Chapter 185 The World is Watching
"Twin primes have only been proven to be less than 246 prime pairs, but in such a short time they have solved the Goldbach conjecture."

"The most critical point is that the paper was published in an unknown journal, which proves that the conclusion must be problematic."

In the professor's office of the Department of Mathematics at Cambridge University, after reading the news reports on Xu Yuan's proof of the Goldbach conjecture on the Internet, he felt more and more that his analysis was very correct.

Some even believe that the solution to the Goldbach conjecture was fake academic news deliberately created by the other side.

Judging from the various mathematics honors Xu Yuan has won in recent years, he is indeed very talented in mathematics.

And the strength is also very good.

Otherwise, it would have been impossible to solve so many difficult mathematical problems and win the Gauss Prize at the Congress of Mathematicians.

It can be said that if this paper was published in the Annals of Mathematics, he would also be willing to believe in the professionalism of the editorial board of the Annals of Mathematics.

I am glad that another difficult math problem has been solved.

However, this paper was published in an unknown journal, and he did not think that the editorial board of the journal had the ability to verify the conclusions, so there was a high probability that there were problems with the conclusions of the paper.

"Xu Yuan must have known that he had not proved his theory successfully, so he did not dare to publish the paper in the Annals of Mathematics."

“I have a responsibility to uphold the academic rigor of the mathematical community.”

The thought stayed here, and he quickly made a decision and published a public article to question Xu Yuan.

Accusing Xu Yuan of not proving the Goldbach conjecture.

Although normally he should verify Xu Yuan's paper first, and then put forward his own opinion after falsifying it.

However, his area of ​​expertise is not number theory, and he doesn’t know how long it will take to find someone to verify it.

In addition to his current situation in the mathematics community, he naturally did not want to miss such a good opportunity to prove himself.

After all, if Xu Yuan's paper was really falsified, then his prestige in the mathematics community, as the first mathematician to raise doubts, would also be enhanced.

-

Xu Yuan has many fans overseas, and when Xu Yuan decided to study the Goldbach conjecture, many people expected Xu Yuan to solve this unresolved problem.

But with Professor Sandston leading the way, everyone did feel that there were some doubts after careful consideration.

After all, Xu Yuan’s previous papers were all published in the Annals of Mathematics, the top journal in the mathematics community.

From their perspective, it was somewhat unreasonable to suddenly choose such a little-known journal.

Soon, two different opinions were formed overseas. Some people believed in Xu Yuan's ability and talent and believed that the Goldbach conjecture might have been completely solved. The rest of the people expressed doubts and even believed that this was deliberately hyped by Chinese mathematicians.

As the two sides debated, the heat was no less than that in China.

"The Goldbach conjecture has been proposed for more than 200 years. Has it finally come to a successful conclusion today?"

"Oh my God, this is such an amazing surprise."

"Why is the prover from China?"

"When he proved the Goldbach conjecture, he had already stood at the highest level of mathematics. His achievements have surpassed the former mathematical genius Gauss."

"For a journal like Acta Mathematica Sinica with an impact factor of 0.00, the mathematical rigor of the information published is really questionable."

"Someone in Korea has already proved the Goldbach conjecture, but they just published it first."

"I hope the International Mathematical Union can give authoritative certification as soon as possible. The proof of the Goldbach conjecture is not just a matter for the mathematics community."

……

The solution to each difficult mathematical problem marks the development of mathematics and is related to the technology in many fields.

So even though everyone is arguing, most people just want to know the truth of the matter as soon as possible.

Determine whether the Goldbach conjecture is solved.

So, in addition to asking the International Mathematical Union to make a statement, many people also set their sights on the Journal of Mathematics Sinica.

Especially researchers in the field of number theory.

The most important thing in mathematics is rigor. Whether the Goldbach conjecture has been successfully proved can be roughly judged by reading the paper.

Moreover, if this is true, it would be an irresistible temptation for number theorists.

Anyway, what they care about is the content of the paper itself, not the journal in which it is published.

Fortunately, although the latest issue of Acta Mathematica Sinica has not yet been officially published, the content of the paper can already be seen on the journal's official website, so it is not difficult for overseas mathematicians to study the paper.

While the mathematics community is paying more and more attention to searching for relevant papers in domestic mathematical journals, the domestic editorial board seems very anxious.

"The current overseas public opinion is not very good. Some professors have already publicly questioned our rigor."

Ma Zhiming, Institute of Mathematics and Systems Science, Editorial Board of Acta Mathematica Sinica, is paying close attention to the situation overseas.

After seeing the news that someone questioned the proof of the Goldbach conjecture, he couldn't calm down at all and kept pacing back and forth in the office.

He was not afraid that the reputation of the Journal of Mathematics would be damaged, but he was mainly worried that Xu Yuan would be affected by it.

