The top student must be diligent.

Chapter 178 Professor Xiao

The next International Congress of Mathematicians will basically have nothing to do with Xiao Yi.

Oh, there is still some connection, because for each International Congress of Mathematicians, each award-winning mathematician will be specially arranged a lecture by the organizing committee. For example, if you win the Chern Award, you will be arranged a Chern Award Lecture, and if you win the Gauss Award, you will be arranged a Gauss Award Lecture.

Naturally, Fields Medal winners also have a Fields Medal Lecture.

Basically, I share with the audience the joy of winning the award, the experience I have gained from learning mathematics, and communicate with the audience and answer some questions.

Basically, the contents of the lectures were all thought up on the spur of the moment. After all, no one would have thought that they would win an award before the conference officially opened.

Xiao Yi's lecture was scheduled on the 8th day. There were quite a lot of people attending. Probably everyone wanted to know how this genius, who was able to win the Fields Medal at the age of , did it.

There are so many questions I want to ask him.

What else can Xiao Yi say about this?

You can't say that your learning efficiency is twenty times that of a normal person, right?

Naturally, I repeated to these foreigners what I had said to Liang Qiuhao and the others that day.

These foreigners not only marvel at his efforts, but also feel impressed by his talent.

There were quite a few media reporters attending his lecture, and he will probably brag about it again after it's over.

However, with the end of this report, this International Congress of Mathematicians had nothing to do with Xiao Yi anymore.

Of course, by the 8th day, the conference had come to an end, and the closing ceremony began on the evening of the second day.

“…I’m glad we spent such a fulfilling 9 days.”

“Every day, we gain something, and every day, we appreciate the wonders of mathematics here.”

"On the first day, we witnessed the solution of the Yang-Mills existence and mass gap problems, which made an extremely deep impression on us and also brought two important new theories and methods to the mathematics and physics communities."

"And every day after that, there were wonderful reports..."

"…But unfortunately, any happy gathering will eventually end. I just hope that every friend can remember these nine days."

"Whether it's math or the delicious food we prepare at the Parkland Hotel."

Everyone present smiled.

Indeed, for the vast majority of participants, especially the young students and some pure math enthusiasts, they really couldn’t understand those lectures, but they certainly understood the food at the banquet.

Of course, Xiao Yi also deeply agreed with this.

Indeed, he also remembered the Russian beef stew in puff pastry.

"…Finally, on behalf of the organizing committee, I declare that this International Congress of Mathematicians has come to a successful conclusion!"

“May every friend be blessed with knowledge.”

"Transcend your own mind and master the universe!"

The thunderous applause also represented the complete end of this conference.

On July 7, those who had booked their flights also embarked on their journey back home.

Xiao Yi is naturally the same.

And this time, he was on the same flight with Ye Cheng and the others.

Chatting from time to time along the way made this 9-hour air journey less boring.

And just like that, nine hours later, the plane landed at Shanghai International Airport.

"Brother Xiao, when will you return to Fei City?"

At the exit, it was time to separate, and Xiao Yi was surrounded by his classmates from USTC.

Xiao Yi smiled and said, "I'll go back when I have time."

"You're not coming back during the summer vacation?"

Xiao Yi was stunned: "Is it summer vacation?"

Thinking about the time carefully, it is indeed mid-July and it is time for school holidays.

However, he now has no concept of holidays.

After thinking for a moment, he nodded and said, "Then I should go back in a few days."

"We'll meet again when we have time."

"okay!"

Ye Cheng and the others immediately smiled and nodded.

In the end they didn't say anything more.

"Then, Brother Xiao, we'll leave first."

"Ah."

Xiao Yi nodded and waved to them.

As the people around him dispersed, he suddenly noticed that there were a few familiar faces standing outside the original crowd.

There were many people including Xi Lan, the dean of the Institute of Mathematics, Pang Cheng, the director of the Institute of Physics, Xun Yong, his mentor in the School of Mathematics, and many others.

"Academician Xi! Academician Pang!"

He was surprised, then walked up and asked, "Why are you here?"

Xi Lan and Pang Cheng both smiled, walked up to him, and said, "Of course we are here to welcome you, our great hero."

"welcome back!"

Xiao Yi smiled and said, "I didn't do anything..."

"How can you call this a failure?" The two academicians rolled their eyes. Afterwards, without arguing with Xiao Yi about this topic, Xi Lan said, "Let's go back to the institute first. I have something to announce."

"What's the matter?" Xiao Yi asked puzzledly.

"Guess." Both academicians smiled mysteriously.

Xiao Yi rolled his eyes. Are you still keeping it a secret?
We went to the airport specifically and made such a big fuss to pick him up, but in the end all they said to him was "guess".

He was too lazy to guess, so he didn't say much and followed them back to the Basic Science Park.

When he arrived at the entrance of the Science Park, he saw a classic scene: four banners were hung on the gate.

