From Almighty Scholar to Chief Scientist

Chapter 395 P=NP!
"Now I need someone who understands both physics and mathematics to translate for me. What is Lin's paper about?"

At the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, a physicist clapped the "Science" magazine on his hands, and looked at the other people around him, as if looking for the target person in his words.

And the person next to him said with a smile: "Maldasina, obviously, the person we have here who best fits your description is that guy Witten, but unfortunately, that guy is still in Huaguo, working in Lin's In the research institute, maybe he is discussing with Lin."

"That guy, did he encounter something that made him happy in Huaguo? Or is it that our Princeton Institute for Advanced Study has become unattractive in his eyes?"

Maldacena couldn't help complaining immediately, then lowered his head to look at the paper in his hand, took out his pen at the same time, and continued to deduce the part that stumped him.

It is also the part that makes the editors of "Science" feel confused, the mathematical derivation that needs to be completed by supercomputers

Juan Maldacina, like Edward Witten, is also a professor at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. His main research directions are general relativity and superstring theory.

Although he did not win the Fields Medal in mathematics as a physicist like Witten, he has also won many important awards in theoretical physics due to his research on general relativity, such as the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics, Dirac Medal and Lorenz Medal and other prestigious awards.

In addition to these awards, he is only one step away from the Nobel Prize, but since he is only in his 50s now, he is relatively young compared with other Nobel Prize winners.

Hearing Maldacena's complaints, the professor next to him couldn't help laughing.

This professor is obviously also a bigwig, named Stephen Adler, whose main research is quantum field theory and elementary particles.

And because of his research on these two aspects, he couldn't help but sigh with emotion about Lin Xiao's paper: "But having said that, this paper is really powerful. Gravitons can be stably discovered at 70TeV, which I have never done before." I hope that the CEPC in Huaguo can be completed as soon as possible, so that I can see the birth of gravitons before I die."

Suddenly, Adler's words changed again, and he joked with a smile: "But having said that, now you should believe in the existence of gravitons, right?"

As a researcher of elementary particles, he obviously hopes that gravitons exist.

As a researcher of general relativity, Maldassi belongs to the group that does not believe in the existence of gravitons.

Maldacena curled his lips and said: "I admit that Lin's paper is very good, but I still want to say that unless we can really find traces of gravitons based on his theory, or in the future 70TeV collisions, exactly I will be sure of the existence of gravitons only if I discover gravitons, otherwise, I will keep my non-commentative attitude.”

Adler burst into laughter immediately, and then he didn't care about Maldacina's face, and said, "How come you don't comment now? I remember when Lin published the last paper, you said ' It's just a mathematical coincidence, gravitons or something, impossible, absolutely impossible', and then say 'Lin is just a juggler playing with his mathematical talents in physics, and will never look at him again There are papers on this 'whatever."

"Hey! Speaking of which, you seem to be watching right now?"

Maldacena's face suddenly pulled down, how could such a thing be said directly?

"Adler, it was just a casual remark at the beginning, how can you take it seriously?"

"Yes, yes, yes, no serious." Adler laughed again.

Looking at Adler's teasing smile, Maldassina couldn't bear it at last, so he stood up decisively and said, "I'm leaving, I'm going back to the office to continue my research."

Then he picked up the "Science" magazine and left here.

Adler shook his head with a grin, but didn't say anything.

He could see that Maldacena was very happy with Lin Xiao's paper. After all, Maldacena's most important achievement in the past was his achievement in quantum gravity.

Quantum gravity is a theory that quantifies the gravitational field, which is what theoretical physicists have always wanted to overcome, a theory that unifies the gravitational force of relativity and quantum mechanics.

And Maldacena's most famous achievement is an important achievement in this field, which is the most reliable representation of the holographic principle in the world—that is, the AdS/CFT correspondence, the conjecture about the equivalence of string theory in the ADS space , and the boundaries defined in the AdS space, some theories of quantum gravity are conjectured to be equivalent to other theories of quantum mechanics in one less space-time dimension.

His paper on this achievement was cited more than 2015 times in 1, the most cited paper in the field of high-energy physics, and it has exceeded 2020 times since [-].

It is precisely because of this that Leonard Suskind, known as one of the fathers of string theory, commented on him as "perhaps the greatest theoretical physicist of his generation".

Now, Lin Xiao's thesis will thoroughly combine gravity with quantum mechanics, graviton and relativity. As a researcher in this field, Maldacena will certainly be happy.

And he has no reason to be unhappy, after all, for him, it can even help him to carry out the next research better.

It's just that it is probably because the unification of the two requires the intermediary product of gravitons, which makes him feel a little awkward.

Of course, as long as you accept the current fact, physicists who study relativity and quantum mechanics will no longer have to hold their own opinions as before. In the future, everyone will call each other brothers and say that what they study is the theory of everything. up.

For Stephen Adler, who studies quantum field theory and elementary particles, he just had to have fun.

"Graviton, graviton, hehehe~ It seems that in this final round, our quantum mechanics is better."

He smiled, and finally sighed helplessly. Unfortunately, he is already over 80 years old, and he can only read papers or something at ordinary times. As for spending energy on research and other things, he can't do it.

……

Lin Xiao's thesis has once again become a topic of keen discussion in the scientific community. At the same time, because this time the gap between quantum mechanics and relativity has been resolved, the top theories in the two major physics have finally begun to move towards a unified path, so even Some ordinary people also feel unclear, let alone the theory of everything mentioned in it.

It is called Theory of Everything in Chinese, and [Theory-of-Everything] in English. For various languages, these words that sound powerful can obviously attract the attention of many people, especially when it is linked to science, not When sci-fi.

However, compared with ordinary people's various words such as "lying a trough", "I bought Karma's" and so on, which contain many amazing words, although the scientific community is more active about Lin Xiao's paper, but at the same time Also maintained a more serious attitude.

Because, the entire scientific community felt extremely puzzled by the mathematical methods Lin Xiao used in his proof.

Let’s not talk about how to use supercomputing to deduce the mathematical process. Just talking about the large number of formulas that Lin Xiao needs to run in the supercomputing has already made both mathematicians and physicists have only one thing in mind. Thought, that is "that's weird".

So in a short period of time, no one understood how Lin Xiao thought of using this method to prove it, and it happened to be correct.

No one can imagine where Lin Xiao's idea came from. It seems that there is a method that he suddenly learned from the Creator, and then used this method in the proof process.

Until one week after Lin Xiao’s paper was published, Gerd Faltins, director of the Institute of Mathematics of the Max Planck Society, published a short article describing his views on Lin Xiao’s paper.

[Everyone knows that I am not a physicist, I am just a mathematician, so let’s not talk about the physical achievements of Lin’s paper, I will only talk about the part that everyone wants to know.

At first I learned that part of the mathematical process in Lin's paper was very difficult to know, as if I knew the standard answer in advance, but now I have read it, and now I can be sure that if Lin did not learn from God If there is no standard answer, then there is only one possibility, Lin has already begun to approach God—well, just kidding.

All in all, Lin's process uses the idea of ​​P=NP problem. Although it is hidden deeply, it can be seen that Lin specially provided a method to solve NP problem by solving P problem for his physical problem. Means, that is to say, he simplified this problem into a problem that can only be solved by a computer!
...]

With the publication of this short article by Faltings, the scientific community is even more shocked!
P=NP!
(End of this chapter)