The rise of a great power: starting with military industry

Chapter 911 Grand Meeting
Kunming City.

Southwest Associated University.

Today is different. Mathematicians from all over the world who have studied number theory try their best to gather in this famous Chinese university.

To date, there are more than a thousand mathematicians from all over the world.

Each of them is a well-known and prominent mathematician.

There are even some big names in mathematics among them, such as Faltings from Germany!

The president of Southwest Associated University, Yang Zhenning, and the dean of the School of Mathematics, Qiu Chengtong, personally came out to welcome mathematicians from all over the world.

Every year, many great scientists come to Southwest Associated University to give speeches and lectures.

However, such a grand event was the only one since the founding of Southwest Associated University.

This event even attracted major mainstream media around the world.

Everyone came to the auditorium of Southwest Associated University and sat down according to the nameplates on their seats.

The entire auditorium was packed with people, even the aisles were filled with people.

Although Southwest Associated University provided accommodation rooms for all scholars invited to participate in the conference and some applicants, not everyone could enjoy this treatment.

The vast majority of attendees who come here for the conference pay for themselves. Some of them are university professors or researchers at a research institute, some are doctoral students attending the conference with their supervisors, and some are students who come in groups or as tourists to admire the academic atmosphere.

In addition to this auditorium, in the major media function halls of Southwest Associated University, large screens were connected to the auditorium, and everyone was staring at the stage.

Student volunteers from Southwest Associated University were maintaining order, and a bottle of mineral water was placed in front of each person's seat.

There was still some time before the report meeting, and everyone was discussing in low voices.

"George, have you read Professor Liu's paper?" Yale asked George, who was sitting next to him, in a low voice.

They are all from the University of California, Los Angeles and are doctoral students.

George nodded. "I've read it several times, but I majored in algebraic geometry and only dabbled in number theory. I haven't done much research."

"So do you think he can succeed?" Yale asked.

"It should be successful." George said, "Although there is no unified conclusion in the academic community, more than 20 famous universities and mathematical research institutions have announced that they have completed the verification of his thesis."

"These are the three major mathematical conjectures in the world. He solved the Fermat conjecture. The key is that he is not in the field of mathematics. It's really annoying. My mentor has been studying Fermat's conjecture for forty years. He almost died of anger when he heard the news." Yale sighed: "The Fields Medal will definitely be awarded to him."

"Fields Medal? Impossible. The Fields Medal is only awarded to mathematicians under the age of 40. Mathematicians over 40 have no chance of winning the Fields Medal." George shook his head.

Today's lecture is Liu Tao's lecture on Fermat's conjecture.

In February 1993, Liu Tao published a paper on the proof of Fermat's conjecture in "Chinese Science". The entire paper was 2 pages long and quickly caused a great response throughout China.

Fermat's conjecture is known as one of the three major mathematical conjectures in the world, along with the four-color conjecture and the Goldbach conjecture. Fermat's conjecture is also one of the difficult problems in number theory. In mathematical terms, when n>2, the inequality formula of Fermat's conjecture "x^n＋y^n=/=z^n" holds.

In 1637, when reading the Latin translation of Diophantus' Arithmetic, P. de Fermat wrote next to Proposition 8, which contained the general solution formula for Pythagorean integer equations: "It is impossible to divide the cube of an integer into the sum of two cubes, or the fourth power of an integer into the sum of two fourth powers, or generally to divide a power higher than the second power into the sum of two powers of the same power. Regarding this, I am sure that I have discovered a 'only beautiful and wonderful reliable proof', but unfortunately the blank space here is too small to write it down."

In the past 360 years, many mathematicians have tried to prove or disprove this conjecture, but all have failed. Countless mathematicians have devoted their entire lives to the study of Fermat's conjecture, but have never been able to solve it.

In 1908, Wolfkell even announced a prize of 10 marks to the first person to prove the theorem.

In February 1993, Liu Tao published a paper proving Fermat's conjecture, which soon caused a great sensation in China. In June 2, the School of Mathematics of Southwest Associated University announced that it had completed the proof of Liu Tao's paper proving Fermat's conjecture, approved the paper, and officially released the 1993-page English version of the paper to the world. Other major universities and mathematical research institutions also began to verify the paper.

The news of Liu Tao's proof of Fermat's conjecture, this explosive mathematical event, quickly made the front page of the New York Times and was also listed as one of the world's top ten scientific and technological achievements in 1993.

What is incredible to the mathematical community is that the person who proved Fermat's conjecture was not a famous mathematician in the mathematical community, but a scholar outside the mathematical community.

Although Liu Tao had published two mathematics papers before, they could only be considered first-class achievements, not top-notch. Compared with Liu Tao's achievements in physics, chemistry, computer science and other fields, no one thought that Liu Tao was a mathematician.

But it was such a person who actually proved Fermat's conjecture.

9 o'clock exactly.

There was no need for anyone to maintain discipline. When the time reached the top of the hour, the meeting room, which had been noisy and chaotic due to whispered discussions, suddenly became quiet.

All the media function halls of Southwest Associated University also fell silent.

Under the watchful eyes of the crowd, Liu Tao walked onto the stage.

After a brief opening speech, the PPT on the big screen turned to the next page and the report got down to business.

After several minutes, Liu Tao faced the audience and gave a brief summary of his proof ideas.

The audience was silent.

Everyone was staring at the pictures and formulas on the big screen, and everyone was listening carefully, not wanting to miss any details, not wanting to miss any moment. After all, this lecture was not easy. Before, Liu Tao was not willing to hold a special lecture for this purpose because he was too busy. Mathematicians gave feedback to Southwest Associated University one by one, hoping that Southwest Associated University could persuade Liu Tao to hold a lecture.

This will be recorded in the history of world mathematics and is a monument in the field of number theory.

This year, Liu Tao finally agreed to give this lecture.

Andrew Wiles was quite disappointed. He had been deeply attracted to Fermat's conjecture since he came across it when he was 10 years old. Proving Fermat's conjecture was his childhood dream. In 1986, after learning about Ken Libet's progress, he immediately devoted himself to the research work of proving the Taniyama-Shimura conjecture.

By 1993, he already had an idea, but Liu Tao had already published the paper.

He was the first person overseas to announce the completion of the proof of Liu Tao's paper on Fermat's conjecture. Liu Tao's paper was impeccable, and there were even many things he had not noticed before.

Andrew Wiles was quite disappointed, but that's how the academic world works: whoever publishes the paper first will reap the rewards first.

(End of this chapter)