Great Country Academician

Chapter 580: Amelia’s departure

Amelia and Gu Bing's report meeting was completed smoothly, and Xu Chuan was sincerely pleased for these two students who had grown up.

For him, in addition to researching those unknown fields, spreading the knowledge he has learned is also his life goal.

After all, the development of a discipline, a country, and a civilization cannot be sustained by one person. Behind development, there is always the silent dedication of a group of people.

"Professor! Our report is complete!"

After the report meeting, Amelia and Gu Bing ran over immediately, with excitement and excitement in their voices.

Xu Chuan looked at the two of them with a smile and encouraged: "Well done!"

For the first time in my life, I stand on the world stage and give reports to scholars from all over the world, including some top experts. It tests not only the mathematical level and expression ability of the scholars who give the reports, but also a person's psychological endurance. Quite a test.

After experiencing this transformation, both Amelia and Gu Bing have the ability to stand on their own.

Gu Bing grinned and said, "You don't know how fast my heart beats when I stand on the stage! It feels like it's about to jump out of my throat."

Xu Chuan smiled, remembering that when he interviewed Gu Bing, he felt a little emotional when he saw him so nervous that he couldn't even finish his sentence.

Several years have passed in the blink of an eye, and the former students have graduated and can even stand in front of thousands of people to give speeches and reports.

"Professor, Senior Brother Gu, Senior Sister Mi, I'm so nervous. Do you have any experience or skills in giving reports on stage? Please teach me some, I need them too!"

On the side, Cai Peng looked at the three of them expectantly. He also had a 45-minute report at this International Congress of Mathematicians.

Although it is not as good as Gu Bing and Amelia's one hour report, his report is based on the paper "Stage Proof of Minimum Differential Calculation of Dimension Polynomials for Differential Equations".

This paper has not yet been peer-reviewed, which means that he needs to face the questioning session of the top bosses, which is more difficult than Gu Bing and Amelia.

Xu Chuan smiled and patted his shoulder and said: "I don't have any experience or skills. I just have strength and a heart that loves academics. I can solve the minimum differential calculation problem of differential equations and dimensional polynomials. I believe you will be fine." of."

The teachers and students chatted for a while. Amelia looked at Xu Chuan, took a deep breath, and said, "Professor, there is something I want to tell you."

"Huh?" Xu Chuan looked at Amelia and said with a smile, "What's wrong?"

Pursing her lips, Amelia said, "Princeton University has invited me to serve as a professor in the Department of Mathematics. I would like to ask for your opinion."

Hearing this, Xu Chuan's eyes flashed with surprise, but it soon turned into a smile: "Princeton is a very good choice. If you go to be a professor there, I believe you can go further in mathematics."

"Do you mean to recommend me to take up the post?" Amelia asked, and then added: "But I haven't fully learned the calculation methods of mathematical physics."

Xu Chuan smiled and said: "I have given you the core of mathematical calculation methods for exploring physics. I believe you can further complete your own expansion in the future."

"And following me forever is actually not necessarily a good thing. You are greatly influenced by me. If you follow my steps all the way, it will be difficult to make something that is truly your own."

“So, let’s go to Princeton to experience it!”

After a pause, he smiled and said: "Maybe I will still need your help after China's large strong particle collider is built."

Hearing this, Amelia nodded vigorously.

Although she hopes to continue studying with Xu Chuan, she also knows that if she continues like this, it will be difficult for her to find her own path.

Being a professor at Princeton is not a new learning experience. There, she might be able to stand higher and be closer to the person in front of her.

After a report meeting ended, Amelia was surrounded by media reporters as expected.

Mathematics has long been considered a male domain because so few women have made outstanding achievements in this field.

And this means that the results made by women in the field of mathematics will have a greater impact than men.

"Professor Amelia, I am a media reporter from the BBC. You won the Fields Medal at the age of twenty-six, breaking the previous record in one fell swoop. What do you think?"

Amelia: "First of all, I want to say that I have not broken the previous record. The record for the youngest Fields Medal is held by my mentor."

"As for my feelings, excitement? Excitement? Pleasure? It seems to be a little bit of it. I don't know how to describe the mood of this moment. But I think I should most thank my mentor, Professor Xu Chuan, who gave me this life-changing opportunity. Chance."

BBC reporter: "I heard that you are still studying with Professor Xu. As someone who has already won the Fields Medal, are you still not eligible to graduate under Professor Xu?"

Amelia shook her head and said: "No, I have already graduated in mathematics and got a diploma. I am studying with the professor to further my education."

"Further education? Can you briefly introduce me?"

"Of course." Amelia nodded with a smile, and said with some pride in her tone: "Professor, he is not only good at mathematics, he also has great contributions and achievements in physics, astronomy and other fields, especially in Introducing the subject of mathematics into other subjects to promote development is what he is best at."

"And this is what I studied with the professor."

BBC reporter: "I see. I heard that you were interning at CERN some time ago. Will you continue to work at CERN in the future?"

The BBC reporter dug a little hole into this question. The competition between CERN and China in the field of hadron collider is well known, and whether Amelia continues to work at CERN or chooses to work in China, she will be left behind. Some 'story' that could be written.

But what he didn't expect was that Amelia's answer was completely off track.

"I have received an offer from Princeton and will probably go to Princeton as a mathematics professor during the fall semester."

The BBC reporter was stunned for a moment. He really hadn't considered this, but he soon realized it and congratulated him with a smile.

Although I dug a small hole and didn’t catch anyone, it was pretty good to get an interview with a 26-year-old female Fields Medal winner.

