At the beginning of the 20th century, Hilbert's lecture on the question of the century ushered in a new centennial journey for the Riemann conjecture.

And mathematics, a small ship far from the field of vision of mortals, has left a magnificent legend under the giant curtain of the changing twentieth century.

At this moment, this century-old journey of the glory of the human mind has finally come to an end.

Under the attention of almost all the world's eyes, this report meeting to answer the question of the century finally kicked off......

The scene of the report meeting was crowded.

Even the largest lecture hall at the Hotel Krinthia could not accommodate all the attendees and those who had traveled thousands of miles to accommodate all the attendees in the normal posture.

Some people brought stools from other places, some simply sat on the floor, and some even sat on suitcases......

Reporters with cameras stood in the back row of the venue, with only two or three cameras there.

In order not to interfere with the presentation, the IMU Organizing Committee only granted admission to a limited number of media. It is precisely for this reason that only the BBC, CTV, and Columbia TV are standing in this lecture hall at the moment, which have a certain influence in the world.

Loud noises filled the entire venue, almost tearing the ceiling up.

Almost everyone was talking about the upcoming conference and the paper that Lu Zhou had put out on Arxiv yesterday.

And at this moment, there was a soft sound of opening the door not far away.

The door near the podium opened, and a figure that was familiar to everyone walked in smoothly from outside the lecture hall.

As if the mouth was shut, the whole venue fell silent for a moment.

A pair of fiery eyes focused on the man.

Everyone was waiting for him to open his mouth and take him to announce the start of the meeting......

Glancing around at the audience, Lu Zhou, who was standing on the stage, opened his mouth, but just as he was about to start the sixty-minute report meeting, a pair of eyes full of expectation and confusion in the audience suddenly made him change his mind and speak instead.

“…… I know you probably have a lot of questions to ask, including the Riemann conjecture and the future of all of us. So much so that when I first entered the door, I noticed that the benevolent brother sitting in the front row was half a fart. The strands have already left their chairs...... I guess he must have a lot of questions for me and can't wait. ”

There were bursts of good-natured laughter from the audience, and the originally dignified air eased a little.

Looking at the young scholar who sat back with an embarrassed red face, Lu Zhou paused for a moment and said in a relaxed tone.

"As is customary, it's time for me to end the nonsense and start the 60-minute presentation, but given the special circumstances, I intend to set aside five minutes before the presentation to answer questions from a subset of the audience, so that this part of the audience can focus more on the presentation itself. If there's anything you want to know before this report starts, you can raise your hand. ”

Barely finished speaking, one hand was raised in an instant.

Lu Zhou looked around the front row of the venue and ordered someone casually.

The Indian brother who was selected by Lu Zhou and sat in the front row quickly stood up.

The bespectacled, roughly thirty-year-old scholar with curly hair, who comes from the field of artificial intelligence, the lower chain of mathematicians' contempt, asks a pointed question as soon as he arrives.

"Has the Riemann conjecture been proven?"

More than half of the audience pricked up their ears.

For those scholars who are not engaged in the direction of analytic number theory, although they are also concerned about what method Lu Zhou used to prove the Riemann conjecture and how this set of mathematical methods can affect other disciplines, they are more concerned about whether the proposition of the Riemann conjecture itself has been proved.

Even if it's just a statement made in an affirmative tone.

Responding to all the expectant glances of the audience, Lu Zhou nodded.

"Yes, I can say responsibly that from now on, it doesn't matter if you use it as a theorem."

Whispers were heard from the audience.

Quite a few people had surprised expressions written on their faces.

Generally speaking, the more famous a scholar is, the more he cherishes his feathers. Unless they are the kind of people who have completely let go of themselves, few people will claim to have proved a major mathematical proposition in such a positive tone unless they are more than 100% sure.

After all, if it succeeds, it's okay to say, but if it fails, it's not something that can be easily revealed with a sentence of "I'm sorry to make a mistake".