[Congratulations to Xiao Yi, a 2021 PhD student from the School of Mathematics and Systems Science, for proving the world-class difficult problems: Yang-Mills existence and the mass gap problem! ]

[Congratulations to Xiao Yi, a 2021 doctoral student at the Institute of Mathematics and Systems Science, for winning the Fields Medal! ]

As for the other two banners, the content is the same, but the unit in front is changed to the Institute of Physics.

"This……"

Xiao Yi was a little amused.

Xi Lan, who was standing next to him, immediately pointed at Pang Cheng and said, "Pang, you are making a fool of yourself in front of Xiao Yi. I've already told you, why are you from the Institute of Physics joining in the fun? You should quickly ask them to take down your banners."

Pang Cheng immediately glared at him and said, "Bullshit, the mass gap problem is a physics problem. It should be our Institute of Physics that should hang this banner. Are you from the School of Mathematics taking advantage of it?"

Xi Lan retorted: "Bullshit, you said the Fields Medal is a mathematics award or a physics award? What does it have to do with your physics?"

Seeing that the two were about to fight, Xiao Yi quickly said, "You two, stop arguing. You can both stick it on. I didn't say no."

Xiao Yi tried to mediate the fight, and the two academicians gave him face, snorted coldly at each other, and continued walking into the science park.

Xiao Yi shook his head helplessly. At this time, Xun Yong walked up to him and said to him with a smile: "Just get used to it, just get used to it."

"But then again, in the past, we all saw each other every day, so the relationship between our School of Mathematics and the Institute of Physics was pretty good. But when you came, these two old men started to dislike each other."

Xun Yong said with a smile: "You kid, you are almost as good as a succubus."

Xiao Yi: “…”

Damn succubus, you are over 40 years old and you even know this thing, what do you usually watch?

After entering the Science Park, they went straight to the office building.

"I'll go get someone to come to the conference room first. You take Xiao Yi to meet him first."

Xi Lan said to Pang Cheng.

Pang Cheng nodded, and then said to Xiao Yi: "Come on, I'll take you to see someone first."

Xiao Yi was puzzled. Meeting someone?
Which important figure is this?

Pang Cheng didn't say anything and took him to a reception room.
After entering the reception room, Xiao Yi saw an old man sitting on the sofa inside.

The old man was holding a stack of printed articles in his hand.

Xiao Yi could recognize the content at a glance. It was his paper "The Existence of a Strictly Positive Mass Gap in Yang-Mills Theory". After the International Congress of Mathematicians, his report was published as a conference paper. Anyone interested can download the original text of his paper on the official website.

Obviously, this was the paper the old man was reading.

But who is this old man?

At this moment, the old man probably heard the noise, then turned his head and looked at Xiao Yi, and immediately smiled: "Hello, Xiao Yi!"

Xiao Yi was stunned: "Mr. Yang!"

The old man in front of you is Mr. Yang Zhenning, the originator of the law of parity non-conservation and Yang-Mills theory, the Nobel Prize winner in Physics, and the living master of physics in today's physics community.

Seeing Xiao Yi's surprised expression, Old Yang laughed and said, "Being able to make a young master of mathematics and physics surprised by me means that I have no regrets in my later years."

Xiao Yi didn't know whether to laugh or cry: "You are the master, I am still young."

"So you are the young master." Old Yang said with a smile, then waved to Xiao Yi, motioning him to sit next to him.

Xiao Yi also sat down quickly, and Pang Cheng nodded to Mr. Yang, then left the reception room.

"To be honest, when I heard someone tell me a few months ago that the mass gap problem might be mathematically proven, I was a little bit incredulous. I know very well how difficult this problem is. From a mathematical point of view, it is too difficult. It doesn't seem like it can be solved in this century."

"But after I heard it was you, I started to half-believe it. Although I still don't believe it completely, I still feel there is a little hope."

"And now, I am very happy that you have succeeded in doing this."

Elder Yang patted Xiao Yi on the shoulder and said, "No matter what, I would like to congratulate you first."

"Thank you." Xiao Yi nodded.

Elder Yang waved his hand and said, "Your graduation ceremony will be held soon. I don't think I will have much time to chat with you."

"I'll just talk to you about life."

Hearing his words, Xiao Yi was stunned.

Graduation ceremony?
So, what Academician Xi Lan and others want to announce is their graduation?

But before he could think about it any further, Mr. Yang had already started talking about the next words.

He put aside his surprise for the moment and listened attentively.

"I also read your answers in the interview."

"If I get it, I'm lucky. If I lose it, I'm doomed. The fact that you can see these truths clearly at your age makes me sigh. Perhaps there are really people who are born with knowledge."

Old Yang smiled and patted Xiao Yi on the shoulder.

Xiao Yi was speechless.

Is he born with knowledge?

Obviously not. As for why he has such a mentality, it is probably because during the more than ten hours of study every day, in addition to studying the current topic, the things he thinks about in his mind, or the occasional brilliant ideas that emerge, are unimaginable to anyone else, no matter how top scholars or transcendent hermits they are.
The intelligence of a normal person is only around 100, so how can a normal person imagine 20 times this intelligence?

