Chapter 8, The Speed of Information Transmission within the Circle

At this moment, Fan Zhenhua was organizing the reports placed on his desk. As the president of the Huaxia Mathematical Society, he was invited to attend the National Mathematical Logic Conference to be held tomorrow at Huaxia Capital University, and to give a report on the recent progress in mathematical research in Huaxia after the opening ceremony

"OK!" Fan Zhenhua casually agreed, his hand operating the mouse eagerly opened the email, found the invitation to review from the "Mathematics Annual", and accepted it at the fastest speed.

If it were not for the fact that the Capital University of Economics and Business is too close, and that this is the first time in recent years to hold such a relatively large-scale mathematics academic conference, Fan Zhenhua would actually prefer not to attend. He has also been quite busy lately, as the China Mathematical Society is currently organizing the first BRICS Mathematicians Conference to enhance academic ties among BRICS countries.

It is important to recognize that a scientist's intuition regarding their research direction is often quite accurate; this is not a matter of theology, but rather a judgment provided by the subconscious after extensive immersion in a particular field

This time, Fan Zhenhua was truly taken aback, and he instinctively murmured: "Ningjia Village, no, it should be the agricultural machinery factory, right? Wait, are you saying this paper was written by a Huaxia person?"

At this moment, Fan Zhenhua felt completely disheveled.

It is already half past twelve at night, yet the lights in an office on the second floor of the courtyard are still on

The professor Higginson from Princeton University on the other end of the phone is already at the forefront of research on the Navier-Stokes equations. In particular, his computational model for magnetohydrodynamic flow derived from the Navier-Stokes equations has led a wave of development in academia. He has also received the Fields Medal for his achievements in this field, making him a prominent figure in the academic world.

No wonder I didn't receive your call. The situation is as follows: Fan, around this time yesterday, Robert C. Kenney, the editor of the Mathematics Annual, personally delivered an article to me, hoping that I could serve as a reviewer. He believes that this article may address the smoothness and uniqueness issues of the Navier-Stokes equations

Hello

If he is willing, I would be very happy to write him a letter of introduction to come to Princeton University for exchange. This commitment is valid indefinitely, provided that I am still alive. I am even eagerly looking forward to the publication of this paper, so that I can discuss some issues in the paper with him.

This is the most important international academic conference organized by the Huaxia Mathematical Society in recent years. As the president of the society, I am naturally extremely busy and must pay attention to both major and minor matters. Therefore, for this relatively unimportant conference report, I simply chose to work overtime the night before to familiarize myself in advance.

Damn it, spring break has just ended, and I now have a pile of chaotic matters at hand; otherwise, I would definitely fly to China to personally extend an invitation to him. Of course, this is all contingent upon your ability to ascertain through conversation that this paper indeed originates from his hand, you understand! I trust your judgment

He soon received a response, and Professor Higginson's tone began to take on an odd quality: "This is precisely the reason I called you, Fan. Do you know of a place in Huaxia called the Dongyu City, Luoyu County, Ningjia Village Machine Factory in Nanhu Province?"

Regardless of the specifics, the author of the paper is indeed a person from China. Therefore, I recommended you to Robert Kahn as one of the reviewers, and the invitation to review should have already been sent to your email. I suggest you take a preliminary look at the paper before reviewing the author's biography

Indeed. However, at his strong recommendation, I spent a day roughly studying this paper. Although there are many questions I have yet to clarify and I still need to spend some time interpreting and verifying, my intuition tells me that this paper may indeed have solved the problem.

Subsequently, Higginson's tone became peculiar again: "By the way, Robert might have sent an invitation letter to Lu at Huqing University, and I am not particularly fond of that guy. So I leave this matter to you."

Huaxia, the capital city, Yanbei University, Capital International Center for Mathematical Research

Although Higginson's pronunciation of the address in Chinese is not very standard, the address itself carries a strong sense of local flavor, especially the agricultural machinery factory named after the village, which should belong to the style of the last century

Is the author of the paper a Huaxia person? And is he still in a small county?

Although there is a general practice of double-blind review in the journal community, top journals do not always adopt this method. Many times, a single-blind review is used, or even a mutual selection process. Especially when the editor-in-chief personally approaches a leading expert in the field to invite them to review a paper, they are unlikely to believe that a double-blind review process will be employed

Fan Zhenhua frowned slightly, initially intending to hang up the phone directly and then switch it to silent mode. However, after glancing at the incoming number, a look of curiosity appeared on his face. He simply set down the report in his hand and picked up the phone.

Hi, Fan, I am very sorry, it should be evening there, right? I hope I am not disturbing your rest

So far, among the seven great problems of the millennium, only the Poincaré conjecture has been completely solved by the Russian genius mathematician, while the four color problem has only been verified at the computational level, but there has still been little progress in number theory

Did you not check your email today, Fan

Hmm, yes, it has been very busy these past few days. Is there something significant happening?" Fan Zhenhua joked lightly while pushing aside the report that had been thrown on the table, dragging the notebook closer to himself, and then picking up the mouse to open the browser, preparing to access his email

Ah? Fan Zhenhua was momentarily lost in thought, his hand gripping the mouse froze in place

The other party fell silent, and after a moment, spoke in a dreamy tone: "I made sufficient psychological preparations before making this call to you. Once you read the author's introduction, you should understand. Perhaps you will, like me, spend an hour questioning whether this world is truly real."

The partial differential equations represented by the Navier-Stokes equations are indeed the research domain of Fan Zhenhua, and he certainly understands the significance of proving the universality of this equation in the field of number theory

The other four questions are not clear to Fan Zhenhua, but the Navier-Stokes equations have been a matter of ongoing concern for him, and so far, the entire academic community has not found a satisfactory solution

Lu? Lu Zhengyue?

After regaining consciousness, Fan Zhenhua asked urgently, "Whose paper is this?"

Suddenly, Fan Zhenhua's phone, which he had casually placed on the table, rang, diverting his attention from the report in front of him

Yes

At this point, Higginson's tone began to grow earnest: "Fan, if possible, I hope you can visit that place on my behalf to meet the author and convey a message for me."

Such a prominent figure in the academic community actually believes that someone has truly solved this problem

Especially at this time, when everything is silent, the work efficiency is extremely high

Yes, Professor Higginson, but it's alright, I am used to staying up late. Is there something urgent?

Ding ding ... ...

Upon hearing this, Fan Zhenhua could not help but speak up: "Wait a moment, I remember that Robert was not studying the Navier-Stokes equations before, was he?"

Small-scale vortices can cause forces to become divergent, which makes proving this problem particularly challenging

In fact, this is one of the seven Millennium Prize Problems established by the Clay Mathematics Institute, with a reward of one million dollars, consistent with other challenges such as the NP-complete problem, the four color problem, the Poincaré conjecture, and the Riemann hypothesis

He did not forget to ask, "Hickinson, this is not your style, why is it just communication? I thought that once it was confirmed that the paper was indeed written by him, you would invite him to teach or to take a position at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton"