Chapter 137: Half a day, everyone's defense was broken
Hearing Witten's name, Xu Yuan quickly turned his gaze over and took the initiative to extend his hand to greet the other party.

"Hello, Professor Witten."

He was no stranger to Witten, a big shot at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton who was as famous as Deligne.

The fact that he is a Fields Medal winner is enough to inspire admiration.

Upon hearing this, Deligne did not forget to introduce him to Witten: "He is the Prince of Mathematics Xu Yuan I mentioned."

There was a smile on his face as he said this.

"Hello."

Witten also greeted Xu Yuan, and then shook hands with Zhang Yitang and Feng Zuming.

As Xu Yuan's name sounded in the lecture hall, it immediately attracted the attention of many scholars around, and they all turned their heads to look at Xu Yuan.

no way.

Xu Yuan's reputation in the mathematics community is indeed quite high nowadays.

At the age of 21, he published several papers in the Annals of Mathematics, which led to a major breakthrough in the twin prime conjecture. Most scholars in the field of number theory would admit that they could not achieve such academic results.

Naturally, everyone wants to see what such a mathematical genius looks like.

Just as Xu Yuan and Delinewitten were talking, a middle-aged man with an obviously foreign face came over.

As he got closer, his face suddenly showed an expression of enthusiasm and excitement.

"Xu."

"It's really great that you can come to this meeting."

"Nice to meet you."

Seeing this, Deligne smiled and introduced Xu Yuan: "This is Holt, the editor-in-chief of the Editorial Board of the Annals of Mathematics."

"Hello Mr. Holt, nice to meet you too." Xu Yuan quickly extended his hand when he heard this.

He had never met the editor-in-chief of the Editorial Board of the Annals of Mathematics.

We did exchange a few emails.

In a sense, we are acquaintances.

"I didn't expect you to be so young and handsome. It is a pride for our Annals of Mathematics to be able to work with you." Holt continued with a beaming expression, not sparing his praise even in front of many scholars around him.

He was well aware that Xu Yuan had become a rising star in mathematics and would sooner or later become a mathematical master.

I don’t know how many excellent papers will be published in the future, so how can I do this without trying to maintain good relationships?

It is no exaggeration to say that if several other top mathematics journals established cooperative relationships with Xu Yuan now, it would not take long before the influence of the Annals of Mathematics would be surpassed by its competitors.

Xu Yuan could more or less see what Holt was thinking, but this enthusiasm definitely came from the heart.

He especially likes that the other person is nice and honest.

So we continued chatting with each other and the atmosphere was quite harmonious.

Just as the opening ceremony was about to begin, two unfamiliar faces walked over.

One of them has a typical Asian face.

"Hello Xu Yuan."

Tao Zhexuan walked up to Xu Yuan and stopped: "I am Tao Zhexuan."

After taking the initiative to introduce yourself, extend your hand to show goodwill.

When Xu Yuan heard the other party's name, he couldn't help but take a closer look at this former academic genius.

Because he is the math genius now.

Then he shook hands with the other party and said, "Hello, Professor Tao."

At this time, Bagfu, who was already very excited, raised the camera hanging around his neck and said:
"Let me take a picture for you. The first meeting between the Mozart of mathematics and the Prince of mathematics is very memorable."

Xu Yuan didn't think much about it. He just nodded and uttered two words.

"can."

The next second, a flash of light flashed, and the scene of him shaking hands with Terence Tao was recorded.

The opening ceremony of the academic exchange meeting officially began. Before Xu Yuan had time to talk to the other party, they all returned to the seats arranged by the organizer to attend the ceremony.

This academic exchange conference on number theory, hosted by the Annals of Mathematics and Princeton University, had a relatively simple opening ceremony because the participants were all scholars in the mathematics field and basically came purely for academic reports.

After the ceremony, the organizers thoughtfully prepared lunch, and the afternoon was the most anticipated event for everyone.

Report on the proof process of the twin prime conjecture.

Compared to researching the paper by yourself in private, verifying the process formula of the paper.

It would be more inspiring for them to listen to the author personally talk about his or her ideas, and it would be easier for them to spark inspiration.

If we are lucky, we may be able to get the value closer to 246 from the current value of less than 2.

After the report officially began, Zhang Yitang took the stage first to explain the sieve method he used in the paper, as well as the proof that there are infinite pairs of twin primes whose difference is less than 4200 million.

Although his number 4200 million is far from 2, it successfully opened the way for research on the twin prime conjecture.

It is equivalent to pointing out the way, and its significance is very important.

Therefore, when Lao Zhang was talking, everyone listened very carefully.

Some even took out scratch paper to do their calculations.

They had all read the paper and knew that Xu Yuan had made improvements based on this sieve method, which reduced the positive value of twin prime numbers to 246.

If we change to a new method and improve it, it might be a new idea.

As time passed, Lao Zhang finally answered questions from several scholars and walked off the stage amid warm applause. Xu Yuan stood up and walked toward the stage. When he crossed paths with Lao Zhang, he could feel his nervousness.

