Technology invades the modern world

Chapter 71 The Grandmaster's Style is Unrivaled
Although China has done sufficient research on Chen Jingrun's growth background.

But not enough.

Some more essential things are difficult to conceal.

Harvey Cohen had some guesses about the origins of this young Chinese man named Chen Dehui. He suspected that he was from China.

The other party has a solid foundation in number theory and a unique understanding of sieve methods, but his understanding is too narrow and there is a serious disconnect with contemporary mathematics.

Just from the interview and daily conversations, Harvey Cohen felt that the other party's skills were very similar to those of his fellow mathematician Hua Luogeng who had returned to China.

In the 40s, Hua Luogeng was a visiting scholar at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, and later worked as a visiting scholar at the University of Illinois for two years before returning to China. Harvey Cohen and Hua Luogeng met at an academic conference.

Technically, he is similar to Hua Luogeng in one respect, and wanting to use the sieve method to solve the Goldbach conjecture is another point.

The sieve method mentioned by Chen Jingrun clearly has the shadow of Hungarian mathematical master Alfred Reiney.

Alfred Rennie used the sieve method to study the Goldbach conjecture as early as 1948. He used the large sieve method to prove that there is a number K such that every even number is a prime number and the sum of the numbers whose products can be written at most is a prime number.

Chen Jingrun's subsequent Chen Theorem was a further strengthening of Alfred Rennie's work.

Obviously, Chen Jingrun had been exposed to the work of Alfred Reni and had a deep understanding and grasp of his work. This was because Hungary and China were currently in the same camp, and the academic achievements of both sides could flow between each other.

It's like in martial arts novels, where your every move can reveal which sect you come from. You wear a mask and try every way to conceal your sect and origin, but top masters can still see through it at a glance.

The same is true for mathematics.

You can improve your identity and background, but you cannot hide the traces of your mathematical techniques in front of a master.

In other words, this is also Lin Ran's fault. During the Hong Kong seminar, Lin Ran did not teach much mathematics. He talked about harmonic analysis and algebraic geometry. He kept trying to slip Chen Jingrun some private information, which led to Chen Jingrun being exposed in front of Harvey Cohen.

Fortunately, Lin Ran was very selective when he helped Chen Jingrun choose his mentor. Harvey Cohen didn't care whether you were from China or not. He even wanted to take the initiative to help Chen Jingrun cover up.

Asking Chen Jingrun to make up for his shortcomings in other areas was actually a hint to him to learn more martial arts from other schools. His master could help him cover up his shortcomings, but if they were discovered by others, they might not necessarily help him cover up.

"In addition, Chen, the sieve method is a very useful tool. Bruun used it to prove the convergence of the reciprocal of the sum of twin primes, and Selberg used it to make a more accurate upper bound estimate.

But it has obvious limitations. On the one hand, the screening method relies on combinatorial techniques rather than profound function analysis, which is a bit too rough.

You see? It's hard to control the error term, like if we were dealing with prime numbers, the error term would accumulate as you expand the range of your sieving.

I don't deny that it is an effective tool, but it needs to be combined with more methods to play a greater role.

For example, Selberg's sieve method used analytical tools. He introduced the Riemann zeta function and Dirichlet L function, and used the analytical technique of the sum of squares to optimize the upper bound.

It can enhance the power of sieve methods by combining it with other mathematical methods, including number theory. You also need to read more cutting-edge papers and improve your methods."

Harvey Cohen's words sound quite earnest, and his subtext is actually to say that you should learn some other martial arts to cover up your origins.

Because they had just met, Harvey Cohen was unable to reveal his true thoughts.

Lin Ran was about to take up his post in the White House. If he exposed it now, who knows what kind of trouble it would cause. Harvey Cohen didn't care whether Lin Ran worked for China or not. From the Manhattan Project to NASA, how many of America's top scientists worked for the Soviet Union?

So what if Lin Ran really works for China?
However, Harvey Cohen also didn't think that Lin Ran would really work for China. He could smell the scent of China from Chen Jingrun's moves, but from Lin Ran, he could only smell the scent of a master.

Every move was natural and perfect, with the style of a master, unmatched.

Earlier in the seminar, everyone said that surrender sounded a bit exaggerated, but Harvey Cohen understood very well that it was not an exaggeration at all.

Because the most abnormal thing about this guy Randolph is that not only did he produce Fields-level results one after another, but after reading his papers, no one could find any way to improve it.

Generally, a master will produce a result, and then everyone can create a series of results along this direction.

The easiest thing is to improve the master's thesis results.

For example, Wiles's Fermat conjecture was subsequently improved from 130 pages to 50 pages. This is also an achievement.

But Lin Ran's paper could not be changed beyond a certain point, and the published version was already a perfect result. At least no one could find any angle for improvement at the moment.

In addition, Lin Ran not only solves the problem himself and creates a universal method, but also comes up with a new conjecture for you.

It's a bit too perverted.

Therefore, at the New York number theory seminar where Lin Ran did not attend, everyone privately discussed how amazing Lin Ran was and could not imagine how Göttingen could let such a talent go.

As the former head of Göttingen and a master in the field of number theory, Siegel had come to New York before and was invited by Harvey Cohen to attend a number theory seminar. He couldn't help but be asked why Göttingen let Lin Ran go.

Originally, Siegel planned to be a visiting scholar at Columbia University for half a year, but because he was speechless when asked questions, he ended up staying for only a month before returning to Göttingen.

It would be much easier to go back and face Doylin alone than to be ridiculed by the crowd in New York.

Because of this, Harvey Cohen, a mathematics master who is only in his twenties, subconsciously wanted to defend the other party. He also did not think that Lin Ran was really a Chinese. At most, he sympathized with China.

This is perfectly normal in America.

There are many Jewish scientists from Germany in the American academic community, and many of them have also supported Germany's development in various ways. Is it strange that Chinese people would sympathize with China and want to help?

The academic atmosphere in the 60s was still quite open.

Appoints Randolph Lin as Special Assistant for Space Affairs
Randolph Lin is appointed Special Assistant to the President for Space Affairs. Reporting directly to Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, Lin's responsibilities will include advising the President on space-related policy, overseeing NASA's operations, and participating in space-related affairs.

This appointment took effect from March 1961, 3.

Signed: John F. Kennedy

The United States

(End of this chapter)