Mr. Yang smiled and said, “Perhaps it is precisely because I don’t have this kind of mentality that I have made many mistakes.”

"According to what others say, it's a slap in the face."

"Back then, Pauli denied my parity violation, and then he was slapped in the face. Later, because I didn't like the concept of symmetry breaking introduced into Yang-Mills theory, I denied the Higgs mechanism for nearly 50 years, even though theoretically, the Higgs mechanism made the gauge field a huge success."

"It wasn't until 2012, when the Higgs particle was discovered in the LHC, that I had to admit it. I was slapped in the face in the same way."

Mr. Yang smiled and said, "However, there is a saying that goes, the history of physics is the history of slapping people in the face. In this constant slapping of faces, our physics will become better and better."

"Just like the W boson mass problem you discovered, it completely refuted the results that were originally recognized by the physics community."

Xiao Yi smiled and nodded in approval.

Just like that year, not long after the sentence "the edifice of physics has been basically completed" was uttered, two dark clouds floated over the top of the building.

Afterwards, Mr. Yang continued to talk to Xiao Yi about many things, both about life and academics.

Of course, he didn't do it in a didactic way, he just told a story.

An unknown amount of time passed before there was a knock on the door of the reception room. Pang Cheng walked in and said, "Mr. Yang, Xiao Yi, everything is ready over there. Everyone is here."

"Okay, I've basically finished talking to Xiao Yi."

Old Yang said with a smile, and then he was about to stand up.

But after all, he was over 90 years old and his body was not very healthy, so Xiao Yi quickly supported him.

Elder Yang nodded to Xiao Yi and said to him: "Although he didn't say anything, he understood a little of my wish."

“It’s great to see talents like you appear in our country.”

"Qian Xuesen asked Qian Xuesen's question back then, and I later asked Yang Zhenning's three questions."

"But now it seems that you have answered these questions."

Old Yang smiled and patted Xiao Yi on the shoulder, then walked out the door without saying anything more.

……

Led by Pang Cheng, they also came to the meeting room.

At this time, there were already quite a few people sitting in the conference room, including people from the School of Mathematics and the School of Physics.

Xiao Yi also met his younger classmates.

It seemed that Zou Qiao and Gong Weihua, who had been Professor Xun Yong's students at the same time, were also sitting among them and were waving at him.

There are also two banners hanging on the front wall of the conference room: [Graduation Ceremony for Doctoral Student Xiao Yi from the Institute of Mathematics and Systems Science].

The other banner, as expected, is from the Institute of Physics.

When Xiao Yi walked in.

Xi Lan and Pang Cheng smiled and said to him, "Congratulations, you've graduated."

Although he had just learned about this from Elder Yang, Xiao Yi still cooperated and pretended to be surprised and said, "What?"

Old Yang next to him noticed Xiao Yi's look and couldn't help laughing, but did not expose him.

"Considering your report at the International Congress of Mathematicians, we decided at that time that it was time for you to graduate directly." Xi Lan said with a smile.

Xun Yong beside him also smiled and said, "It's really too stressful to have a Fields Medal winner as our doctoral student here, so it's better to let you graduate as soon as possible."

Pang Cheng also nodded to show his agreement.

Xiao Yi pretended to be shocked at first, and after a moment, he showed an expression of acceptance and nodded.

"Then please take your seats and finish today's graduation ceremony."

Afterwards, Xiao Yi sat in the front seat and began his doctoral graduation ceremony.
It's also a process.

First, Xi Lan went up to give a speech, which was nothing more than praising things, then his mentor also went up to praise things, and then Pang Cheng also went up to praise things.

Mr. Yang was also invited and gave a speech.

Finally, Xiao Yi received the Doctor of Science degree certificate jointly awarded by the two major research institutes from Xi Lan and Pang Cheng.

Whether it is mathematics or physics, they all belong to science.

Finally, amid applause, Xiao Yi’s student days had completely ended.

Nineteen years have passed, marking the end of the most important period in a person's life.

"Well, finally, Xiao Yi."

Just after the graduation photo was taken, Xi Lan next to Xiao Yi said to Xiao Yi: "On behalf of the Institute of Mathematics, I would like to officially hire you to be our researcher. Are you willing?"

Pang Cheng also smiled and said, "On behalf of the Institute of Physics, I would like to invite you to become a researcher at our Institute of Physics. How about that?"

At the same time, the two of them handed the employment letter to Xiao Yi.

Xiao Yi was stunned for a moment, looking at the two employment letters, then said with a smile: "I have no reason to refuse."

Then, he took the two letters of appointment from the two men.

"Haha, then welcome Professor Xiao to join our institute (research institute)!"

Others present also smiled and applauded.

"Welcome Professor Xiao!"

Listen to their names.

Professor Xiao?
Hearing this title, Xiao Yi laughed. It seemed that he would no longer have to be called Mr. Xiao in various occasions in the future.

It's Professor Xiao.

(End of this chapter)