After Amelia and Gu Bing's report meeting in the morning, there were still two hours left. Xu Chuan certainly didn't intend to waste it, so he started looking for it at the conference site.

An international conference of mathematicians is divided into 20 group reports, and each group has three to eleven small report segments.

From logical groups to algebra, to number theory, algebra and complex geometry, there is a corresponding venue and reporting period for almost every major and minor category of mathematics.

Naturally, it is impossible for Xu Chuan to read every one of the numerous reports. Finding and selecting fields of interest and needs is also a basic skill for a scholar.

Starting from the field of algebraic geometry, Xu Chuan looked at the lecture venue and finally targeted the field of number theory.

It just so happened that the person who gave the report in the field of number theory was a mathematician who was no less than a Fields Medal winner.

James Maynard is a professor of mathematics at the University of Oxford, where the sun never sets. His research focuses on using the tools of analytic number theory, especially sifting methods, to study prime numbers.

In the original course of history, Professor Maynard would have won this year's Fields Medal. His contribution to analytic number theory, as well as his understanding of the structure of prime numbers and Diophantine approximation are very good, and his overall strength is very strong.

Overall, this mathematician is somewhat similar to Professor Zhang Wei of the golden generation of Peking University. His overall research level is relatively high, but he lacks a big mathematical conjecture as a cornerstone.

In addition, he was only thirty-five years old this year and could wait for another term, so he was squeezed out by Amelia.

In fact, speaking of it, Professor Maynard is quite interesting.

Not only is he lagging behind in the Fields Medal, but he is also lagging behind in some other mathematical achievements, awards, etc.

Speaking of prime numbers, some enthusiasts can easily name some familiar, easy-to-understand, but very difficult mathematical conjectures, such as Goldbach's conjecture, twin prime conjectures, new Mersenne prime conjecture, etc. These are all prime number conjectures. part.

One of Professor Maynard's most famous achievements is to prove that there are infinite pairs of prime numbers in the "twin prime number conjecture", and the interval is less than 600.

But unfortunately, half a year before he published this result, 55-year-old Zhang Yitang proved that there are infinite pairs of prime numbers, with intervals less than 70 million.

Although Professor Maynard's interval value is much smaller than that of Zhang Yitang, Zhang Yitang was the first scholar to prove that there are infinite pairs of prime numbers and that their intervals have a finite upper bound. Therefore, he has received honors related to the twin prime conjecture, such as "the highest award in number theory". "The Kohl Prize and other awards were all taken away by Zhang Yitang.

There's no way, the world of mathematics is just like this 'reality'. If there are many people working on the same problem, then often only the first person to solve it can get most of the credit.

For Professor Maynard, this is not the only tragedy.

After crashing with Zhang Yitang, he also crashed with another successful mathematician, that is Terence Tao.

At almost the same time, the two pushed the interval between twin primes to the order of several hundred.

However, when Terence Tao later learned that Maynard had obtained the same result, he voluntarily gave up his proof.

In the end, Professor Maynard published a paper on this result alone, which can be regarded as the lucky thing among misfortunes.

Influenced by the research on space holes and the Riemann Hypothesis, Xu Chuan was very interested in knowledge in the field of number theory at this mathematics conference.

After finding Professor Maynard's lecture hall, he found a seat in the back row of the venue and sat down, listening with interest.

To put it simply, what Professor Maynard reported was related to prime numbers. He proposed a method for the distribution of prime numbers in the residual class, and extended the principle of his method beyond the generalized Riemann hypothesis.

Xu Chuan still knew something about prime numbers and analytic number theory, so the content he described did not feel too difficult to understand like other scholars.

Although this mathematician is a bit poor in luck, it must be said that he is also a "genius" player.

The residual prime number distribution calculation method he conceived has considerable potential to be tapped in the field of prime numbers.

At least in Xu Chuan's view, this method may continue to advance the twin prime conjecture or even solve this problem.

However, for him, solving the twin prime conjecture was not his goal, so he took some notes and left quietly after listening to the main part of the report meeting.

The days passed like this. During the day, Xu Chuan was at the report meeting looking for some reports that he was interested in or that would be helpful for his research. At night, he continued to improve calculations and papers on "space holes".

On the third day of the lecture, which is the fourth day of the International Congress of Mathematicians, another of his students, Cai Peng, will also formally take the stage to give a presentation on the paper "Stage Proof of Minimum Differential Calculation of Dimensional Polynomials for Differential Equations" A report of its own.

Although it was only a 45-minute lecture, finding an algorithm to prove the minimum differential dimension polynomial problem in the field of differential expansion still attracted a lot of math circles and even some physicists.

Because the concept of differential dimensional polynomials is closely related to the concept of strength of the system of partial differential equations that determine the ‘physical field’.

Using the language of differential algebra, the problem of finding the highest intensity of a physical field is the problem of finding the minimum differential dimension polynomial of a certain differential extension field.

Therefore, this problem is not only a problem of differential algebra in mathematics, but its solution may also lead to some new important results in theoretical physics.

As for things in this cutting-edge field, I am afraid that no theoretical physicist present will miss it.

Of course, apart from the paper itself, another reason that attracted many scholars to come to listen to the lecture was that Cai Peng was also a student of that person.

Two generations of students, the first of which has already won a Fields Medal.

The second generation also made a major achievement and contribution in the field of mathematics, solving part of a world-class conjecture.

This has made many mathematicians curious, eager to know whether there are differences and similarities between the two generations of students, and eager to know how that person taught the students!