Atiyar's proof, Sir Atiyah was a Fields Medal winner after all, and some top journals would still selectively bet on it; of course, there were also some who joined in the fun.

However, he was busy at the time, and because of his rebirth, he knew that Sir Atia's proof of Riemann's conjecture was wrong, so he did not accept these review invitations.

The paper was handled by Professor Peter Schultz, who won the Fields Medal with him in August, and another mathematician from Sakura Country.

In December, the two disclosed the mistakes in Sir Atiyah's thesis, such as the contradictory conditions when using the zeta function, the inaccuracy of the fine structure constant α, and so on.

This announcement directly stated that the proof was unsuccessful.

Speaking of which, this is actually not the first time that Sir Artiya has publicly stated that he has proved a certain problem or a certain conjecture.

Prior to this, Atiyajue had published his own proofs in the fields of mathematical physics and differential equations several times, but unfortunately, these proofs were later proved to be unsuccessful.

This made this great scholar "stained" in the minds of some people, who felt that he was lost at the end of his life.

But for Xu Chuan, Sir Atiya still deserves everyone's respect.

In any case, it is not easy to be engaged in mathematics research at the super-high age of 89 years old.

Just as Einstein also publicly stated many times in his later years that he had found a way to unify the four major forces, this is the pursuit of dreams and science by a great scholar.

This alone is worthy of everyone's respect.

After hearing the news of Sir Atiya's death suddenly, Xu Chuan was stunned for a moment, and the memories in his mind flipped quickly. After a while, he sighed.

Judging from the memories of his previous life, Sir Atia really passed away at the beginning of 2019.

Shaking his head, he sighed and said, "Sorry, I may not be able to go abroad to attend Sir Atiya's funeral. Please, Teacher, please bring me a bouquet of flowers."

Deligne nodded and said, "Well, I see."

After a pause, he then asked, "Are you researching something sensitive recently? People from the CIA found Princeton some time ago and are investigating something related to you."

Xu Chuan opened his mouth, hesitated to speak, and then asked, "Did you cause any trouble to everyone?"

Deligne shook his head and said, "That's not true. Princeton still has some right to speak, and it won't be affected here, but I'm more worried about you."

Hearing this, Xu Chuan breathed a sigh of relief, and said, "That's fine. I don't have to worry about it here. If I don't go abroad, there will be no problem."

"As for what I'm researching." After a pause, he continued: "For now, I can only tell you that it has something to do with nuclear energy and energy."

"More specifically, due to confidentiality restrictions, I can't disclose it for the time being, but it may be made public within a while, and you will know it by then."

Xu Chuan couldn't say much about his own research, even though he trusted this mentor, the best way to keep it secret was to say nothing.

Deligne: "Well, I will pay attention to it, but I still suggest that you don't get too involved in political affairs. For a scholar, this is a very draining thing."

Xu Chuan nodded and said, "I will remember it."

"By the way, tutor, do you have any research manuscripts or materials related to the NS equation?" He asked, skipping the topic of nuclear energy.

"NS equation?" Deligne pondered for a while, and then said: "My teacher still has some materials on nonlinear partial differential equations and Euler equations, which are all his previous research. If you need them, I can Take a copy for you."

"However, for NS equations, it's best for you to find Fefferman. Since you studied with him in the second half of last year, he has been studying this aspect."

Xu Chuan said: "Then trouble the instructor, I will make a call from Fefferman."

After hanging up the phone, Xu Chuan stood up and looked out the window.

In the deep winter of January, the trees and grass in the courtyard were withered and yellow.

The death of Sir Atiyah made him feel a little bit blocked.

Although he doesn't want to recall, as time goes by, some friends of the older generation that he knows who are still alive in the world will also leave in the not-too-distant future.

Time is long, it can take away everything, and it can also heal everything.

Looking at the scenery outside the window, Xu Chuanchang sighed, turned and left the study.

He probably couldn't read the book in the afternoon, so let's go for a walk.