Chapter 1163 Award Presentation of the French Academy

"...to Langdon Clay and his wife Lavinia Clay, to the Clay family, to the members of the Riemann family, and to all mathematicians who have come to this historic occasion."

"At a conference in Paris twenty-three years ago, the Clay Institute for Mathematics announced the awards for the world's most famous seven difficult problems. Although we don't need those, and it doesn't make real mathematics Scientists are more excited about math performance."

"But that doesn't mean it's unimportant."

"Rather, it documents for future generations the great unanswered questions of the twentieth century. It also serves to generate more enthusiasm for mathematics in the non-mathematical world. In particular, it has always served as a beacon of responsibility to engage young people, children and students with an interest in evolving mathematics and mathematics-related issues."

"Whether it's true love, or for the one million bonus."

French Academy.

In the spacious auditorium, it seemed a bit crowded.

Because it is the awarding ceremony of Riemann's conjecture, almost the top scholars in the French mathematics field, as well as members of major mathematical organizations, were invited to stand here.

Before the millennium, this place was once the center of mathematics in Europe and even the world, and it was once the dream of countless mathematicians to be able to give speeches here.

Even today, this glory has long been withered due to the overall decline of the European mathematics community, and many things have not changed.

Standing on the podium, facing the solemn venue, Professor Carlson paused for a moment, then continued in a solemn tone.

"Nils-Henrik Abel once wrote in his memoirs that in order to solve a difficult problem it is first necessary to formulate it correctly..."

"...especially, the correct formulation."

"What we can see is often not as easy to understand as we think, just like the theorems we know well, behind each theorem are centuries of hard work and efforts, as well as the efforts of countless generations of scholars, and It is precisely through this little bit of accumulation that our discipline has been able to advance.”

"On this road full of thorns, we have gained a lot. As Professor Lu Zhou's work revealed to us, we know the mystery of the zero-point distribution of the Riemann function and the profound mathematical meaning behind it——"Geometry and algebra Unification'. The birth of this theory restructured algebraic geometry after the millennium, and even redefined our understanding of numbers and geometric figures."

"Perhaps, we may need to spend decades, or even more time, to build a new building on the land he opened up. But we have already taken the first step towards a new world, and I believe someone will replace it We saw that day."

The lengthy award speech was finally finished.

The elderly Professor Carlson bowed slightly, and there was thunderous applause from the audience.

Amid the applause, Lu Zhou walked to the front of the stage from the side, took the one million dollar check from Professor Carlson, showed a smile that met the other party's expectations, and shook him politely shake hands.

"Thanks."

Of course it is good to have money.

Although compared to yesterday's 10 billion big project, the bonus of 1 million may be a little less, but no matter how small a mosquito is, it is still meat. Who would think that they have too much money?

Having finally completed this arduous task, Professor Carlson showed a relieved expression on his face.

He felt that there was probably no one more humble than himself in this world.

It was obviously a gift of money, and it was a grand prize of 1 million, but it turned out that the winners were harder to find than one.

Holding Lu Zhou's hand tightly, Professor Carlson said excitedly.

"Do you have any acceptance speeches? Just talk about your impressions."

Acceptance speech?

After hearing Professor Carlson's words, Lu Zhou thought about it for a while, with an embarrassed smile on his face.

"In terms of feelings... I seem to have said it last time, so it will be the same as last time."

Submerged in the applause, this sentence seemed to be heard only by Professor Carlson.

Seeing his old face that was gradually turning red due to the increase in blood pressure, and his expression of smiling while wanting to hit someone, Lu Zhou suddenly felt a little lucky. Fortunately, the applause was loud enough, and he didn't get close to the microphone before. ...

...

In the evening, also in the banquet hall of the French Academy, the French Mathematical Society and the Clay Institute of Mathematics jointly hosted a dinner. Regardless of whether they were at the award ceremony during the day or not, almost all prominent mathematicians in Paris did not miss this banquet.

During the dinner, Lu Zhou met many old friends whom he hadn't seen for a long time.

