The unparalleled talent of the country started from Harbin Institute of Technology

Chapter 142: Qiu Chengtong wanted to make a bet, and Smale and others were obviously going to give him US dollars.

"Impossible! How could they prove the properties of three-dimensional manifolds so quickly?"

In the auditorium, Kunale immediately denied what his classmate Lahar said.

Hendrika nodded in support of Kunale's point of view.

"Laharl, you think too highly of these two Chinese mathematical geniuses, don't you? Don't you know how difficult it is to prove the Poincare conjecture in three-dimensional space? And they just talked about this Ricci flow? Haha, is this some new theory?"

"And at the moment, they still have too many problems to solve. It's simply impossible to solve them all in such a short time. Absolutely impossible."

Jie Ding disagreed: "Don't you know him? He's Qiu. Didn't he publish a paper proving the Calabi conjecture two years ago? Oh, it should be called the Calabi-Yau manifold now. I've already used it in my paper."

Others didn't recognize Shing-Tung Yau, but Jie Ding had referred to the former's paper, so he was very clear about it.

This Chinese-American, Shing-Tung Yau, is very famous because he proved that under the conditions proposed by Calabi, compact Kähler polyhedra have a special distance equation, which is called the "Ricci plane matrix".

Jie Ding believed that such a brilliant rising star in mathematics was very capable. Moreover, now that he was communicating with Wang Duoyu, a mathematical genius, he might be able to solve the Poincare conjecture in three-dimensional space.

Two top mathematicians, and they are very young. They are even equally talented, and their brains work much faster than ordinary geniuses.

It seems normal for miracles to happen.

Amid the objections from Lahar and Jedin, Kunale was still stubborn, Hendrika was still expressing her support, but their Professor Galeva remained silent, staring at the blackboard in front of him.

The distance was a bit far, but Professor Galeva's eyesight was still good enough to see clearly.

On the other side, other people were talking about it, especially Zhu Hanting and his friends, who were dumbfounded at this moment.

Didn’t the lecture end successfully? Why are you still staying on the podium?
Are there any other processes that have not been completed?
Zhu Hanting and his team soon found out whether there were other processes that had not been completed.

Because at this time, people in the front had already begun to leave the auditorium in an orderly and quiet manner.

They had to remain quiet and not disturb the conversation between Wang Duoyu and Qiu Chengtong on the podium. What's more, Smale and others were still watching intently and had no intention of leaving the auditorium.

It's already twelve o'clock, time for lunch, and the lecture will end at this time.

In the end, no one left!

"Shall we go? I'm so hungry!"

On the other side, Li Jiahang wanted to leave, but was afraid of being criticized by Qian Xiaohong and others next to him, so he had to pretend to be hungry.

Of course, it’s past twelve o’clock now, so it’s time for lunch.

"If you want to leave, go first. I'm not hungry anyway. I want to stay a little longer."

Lu Wanjie said without turning his head. Qian Xiaohong was more direct and didn't even bother to pay attention to Li Jiahang, as if she didn't hear it.

Seeing this, Li Jiahang couldn't help but snort, "Tsk, looking at the way you look, I didn't think you could really understand."

On the blackboard, Shing-Tung Yau and Wang Duoyu were discussing the proof of the Poincare conjecture in three-dimensional space. Although Li Jiahang and others were graduate students from the Institute of Mathematics, they really couldn't understand it.

It's not just because of their research direction, but also because they haven't done that much in-depth research yet.

Even Li Jiahang and his colleagues only understood the first few pages or so of Wang Duoyu's paper proving the four-dimensional Poincaré conjecture, let alone the current three-dimensional manifolds.

This involves mathematical tools such as Ricci flow, which is simply not something they can figure out in a short period of time.

"What does it have to do with you? If you don't like it, just get out of here. Stop whining here, it's so noisy!"

Qian Xiaohong suddenly turned around, glared at Li Jiahang, and scolded him rudely.

