The top student must be diligent.

Chapter 154 Expectations of the Mathematical Community
Princeton University, Editorial Board of Annals of Mathematics.

"Good morning, Ron."

"Good morning, Beck."

We arrived at the office on time and the editors of the "Annals of Mathematics" greeted each other.

"It's time to start the daily review work again. I wonder if we can find some valuable papers today."

Ron sat at his workstation and sighed.

"Haha, who said it wasn't?" Baker shrugged.

他们平均每年会收到500-1000篇的投稿，然而最终每年只会发表30~50篇之间，意味着接收率大概只在5%~10%之间。

As for those editors who are not editors-in-chief or deputy editors-in-chief, they rarely see papers of good quality that can be accepted. After all, many authors of papers that can be accepted are big names. If these big names want to submit papers, they will definitely contact their editors-in-chief directly and take the fast track.

After all, who doesn’t want their paper to be approved as soon as possible?

As a result, all the papers of the big names were read by the editor-in-chief, and the task of ordinary editors like them was only to screen out the junk submissions.

There are also many amateur mathematicians who submit papers claiming to have proved the twin prime conjecture, the Goldbach conjecture and the like. Well, the twin prime conjecture has become a thing of the past now, after all, it has been proven, causing those amateur mathematicians to lose a major ground.

However, this has caused the Goldbach conjecture to become a hard-hit area again.

Of course, for editors like them, such papers are quite interesting. At least they can have fun.

"Well, let me see what the submissions are today."

Ron said as he entered the mailbox.

After taking a quick look at the title of the manuscript, he soon lost control.

"Hahaha~ Baker, come and see!"

He waved to Ron who was standing next to him.

"What happened?"

Ron walked over with a puzzled look on his face, took a look at the title on the mailbox, and suddenly he couldn't hold it anymore.

I saw two papers titled "Goldbach's Conjecture" in my mailbox, and they were connected together.
"You are such a lucky guy!" Baker laughed and patted Ron on the shoulder.

According to their experience, these two proofs of the Goldbach conjecture must have been sent by amateur mathematicians.

Although they occasionally receive submissions from amateur mathematicians, it is very rare for them to receive two papers at once, which means they have two things to read.

"Why don't you let me read one of your articles?" Baker said.

"No no no." Ron waved his fingers: "This is my workload!"

These editors also have targets for how many manuscripts they have to read every day.

For them, fun submissions like this are simply a benefit of their work.

"Okay." Baker could only sigh regretfully.

But he didn't say much, and then urged: "Hurry up and open the first article and take a look."

Ron nodded and clicked on the first submission. Well, he didn't recognize the author's name, which made him even more certain that this was a folk mathematician.

I clicked on it and saw that there were only 3 pages of content in total.

Just 3 pages to prove the Goldbach conjecture, right?

The two editors could no longer suppress the curled corners of their lips.

再往下面看，嗯，这个作者先是列举出了一堆符合哥德巴赫猜想结论的例子，比如形如【4=2+2】、【6=3+3】、【8=3+5】的例子。

There were more than a page of such equations listed, and just when Ron and Baker thought that the author was going to say that based on a large number of such examples, they could then use induction to deduce that since so many observed even numbers can be expressed as the sum of two prime numbers, it can be inferred that all even numbers satisfy this condition.

But what surprised them a little was that the author also used a recursive method later.

But... this recursive method is not very smart.

He assumed that for some even number 2n, it is known that all even numbers less than 2n satisfy the Goldbach conjecture, and then proved that 2n also satisfies it. He then claimed that if 2n=p+q does not hold, a suitable prime number pair can be found by adjusting the values ​​of p and q.

And then……

And then it was gone!

Just say the proof is complete!
That’s all for the three pages.

There aren't even any citations.

"That's it?" Baker's eyes widened.

"That's it." Ron shrugged.

What else can they say?

All I can say is, it was expected.

Baker shook his head helplessly, and then urged: "Hurry up and read the second article!"

Ron didn't waste any more time and opened the second article.

I hope the second part can bring them more fun.

"First, let's see who the author of this paper is..."

When they turned their attention to the author's name, they both fell silent.

"This one……"

"Um……"

Finally, they looked at each other.

"Why is the author Xiao Yi?!"
If Xiao Yi wanted to send them a paper, shouldn't he directly contact their editor-in-chief, Professor Sanak?

And the most important thing is...

"He proved the Goldbach conjecture?!"

The two looked at each other and immediately saw each other's shock.

How long has it been since the twin prime conjecture was proved?

Now he has proved the Goldbach conjecture?

Baker said: "What if it's someone with the same name... or someone pretending to be Xiao Yi?"

Ron shook his head and said, "Let's take a look at the paper first. I think we can tell at a glance whether it's his paper or not."

Baker nodded: "That's true."

The papers written by professional mathematicians are completely different from those written by amateur mathematicians, and you can see the difference at a glance.

So he opened the paper and started reading.

Just by reading the abstract, they could confirm that this was the paper written by Xiao Yi himself.

The professionalism involved here is not something that those amateur mathematicians can challenge.

The two editors were silent for a moment, then looked at each other.

"Should we tell Professor Sanak about the paper?"

"I think so too."

Ron nodded.

Taking a look at this paper, it was submitted four days ago.

My God, they only saw such an important submission today.

Could it be that Xiao Yi made a mistake when submitting the article?

And why didn't he post it on arxiv first?
They would probably never realize that the reason for all this was just because Xiao Yi wanted to take a few days off.

……

Soon the two of them ran to their editor-in-chief's office.

At this time, Peter Sanak had just arrived at work. When he saw the two people coming in, he raised his eyebrows and asked with a smile, "Ron, Baker, what's the matter? Of course, except for asking for leave, I just checked my mailbox, and we still have more than 40 manuscripts to read."

"Hey, how can you think of us like that? We certainly aren't asking for leave." Ron said.

Baker said: "Don't worry, if you finish reading it today, it may become more than 50 articles tomorrow."

Sanak glared at Baker unhappily and said, "You don't know how to say nice things. Now, tell me why you came to see me."

"Don't be afraid of what we are going to say."

"I'm the editor-in-chief. I'm not afraid." Sanak leaned back on his chair and said nonchalantly, "Could it be that someone has proved the Riemann hypothesis?"

"Well... that's not the case, it's just..." Ron said, "Xiao Yi proved the Goldbach conjecture!"

"Walter?!" Sanak, who had just leaned back on the chair, sat up straight again. "He published his paper on arxiv? When was it published? How come I didn't know about it?"

As he spoke, he turned on his computer and started logging into aixv, wanting to check: "It should have been posted just now, right? Otherwise, I would definitely know the news... Then I have to call him and ask him to submit his paper to us, so that it won't be snatched away by those other old guys." Baker and Ron were immediately amused and the latter quickly explained: "He didn't post it to arxiv, but submitted it directly to us. I just don't know why, but his paper entered our mailbox, and I have sent it to you just now."

Sanak was stunned. He submitted the manuscript directly to them?

He quickly opened his mailbox and saw the manuscript that Ron had just forwarded to him.

I opened it and took a quick look at the abstract.

Okay, it can be basically confirmed that this is Xiao Yi’s thesis.

He took a deep breath and felt a little surprised.

Xiao Yi’s paper has been published. Does that mean that he has really solved this problem?

Sanak was already feeling a little impatient.

He nodded to the two people and said, "Thank you for telling me the news. I will start reviewing the manuscript now. I will tell you the details after I finish reading it."

Ron and Beck both nodded immediately and left the office.

However, they were all looking forward to the final result.

Is the Goldbach conjecture, the jewel in the crown of number theory, really about to be taken off the table?

……

Time passed quickly.

Today in the editorial office, the editors discovered that their editor-in-chief had not come out of the office for a long time, and even his lunch had to be brought in for him.

Generally speaking, this means that Professor Sanak has come across some very important paper, which is why he is so involved in it.

So, when Ron and Baker entered Sanak's office this morning, they received inquiries from their colleagues.

Afterwards, the news about Xiao Yi proving the Goldbach conjecture spread like wildfire.

Although some people who can serve as editors of the Annals of Mathematics are scholars from other top research institutions or universities, they basically all have close ties with Princeton University. After all, the editorial office is located on the campus of Princeton University.

As a result, the relevant news quickly spread within the Department of Mathematics at Princeton University.

Then, as expected, the news began to spread to the outside world.

In just three days, the entire mathematics community learned of the news, which immediately sparked discussion among many people.

However, most people doubted the authenticity of this matter.

[That's not right. I checked on arxiv and found that Xiao Yi did not publish this paper. ]

[I haven’t found any information either, it must be fake news! ]

[That is to say, if it were true, the original paper would have been circulated everywhere. How could it be that after being circulated everywhere, the original paper could not be found? ]

[I am a graduate student in the Department of Mathematics at Princeton University. This news is actually true. I heard from my supervisor that his friend in the editorial department of the "Annals of Mathematics" revealed that this matter is true. For some reason, Xiao Yi did not put the paper on arxiv, but submitted it directly to the "Annals of Mathematics". It is now being reviewed by Professor Peter Sanak, so you will definitely not be able to find the original paper on arxiv.

I estimate that the Annals of Mathematics will issue a notice in a few days, so you can all look forward to it. 】

[So this is actually true? What a gift! Is Xiao Yi planning to master this genius game of number theory? ]

[Impossible! Absolutely impossible! How long has it been since the twin prime conjecture was proven? The Goldbach conjecture has been proven again? Am I living in a world of fiction?]