Especially Professor Helfgott who works at the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris.

This Peruvian-French number theorist provided him with a lot of help when he was studying Goldbach's conjecture. In particular, the proof of the weak Goldbach's conjecture provided him with a lot of inspiration when combining the two mathematical tools of the sieve method and the circle method.

Since Goldbach's conjecture was solved, Lu Zhou has rarely published articles in the field of number theory, so the two have not communicated for some years. But although they met less, the friendship between the two is still there.

When we met this time, Professor Helfgott was very enthusiastic and chatted with Lu Zhou for a long time. And Lu Zhou also learned a lot about Professor Grothendieck's life from him, as well as some rumors about Professor Abel.

"Let's make a hypothesis."

Helfgott: "What if?"

Poured himself another glass of champagne, Lu Zhou smiled and said in a chatty tone: "If there are aliens in this universe... Of course, I mean if. In the case of completely different species and difficult to contact directly, How do we establish a good communication relationship with them.”

Professor Helfgott froze for a moment, then gave Lu Zhou a strange look.

"Have you found aliens?"

Lu Zhou froze for a moment, then laughed.

"How is it possible? Isn't this a hypothesis. Why do you think I've discovered it?"

Helfgott said with a smile: "Because every time you throw a problem, it seems that you have already solved half of the problem. You are a person who will not leave opportunities to others, I said right?"

Well?

Have it?

Lu Zhou thought about it carefully, it seems that such a thing really happened.

Although in his own opinion, those results were obtained by him after a lot of effort, but in the eyes of others, those mathematical propositions that were originally difficult to count on a yearly basis were ignored by him for months or even a few years. It was done in a week, which does sound like an exaggeration.

Looking at Lu Zhou with an embarrassed smile on his face, Helfgott smiled and took a sip of red wine. After thinking for a while, he returned to the previous interesting question.

"If communication must occur at the first contact...I think it is mathematics."

Lu Zhou raised his eyebrows with interest.

"oh?"

What a coincidence, they thought of going together.

"The key to the communication between two civilizations is to find a common language, just like the cup in my hand, if they don't use the cup as a container and don't drink, then the communication will not start," Helfgot put down the wine glass in his hand The professor thought for a while and continued, "Science is a means to solve the problems we face. The problems we face may be different, but one thing should be the same, that is, the tools for researching science."

"Whether it is natural science or applied technology, no matter which one is inseparable from mathematics."

"So I think, it should be mathematics."

Lu Zhou: "If you were that alien, and now you want to discuss with me what to have for lunch tomorrow, what would you do?"

Helfgott leaned back on the chair and said with a smile.

"Me? I'll throw you two big prime numbers first...Of course, instead of throwing them directly to you, I'll multiply them together. If you can solve it, at least... tomorrow's lunch will not be you."

"It's an interesting statement." Amused by the humorous statement, Lu Zhou smiled and continued to ask, "And then?"

Helfgott: "Then? Use the distance between us to unify the weights and measures? And then the periodic table of elements? How to do it? This is a systematic subject. I remember it is called Cosmic Linguistics. The Paris Normal University seems to be like Someone is working on this, but I don't know that professor very well..."

"In short, I think that if we can achieve basic communication, everything is not a problem. Maybe we can exchange international students after confirming that we are not each other's lunch. Once the cultural exchange starts, we will soon be able to understand each other."

Having said that, Professor Helfgott paused for a moment, shrugged his shoulders, and continued.

"And think optimistically, if they decide to contact us and can find us actively, they probably already have a certain understanding of us, and they may even have observed us for a while. Whether it's electromagnetic wave signals, or they have received us. Postcards, if they really intend to communicate with us, they will definitely figure out a way."

Lu Zhou froze for a moment, then said with a smile.

"Honestly, your mind could be used to write science fiction novels."

Helfgott laughed.

"Thank you for your compliment, but writing science fiction is not as interesting as studying mathematics. I'd better leave the opportunity to others!"