When I am reborn, I just want to be a top student

Chapter 278 Lobbyists come to visit, a big deal from Peking University

1976 years.

Bald Eagle's "Washington Post" reported a mathematical news headline on the front page and recorded a story in the article.

In the mid-70s, people on the campuses of prestigious Bald Eagle universities seemed to be going crazy, playing a mathematical game without sleep or food.

This game is very simple. Write a natural number N arbitrarily and transform it according to the following rules:
If the number is odd, multiply it by 3 and add 1.

If the number is even, divide it by 2.

Once this game was launched, students, researchers, professors, etc. within the school attracted many to join.

The reason why this game has such great appeal is because people find that no matter how familiar N is, there is no way to escape and return to the bottom of 1. To be precise, there is no way to escape and fall to the bottom of 16- The cycle of 8-4-2-1 can never escape this fate.

And this is the famous 'hail conjecture'.

The greatest charm of this conjecture lies in its unpredictability. After the bald eagle caused a stir in academic inquiry, it naturally spread to the world.

After all, at this time, the bald eagle is still a beacon for the world and the pure land of heaven in the hearts of countless people.

Regarding this conjecture, John Hutton, a professor at Cambridge University who never sets, made a new discovery and found a natural number 27.
The number 27 does not seem to be surprising, but if it is calculated according to the above method, then its rise and fall are extremely violent. It needs to go through 77 steps of transformation to reach the peak value of 9232, and then go through 32 steps to reach the bottom value. 1.
The entire transformation process requires 111 steps, and its peak value is 9232, which is 27 times that of the original number 342. If compared with a waterfall-like straight drop, the number N with the same distance will reach 2 to the 111th power. .

In addition, in the range of 1 to 100, there are no violent fluctuations such as 27.

Naturally, this is not the only proof and attempt made by scholars around the world for the hail conjecture.

However, the entire academic community has not made much progress in proving the hail conjecture.

Even now, no one has actually proved this mathematical problem.

Wang Donglai chose to prove this mathematical problem just on a whim.

There are so many difficult problems in mathematics. The reason why he chose this difficult problem was because he suddenly remembered that when he was at Princeton, he had exposed a student from Asan who proved this mathematical difficult problem.

It is for this reason that he chose this difficult problem.

It took seven days to prove the hailstorm hypothesis.

That is, Wang Dong is here.

If it were anyone else, Han Hua would not believe anything he said, even a math master like Qiu Chengtong, he might not believe it.

However, Hanhua was willing to believe Wang Donglai.

Choosing the mathematical problem of hail conjecture, Wang Donglai began to go all out.

On the one hand, it is experiments and breakthroughs in battery technology, and on the other hand, it is necessary to prove mathematical problems.

Fortunately, other than that, Wang Donglai didn't have many things that he had to deal with personally.

There are only two open classes a week, and Wang Donglai can arrange the rest of the time at will.

one day!
Two days!

Three days!

The office assigned by the school is already covered with scratch paper.

In the past three days, Wang Donglai's proof of the hail conjecture has also advanced to a very advanced level.

To people outside of math majors, this is just a math game.

However, for people in academic circles, this is a number theory problem, or a classic problem in additive number theory, but in the final analysis, it is just a complex analysis problem.

The current academic method for proving this difficult problem is the arithmetic sequence verification method, which is a verification method established entirely based on the verification rules of the Hailstone Conjecture.

The method is very simple. Use an infinite arithmetic sequence to compare infinite natural numbers. The first term is an even number and the common difference is an even number. Then all the natural numbers in the sequence are even numbers. The entire sequence is divided by 2. If the first term is an odd number, the common difference is an even number. , then all the natural numbers in the sequence are odd, multiply them by 3 and add 1.

If the tolerance is an odd number and the first term is an odd number, then the odd-numbered terms must be odd, so multiply by 3 and add 1, and the even-numbered terms must be even, so divide by 2.

If the tolerance is an odd number and the first term is an odd number, then the odd-numbered terms must be odd, so multiply by 3 and add 1, and the even-numbered terms must be even, so divide by 2.

If the tolerance is an odd number and the first term is an even number, then the odd-numbered terms must all be even, then divided by 2, the even-numbered terms must all be odd, so multiply by 3 and add 1.

If you continue to calculate according to such calculation rules, you will encounter many problems.

For example, the general formula of even numbers is 2n. Since they are all even numbers, divided by 2, we get n, which is a natural number.

Just when Wang Donglai was trying to prove this mathematical problem in the office.

Xu Songyao and Academician Huang Yun of the Mathematical Society came to his office together.

However, as soon as he entered the office, Academician Huang Yun focused on the slightly messy draft paper in the office.

At this sight, I was entranced.

As the chairman of the Chinese Mathematical Society, Academician Huang Yun still has academic abilities in mathematics.

After watching for a while, I saw what Wang Donglai was doing.

And it was precisely because he saw it that Academician Huang Yun was shocked.

I was shocked, but also a little excited and complicated, and I quickly asked: "Professor Wang, can I ask how far you have come in proving Kakutani's conjecture?"

When Academician Huang Yun asked, Wang Donglai completely stopped what he was doing, thought about it seriously, and then said aloud: "It should be 70%, and it should be almost there in two days."

As soon as Wang Donglai said this answer, Xu Songyao and Huang Yun were both breathless.