It is no exaggeration to say that from the official announcement of Xu Yuan's proof of the Goldbach conjecture to now, the entire editorial board has not left, and they are still working overtime to pay attention to the situation even late at night.

Xu Yuan was naturally here at this time, but his expression remained calm after hearing Ma Zhiming's words.

He was not affected by the news from the outside world. As for the question raised by a famous overseas professor mentioned by Ma Zhiming, he looked at the other party's name and was not unfamiliar with it. Obviously, this was not the first time.

He was even a little surprised by this. He didn't expect that someone would choose to fall in the same place twice.

He never doubted his proof process, and believed in the enthusiasm of mathematicians for such news.

As the saying goes, the truth becomes clearer the more it is debated. When more people read his paper, these current voices of doubt will disappear.

All that remains is the result of his successful solution to the Goldbach conjecture.

However, in order to reassure Ma Zhiming and other editorial board members and allow them to have a good sleep tonight, he still smiled and spoke a few words.

"Don't worry, Academician Ma. Isn't the current situation exactly what we expected?"

"For the ultimate problem in number theory like the Goldbach conjecture, it takes a long time to verify the conclusion. Once the number theorists in the mathematics community have completed the verification, they will naturally publicly announce the truth to the mathematics community."

"In addition, I also sent emails to many overseas mathematicians, inviting them to try to overturn the conclusions of my paper."

After all, Xu Yuan has participated in several international mathematics activities, so he naturally knows quite a few overseas mathematicians.

Many people even communicate through emails on a regular basis.

Inviting them to challenge the conclusions of our proof now is not only to make sure that we are confident in our proof process, but also to take advantage of this opportunity to further expand the visibility of the Journal of Mathematics.

After all, the most important reason for choosing to publish the paper in a domestic journal this time is to increase the impact factor of the Journal of Mathematics.

We will strive to make the Chinese Journal of Mathematics one of the top five journals in the world in the field of mathematics.

Otherwise, I would have directly chosen the Annals of Mathematics and nothing would have happened now.

How could Ma Zhiming not be worried when he is in this position? If there are problems in the proof process of the paper that they have not discovered, it will cause very serious consequences.

But when she saw Xu Yuan's confident look, she moved her lips but finally chose to swallow her words.

Now that things have progressed to this point, we can only choose to trust Xu Yuan unconditionally.

Finally, after taking a deep breath, Ma Zhiming turned around and said to the editors present:

"Everyone, go back and rest. Since we have verified the validity of Professor Xu's conclusion, we should not doubt our professionalism."

that's it.

After that, everyone stopped staying and chose to face the final result with a normal mind.

at the same time.

Far away in Princeton, New Jersey.

Because of the time difference between the two regions, it is still daytime here.

On a road on the Princeton University campus, a car was seen driving towards the Institute for Advanced Study.

If Xu Yuan were here, he would definitely find out that the person driving the car was Mr. Holt, the editor-in-chief of the Editorial Board of the Annals of Mathematics.

After arriving at the destination quickly, he got out of the car in a hurry and ran upstairs without even stopping.

Judging from his actions, he seems to be quite anxious.

It had been a long time since Deligne had helped review papers, especially after throwing Holt's papers into the shredder one after another. After all, reading some papers that had no gold content was a complete waste of his time and even his life.

This made him miss Xu Yuan's thesis even more.

However, it has been almost two years since the Mathematicians' Congress, but there is still no new paper from Xu Yuan.

This sometimes made him wonder: could it be that the mathematical genius whom he called the Gauss of mathematics, had reached the end of his talent?

Of course, he also sent emails to Xu Yuan during this period, but did not receive any surprising responses.

"It's only a little after ten o'clock. What a boring day."

At this time, Deligne lowered his eyes to look at his watch, and when he found that it was still early, he couldn't help shaking his head.

He muttered to himself, then stood up and walked towards the coffee machine next to him.

Since the last International Congress of Mathematicians, when he saw Xu Yuan prove the singularity problem in differential geometry, he has never been as excited as he was then.

I feel that the current mathematics community is like a stagnant pool of water, and no one can even create a few ripples in it.

But just as he was about to pour himself a cup of coffee, someone suddenly knocked on the office door from outside.

"Please come in."

As soon as he finished speaking, he saw that it was Holt who pushed the door open, and his brows frowned slightly.

"Why is it you, Holt? I told you a long time ago that the shredder in my office has not been repaired yet."

“So I don’t expect to see any typed copies of the paper.”

Without waiting for Holt to speak, he rejected the review request.

Holt's visit this time obviously had nothing to do with manuscript review. After pausing for a few seconds to catch his breath, he immediately told Deligne the purpose of his visit today.

"Professor Deligne, I just got the latest news. Xu Yuan proved the Goldbach conjecture."

(End of this chapter)