The latter's face turned pale and blue in an instant. He did not dare to refute anymore because he was afraid that Lu Wanjie and others would tell Professor Tao Fangqi and others about him, so he could only leave in shame.

When Li Jiahang left, Yang Nianzhen stared at the blackboard in front of her. Although she didn't quite understand mathematical tools such as Ricci flow, and couldn't keep up with the brain speed of people like Shing-Tung Yau and Wang Duoyu, she was still unwilling to give up. She just wanted to learn more.

Ding Haiyang and other students from the Department of Mathematics at Peking University did not leave, but their eyes were blank because this had touched upon their blind spots in knowledge.

As Peking University students, they are actually very arrogant, but in the face of mathematics, all are equal.

If you don’t know, you don’t know. No one can pretend to know something they don’t.

What Wang Duoyu and his colleagues were discussing was the Poincare conjecture in three-dimensional space, which is a top-level math problem and its difficulty level is even more terrifying than the eighteen levels of hell.

Ding Haiyang and his colleagues have not conducted in-depth research on the properties of manifolds, or even geometric topology, so it is normal that they don't understand.

In the auditorium, many people couldn't resist the urge to urinate or their stomachs were growling, so they got up and left carefully, for fear of disturbing Wang Duoyu and Qiu Chengtong.

Wu Congxin was still looking at the blackboard when Secretary Li Rui beside him suddenly patted his arm and whispered:
"Director Wu, if we award Wang his diploma after we return, there shouldn't be any problems, right? Then you can ask him whose master's degree he wants to study for."

Becoming a disciple is not that simple.

Logically speaking, as the only full professor in the Department of Computational Mathematics at Harbin Institute of Technology, Wu Congxin is definitely able to recruit master's students.

But Wang Duoyu is not an ordinary person. Given Wu Congqin's identity, letting Wang Duoyu study for the latter's master's degree will, to be honest, not help at all.

However, neither Li Rui, Liu Deben, nor even Wu Congqin himself wanted to give up.

"Why don't we just wait a little longer?"

Wu Congxin glanced hesitantly at Wang Duoyu on the podium, then looked at Li Rui and spoke slowly.

Upon hearing this, the latter shook his head and said, "The further you postpone it, the more difficult it will be for him to choose you as his master's advisor."

After a pause, Li Rui pointed at Wang Duoyu on the podium and said:
"Although I don't understand what they're discussing, I can sense that this Xiao Wang is probably preparing something big. If we wait until July, he might have already completed more papers by then. Would you still be able to serve as his master's advisor?"

In fact, Wu Congyin is now overwhelmed by the situation, because Wang Duoyu has published no fewer papers than him, and each paper is of very high quality.

Therefore, even now, Wu Congyin is somewhat unconfident about being Wang Duoyu's mentor.

"Then let him graduate first, and we'll talk to him after we get back."

Wu Congxin continued:

"He's very interested in aerospace. Secretary Li, we still need to arrange for someone to help collect more books on this subject. I even think we can collect some relevant books from abroad, even if it costs some foreign currency."

"We may not be able to keep him here, but we will try our best to continue this friendship. Harbin Institute of Technology is his home!"

Li Rui nodded heavily after hearing this.

On weekdays, he did not have much contact with Wang Duoyu. Instead, Liu Deben, Wu Congxin, and Liu Taoshun understood Wang Duoyu's thoughts better.

"A double degree is pretty good. I'll talk to Lao Ma about it when I get back."

The old Ma he mentioned was naturally Ma Sijie, the director of the aerospace department.

If we can rely on Ma Sijie to allow Wang Duoyu to continue staying in Harbin Institute of Technology, that would be a very good thing indeed.

However, in terms of mathematics, Harbin Institute of Technology can provide almost no help to Wang Duoyu.

As time passed, Qiu Chengtong and Wang Duoyu continued their discussion on the podium. There were many mathematical formulas and equations written on the blackboard, but both of them still had frowns on their faces, as if they had gained nothing.

This is indeed the case. There are too many irregular singularities involved in three-dimensional space. From the current perspective, it is almost impossible to fully grasp these singularities.

Wang Duoyu’s idea is, is it possible to create a new tool to replace it?

Unfortunately, creating a new mathematical tool is not easy.

This isn't just a game; you can just mess around with it. This is rigorous mathematics. Topology is one of the most important branches of geometry, and the Poincaré conjecture is undoubtedly the most challenging problem in topology. So, its difficulty is understandable.

"Professor Qiu, let's eat first. I'm afraid this problem can't be solved in a short time."

After a while, Wang Duoyu couldn't bear it anymore and his stomach was rumbling.

At this moment, he suddenly realized that he was still in the auditorium. Then he glanced to the side and saw Zhu Ling covering her stomach. It was obvious that she must be very hungry too.

What a stupid pig! Don’t you know to eat first?
Upon hearing this, Qiu Chengtong's brain, which had been working at high speed, quickly slowed down, and his empty stomach immediately responded, and he nodded regretfully.

"Mr. Wang, how about a competition to see who can finish this part of the proof first?"

"Professor Qiu, I can't compare to you. You are definitely faster than me."

"You're so boring now. You're so much younger than me, what are you afraid of?"

“It’s not a question of whether I’m afraid or not, but I’ve never made a bet before.”

While the two were chatting, Smel started to cheer them on: "I bet $1,000 that Qiu wins!"

"I also bet one thousand dollars that Qiu will win!" Robert Langlands also said with a smile.

This statement was quickly echoed by others. It was just a small bet for fun. For mathematicians like them, one thousand US dollars was not a lot, but of course, it was not a small amount either.

The reason why Smale and others took out one thousand US dollars and chose to bet against Qiu Chengtong was actually very obvious, that is, to give money to Wang Duoyu, or to drag Wang Duoyu into the water.

why?
Because Wang Duoyu is like an iron wall that is impervious to water and fire. No matter how others tempt him, he will not be affected by cause and effect.

Previously, Shiing-Shen Chern and Shing-Tung Yau had invited him to study in the United States, where he would have plenty of US dollars and a luxurious life.

But until now, Wang Duoyu remains unmoved, and even tries his best to avoid participating in the bet mentioned by Qiu Chengtong.

Where can you find such young people?
Shiing-Shen Chern, Luogeng Hua, André Weil, Chen Jingrun and others also came over and asked with a smile what was going on.

When they learned that it was just a small bet, but the amount of the bet was as high as one thousand US dollars, Chen Jingrun and others became nervous.

Hua Luogeng was fine, after all, he had studied abroad and had a better understanding of the US dollar.

But Chen Jingrun and his colleagues had never been abroad, and their salaries at the Institute of Mathematics were only a few dozen or a hundred yuan, not very high.

In this era, one US dollar is equivalent to 1.49 RMB, which means that the purchasing power of RMB is still very strong.

It was not until after 1984 that the RMB depreciated rapidly. Ten years later, in 1994, one US dollar was exchanged for 8.6 RMB.

Even so, one thousand US dollars is equivalent to one thousand four hundred and ninety yuan.

Such a huge sum of money was indeed a bit too much for Chen Jingrun and others.

Wang Duoyu remained silent. While they continued chatting, he quietly left the crowd, then quietly found Zhu Ling and left first.

However, it was impossible for him to escape secretly. So many eyes were staring at him. He was the focus of the crowd. It was impossible for him to run away.

As they walked out of the auditorium and headed to the cafeteria, Wang Duoyu was surrounded by Qiu Chengtong and others, and Zhu Ling had to move aside.

At this time, Zhu Ling was both proud and helpless.

Wang Duoyu is obviously her man, but now everyone is surrounding him and she has no say and can only be marginalized.

In the private room of Peking University cafeteria, Zhou Peiyuan had already arranged for people to prepare the food. When Wang Duoyu and others arrived, the food was served on time.

It's already past three o'clock and everyone is very hungry, so when they saw the food, they all started eating.

