The End of Technology

Huaxia, Beijing, Yanbei University, Beijing International Mathematics Research Center.

It was already half past twelve in the middle of the night, but the lights were still on in the second-floor office in the courtyard.

At this time, Fan Zhenhua was sorting out the reports on his desk. As the chairman of the Chinese Mathematical Society, he was invited to participate in the National Mathematical Logic Conference to be held at Huaxia Capital University tomorrow, and to give a talk about Chinese mathematical research in recent years after the opening ceremony. Progress report.

If it weren't for the fact that Beijing Normal University was so close and it was the first time in recent years to hold such a relatively large-scale mathematics academic conference, Fan Zhenhua would not have wanted to go. He has also been very busy recently. The Chinese Mathematical Society is currently preparing for the first BRICS Mathematicians Conference to enhance ties between BRICS countries at the academic level.

This is the most important international academic conference held by the Chinese Mathematical Society as the organizer in recent years. As the chairman of the society, he is naturally very busy and has to pay attention to everything big and small. So for this kind of meeting report that is not too important, just work overtime the night before to familiarize yourself with it in advance.

Especially at this time, everything is quiet and work efficiency is extremely high.

"Dangdang..."

Quite suddenly, Fan Zhenhua's cell phone that was placed on the table rang, diverting his attention from the report in front of him.

Fan Zhenhua frowned. He was going to hang up the phone and put it on silent, but after glancing at the caller number, a curious look appeared on his face. He simply put down the report in his hand and picked up the phone.

"Hello!"

"Hi, Fan, I'm sorry, it must be night time there, right? I hope I didn't disturb your rest."

"Yes, Professor Higginson, but it's okay. I'm used to going to bed late. Is there something urgent?"

"Didn't you open your mailbox today? Fan?"

"Well, yes, I have been too busy these two days. Did something big happen?" Fan Zhenhua joked lightly while pushing away the report thrown on the table and moving the notebook on the table to his side. Drag it, then pick up the mouse, open the browser, and prepare to enter the mailbox.

"No wonder I didn't wait for your call. That's it, Fan. Yesterday around this time, Robert Cairney, the editor-in-chief of the Annals of Mathematics, sent me an article in person, hoping that I could become a reviewer. Because he thought this This article may have solved the problem of smoothness and uniqueness of the Navier-Stokes equation."

Hearing this, Fan Zhenhua couldn't help but said: "Wait, I remember that Robert didn't study the Navier-Stokes equation before, right?"

"That's true. But with his strong recommendation, I spent a day reading this paper. Although there are many issues that I haven't figured out yet and I need to spend some time interpreting and verifying them, my intuition told me , this paper may actually solve this problem."

"Ah?" Fan Zhenhua was lost for a moment, and his hand holding the mouse froze.

Partial differential equations represented by the Navier-Stokes equation are Fan Zhenhua's research field. He certainly knows how significant it is in the world of number theory to prove that this equation is universal.

In fact, this is one of the seven major new century mathematics problems offered by the Millennium Clay Mathematics Institute to the world. It is consistent with other difficult problems such as the NP-complete problem, the four-color problem, the Poincaré conjecture, and the Riemann hypothesis. All a million dollars.

So far, among the seven major problems of the millennium, only Poincaré's conjecture has been completely solved by talented Russian mathematicians. The four-color problem has only been verified at the computer level for the time being, but there is still not much progress in number theory.

Fan Zhenhua is not clear about the other four issues, but the Navier-Stokes equation is an issue that Fan Zhenhua has been paying attention to. So far, the entire academic community has not found a good solution.

Small-scale vortices cause the force to diverge, making it particularly difficult to prove this problem.

Professor Higginson from Princeton University across the phone is already at the forefront of the world in studying the Navier-Stokes equations. In particular, the magnetic fluid flow calculation model he once provided through the Navier-Stokes equation has led a research and development trend in the academic world. He also won the Fields Medal for his achievements in this field, making him a true leader in academia.

Such a master of related academic circles actually thinks that someone has really solved this problem?

You must know that a scientist's intuition about the direction of his research is often very accurate. This is not theology, but a subconscious judgment after deep study in a certain field.

After losing his mind, Fan Zhenhua asked urgently: "Which scholar's paper is this?"

Although double-blind review is a common practice in the journal industry, it is not always adopted by top journals. Many times it is single-blind or even two-way choice. Especially when the editor-in-chief personally brought the paper to invite an industry expert to review it, he did not believe that a double-blind review method would be used.

Soon he got an answer, and Professor Higginson's tone began to become weird: "That's why I called you specifically. Fan, you know there is a village in China called Ningjia Village, Luoyu County, Dongyu City, Nanhu Province Where is the machine shop?"

This time Fan Zhenhua was really stunned and murmured subconsciously: "Ningjia Village, no, it should be an agricultural machinery factory, right? Wait, you mean this paper was written by a Chinese?"

Although Higginson's Chinese pronunciation was not very standard when he recited the address, the address sounded very rural, especially the agricultural machinery factory named after the village, which should belong to the style of the last century.

Is the author of the paper from China? Still living in a small local county?

At this moment, Fan Zhenhua felt that his whole body was in a mess.

"No matter what it is, the author of the paper is indeed Chinese. So I recommended you to Robert Cairney to be one of the reviewers. The email inviting you to review should have been sent to your mailbox. I suggest you first Read the paper briefly, and then read the author's introduction..."

Speaking of this, Higginson's tone became eager: "Fan, if you can, I hope you can go to that place, meet the author on my behalf, and then convey a message to me."

"Well, if he is willing, I will be very happy to write a letter of introduction for him to come to Princeton University for exchange. This commitment is valid forever, of course, provided that I am still alive. I even can't wait to publish this paper, and then I can communicate with him on some issues in the paper.”

"Damn, the spring break has just ended, and I have a lot of messy things on my hands now, otherwise I will definitely fly to China and send him an invitation in person. Of course, the premise of the above is that through conversation, you can confirm that this paper is indeed from You understand his handiwork! I trust your judgment."

"OK!" Fan Zhenhua responded casually. The hand that operated the mouse couldn't wait to open the mailbox, found the invitation review email sent by the "Annual Review of Mathematics", and chose to accept it as quickly as possible.

He did not forget to ask: "Higginson, this is not your style, why is it just communication? I thought it was confirmed that he actually wrote the paper, and you would invite him to teach or work at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton."

The person on the other side was silent, and after a moment, he said in a sleepy tone: "I made this call to you after doing enough psychological construction. You should understand after reading the author's introduction. Maybe you will be like me and spend an hour to go there." Doubting whether this world is really real.”

Then, Higginson's tone became weird again: "By the way, Robert may have sent an invitation letter to Lu from Huaqing University. I don't like that guy very much. So I leave this matter to you."

"Lu? Lu Zhengyue?"

"Yes."