Chapter 213 History Repeats

When the list of the four Fields Medal winners was announced, thunderous applause broke out again in the conference hall.

Outside the conference hall, looking at the four people wearing gold medals on the stage, Professor Alessio Figali of Italy applauded and sighed softly.

He has a chance to win this year's Fields Medal. Even if his achievements in mathematics are not as good as those of the two big guys Xu Chuan and Schultz, he is actually on par with Professor Aksay Venkatesh and Professor Kauchel Birkar.

But he is younger and can wait for another term, while Aksay and Kauchel are already in their last term.

Kauchel Birkar is even closer to the 40-year-old mark, which will be reached this year, but the date has not yet arrived.

Perhaps considering this, the International Mathematical Union Committee will screen him out.

Although IMU's approach can be understood, I am afraid that everyone will feel a little unwilling.

After all, no one knows what kind of changes will happen in the mathematical world after waiting for another four years.

Maybe he won't get the Fields Medal in four years?

This is not impossible.

If there are one or two more geniuses like Xu Chuan, he may really have no hope.

On the other side of the venue, Zhang Wei, who was sitting with his friend, also sighed.

He is also a hot candidate for this year's Fields Medal, but now, he has no chance to win this medal.

Even if he can solve a century-old problem like Wiles, the International Mathematical Union will make an exception and reissue a Fields Medal, but it will be a silver medal, not the current gold medal.

There is still a slight difference between the two.

Sitting next to him, Xu Chenyang patted his friend's shoulder and said nothing.

Speaking of which, he is actually a candidate for the Fields Medal, but he is not a hot candidate and has little hope of competing.

He is not as good as his friend Zhang Wei, nor as good as Professor Alessio Figari of Italy, and even less than Xu Chuan, who proved the Hodge conjecture at the age of 20.

Although he had some expectations when he came to attend the conference this time, he was not like others.

Now that he was completely eliminated, he was relieved.

It is normal to compare with others. Comparing with geniuses shows that you have a desire to improve. But forget about comparing with a monster who has proved seven millennium problems at the age of 20.

In the next period of time, just do research well.

When the award ceremony ended and the four Fields Medal scholars shared their experiences, the opening ceremony also came to an end.

As the host and the first southern hemisphere country to host the International Mathematical Congress, Brazil still prepared a unique art performance after the opening ceremony.

On the stage, those art performers wearing feather crowns, like the Indians in the Tom and Jerry cartoon, are full of primitive breath.

Such a performance is more like a mockery in Xu Chuan's view.

You have almost killed the natives, and the rest have been driven into the depths of the Amazon rainforest. Now you still take this thing as your own unique culture.

Just like a certain country in East Asia, always like to steal some of other people's culture, and then modify it and regard it as your own.

After the special performance, the time came to 11:30. With the announcement of Shigefumi Mori, the president of the International Mathematical Union, the opening ceremony of this International Congress of Mathematicians officially ended.

At this time, most of the participants began to leave.

The opening ceremony was held on the morning of August 1st. There was a dinner arranged by the International Mathematical Union at noon. There were no arrangements in the afternoon and evening, and there were no reports, but the venue was prepared for mathematicians from all countries to communicate or chat together.

The International Mathematical Congress is an international conference for mathematicians from all over the world to communicate, display and discuss the development of mathematics, meet old friends and make new friends.

Shigefumi Mori announced his exit, and Xu Chuan prepared to leave the venue.

"Hi, Xu, let's go together?" Next to him, another Fields Medal winner Peter Schultz walked over with a smile and greeted him.

"Professor Schultz." Xu Chuan responded with a smile.

"Just call me Peter or Schultz. Professor or something like that is too distant."

Schultz smiled and shook his head, then continued: "Two years ago when I was in Princeton, I knew that you would definitely win the Fields Medal in the future. I just didn't expect that you would break the historical record in just two years."

"Congratulations, you are the youngest Fields Medal winner in history, at the age of 20. I guess no one will be able to break this record in the future."

Xu Chuan smiled and said: "Thank you, and congratulations on winning the Fields Medal."

Compared to him, Schultz's process of winning the Fields Medal was much more tortuous.

In 2010, Schultz, who was still a master's student, created the "perfect space" mathematical tool. Although this achievement made him a candidate for the Fields Medal, he did not win the Fields Medal.

This is the first time he has been a runner-up.

In 2014, although he made a lot of achievements using the "perfect space" mathematical tool and expanded the scope of application of the reciprocity law, the International Mathematical Union still did not award him the Fields Medal.

On the one hand, it may be because Schultz is only 26 years old, one year younger than the youngest winner at the time, Professor Searle. After all, not everyone is happy to see the record broken.

On the other hand, the 2014 Fei Prize selection process can be said to be full of big names.

Whether it is Brazilian professor Artur Ávila, who has made great contributions to the theory of dynamical systems and even changed the face of the field; or Professor Manuel Bhargava, who has developed powerful new methods in the field of geometry of numbers and used these methods to calculate the number of small-rank rings and estimate the bounds of the average rank of elliptic curves.

Or Professor Mariam Mirzakhani, the first female Fields Medalist in history. They are all top masters in mathematics.

