Chapter 835: 7 major problems revealed
As a doctoral student studying number theory, neither Arash himself nor his teacher Andrew Wiles had the ability to determine whether the content of this paper was valid.
But that's not important.
anyway.
Perelman, and of course one other person, jointly claimed to have proved the Poincaré conjecture.
This in itself is big news.
A big news that could shock the entire mathematics community.
Thinking of this, Arash didn't bother to watch the introduction of Hodge's conjecture on TV.
He downloaded the paper from the website at the fastest speed in his life, opened it, and glanced at the length -
The average length of contemporary mathematics papers is around 20 pages, and some longer ones may be up to 40 pages.
Printing it out is more convenient.
But since others have proved the Poincare conjecture, we certainly cannot infer it according to common sense...
Apparently, Arash's concerns were correct.
It took almost half a minute just to load the PDF file.
When he pulled the progress bar on the right side of the file to the bottom and saw a three-digit page number, he almost dropped his hands and passed out.
If this length were printed, it would almost be a book.
And it is too big to fit on a floppy disk.
Arash turned his head again and glanced at the TV screen.
The introduction to the second achievement is now coming to an end.
According to this calculation, the morning meeting should last about an hour...
The hotel is about 8 kilometers away from the venue in a straight line, and the journey may be about 12 kilometers...
After some analysis, he finally made a decision.
Turn off the TV.
Unplug the power cord.
Put your laptop in your computer bag.
Change clothes...
Just five minutes later, Arash arrived at the hotel entrance and hailed a taxi.
"To the French Academy of Sciences."
As soon as he got on the bus, he hurriedly said to the driver:
"The French Academy of Sciences? It's not easy to get there."
The driver glanced at Arash, who looked anxious, in the rearview mirror, then shifted the gears and the car started slowly:
“It’s downtown, and there was an academic conference going on, so there was a lot of traffic.”
The Academy of Sciences is located on the south bank of the Seine, across the river from the Louvre. Combined with the French urban construction style of Paris, it is indeed a hell for driving.
"I know."
Arash had just run all the way from the elevator to the parking lot, and he was still catching his breath:
"I just want to attend that meeting, so please hurry up, the sooner the better."
This time, the driver looked back at him.
"Okay, sit tight then."
As soon as he finished speaking, Arash felt a huge acceleration coming from the back of the seat.
"Hey, your name isn't Daniel Morales, is it?"
But his complaints were drowned out by the howling wind outside the window...
……
the other side.
Inside the French Academy of Sciences.
The first six of the seven difficult math problems have been solved.
NP-complete problems, Hodge conjecture, Yang-Mills existence and mass gap, existence and smoothness of NS equations, BSD conjecture, Riemann hypothesis.
Each of these items is of central importance to the development of mathematics.
In fact, the guesses given by Maxim Kontsevich and Andrew Wiles are highly repetitive.
So far, the two of them have only guessed one thing wrong each.
Therefore, it was this last one that determined the outcome of their bet.
Kongtsevich believes that considering the difficulty and academic value of these problems, it is highly likely that the Poincare conjecture will be the finalist.
Wiles speculated that the Clay Mathematics Institute began building momentum nearly a month in advance, so its core goal must not only be to encourage academic development, but also to attract attention from outside the academic community.
In this case, there must be at least one of the seven difficult problems that is familiar to the general public.
Therefore, although the scientific significance of the Poincare conjecture is obviously greater, the Goldbach conjecture, due to its popularity, is still more likely to occupy the last spot.
"Then, next is the last problem of the Millennium Mathematical Problem."
On the stage, Arthur Jeff's emotions had also reached their peak -
Today, he is alone.
I have been standing on the podium of the Millennium Mathematics Conference for nearly two hours.
Although what he said was not directly related to his research results, it was enough for him to gain a place in the history of mathematics.
Whenever people mention the seven great mathematical problems of the millennium, the name Arthur Jeff will inevitably be involved.
Thinking of this, he took a deep breath, then slowly swept his eyes over the nearly one thousand audience members sitting in the audience and the dozen or so cameras at different angles.
Then he turned around and slowly tore off the last white cover on the marking board.
Poincare Conjecture
"Poincare conjecture!"
Apparently, Kontsevich and Wiles weren't the only ones guessing what that last item was.
In fact, when Jeff walked back to the back of the podium, he had already noticed the expressions of joy or regret in the audience.
Not that they all made bets with others.
What is more important is the right to speak.
After all, not all scholars are as well-known in their fields as Kontsevich and Wiles.
Most people still have to worry about research funding.
And in most cases, the people who manage the funding are not mathematicians.
They are laymen who are easily influenced by such public opinion.
Therefore, if your research field is included in this influential list of millennium problems, it will undoubtedly be a great advantage for future funding applications.
And this is exactly Landon Clay's main purpose.
Of course, there is one more thing...
People always have to have dreams.
What if I happen to solve this problem?
Therefore, when the name of the Poincare conjecture was revealed, many researchers and professors specializing in topology smiled with relief.
Jeff paused for a few seconds to allow the first wave of emotions from the audience to be fully released.
Then, he spoke again and introduced the basic situation of the Poincare conjecture.
After all, in addition to experts, there were actually quite a few students present.
Besides, the TV broadcast is aimed at the whole world.
"If we stretch a rubber band around the surface of an apple, then we can shrink it down to a point by slowly moving it without either breaking it or allowing it to leave the surface."
"But if we imagine the same rubber band being stretched across a tire tread in the proper orientation, there is no way to shrink it to a point without tearing either the rubber band or the tire tread."
"In this case, we argue that the apple surface is simply connected, whereas the tire surface is not."
"About a hundred years ago, mathematicians knew that a two-dimensional sphere could essentially be described by simple connectivity, but the problem became incredibly difficult when Henri Poincare proposed that a three-dimensional sphere, that is, all points in four-dimensional space that are unit distances from the origin, also satisfies the corresponding description..."
"For nearly a hundred years, the Poincare conjecture has been the goal that scholars in the field of topology have been striving for, and it is known as the code to decipher the shape of the universe..."
"..."
Kontsevich and Wiles were both winners of the 1998 Fields Medal, so naturally they did not have to worry about whether they could find sponsors for their research.
So, after the last name was revealed, Wiles admitted defeat and took out a ten-dollar bill from his pocket and handed it to his old friend.
"I must admit that I may have had some prejudice against the Clay Research Institute before."
Wiles said:
"It seems that although they like to create momentum, at least on the academic level, they still have some principles..."
For the Poincare conjecture, Jeff did not ask another expert to introduce it like he did for the previous questions.
Because his own research direction is related to the field of topology.
Although it is probably impossible to prove the Poincare conjecture, it is still possible to simply explain the concept.
With the end of his introduction, the entire announcement of the Millennium Mathematical Problem also came to an end.
