860 I Have a Problem!
Auditorium entrance.
All of the attendees had already arrived.
A staff member in a black suit was standing at the entrance. He looked at his watch and saw that it was about time for the report to begin. He gestured to his colleague to begin taking away the security stands.
Suddenly, two men in formal suits hastily jogged over.
Wang Zhengfei quickly took out two tickets as he gasped for air and smiled apologetically at the security member.
“Hi, these are our tickets.”
The security guard clearly didn’t recognize Wang Zhengfei. He looked at the tickets and spoke with a blank expression.
“You guys are late.”
Wang Zhengfei looked apologetic as he explained in a sincere manner, “I’m really sorry! There was traffic here from the airport. I’ve been looking forward to this report for a long time. Come on, man, just let us in.”
The security guard didn’t say anything. He looked at the two men, then stamped their tickets.
Wang Zhengfei smiled and nodded as a show of thanks. He then looked at his secretary and gestured him to quickly walk into the auditorium.
“Boss, why are we wasting our time with a security guard?”
The secretary looked perplexed.
After hearing this, Wang Zhengfei grinned.
“You want to know why?”
The secretary paused for a second and quickly nodded.
Wang Zhengfei smiled and pointed at the entrance.
“Those guys are from the Ministry of State Security, they’re the real deal.”
...
The report was going to begin in a few minutes.
Wang Zhengfei found the corresponding seat on his ticket and sat down. He could tell there was something unusual about the ambiance of the venue.
This was the power of a world-class scholar.
Both the scale and the enthusiastic atmosphere of the report didn’t seem like an academic report at all. It was almost like a symphony concert.
And Lu Zhou was going to perform the opening act...
Wang Zhengfei, as a layman, didn’t know why his heart rate was increasing. His palms were sweaty, and his knees were weak. It was as if the mysterious mathematical symbols had some kind of magical attraction power...
“He’s really only in his twenties?”
His secretary paused for a second and nodded.
“That’s what it says on the pamphlet...”
Wang Zhengfei nodded and didn’t say anything.
After a while, he pointed forward with his chin.
“Oh yeah, do you understand that stuff?”
Seeing that the secretary had a blank look, Wang Zhengfei spoke first.
“Nevermind, pretend I didn’t ask.”
...
The report officially began!
The auditorium became dead silent.
The thousands of pairs of eyes focused on one person on the podium.
Lu Zhou walked on stage and looked around the venue. He then looked at the projector screen behind him. He then slowly said, “I’m sure most people have read my thesis already.”
“The main purpose of this report is to answer the questions surrounding my proof of the Quasi Riemann hypothesis.
“Of course, I will still give a general summary.
“I might go through this very quickly, and it will take around twenty minutes. I hope you pay attention to it.”
Lu Zhou turned around and walked to the closest whiteboard next to him. He picked up a marker and wrote down the most important line of the report.
[ζ(s) = 2 ^ s ·π ^ (s-1) sin (πs / 2) Γ (1-s) ζ (1-s)...]
The moment this line was written on the whiteboard...
Two people in the crowd frowned.
“Interesting.” Tao Zhexuan rubbed his chin and looked at the line of equations on the whiteboard as he said, “Introducing the Γ function... He is planning on using its continuity construct? If so, he might have to reduce his thesis length by two pages.”
Faltings was sitting next to Professor Tao, and he said emotionlessly, “How can that be? The core part of the proof is incorrect. Even if he uses his little tricks, that can’t change the fact that the core argument is incorrect.”
Tao Zhexuan: “Not necessarily.”
Faltings looked at him and said, “Oh really?”
“In the beginning, I thought the same as you. On page 27, there is a problem with the coherence method used on line 3.” Tao Zhexuan paused for a second and said, “But now, I kind of understand what he’s trying to say.”
Faltings glanced at him and didn’t say anything.
There was no point debating right now.
All they had to do now, was to wait.
The marker moved rhythmically as it filled the whiteboard with equations. The thousand-people venue stayed surprisingly quiet.
On stage.
In front of the whiteboard.
Lu Zhou was holding a marker in his hand, and he had totally forgotten about the outside world. He spoke his thoughts out loud as he slowly unraveled this puzzle.
Fifteen minutes went by.
Lu Zhou stopped writing and took a deep breath. He then took two steps backward.
The proof was over.
He had already defeated this mountain a month ago, so re-writing it was nothing difficult.
The real difficult part was about to come.
This problem was the foundation of the entire mathematics building, and Faltings didn’t plan on being lenient at all.
The moment Lu Zhou turned around to face the crowd, was when the real battle began.
However, Lu Zhou wasn’t nervous at all.
Rather, he was looking forward to this.
His opponent was one of the remaining gods of mathematics, known as the second-best after Grothendieck. On the other hand, Lu Zhou was challenging the Riemann hypothesis, something Faltings was deeply familiar with. Not to mention that the mathematical tools Lu Zhou used originated from Éléments de géométrie algébrique, which was also Faltings’ expertise.
Lu Zhou took a deep breath and put down the marker.
He turned around and faced the silent lecture hall. He then said with a calm voice, “That’s basically it.
“Next is the Qu0026A session.”
The moment he finished speaking.
The moment Lu Zhou’s words traveled throughout the venue...
A trembling, skinny hand rose in the air.
Even though the hand seemed fragile, it still caught the attention of the entire auditorium.
Professor Faltings took off his hat and stood up.
“I have a question.
“With regards to page 17, line 11, could you please explain this in detail?”
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