Chapter 1027 - Witnessing History

Lu Zhou was right.

Xiao Ai uploaded the thesis around five minutes ago, the same time his system mission prompt appeared.

However, even though the paper was uploaded, it was difficult to read it.

Because during those five minutes...

The arXiv server had crashed!

Normally, this kind of academic website didn’t have a large number of visitors. Due to server operating costs, the servers often had a small capacity.

But almost every single mathematician in the world received a notification of the Riemann’s hypothesis proof.

It was 9 am in America, even scholars outside of mathematics went to arXiv and began downloading the paper.

The arXiv administrator had no idea what was going on. He thought they were under a DDOS attack.

Then, the server went down.

MathOverflow, a mathematics forum to mathematicians, had completely blown up.

[Proof of Riemann’s hypothesis! Did you guys see the paper on arXiv?!]

[See my as*! The website is down!]

[I was fortunate enough to see it... I thought there was a mistake.]

[Jesus, today’s not April fools!]

[Has anyone finished reading the thesis? What does it say? Does it prove it?]

[This is beyond my scope of research, but I think Professor Tao is reading the paper right now. He just postponed all of his lectures and meetings for the next week.]

[Wait a second, is Tao at ICM? Did he go to St. Petersburg?]

[He didn’t go this year, what a shame.]

Professor Tao wasn’t the only person that regretted not going to the conference.

In fact, many scholars that didn’t go to this conference due to various reasons felt deeply regretful.

Why does it have to be this year?

Why is this year the year I didn’t go?

Professor Lu’s 60-minute report was happening in two days, and the report topic happened to be on Riemann’s hypothesis.

On the other hand, in the executive lounge at the Corinthia Hotel.

Two famous mathematics professors sat by the window in a low-key manner.

One was Faltings, the other was Deligne.

The two were drinking coffee while talking about the world of mathematics.

“... What happened to Miss Pulyuy is so unfortunate. This is a heavy blow to the entire mathematics community. I wanted to invite her to work with me. I didn’t expect something like this to happen.”

“Life is cruel... We can only hope she lives out the rest of her days in the best way possible.”

Professor Deligne sighed and looked at Faltings as he said, “Speaking of which, you’re an old man now, aren’t you going to take a break?”

“Not yet, I want to leave behind something before I retire... I understand how Sir Atiyah feels now.”

Professor Deligne looked nonchalantly and didn’t respond.

There were too many sad things happening at once.

Suddenly, he heard footsteps from the executive lounge entrance.

He saw Professor Fefferman walking over.

Fefferman looked like he just saw a ghost.

Professor Deligne frowned and was about to speak, but Fefferman spoke first.

The second he spoke, everyone froze.

“Riemann’s hypothesis was proven.”

Everything went silent.

One could hear a pin drop on the ground.

Professor Faltings didn’t even raise his head as he said, “Impossible.”

Professor Deligne also shrugged and said, “Hilarious joke.”

Professor Fefferman knew they would say this, so he said to Deligne, “Your student proved it.”

Suddenly, the expressions on the two professors’ faces changed drastically.

Especially Professor Faltings. He opened his mouth and looked up.

“... You’re talking about Lu Zhou?”

“Yes.” Professor Fefferman nodded and said, “He’s Deligne’s only student researching number theory.”

“...”

Professor Faltings and Professor Deligne looked at each other.

Professor Deligne was muddled.

His fingers trembled as he adjusted his glasses. He then stared at Professor Fefferman and asked, “Are you sure he said that?”

Professor Fefferman thought back to the scene at lecture hall 7. He sighed and spoke.

“I’m not sure, but he has already uploaded the thesis to arXiv. You can find it on MathOverflow. The entire mathematics world is talking about this, and researchers have already begun reading his paper...”

Professor Deligne took a deep breath. However, he didn’t immediately go on arXiv. Instead, he leaned into his chair and relaxed.

Faltings did the same.

Faltings looked at Deligne and spoke.

“We’re witnessing history here.”

After a while, Deligne spoke.

“Yeah...

“This is happening so suddenly.”

If Lu Zhou had really proved Riemann’s hypothesis, then the proof of number theory theorems would be reduced by half, while the length of number theory textbooks would double.

Of course, assuming Lu Zhou was right.