Li Rui, Liu Deben, Wu Congyin and others wanted to say a few words to Wang Duoyu, but they had no chance until now, simply because Shing-Tung Yau, Smale, André Weil, Shiing-Shen Chern, Robert Langlands and others had been talking to Wang Duoyu all the time.

They didn't talk about letting Wang Duoyu study in North America, nor did they talk about anything else. They just continued to talk about topics such as the properties of manifolds, betting, and three-dimensional space.

Making a bet is obviously giving money to Wang Duoyu, but he just refuses to take it.

It's not that Qiu Chengtong will definitely lose, but he just needs to let Wang Duoyu join the game, then Smale and others will have plenty of ways to help Wang Duoyu get the money.

When the time comes, we will just operate secretly. No matter who proves three-dimensional space first, Shing-Tung Yau or Wang Duoyu, Smale and others will have a way to let Wang Duoyu get the money.

Unfortunately, he just refused to make the bet.

There is really no way around this.

The meal lasted about an hour. We didn't drink any alcohol, but everyone enjoyed it very much.

For example, the old man Andrei Weil particularly likes spicy food, so there are a lot of Sichuan, Hunan and Jiangxi dishes in front of him, all of which are very spicy.

After lunch, a group of people returned to the auditorium to continue what they had not finished.

When a group of mathematicians get together, of course they discuss mathematical problems.

Moreover, this opportunity is rare, so of course we cannot waste time and must communicate quickly.

Unlike the morning, during this time in the afternoon, everyone gathered in small groups of three or four to communicate.

Because everyone's research directions are not consistent, mathematics has many branches. For example, basic mathematics includes algebra, geometry, number theory, topology, etc. If we further subdivide it, there are functional analysis, Lie group theory, differential geometry, differential equations, etc.

There is also applied mathematics, including probability theory and mathematical statistics, operations research and control theory, computational mathematics, etc., as well as other branches, such as functional analysis, discrete mathematics, dynamical systems, etc.

There are so many categories, and naturally there are different directions. Everyone has different research directions, so we definitely won’t get together to discuss.

Not everyone is Hua Luogeng. His research directions are very broad, mainly including research in the fields of analytic number theory, matrix geometry, classical groups, automorphic function theory, multi-complex function theory, partial differential equations, and high-dimensional numerical integration.

While Wang Duoyu and the others were discussing, Zhu Ling sat in the corner, reading a book.

She felt a little regretful about attending this lecture, as she didn't expect it to be endless.

But since she was already here, no matter how boring it was, she had no choice but to stick with him until the end.

After a long time, it was dark outside, but Wang Duoyu had not finished yet. Zhu Ling had no choice but to write a note and quietly gave it to him.

Until this moment, Wang Duoyu immediately came out of that highly concentrated state, looked at her and said:
"Wait for me, I'll be ready soon. I'll go back with you."

Soon, Wang Duoyu said a few words to Qiu Chengtong and others, and then immediately said goodbye and left.

Chen Shiing-Shen watched this scene thoughtfully, then suddenly looked at Hua Luogeng beside him and asked, "Do you know the woman next to Mr. Wang? She should be Mr. Wang's girlfriend, right?"

This question really stumped Hua Luogeng, because he didn't know the answer and he didn't care too much about it.

No one noticed this during lunch in the afternoon. Who made them all focus on matters related to three-dimensional space?

However, Hua Luogeng did not know about this, but Tao Fangqi was very clear about it.

"Professor Chen, that woman's name is Zhu Ling. She's Wang Duoyu's wife, and they've already gotten married."

Upon hearing this, Chen Shengshen's eyes suddenly lit up, and then he carefully inquired about Zhu Ling's situation. What made him speechless was that Tao Fangqi was not very clear about Zhu Ling's situation either.

Apart from knowing Zhu Ling's name, Tao Fangqi didn't even know her workplace, parents, etc.

Wow, I can only say that Wang Duoyu did a great job of keeping the secret.

Of course, it is not a problem for Chen Shiing-Shen to want to know about this matter.

(End of this chapter)