Chapter 97 GIMPS Defaults on Its Debt

PS, I defaulted on my debt...

A hot search appeared on major domestic websites, with only a few letters and two words——

GIMPS collapsed.

This is the first time since GIMPS was founded more than 20 years ago that it has been included in the domestic online hot search.

Many people are a little curious when they see the hotly searched name, because they have never heard of GIMPS and have no idea what GIMPS is.

software? website? then what?

When I clicked on this hot search, I found that no one was talking about GIMPS at all. The hottest news was a screenshot in red font, with a series of English words on it. The translation is, "The new Mersenne prime number has been verified and comes from China." The user WangHao, the number is M8XXXXXXX.”

"Messenne prime number? WangHao? What does it mean?" After carefully studying the content, many people also joined the discussion.

The thing itself is magical.

On average, it takes several years to find one Mersenne prime number. As a result, Wang Hao found two in just one week, and another one in less than a day.

Many people still question the previous announcement issued by Xihai University, especially those who know about Mersenne primes and GIMPS. The more they understand, the more they will question it. They know what Mersenne primes represent and want to find Mersenne primes. How difficult it is.

Now, 13 hours later, news breaks that Mersenne prime numbers have been discovered.

The whole process is like acting according to a written script.

Obviously.

GIMPS is an international open distributed network. It is impossible to cooperate with Sokai University's performance. Moreover, the numbers refreshed in red font can be verified. Some people who know it can even do it themselves according to the Lucas-Lehmer test. Write validation code.

That's not difficult work.

Even an ordinary college student majoring in computer science can understand the Lucas-Lehmer test by studying it carefully for an hour, and then write a corresponding set of Mersenne prime number primality test algorithms.

So, it's true!

The conclusion is——

Professor Wang Hao relies on his research on Mersenne prime numbers and with the help of the Mersenne Number Science Laboratory, he has been able to quickly and accurately find Mersenne prime numbers!

Public opinion is boiling over again!

"I'm a layman who doesn't understand it at all, but after studying it carefully, I know how awesome this achievement is!"

"It took several years to find one Mersenne prime number. Professor Wang Hao quickly found three of them, and maybe there will be more!"

"I read in the search encyclopedia that the University of Central Missouri made the greatest contribution to GIMPS. They did a lot of publicity and found two Mersenne primes, but they will definitely switch to Xihai University in the future."

"Three Mersenne primes were found at Xihai University. How many users did this wave of publicity increase? How many people know about GIMPS?"

At the same time, some people turned to the key issue, "The discovery of Mersenne prime numbers will play a key role in human exploration of the mysteries of numbers. There is no doubt that Professor Wang Hao's achievement will be very significant."

Many people have begun to care about Wang Hao's research results on Mersenne prime numbers.

Sokai University’s so-called ‘Mersenne Number Science Laboratory’ has found three Mersenne prime numbers in a row. Finding the fourth and fifth meanings is actually not that big.

So what is the result?

Has the law of Mersenne prime numbers really been cracked? When the third Mersenne prime number was found, even those who were sure that the Mersenne prime number had no rules did not dare to stick to their opinion 100%.

Ordinary people just gossip and feel that Chinese scholars have continuously found Mersenne prime numbers and completed top scientific research results, which represents the development of scientific research in the field of domestic mathematics and computers. They feel very excited and proud.

The academic community is more concerned with the results themselves.

…

Wang Hao did not accept an interview with reporters. He wanted to wait for all three numbers to be verified before accepting related interviews together.

The Mason Mathematical Science Laboratory has always been busy. Zhang Zhiqiang is no longer staring at the computer. Several professors from the School of Computer Science take turns to be on duty, and a professor from the School of Science always comes to take a look around.

The two colleges had a conflict over this result. Luan Haiping, the dean of the School of Science, always believed that the result belonged to his own college. He felt that the School of Computer Science had taken advantage of it, but he had no way to do it because of the verification of the numbers. Only in the computer lab.

Luan Haiping and Chen Qinghua dislike each other. Luan Haiping calls Chen Qinghua a "dead old man" and Chen Qinghua calls Luan Haiping a "little bastard".

In this somewhat amusing and somewhat expectant atmosphere, the central laboratory spent nearly two days completing the verification of the remaining two numbers.

"The new Mersenne prime number was verified, user WangHao from China, the number is M9XXXXXXX!"

"The new Mersenne prime number was verified, user WangHao from China, the number is M9XXXXXXX!"

The interval between the two messages is more than 16 hours, but the appearance of each message will attract attention and trigger a new round of public discussion.