Of course, he didn't feel nervous at all, after all, he had experienced this kind of situation of giving reports on stage several times.

Then he walked to the podium, scanned the audience below, and faced the more than two hundred scholars in the audience. He took a deep breath and began to report at his own pace on the improvements to the sieve method and the process of finally proving the positive value.

It is worth mentioning that he does not rely entirely on multimedia screens.

Because the organizer specially placed a writing board on the stage, he picked up a pen from time to time to write formulas while he was speaking.

“pn+1-pn=2”

……

Although the entire report was given in English, Xu Yuan was not satisfied with the speed at all.

He couldn’t tell the time outside and didn’t know how much time had passed before Xu Yuan finally finished writing the last mathematical symbol.

"Lemma proves that Iim inf(pn+1-pn)＜246"

After dropping the marker and returning to the podium, Xu Yuan put on a smile and continued speaking.

"The above is my improvement on the sieve method and the proof process. I hope scholars in the academic community can continue to prove it."

"I hope that in the near future, someone will be able to prove the twin prime conjecture completely and win the crown of this ultimate problem in number theory."

Almost as soon as the words fell, many scholars in the lecture hall stood up and applauded.

The thunderous applause lasted for more than two minutes before gradually fading and stopping.

At the same time, Xu Yuan also noticed that several overseas mathematicians in the first rows did not stand up and applaud.

Knowing that the other party is from Harvard or Cambridge University, I don’t mind.

After all, judging from the current performance, there is a high probability that no errors have been found in the paper.

My purpose of overturning the conclusion was thwarted, so I naturally felt unhappy.

After the lecture hall regained its silence, some scholars began to ask questions.

Basically, they are all related to the screening method he improved.

He did not hide his thoughts on this and shared his ideas when answering questions.

But the person who stood up and asked him a question surprised him a little, because the other person was Terence Tao, who is known as the Mozart of mathematics.

"It was a very interesting presentation, and your improved screening method is really ingenious."

After Tao stood up, he first praised Xu Yuan and then asked the questions he was concerned about.

"Do you think that the twin prime conjecture is less than 246 prime pairs? Does this proof represent the limit? Is there really hope that the mathematics community can completely solve the twin prime conjecture?"

“From 4200 million to 246 prime pairs, it must have taken a long time, right?”

As Terence Tao's words rang out in the conference hall, the expressions of other scholars present couldn't help but become a little gloomy.

Especially those who study number theory.

As Terence Tao said, Xu Yuan was able to prove that twin primes are smaller than 246 prime pairs, which can be said to be the limit of this sieve method.

If we want to continue to reduce the value until it is completely proven, we must improve the sieving method again.

Whether this will take another hundred years like the twin prime conjecture, no one can predict at the moment.

Anyway, they have no ideas at the moment.

Xu Yuan listened to everything Tao said, raised his hand to signal him to sit down first, and then answered directly.

"I can understand Professor Tao's concerns about number theory research, but before this paper appeared, who could have thought that there would be a major breakthrough in the twin prime conjecture."

"So I believe that 246 is not the limit, and I believe that someday there will be mathematicians who will succeed in reducing the value."

"The crown of the twin prime conjecture will finally be won."

"As for me improving the sieve method to prove from 4200 million to 246, it only took me half a day."

Originally, everyone in the audience was nodding frequently, expressing their approval of Xu Yuan's words and their confidence in the research in the field of number theory, but after hearing the last sentence, they were all stunned for a moment.

Immediately there was a commotion in the venue.

Many people expressed surprise.

“How is it possible to improve the screening method in half a day?”

"I guess I said it wrong."

In their opinion, improving the sieve method and proving that twin primes are less than 4200 million prime pairs to less than 246 requires a lot of calculations. Even if they were to have a burst of inspiration, it would still take a long time.

Now Xu Yuan claimed that it only took him half a day, and he suddenly felt like he was in the examination room, where others had handed in their papers before he had even finished.

Among them, Harvard University professor Deva seemed to have finally found an opportunity and immediately stood up and refuted.

"As a scholar studying mathematics, the most important thing is rigor. Otherwise, how can his academic achievements be convincing?"

As soon as he finished speaking, before Xu Yuan could say anything, Zhang Yitang was so angry that he took the initiative to respond to clear Xu Yuan's name.

"This is true. I can testify that Xu Yuan only took half a day to complete the improvement of the screening method in my paper."

The entire main lecture hall fell silent in an instant. Thinking about the problem that I had no idea how to solve, while others had successfully solved it in half a day, I felt mixed emotions for a moment.

Even Terence Tao was somewhat shocked and even regretted asking this question.

Since Xu Yuan was able to improve the screening method and reduce 4200 million to 246, there was no need for him to lie about such a thing.

On the contrary, Deligne, who was sitting in the front row, became more and more excited. He did not expect that he had underestimated Xu Yuan's mathematical talent again.

……

(End of this chapter)