The reason why Sir Attia, who once claimed to have proved the Riemann conjecture, frequently encountered rejections in his later years was largely because he had not done any "good deeds" in the past ten years, often claiming that he had proved something without giving an explanation, and even when he claimed to have proved the Riemann conjecture, even Arxiv rejected his manuscript, so that he had to find another way to publish his research. (Note 1)

The practice of not leaving himself any room for maneuver like this really surprised many people with his courage and self-confidence.

Having the answer he wanted, the Indian guy sat back, followed by a math professor from Columbia University.

"What about after solving the Riemann conjecture? What will happen to the discipline of analytic number theory? I mean...... Throughout the twentieth century, we have made countless breakthroughs in the field of number theory, including Fermat's theorem, to a greater or lesser extent, through the exploration of the Riemann conjecture or indirect exploration. And now that the hen that lays golden eggs is gone, how do we go about the future? ”

Compared to the previous question that can be answered with yes or no, this question is undoubtedly slightly more level.

Lu Zhou thought for about five seconds and spoke.

"I can answer your question, but I want to put the answer at the end of the whole presentation."

Glancing at the wall clock on the wall, Lu Zhou cleared his throat and continued.

"It's almost time, please put down those hands that are still raised for the time being."

"At the end of this briefing, I will leave plenty of time to answer all of your questions."

"Now, let's get down to business."

Just like the countless lectures he had completed, Lu Zhou turned around and walked to the whiteboard and picked up the marker pen placed under the whiteboard.

Then, he wrote the first line of text on it -

[Proof: All non-trivial zeros of the Riemann ζ function are located in the straight line ...... Re(s)=1/2 on the complex plane]

There are no special opening lines.

However, everyone tacitly focused their eyes on the whiteboard.

Report on the proof of the Riemann conjecture......

It's already started!

Offstage.

Staring at the line of text printed on the whiteboard, Tao Zhexuan, who was sitting next to Professor Feverman, suddenly spoke in a tone with a hint of excitement.

"He really adjusted the content of the briefing!"

"Isn't that inevitable?" Professor Feverman gave him a strange expression, "Now that the whole mathematical community is concerned about this, even if he wants to pretend that nothing happened, it is impossible." ”

Tao Zhexuan continued with an excited expression: "No, I wasn't sure if he was serious until a few minutes ago, but now it seems that my suspicions are superfluous. ”

Professor Feverman opened his mouth, made a helpless expression, and said.

“…… If that's what you think, it's really redundant. At least as far as I know about him, he never jokes about this kind of thing. ”

Just as the two were talking, Lu Zhou, who was standing on the stage, did not pause in his movements, and the brushstrokes in his hands moved quickly, and in less than half a minute, he had already brushed through four or five lines.

【ζ(s)=2Γ(1-s)(2π)s-1sin(πs/2)ζ(1-s)……】

【……】

After the first step, it soon comes the second step.

As the lines of calculations were written, there were more and more calculations on the whiteboard, and the difficulty gradually changed from simple and easy to understand to obscure and complicated.

Sitting at the front of the stage, looking up at the flowing brushstrokes on the whiteboard, whether it was Academician Wang, or young scholars such as Zhang Wei, Xu Chenyang, and Yang Yongan sitting next to him, their faces were full of shock.

Amazed by this series of exquisite operations, Yang Yongan finally couldn't hold back and blurted out a sigh of praise.

“…… So fast! ”

Zhang Wei, who was sitting next to him, also sighed with a complicated expression.

"It seems that he really intends to finish the entire paper in sixty minutes."

In fact, before this briefing, he was prepared for the possibility that the 60-minute briefing could be extended.

After all, judging from the content of the paper hanging on Arxiv, it does not look like it can be explained in 60 minutes, and many of the complex deep logics may take a lot of effort even if the proover himself reviews it.

But now it seems that he is thinking too much.

If you continue to talk at this pace, I'm afraid it won't take you as long as sixty minutes, and forty or fifty minutes will be enough for this great god......

Xu Chenyang said with a complicated expression: "Incredible...... At this speed, he doesn't need to think at all? ”

It would have been fine if he had written the paper, but he only had a pen in his hand.

