The day of November 25th was an ordinary day for the world.
However, this was an extraordinary day for the mathematics community.
The cafeteria at the Jin Ling University was full of people.
Students had just finished their classes, and crowds of people stood in front of restaurant lines.
Duan Siqi, as a mber of the foodie army, had just finished his mathematical analysis class. He struggled as he finally escaped the crowd with his food. He sat down next to his three roommates.
It was rare to see the students of dorm 201 gathered together. Even Li Mo was here, which was a rare sight indeed.
However, Li Mo looked like he was contemplating sothing. He looked like he wanted to finish his al and leave as soon as possible.
Yang Shuang was eating a bowl of rice. He made eye contact with Wu Di before asking, “Brother Li, how’s your research project going?”
“Hard, too hard.” Li Mo sighed and shook his head. “If only God Lu is here, he could help us plan what to do next.”
“God Lu is not here? He’s on a business trip?”
Li Mo shook his head.
“No, he’s just on a retreat.”
The person in charge of them was Chen Yang, the taciturn professor who rarely communicated with them.
As for Perelman, the epito of an eccentric guy, he rarely took the initiative to speak even one word.
Li Mo thought about his project and felt anxious.
This was the first ti he had encountered a problem he couldn’t figure out. It was also the first ti he had been troubled by a problem for over a month.
Duan Siqi didn’t say anything; he only gave Li Mo a look of encouragent.
Suddenly, the CTV International news playing on the cafeteria TV changed scenes.
The news anchor was given a press release by a staff mber. The anchor looked at the page with an astonished look.
He quickly made a professional judgnt, took a deep breath, and spoke.
“We have a piece of breaking news...
“Academician Lu, a well-known Chinese scholar, uploaded a 40-page paper to the academic website arXiv. He proved the unification of algebra and geotry, causing a huge sensation in the international mathematics community.
“According to our experts, once the paper is proven to be accurate, it will completely change the developnt of the mathematics field forever. It will also impact research in the natural sciences.
“So far, the International Mathematical Union has yet to comnt on this matter, but we are keeping an eye on their movents...”
Li Mo dropped his chopsticks onto his plate. His mouth was wide open as he stared at the TV. He was dumbfounded.
His friends of dorm 201 were the sa. Even though their reaction wasn’t as strong as Li Mo, they were all staring at the TV with an amazed look on their faces.
Unifying algebra and geotry!
The Grand Unified Theory of mathematics!
Is this thing...
Really possible?
Duan Siqi initially had so doubts.
However, when he heard Lu Zhou’s na in the news broadcast, all of his doubts disappeared.
“Grand Unified Theory...” Duan Siqi looked at Li Mo, who was stunned. He gulped and asked, “Isn’t that... what you were researching?”
Li Mo: “... Yeah.”
In fact, this wasn’t sothing he “researched”.
Sothing he was “still” researching.
Even last night, he was frantically grabbing his hair over this impossible proposition.
However, now...
He was still worrying about a certain detail in the blueprint, but the news was telling him the entire building was already built...
Li Mo wanted to cry.
This is ridiculous!
He didn’t even tell !
I know I’m not very useful, but I’m still a mber of the research project!
Wu Di, who had yet to speak, looked at him.
“So...”
Li Mo sighed. His sorrowful eyes looked like he was deceived. He looked at the ceiling and spoke.
“... So, we’re done.”
Actually, Lu Zhou didn’t purposely keep them in the dark.
The second he uploaded his paper to arXiv, he sent an email to several partners, sharing the joy of victory.
However, because the news was so shocking, both Perelman and Chen Yang had yet to digest what just happened. They hadn’t even finished reading the paper yet.
Of course, no one told a low-level scientific researcher like Li Mo the news.
Almost imdiately after the news was broadcast, the discussion on the Internet exploded.
[Unifying algebra and geotry?! (shook) (shook)]
[The f*ck? Wasn’t God Lu researching Riemann’s hypothesis? I—]
[Bro, is he even human, this is so unfair. (cry)]
[I’m a mathematics researcher, and I’d like to report Academician Lu for plagiarizing my research results. In 2012, I discovered the similarity between the number 0 and a circle. Please help get justice!]
