November 25th.

Heavy rain in North Rhine-West** makes one wonder if the Rhine will overflow its embankment.

Situated on the right bank of the Rhine, an unassuming research institute is suffering from such problems at this moment.

The gray-black stone bricks were mottled with time, and they emitted a low mournful cry under the baptism of wind and rain, like an old man leaning under the grapevine trellis, reezing softly for the time that was short.

Of course, the bad weather doesn't matter much compared to the things that really bother it.

As a witness to the past glory of the Göttingen School, and the inheritor of the Bourbaki School, it has been thinking about the world for nearly two hundred years, and it is no surprise that it will continue to do so.

However, this is probably the first time.

Because of a certain problem, it is so bothered......

The door opened, and an old man walked in from outside the institute on water-soaked steps.

Shaking off the drops of water from his raincoat, he handed it to his assistant, who had just arrived from his home, and Professor Faltins, who had just arrived from his home, rubbed his hands in the white mist, and walked in the direction of the conference room.

It has been more than a month since I returned to Europe from China.

In the space of more than a month, a lot has happened in the world of mathematics.

Beginning with the paper on the proof of the Beilinson-Bloch conjecture published in Future Mathematics, the study of motive and the theory of cohomology in algebraic geometry was pushed directly from the shallows near the shore to the deep waters.

A large number of research results have emerged in this field, and people are increasingly convinced that Grothendieck's predictions about algebraic geometry are close at hand, and that they are most likely correct.

If there are not too many accidents, perhaps in their lifetime, most people will hope to see that day.

The day when algebra and geometry were in a sense unified!

"Long time no see, Professor Faltins." Looking at Faltins who walked in from outside the conference room, an old man who looked a little blessed, with a smile on his face, enthusiastically stretched out his right hand to greet him.

"Speaking of which, it's been six years since we last met you in the Blue Room in Stockholm."

"Don't come unharmed, Sanak, you're finally here," his hand shook slightly, and Faltins glanced at his belly like a ball tightened by rope, and the corners of his mouth couldn't help but tug, "It seems that your life has been good in recent years." ”

"It's okay," Sanak smiled heartily, "your humor is still so unpleasant." ”

Professor Sanak, the former editor-in-chief of the Annals of Mathematics and the winner of the 2014 Wolf Prize in Mathematics, may not be the academic best, but it must be the world-renowned.

As for why the former editor-in-chief of the Annals of Mathematics is here......

The reason, of course, is the same as that of Deligne, who sat at the conference table and flipped through the minutes without saying a word, they all sat here for the same reason, for the same goal.

This meeting of the mathematical community gathered almost the top scholars of the entire Bourbaki school.

Including Sanak, including Grothendieck's most proud protégé Deligne, as well as Faltins, who is known as the first person after the Pope of Mathematics, and Schultz, a young scholar recognized by Faltins as the most promising to surpass him......

And now, this meeting has been going on for three whole days.

"Now that everyone is here, let's go straight to today's topic," Faltins said slowly as he walked to the conference table and sat down tremblingly, looking at the pouring rain outside the window, "Winter is coming in a few days, and it's too uncomfortable to sit together for a meeting like this." ”

"I agree with you," Professor Deligne said, pushing the reading glasses on the bridge of his nose and in a steady voice, finally finishing the minutes of the meeting in his hand, "I can't stand the point of Europe the most, because it rains a lot at this time of year, and my coat doesn't dry for a day. ”

Faltins' proposal was unanimously endorsed by more than a dozen participants.

This seminar, which was based on the theory of great unification, quickly kicked off.

The first speaker was Schultz, who reported on his study of the morphomorphic Hom (hX, hY) of smooth projective clusters on k over the past month, identifying it as a non-abelian category.

As soon as this idea was published, it immediately attracted the attention of all participants.

It is well known that the Abelian category is the basic framework of cohomology algebra, and if the morphism of smooth projective clusters on k is a non-abelian category, it undoubtedly negates the way they had speculated that the most likely solution to the grand unified theory was through the methods of the upper cohomology group and algebraic topology theory.

Although this result is somewhat frustrating, it proves that an idea is not feasible, and it saves a lot of valuable time.

At least now they don't have to discuss an indeterminate proposition with uncertain probabilities while assuming the various possibilities of Hom(hX,hY).

The meeting lasted a full two hours.

Almost everyone unreservedly put their month-long research results on the table for discussion, until the meeting came to an end.

Looking at the scribbled lines of notes in his notebook, Faltins nodded his head with some satisfaction.

Compared to yesterday, some progress has been made today.

In addition to proving that it is a waste of time to study the morphism of smooth projective clusters on k using the methods of cohomology groups and algebraic topology theory, they successfully deduced the category of smooth projective clusters on k as V(k) through algebraic chain theory, which verified one of Grothendieck's conjectures about the standard conjecture.

On a normal day's basis, this exhilarating result alone would have been enough for them to open at least one bottle of champagne.

It is not just a phased achievement of the theory of grand unification.

At the same time, this is also a phased achievement of verifying the standard conjecture.

Now, however, instead of mentioning the champagne, no one even felt any optimism about it, a sense of urgency grew in their hearts.

Algebraic chain theory is not a particularly complicated approach, and Faltins believes that if they could figure it out, that person would have figured it out too.

He has not published a single paper for more than a month.

Either he is stuck in a bottleneck, or he is brewing something more amazing.

Faltins is more inclined to believe that the latter is more likely.

After more than a month of struggle, he no longer has the luxury of solving this proposition by himself or Schultz's strength.

There may be some selfishness in it, but it's definitely not for yourself.

He now only hoped that he would be able to unite the forces of the entire Bourbaki school to overcome this difficulty, so that the glory of this school could continue to be continued, rather than obscured by the light of a brighter lighthouse.

If that person really completes the Grand Unification Theory......

Unlike the Riemann conjecture, which makes thousands of theorems rise to propositions, the Grand Unified Theory will have thousands of theorems in a straight line.

This achievement will even exceed all the mathematical achievements of the 20th century combined.

And having accomplished this great cause, there is no doubt that his achievements will reach the pinnacle of history......

End of meeting.

The participants got up and left.

Putting away the notebook, just as Professor Faltins was about to get up, he suddenly noticed the smartphone on the desk, the screen flickered, and a line of unread email reminders popped up.

His index finger tapped on the screen, and he picked up his phone to take a look at who sent the email.

But the moment his eyes touched the email, he was stunned.

The body is short.

It's so short that it's only six letters—

【Finish.】