Chapter 911 Grand Event

Kunming City.

Southwest Associated University.

Today is different. Mathematicians from all over the world who have studied number theory have gathered as much as possible in this famous Chinese university.

Now, there are more than a thousand mathematicians from all countries and regions around the world.

Each one of them is a mathematician with a famous name and a distinguished head.

There are even some big names in mathematics, such as Faltings from Germany!

Yang Zhenning, president of Southwest Associated University, and Qiu Chengtong, dean of the School of Mathematics, personally welcomed mathematicians from all over the world.

At Southwest Associated University, there is no shortage of outstanding people in the scientific field coming to give lectures and lectures every year.

However, such a grand event is the only one since the founding of Southwest Associated University.

This time it even attracted major mainstream media in the world.

Everyone arrived at the Great Hall of the Southwest Associated University and sat down according to the nameplates on their seats.

The seats in the entire auditorium were full, and even the aisles were full of people.

Although Southwest Associated University provides accommodation rooms for all scholars invited to participate in the conference, as well as some applicants who apply, not everyone can receive this treatment.

The vast majority of the attendees who come here are attending at their own expense. Some of these people are professors at a university or researchers at a certain research institute, some are doctoral students attending the conference with their supervisors, and some come in groups or as tourists to pay their respects. academic atmosphere for students.

In addition to this auditorium, in the major media function halls of Southwest Associated University, the big screens are connected to the auditorium, and everyone is staring at the stage.

Student volunteers from Southwest Associated University were maintaining order, with a bottle of mineral water placed in front of everyone's seat.

There was still some time before the report meeting, and everyone was discussing in low voices.

"George, have you read Professor Liu's paper?" Yale asked in a low voice to George, who was sitting next to him.

They are all from the University of California, Los Angeles, and are PhD candidates.

George nodded, "I've read it a few times, but I'm majoring in algebraic geometry. I've only dabbled in number theory and haven't done much research."

"So do you think he can succeed?" Yale asked.

"It should be successful." George said: "Although there is no unified conclusion in the academic community, more than 20 prestigious universities and mathematics research institutions have announced that they have completed the demonstration of his thesis."

"These are the three major mathematical conjectures in the world. Fermat's conjecture was conquered by him just like that. The key is that he is not in the field of mathematics. It's really annoying. My tutor has been studying Fermat's conjecture for forty years. He almost died when he heard the news. "Yale sighed: "The Fields Medal will definitely be awarded to him."

"Fields Medal? Impossible. The Fields Medal is only awarded to mathematicians under the age of 40. It is impossible for mathematicians over 40 to win the Fields Medal." George shook his head.

Today's lecture is Liu Tao's lecture on Fermat's conjecture.

In February 1993, Liu Tao published a paper on the proof of Fermat's conjecture in "Chinese Science". The entire paper was 108 pages long and quickly aroused great repercussions throughout China.

Fermat's conjecture is known as one of the three major mathematical conjectures in modern times, along with the four-color conjecture and Goldbach's conjecture.

Fermat's conjecture is also one of the difficult problems in number theory. Expressed in mathematical language, it means that when n\u003e2, the inequality formula "x^n+y^n=/=z^n" of Fermat's conjecture holds true.

1 When Fermat was reading the Latin translation of Diophantus' Arithmetic, he wrote next to Proposition 8, the general solution formula of the Pythagorean integer equation: "Divide the cube of an integer into the sum of two cubes, Or the fourth power of an integer is divided into the sum of two fourth powers, or generally a power higher than the second is divided into the sum of two powers of the same degree, which is impossible, I am convinced that I have discovered 'the only truly wonderful and wonderful way to prove it', but the space here is too small to write it down."

For nearly 360 years, many mathematicians have tried to prove or deny this conjecture. But they all failed. Countless mathematicians have spent their lives studying Fermat's conjecture, but they have never been able to solve it.

In 1908, Wolfecker even announced a bonus of 100,000 marks for the first person to prove the theorem.

Liu Tao published a paper proving Fermat's conjecture in February 1993, which soon caused a great shock in China. In June 1993, the Institute of Mathematics of Southwest Associated University announced the completion of the demonstration work of Liu Tao's paper proving Fermat's conjecture and approved the paper. , and officially released the 149-page English version of the paper to the world. Other major universities and mathematics research institutions have launched demonstration work on the paper.

As for the news that Liu Tao proved Fermat's conjecture, this explosive mathematical event quickly appeared on the front page of the New York Times and was also included in the world's top ten scientific and technological achievements in 1993.

What makes the mathematical community find it incredible is that the person who proved Fermat's conjecture was not a famous mathematician in the mathematical community, but a non-mathematical scholar.

Although Liu Tao has published two mathematics papers before, they can only be regarded as first-class results, not top-notch. Compared with Liu Tao's achievements in physics, chemistry, computers and other fields, no one thinks that Liu Tao is a mathematician.

But it happened to be such a person who actually proved Fermat's conjecture.

9 o'clock sharp.

There was no need for anyone to maintain discipline. When the time reached the hour, the venue, which was originally noisy and chaotic due to the low-pitched discussions, instantly became quiet.

All the media function halls of Southwest Associated University also fell silent.

Under the attention of the crowd, Liu Tao walked to the stage.

After a brief opening speech, the PPT on the big screen turned to the next page, and the report meeting entered the main topic.

It took a few minutes for Liu Tao to face the audience and give a simple summary of his proof ideas.

The audience was silent.

Everyone stared at the pictures and formulas on the big screen. Everyone was listening carefully, unwilling to miss any details or any moments. After all, this report meeting was very difficult. Liu Tao was unwilling to hold a special report meeting for this purpose because he was too busy. Mathematicians gave feedback to Southwest Associated University one by one, hoping that Southwest Associated University could persuade Liu Tao to hold a report meeting.

This will be recorded in the history of world mathematics and is a monument in the field of number theory.

This year, Liu Tao finally nodded and agreed to give this report meeting.

Andrew Wiles was quite disappointed. He had been deeply attracted to Fermat's conjecture since he came into contact with it when he was 10 years old. Proving Fermat's conjecture was his childhood dream. In 1986, after learning about Ken Libet's progress, he immediately started working on proving the Taniyama-Shimura conjecture.

By 1993, he had an idea, but Liu Tao had already published a paper.

He was the first overseas person to announce the completion of the proof of Liu Tao's paper on the Fermat conjecture. Liu Tao's paper was impeccable, and there were even many things he had not noticed before.

Andrew Wiles was quite disappointed, but that's how the academic world works. Whoever publishes a paper first will reap the fruits first.