[I am the prover of the Goldbach conjecture. Please read my paper "Theory of Principles of Large Analytic Methods in Number Theory" published on arxiv a year ago. In it, I have successfully proved many conjectures in the field of number theory, including the twin prime conjecture, the Goldbach conjecture, the Riemann conjecture, and the abc conjecture.]

[Amateur scientists, get out of the mathematics world! ]

[Your paper was classified in the field of "general math". It was confirmed to be a folk science paper at first glance.]

[You are persecuting geniuses! Time will prove everything! ]

[If it is true, then I will wait for the announcement in the Annals of Mathematics. I am looking forward to the day when the Goldbach conjecture is truly proved.]

……

As various news spread, people in the mathematics community became more and more confused.

So, what news is true?

Just like that, another two days passed.

In the editor-in-chief's office of the Annals of Mathematics.

When the last page of the paper in front of him was turned, Sanak finally breathed a sigh of relief.
"It's really... a perfect paper."

Thinking back to the new theory Xiao Yi proposed in his paper that completely combined Xiao's expansion and the circle method, he felt very emotional.

This is another new theory that is expected to have a significant impact on mathematics.

Xiao Yi is always good at this kind of thing.

Putting down the paper in his hand, he stood up, stretched, and walked out of the office.

Outside the office, editors who noticed Sanak looked toward their editor-in-chief.

A few days ago, it seemed that Professor Sanak almost never left the office before the end of the working day?
I actually came out so early today, could it be...

They suddenly realized something.

At this time, Sanak also knocked on the door, focusing everyone's attention on himself, and then said, "Okay, I have good news for everyone. The Goldbach conjecture has probably been solved!"

"Ohhh!"

Suddenly there was a cry of surprise in the editorial department.

Sanak knocked on the door again to quiet them down, and continued, "Of course, this only represents my review results. As you know, for such important results, a sufficiently professional review committee needs to be formed."

“So, let’s issue a notice and start organizing a review committee.”

Hearing Sanak's words, everyone present suddenly became excited and shouted, "Okay! Mr. Editor-in-Chief!"

Once this announcement was issued, it officially represented that they acknowledged the Goldbach conjecture.

The mathematics community is probably going to be shaken again!

……

As the editors expected, the mathematics community was shaken again as soon as the news came out that they had begun to form a review committee for the Goldbach conjecture.

[I've said it before, the news is true, why do some people just don't believe it? ]

[This world must be crazy! Hahahaha! The twin prime conjecture and the Goldbach conjecture have both been solved! Hahahaha! ]

[It’s over. This person is really crazy. ]

[I almost went crazy, damn Xiao Yi, he actually took away two of my projects! He is so mean! If I were to do these two projects, I would have won the Fields Medal long ago!]

What? You said I can't prove it?

Oh, that's fine! I really can't prove it. 】

【By the way, who are the people on their review committee? 】

[After all, it's the Goldbach conjecture, so Terence Tao must have it, right? And then there's James Maynard, and of course, I think Xiao Yi is definitely indispensable - haha, just kidding, of course I know Xiao Yi is the prover of the paper. ]

【I am already looking forward to the final result. 】

……

In a conference room at Princeton University.

"Well, thank you all for accepting our invitation to serve as reviewers for the proof of the Goldbach conjecture."

Peter Sanak sat in front of the computer, looking at the six top experts in the field of number theory who were invited by them. This was the review committee they organized.

This was their first meeting, and of course, it was an online meeting. After all, the reviewers present were located all over the world and it was impossible to hold an offline meeting.

Terence Tao said with emotion: "I never expected that the last time I received your invitation to serve as a reviewer was the last time, but now it's here again so soon."

"If you have nothing to say, you don't have to say anything." James Maynard shrugged and said, "The only pity is that I didn't get to meet Xiao Yi."

"Xiao Yi is the author. If we meet him here, we will probably be on the headlines tomorrow. The title will be: "Number theorists use whatever means to prove the Goldbach conjecture."

On the other side, Ivanets smiled and said, "Okay, let's not talk so much, Peter, show us the paper quickly, I can't wait."

The other mathematicians nodded, and they were all looking forward to the paper.

"Haha, right here." Peter Sanak nodded with a smile, and then passed the electronic version of the paper to the people present. Then he said: "I have read it once, and I can basically confirm that this paper has been successful."

"Of course, the details will depend on your opinions. So, let's not waste any more time talking. Let's divide the work first, and then we'll officially start the review work."

……

The review work officially began.

Just like that, one month later, the Goldbach Conjecture Review Committee officially announced the result, which was expected by the entire mathematics community.

Goldbach's conjecture was successfully proved!

(End of this chapter)