When all three numbers were verified and confirmed to be Mersenne prime numbers, even the computer laboratory involved in the verification felt very incredible.

Although Wang Hao was very sure that the three numbers were Mersenne primes, and they were verified one by one, if you think about it carefully, it is amazing that a number that has not been verified is a Mersenne prime.

After the last number was verified, Wang Hao immediately went to the central laboratory.

Although the number verification has stopped, Wang Hao believes that the work is not over yet, "The previous program continues! I only verified the numbers below 100 million, and I can continue to verify the numbers above 100 million."

"Although the significance of doing this is not great, but... there is a bonus of 100,000 US dollars for each Mersenne prime verified."

This sentence made everyone in the central laboratory cheer up.

A bonus of 100,000 US dollars is not much, but 100,000 US dollars for each number is a lot. If they find five Mersenne primes, they can get a bonus of 500,000 US dollars.

If five more Mersenne primes are verified, even if a server is broken, a new one can be bought.

Zhang Zhiqiang quickly opened the program and started to verify the numbers above 100 million.

At this time, the account logged in on the computer received a very special message, which was sent from the GIMPS main station, and wanted to communicate with Wang Hao in real time.

Wang Hao agreed.

They used the Internet to talk, and the other side was a white man with white hair and wrinkles, who introduced himself as Curtis Cooper, a professor at the University of Central Missouri.

Curtis Cooper saw the young Wang Hao, his face was full of sorrow. He really didn't want to accept this job, but there was no other way. The call just started, and he told the bad news, "Mr. Wang Hao, I'm sorry, the Mersenne Prime Electronic Frontier Foundation cannot pay too high a bonus. We can only provide $100,000 for discovering the first number."

"... Default?"

This is really bad news.

Curtis Cooper explained with a sad face, "GIMPS is an open network for distributed computing. It has almost no income. All the funds are sponsored by international sponsors, even the server operating costs."

"We estimate that there will be one Mersenne prime every three years. All the funds in the foundation account cannot take out more than 200,000 US dollars at one time."

"I'm really sorry. When GIMPS was first established, the reward for each Mersenne prime discovered was only 3,000 US dollars. It was increased to 100,000 US dollars three years ago. The main purpose was to encourage more volunteers to participate, but..."

Curtis Cooper's eyes were a little resentful. He never thought that one day someone would use the discovery of Mersenne primes to make money.

After listening to it, Wang Hao thought about it carefully and felt very depressed.

GIMPS, actually defaulted!

But after thinking about it carefully, he knew that what the other party said should be true. GIMPS is indeed not profitable. The website and client are maintained by international sponsors.

It can only be said that GIMPS has too little wool!

"...Okay!"

Wang Hao could only helplessly and passively agree to take only 100,000 US dollars.

Curtis Cooper heaved a sigh of relief. He was a little worried that the other party would not let go.

Although the prize money was not afraid of legal prosecution, Curtis Cooper did not want to offend a top figure in the mathematics community. In addition, he also wanted to know the specific content of the results and still had something to ask of Wang Hao.

What he wanted was to know whether GIMPS could continue.

Wang Hao found five Mersenne primes in a row, which was a fatal blow to GIMPS. Many people posted on the GIMPS forum that GIMPS did not need to continue.

GIMPS enthusiasts were in a state of confusion, including Curtis Cooper. They participated in GIMPS, using Prime software day after day and year after year to help find new Mersenne primes.

Then, someone quickly found five?

Then wouldn't their work become meaningless?

Now the number of GIMPS users has risen sharply, with one million people online at the same time, and the number of people online with Prime software has increased fivefold, but all the data seems to be meaningless.

Wang Hao relied on his own research to find Mersenne primes continuously. To a certain extent, it can be said that he promoted GIMPS and destroyed GIMPS at the same time.

After listening to Curtis Cooper's words, Wang Hao realized that his continuous finding of Mersenne primes was indeed a fatal price for GIMPS. He thought about it carefully and said with certainty, "Mr. Cooper, don't worry, the work of GIMPS will still be very valuable in the future."

"I didn't crack the law of Mersenne primes, but just found a more efficient way to find Mersenne primes."

"Moreover, my research cannot cover all Mersenne primes."

"Let's do this."

Wang Hao thought for a while and said, "After all the results are made public, I will provide some codes to GIMPS so that GIMPS volunteers can verify Mersenne primes more efficiently. I think this will allow more people to find Mersenne primes and inspire more people to participate..."

Curtis Cooper's eyes suddenly lit up. A more efficient way to find Mersenne primes?

He began to look forward to it.

(Seeking monthly tickets)