[What does unifying algebra and geotry an? Does this an high school textbooks are going to change?]
[Basically, he invented a new mathematical frawork that links the abstract aning of algebra and geotry. This way, tools and thods on both sides can communicate with each other. This won’t affect the average person. If you want to solve a quadratic equation, using the quadratic formula is still the best choice. But for us mathematicians, this is going to be a long day... As a PhD student, please, God Lu, slow down, old man.]
[The f*ck? How dare you call God Lu an old man? You’re an old man!]
[...]
Most of the people didn’t understand what unifying algebra and geotry ant, and most of them forgot about most of the algebra and geotry they learned in high school. However, this didn’t an they weren’t shocked by the news on the TV.
Within half an hour of the broadcast, the news was already on the trending page.
It was almost like everyone had suddenly beco a mathematician.
People began to discuss what the world would be like after the unification of algebra and geotry.
In response to the people’s heated discussions and concerns about this matter, Everyone Daily and CTV collaborated in a science talk show. They invited one of the leading Chinese mathematicians—Academician Xiang Huanan.
The host looked at the gray-haired old man and spoke in a respectful tone.
“Hello, Academician Xiang, thank you for taking ti out of your busy schedule to join our show.”
Academician Xiang Huanan smiled and leaned in the sofa chair. He then spoke casually.
“An old man like , I have nothing to do anyway. Ask away.”
After so small talk, the host began to talk about the main topic.
“Recently, a major event happened in the mathematics field. Academician Lu uploaded a paper to arXiv, demonstrating the unification of algebra and geotry. Many of our audiences are concerned, and they wonder what this paper ans for us. What kind of impact will this have on our lives?”
Academician Xiang smiled and spoke.
“Actually, the dia isn’t being accurate. Academician Lu didn’t totally unify algebra and geotry. Instead, he built a bridge between the two.”
Host: “Bridge?”
“Yeah...” Academician Xiang nodded and said, “Just like how a cup can be used for drinking water and watering plants.”
Host: “That’s a creative analogy.”
Academician Xiang: “Normal people don’t need to learn the unified theory of algebra and geotry as it is only unified in the abstract sense. It doesn’t an the two things are necessarily the sa thing. However, when necessary, we can transform algebraic problems into geotric problems and vice versa.”
Host: “Oh, I see, looks like I had a misunderstanding. So this won’t affect the lives of ordinary people, is that correct?”
“Correct...” Academician Xiang nodded and said, “Only scholars in pure and applied sciences will have to study certain thods to solve technical problems. As a result, the public will feel the changes due to the scientific progress.”
“I heard you know Academician Lu?”
“Not just know...” Academician Xiang patted his thighs and said, “He was almost my student! Sigh, what a sha, I didn’t insist hard enough back then. Academician Lu Shenjian stole him from . Fortunately, after a year of studying physics, he has returned to mathematics.”
“Well, physics isn’t so bad.” The host smiled and said, “Academician Lu has done outstanding work in physics even though his achievents are focused on materials science and mathematics.”
“You don’t get it.” Xiang Huanan waved his hand and said, “So far, all of his physics achievents can be attributed to his mathematics achievents. The biggest one is probably solving the Yang-Mills existence and mass gap and the electrostrong interaction. The forr is a Millennium Prize Problems, while the latter is a generalization of the forr.”
Even though this was a pedantic argunt, it was true.
Rember the 750 GeV characteristic peak Lu Zhou discovered at CERN?
Even though the entire particle physics community spent a year researching the peak, they were not able to find anything.
The host didn’t understand the academic terms Academician Xiang was talking about, so he quickly shifted the conversation from academia to Lu Zhou’s personal life.
“You have ntioned that Academician Lu nearly beca your student. I’m sure our audience is interested in Academician Lu’s days as a student; can you tell us more about that?”
Academician Xiang had a nostalgic look on his face.
“That’s a long story...”
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