Chapter 123 - Genius? Madman?
Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
The fifth day of the academic conference…
A man in a suit quickly walked to the door of Room 306 before he politely reached out and knocked on the door.
“Mr. Lu Zhou, your presentation report will begin soon. Are you available?”
A shuffling sound came from the room.
Then, a voice spoke.
“Right now? Isn’t my presentation in the afternoon?”
The man in the suit smiled awkwardly and coughed before he said, “Technically, it’s in an hour, but because of an accident made by a Belgian reporter, itinerary adjustments had to be made… Did you see the email?”
The room was silent for a while. A sound of an impatient sigh could be heard.
“… Let me shower.”
The conference team staff was relieved.
“We apologize for the inconvenience caused… Also, please don’t take too long to shower.”
…
Around two hundred people sat inside the crowded Lecture Hall 1. Among them were mostly unknown people, but there were a couple of big names.
For example, the mathematics emperor Grothendieck’s proud student Deligne, and Professor Wang Yuping from the University of Yan.
Maybe it was because of Lu Zhou’s poor mental state, he was abnormally calm. He was not nervous at all.
Lu Zhou adjusted the microphone and once he received the “Go” signal from the conference staff, he began to speak.
“Everyone should have already read my thesis by now. According to the conference’s original arrangements, the content of today’s report should be about the study of Mersenne primes… But because of the adjustments to the schedule, I had to make some small changes.”
Lu Zhou paused for a second. He then looked at a staff member and asked, “Can you get me a whiteboard?”
The staff member hesitated before saying, “Sure, but the projector’s reflection on the whiteboard is poor, so some people might not be able to see it.”
“Just give me a marker,” said Lu Zhou. He then looked at the projector before saying, “You can turn this thing off.”
The audience members were whispering and discussing. They did not know what Lu Zhou was about to do.
The staff members were also curiously as they watched, but it was not their first time receiving weird requests from “geniuses”. So, they quickly dragged a whiteboard for Lu Zhou.
Lu Zhou thanked them before he turned to face the whiteboard. He took a deep breath and entered into the system space. He began the inspiration hours.
It was his last inspiration hour.
He was going to complete the proof in this hour!
When Lu Zhou opened his eyes, he also lifted the pen.
He wrote down the first line of calculations on the whiteboard.
The audience was slightly irritated.
After all, Lu Zhou did not give a speech or even a PowerPoint. This was unwelcoming for the rookies.
Two students sitting in the back of the lecture hall packed their things and quietly exited the hall.
The academic conference only lasted a few days, so they could not waste their time listening to a useless presentation.
As for those big figures that often attended conferences, they were used to this type of commotion. Their facial expressions did not change at all. They focused on the result of the presentation, not the presenter.
When Lu Zhou wrote the tenth line of calculation, Professor Deligne suddenly had a look of surprise on his face.
He said to his assistant next to him, “Did you bring the notebook?”
The assistant quickly took out the notebook and said, “I brought it.”
“Thank you.”
Professor Deligne placed the notebook on his lap and as he stared at the lines of calculations on the whiteboard, his eyes gradually became serious.
At the same time, Professor Wang Yuping who was sitting on the other side of the venue was also staring at the whiteboard.
Even though because of his age, it was difficult for him to see the whiteboard, he still stared very intently.
Beside him was the academic exchange group from the University of Yan. The group consisted of three undergraduate students, a graduate student, and a PhD student.
Wei Wen stared at the whiteboard and asked, “What is he doing?”
Yeah.
What is he doing…
Professor Wang was also curious.
However, when he saw the tenth line of calculations, he instantly looked up in disbelief.
He probably guessed what Lu Zhou was doing.
He could not believe it.
He’s going to challenge the world class problem here? Twin prime number conjecture?
He must be crazy…
“… Sieve of Eratosthenes? He’s proving the second Goldbach expression? Nope, no, these calculations…” murmured Molina as she stared at the whiteboard. She continued, “Professor Zellberg published a paper in the “Year of Mathematics” in 1995, on the complementary study of the topological method on the sieve theory… He is challenging the twin prime guess!”
When Lu Zhou wrote the twentieth line of calculations, 30% of the venue’s participant understood what he was doing.
As for the rest of the people, they had no idea.
These kinds of academic conferences were open-ended, and the barrier of registration was not too high. Anyone could come, as long as they paid the expensive registration fee.
Actually, it did not even matter too much if one signed up.
Even though this kind of conference had admission badges, the staff did not even check them. Therefore, many people who did not sign up could still sneak in and discuss mathematics with the participants.
The only difference was that they could not present their own academic posters, could not live in the Princeton hotel rooms, and could not attend the cocktail parties.
Wei Wen started at the whiteboard, and he suddenly said, “Vinogradov’s three number prime theorem?”
Professor Wang Yuping nodded and said, “Yes.”
Wei Wen could not help but ask, “Professor… What exactly is he doing?”
Professor Wang Yuping smiled and said, “Oh, can’t you tell?”
Wei Wen looked confused and he shook his head.
“Then, just continue watching,” sighed Professor Wang Yuping. As he looked at the whiteboard, he nodded in approval and said, “It seems that Professor Tang has raised a good student… I’m looking forward to the next two decades.”
Lu Zhou did not notice the movements in the venue as his concentration was fully on the whiteboard. Even though his speed of writing was not fast, it was cautious and contained force.
Time slowly passed, and the conference staff continued to watch intently.
Finally, there were five minutes left. The staff member saw that the Q&A section had not even started yet, so he coughed and reminded Lu Zhou.
“There are only five minutes left.”
Lu Zhou stood in front of the whiteboard and continued to write with the marker as if he failed to hear the staff.
He was completely shielded from any outside interference.
Finally, five minutes had passed.
The two staff members exchanged glances and were about to interrupt the presenter.
However, one of the people sitting in the front row spoke up.
“Let him continue.”
The person who spoke was Pierre Deligne.
The staff was stunned to hear this big shot speak.
However, because of his job, the staff member explained, “But the next presentation is about to start…”
Professor Deligne put aside his notebook and stood up before he said slowly, “The next presentation will be moved to Lecture Hall 4, so people can go there instead.”
He then sat back down.
10 minutes passed, and no one left Lecture Hall 1.
No one was willing to leave.
The people that could not understand had already left long ago.
As for the rest, most of them could understand what was going on.
Challenging a world-class mathematics problem during a conference?
Anyone who dared to do this was not a genius, but a crazy person!
The people sitting in the crowd were either about to witness a great moment or a complete joke.
Either way, it would be an interesting show either way.
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