So although Schultz's achievements are worthy of the Fields Medal, he still ran away again.

However, four years later this year, relying on the advancement of the mathematical tools of the "perfect space" to the "P·S domain-geometric theory" and making major breakthroughs in the Langlands program, Schultz finally successfully won the highest medal in mathematics.

With enough achievements, he ran away for two International Mathematical Congresses and didn't get it until the third one. This is probably the first person in mathematics.

Schultz didn't care too much about these.

Although he was a runner-up for two years, he finally won the Fields Prize this year, and he is only 31 years old this year.

As for breaking the record of the youngest winner, although it is a pity that he failed to do so, it also shows that he is not strong enough.

If he can be as strong as Xu Chuan in front of him and directly prove a millennium problem, it doesn't matter how young he is.

"By the way, Xu, are you interested in the Langlands Program?"

Peter Schulz suddenly asked while the two were chatting.

"Langlands Program?"

"Yeah." Schulz nodded, then smiled and said, "Maybe we can work together to solve this program and unify algebra and geometry!"

Hearing this, Xu Chuan looked at Schulz in surprise.

Unify algebra and geometry!

Regardless of whether it can be done or not, just the tone alone is crazy.

But it's normal for a genius.

He is the same, although he doesn't show it on the surface, but he will not turn back until he hits the wall, no matter how big and far the goal is, or how difficult the journey is.

If you don't have a little pride and don't believe that you can succeed, what kind of genius is that?

But what surprised him was that this genius mathematician from Germany, who was hailed as the successor of "Pope Grothendieck", really embarked on the path of successor?

Unifying algebra and geometry, this is the lifelong dream of his ancestor Mr. Grothendieck, and also the lifelong dream of his mentor Professor Deligne.

After entering the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, Deligne has been studying the "Grotendieck Standard Conjecture", and his purpose is to inherit the mentor's last wish and unify algebra and geometry.

As a disciple, Xu Chuan would be lying if he said he had never thought about this.

So when Schultz made this request, he was indeed tempted.

But it was quickly rejected.

On the one hand, he didn't have so much time to spend on mathematical research in the future, and even if he did, it would be mainly on NS equations.

If he could solve the NS equations, his ability in fluid mechanics would take a big step forward.

This was his original intention to switch to mathematics in this life, to assist the progress of physics.

On the other hand, this goal is too big.

Unifying algebra and geometry, this goal is really too big.

Although there is now a branch of mathematics called algebraic geometry, it is also widely connected with many branch disciplines, such as complex analysis, number theory, analytic geometry, differential geometry, commutative algebra, etc.

But this is not a true unification.

For example, the dimension problem has not been solved, some complex algebraic problems cannot be converted to geometry, such as the curvature of algebraic geometry and the structural problems of group ring theory, etc.

These are all difficult problems, not so easy to solve.

If solving the seven millennium problems is to land on the moon or Mars, then unifying algebra and geometry is as difficult as leaving the solar system.

The gap between the two is not a little bit.

The two were chatting here, and on the other side, an exclamation sounded in the venue.

"Where's my bag? I clearly put it here, where did it go?"

The exclamation was loud, which immediately attracted the attention of other people in the venue, and the staff of the International Mathematical Union quickly came over.

"Excuse me, what happened?" A young staff member in uniform quickly came over and asked.

Kauchel Birkar looked around, searched the table and the ground, and then frowned and said, "My bag is gone, and my wallet, mobile phone and medal are in it."

Hearing this, the staff quickly took out the intercom and began to broadcast the news, asking other staff to help find it and retrieve the surveillance video.

Xu Chuan, who was communicating with Schultz, couldn't help laughing after hearing the exclamation.

The wheel of history still rolled over.

The "tragedy" was staged again, and Professor Kauchel Birkar's Fields Medal was stolen.

Although this was not a "big deal", it did not prevent him from going over to eat melons.

With Schultz, Xu Chuan also rushed to Professor Kauchel Birkar and began to pretend to help find the briefcase.

But it was obvious that this was impossible to find.

After a while, the chairman of the International Mathematical Union Congress Organizing Committee, Professor Viana from Brazil, rushed over.

"Sorry, Professor Kocher, we checked the surveillance and found that someone stole your briefcase. The briefcase has been found, but the phone, wallet and medal inside are gone."

Handing the briefcase that was found in time to Professor Kaucher, Professor Viana apologized: "I am really sorry that such a thing happened at this mathematics conference. We have called the police and hope to get your things back as soon as possible."

The International Mathematical Congress itself does not restrict the identity of the entrants, and anyone can participate.

But no one expected that a thief would sneak into this conference and steal the gold medal that a Fields Medal winner had just won.

This kind of thing has never happened at previous International Mathematical Congresses.

As the first country in the southern hemisphere to host the International Mathematical Congress, Brazil can be said to have lost face.

Such a big thing cannot be concealed, especially now that there are so many international media present in the venue.

This is really embarrassing. His grandmother opened the door for the embarrassing person, and the embarrassing person went to his grandmother's house.

ps: There will be more in the evening, please give everyone a guaranteed monthly ticket