Chapter 391 Arrangements Before Returning Home

After Christmas, Lu Zhou's return trip has entered the countdown.

There are less than three days left in the time, and before returning to China, he intends to finish the matter at hand first, so as to save him from having to worry about where to start when he comes back here next year.

The first is the subject of "Existence and smoothness of solutions to three-dimensional incompressible Navier-Stokes equations".

For Lu Zhou, this can be said to be the most important research topic besides the study of plasma turbulence phenomena.

Since the establishment of the "NS Research Group", there has only been one discussion meeting on the assignment of work so far, and now he is about to leave Princeton for a while. In order not to delay the progress of the research, he had to explain the situation to his research partner.

The next day, after Lu Zhou went to Nassau Hall to submit a vacation application, he went to the building of the Department of Mathematics at Princeton University and found Professor Fefferman's office.

When he arrived, Professor Fefferman was discussing next month's meeting of the American Mathematical Society with his students.

Looking at Lu Zhou who appeared at the door of the office, Professor Fefferman quickly noticed the note in his hand, so he smiled and said.

"Are you planning to return home?"

Lu Zhou: "Yes, compared to Christmas, Spring Festival is our holiday. I will probably wait until mid-February after the Chinese New Year is over."

After listening to Lu Zhou's words, Professor Fefferman nodded in agreement, and said in a relaxed tone: "You really need a vacation to relax yourself, very few scholars will push themselves so hard, in such a short period of time involved in so much research.”

"Forcing so hard?" Lu Zhou shook his head, "I don't think I'm forcing myself, it's better to say that research itself is a fun thing."

"That's what I thought when I was younger," laughs Professor Fefferman, "but now I see that no matter how interesting a math problem is, it should be done in moderation."

Lu Zhou was speechless: "...That's because you have already got all the honors you can get."

Just at the beginning of this year, the Wolf Foundation announced the list of winners, among which the most influential mathematics prize winner is Professor Fefferman.

In the field of mathematics, the Wolf Prize can be regarded as an award similar to a lifetime achievement award. It is mainly awarded to mathematicians over the age of 40 in recognition of their long-term contributions to the mathematics community.

As the youngest Fields Medal winner ever, Fefferman received the title of Genius when he was young, and now he has been highly praised by the Lifetime Achievement Award in his later years. As far as his identity as a mathematician is concerned, it can be said that he has no regrets in his life.

"Why? There are endless prizes, not to mention that I still lack an Abel Prize," Professor Fefferman said with a smile, "In short, enjoy life now, I won't say anything before February Send you any email."

Lu Zhou: "What about the NS equation?"

Professor Fefferman insisted: "Wait until after January."

Seeing that he didn't intend to change his mind, Lu Zhou had no choice but to shrug his shoulders.

"Okay, since you insist."

...

In addition to the subject of cooperative research with Professor Fefferman, the subject of "Kuoya Conjecture" led by Lu Zhou himself has also come to an end with the completion of the thesis.

Perhaps it was because the corresponding author listed Lu Zhou's name, or maybe it was because the Kakutani Conjecture itself is attractive to number theory enthusiasts. The paper posted on Arxiv caused quite a stir in the number theory circle.

Many people call the proof of Kakutani's conjecture another victory of the "group construction method".

And what surprised people the most was that this time it wasn't Lu Zhou who did it himself, but three of his students...

On the morning of the 27th, there was still one day before the flight back home.

Sitting in the office of the Institute for Advanced Study, Lu Zhou was reviewing the paper submitted by Vera.

Although he has seen the entire proof process and there are no major problems, but as their mentor, before the paper is officially submitted, he is obliged to help them check it again to eliminate some minor problems in details.

And, confirm the authorship of the paper.

According to general practice, the names of the three people are hung on the paper in order of contribution.

As for Lu Zhou, it is on the position of the fourth author and corresponding author.

Of course, as their mentor, he certainly has the right to take these results for himself, but as a boss with integrity, he will definitely not do so.

Ordinary tutors may be reluctant to give up such achievements to students, but this problem does not exist for him.

The glory of a Kakutani conjecture.

Even if it was put on him, it would be just icing on the cake at best.

In addition to the signature of the paper, the papers of this kind of cooperative nature will generally indicate in the paper what specific work each author has completed. Especially in the international arena, compared with the simple ranking order of paper authors, major research institutions pay more attention to this part.

However, when checking the thesis, Lu Zhou noticed that Vera did not subdivide these things, but skipped this part with the sentence "These-authors-contributed-equally-to-this-work".

According to the practice in the academic world, adding this sentence to the paper means that all authors have the same contribution in the paper, and no one is redundant.

And this also means that, regardless of whether an additional asterisk is added after the name, all authors in the paper are considered as co-authors.

"Is this really good?" After checking the paper from beginning to end, Lu Zhou cast a questioning look at Vera standing across the desk, "It's unfair to you."

Although he did not directly participate in the follow-up research, as their mentor, Lu Zhou has been following up on their project progress.

For example, he will attend most of the weekly discussion meetings as long as he is in Princeton, and he will also carefully read the reports of phased results.

Excluding the help I provided to them, it is no exaggeration to say that Vera contributed more than 70% of the entire project research, while Qin Yue and Hardy only contributed the remaining 30%.

Vera shook her head, and said softly: "I simply like to study these issues. As for who has contributed more... I think it's better not to divide too much."

"...Since you have said so, I respect your decision." Hearing what she said, Lu Zhou stopped persuading her.

Qin Yue contributed a lot anyway, and Hardy was a bit suspected of taking advantage of it, but Vera was willing to share the credit with them equally, and he would not say anything as a mentor.

At most, I just feel a little pity for her, she could have gotten a higher evaluation.

After pausing for a moment, Lu Zhou put the paper on the table and watched Vera continue.

"According to the original agreement, I will help you apply for graduation. Around March and April, the graduation certificate will be sent to you. If you plan to study for a Ph. D. with me, you'd better submit the application as soon as possible. Good to pass."

For familiar students, interviews are just a formality, and he knows the abilities of his students.

After listening to Lu Zhou's instructions, Vera nodded seriously as always.

"Well, I see!"