The most incredible thing is that he even writes just about it, and on some of the key steps, he will also accompany a short explanation to explain why he wrote this step, and for which step he laid the groundwork.

It's like ......

The whole process of proof has been engraved in his mind, and it is the kind that he knows completely.

Zhang Wei pondered for a while and said, "Perhaps, all the steps have been memorized by him. ”

Yang Yongan looked at him with a moving expression.

"That'...... That's an exaggeration. ”

At this time, Qin Yue, who had been sitting next to him and had not spoken, suddenly interjected.

"That's not an exaggeration for a professor."

Hearing this sudden voice, whether it was Yang Yongan, Zhang Wei, Xu Chenyang, or Academician Wang, who was sitting there quietly, they all cast their unexpected glances at Qin Yue's side.

Noticing those gazes looking at him, Qin Yue paused for a moment and continued.

"From what I know about the professor, he doesn't even bother to memorize these things."

Academician Wang Shicheng frowned and said, "Is that really a live push?" ”

"I'm afraid so," Qin Yue nodded, and continued, "For him, solving a problem that has been solved again is in itself a pastime that can be regarded as a pastime. ”

OK......

Solve the problem again as a pastime......

No wonder this guy is so strong.

No matter how shocked the expressions on Academician Wang Shicheng's face were after Qin Yue said this, the two Fields Medal winners of the last IMU Conference sitting on the other side of the venue were also amazed by the series of operations of Lu Zhou standing on the stage.

"Unbelievable......" moved his stiff neck, and Professor Akshai raised his index finger, touched the glasses on the bridge of his nose, and whispered "Introduce differential manifolds to the complex plane...... His approach completely upended my understanding of differential geometry and metapure functions. ”

Schultz, who was sitting next to him and crossed his arms, smiled and said, "It seems that he is playing very steadily." ”

Aqsai glanced at him and said, "It's a little ...... It was a surprise. ”

Schultz: "Unexpected what? ”

Staring straight at the whiteboard, Akshai pondered for a moment before continuing, "I don't understand, how did he come up with it. I don't know if you can understand the feeling, it's like a light coming from the sky, but when we look up, we can't find the light source. ”

Also looking at the whiteboard that had been filled, Schultz suddenly smiled and said in a somewhat emotional tone.

"It's nothing strange, we don't understand, it's just that we don't know how long he's been wandering in front of the maze. And before making a grand achievement, he doesn't seem to be willing to write down the phased results in a paper and share them with us. ”

"So, I can understand your confusion, my friend. Because the equations are the same for me, they're not so obscure that they can't be understood, but they still give me this unreal feeling. As in the writings of Mr. Grothendieck, almost every scholar who has delved into this field has delved into the classics that are regarded as the bible of algebraic geometry. However, when we try to follow his train of thought and trace the origin of his thinking about why he came to this way, this kind of arrogant idea will most likely fail. It's like ......"

At this, Schultz paused.

As if looking for an apt metaphor, he pondered for a long time.

At this moment, the filled whiteboard on the stage has been dragged aside by the staff and replaced with a brand new whiteboard.

Lu Zhou, who was standing in front of the whiteboard, only paused for a few seconds, then raised the pen in his hand and continued to write it.

At this time, Schultz finally thought of it.

Almost subconsciously, the unfinished words blurted out of his mouth.

“…… It's like coming from the void. ”

"It's as if those equations don't belong to this world at all."

-

(Note 1: Sir Attiyah himself complained publicly about this during the question session of the Heidelberg Presentation, and in fact it is rare for scholars like him to encounter frequent rejections, especially in places like Arxiv, where even folk mathematicians are treated leniently.)

A failed proof of a major mathematical proposition claims to be a terrible blow to a scholar's reputation, and the end result of several successive failures is the loss of everyone's trust, and even the aura of the Fields Medal and the Abel Medal can be eclipsed by the damage to academic reputation. It can be seen that academia is an extremely realistic place. ）