It is worth mentioning that the Hailstorm Conjecture is also called the Kakutani Conjecture in China. The reason is also very simple. It was a person named Kakutani from Sakura Country who spread it to China, so it was called this name.

"Good! Good! Good!"

Xu Songyao said hello three times in a row, and his excitement was beyond words.

The same was true for Academician Huang Yun, his eyes were shining and he looked at Wang Donglai with great enthusiasm.

"I knew you wouldn't disappoint Donglai. It's true that heroes come from young. It's only been a few months since we proved Goldbach's conjecture. I didn't expect that your proof of the hail conjecture would have reached this stage."

To be honest, Academician Huang Yun is really happy that Wang Donglai proved the hail conjecture.

After all, he is the chairman of the Chinese Mathematical Society, and Wang Donglai is a member.

The greater the results Wang Donglai achieves, the more benefits he will naturally reap as the chairman of the Mathematical Society. "By the way, are you using the arithmetic sequence verification method, or the ignoring even numbers and not recording verification method?"

Huang Yun thought for a while, but still couldn't suppress the curiosity in his heart, so he asked tentatively.

Although he is the chairman, he is still an academic researcher at heart.

At this time, when I saw Wang Donglai proving a mathematical problem with my own eyes, and he was only a part away from success, my heart was already scratching my head with curiosity.

However, Huang Yun also understood that these things were top secret until the academic papers were published.

So after struggling for a while, Huang Yun asked a question that didn't involve secrets, which could satisfy his curiosity to some extent.

Ignoring even numbers and not recording the verification method is actually very simple.

The first odd number that is verified may be an odd number that is divisible by 3, or it may be an odd number that is not divisible by 3, but the second odd number that is reached and the third odd number that is reached during the whole process. Every odd number encountered and visited must be no longer divisible by 3.

If we start from the odd numbers that can be divisible by 3 and verify, every odd number that we encounter, arrive at, and visit on the path must be no longer divisible by 3, and ultimately all can be attributed to 1, then we must traverse all the odd numbers. ; If you start the verification from odd numbers that are not divisible by 3, then every odd number that you encounter and arrive at on the path must be no longer divisible by 3, and ultimately all come down to 1; so in the process In the verification process of the hail conjecture in the reverse direction, all odd numbers that are divisible by 3 can be named as the odd numbers at the starting point, and 1 is the odd number at the ending point. However, in the verification process of the hail conjecture in the reverse direction, it is the opposite, 1 is the odd number at the starting point. The odd number of the starting point, and the odd number divisible by 3 is the odd number of the ending point.

In fact, during the verification process, there are an infinite number of odd numbers that are not divisible by 3. There are an infinite number of odd numbers in the previous step. 1/3 of them are odd numbers that are divisible by 3, and 2/3 of them are odd numbers that are not divisible by 3. The phenomenon of odd numbers divisible by is surprisingly coincident with the situation of natural numbers.

Huang Yun asked about the arithmetic sequence verification method and the method of ignoring even numbers and not recording them, which was not considered a secret.

Wang Donglai didn't care about this, so he smiled and said: "Actually, the verification method doesn't matter, it's not that important."

"I conducted research using methods such as applying the binomial theorem, eliminating the possibility of main counterexamples, and reverse thinking. Finally, I found an entry point, which should be close to a complete proof."

Wang Donglai just introduced a few sentences briefly, and Huang Yun's mind seemed to be having a brainstorm, and he subconsciously verified it based on what Wang Donglai said.

However, Huang Yun reacted in just the next second.

With a wry smile on his face, he said aloud: "I used to always say that you need to be calm during big events, but now it seems that I'm still far behind!"

"Okay, let's not mention the proof of the Hailstorm conjecture anymore. If I do, I'm afraid I won't be able to help but feel jealous."

Huang Yun did not hide his performance just now, and was teasing himself with a bit of self-deprecation at this moment.

Faced with what Huang Yun said, Xu Songyao and Wang Donglai naturally couldn't say anything more and changed the subject.

"Xu Xiao, is there something wrong?" Wang Donglai asked aloud.

Xu Songyao said: "I don't have anything important to do with you. It's Academician Huang who has something to do with you."

Upon hearing this, Wang Donglai turned his attention to Huang Yun.

Huang Yun did not say it immediately, but looked at Xu Songyao, then at Wang Donglai, hesitated for a moment, and then said: "Actually, Academician Tian from Peking University asked me to be a lobbyist when I came here this time. ”

"Peking University hopes that Professor Wang will consider going to Peking University for academic research. The conditions given include but are not limited to the approval authority of 50 million academic research funds, the director of the Theoretical Mathematics Research Center, and a teaching laboratory building and other conditions."

"Academician Tian came to see me personally. I couldn't refuse, so I had to come over for a quick trip."

When Huang Yun said this, Xu Songyao's face was already a little ugly, but he did not burst out, but suppressed it.

Wang Donglai's expression was extremely calm, and there was no big surprise.

After all, with his academic performance at this moment, colleges should have contacted him long ago and wanted to poach him.

In fact, many top foreign universities have sent invitations to make Wang Donglai a special professor.

If Wang Donglai had been more proactive, he might not have been able to gain academician status abroad earlier.

Huang Yun naturally noticed the change in Xu Songyao's expression and was not surprised, but he did not expect Wang Donglai to be so calm.

You know, the conditions Peking University asked him to propose this time were extremely generous.

Academic research funding is one thing. The Theoretical Mathematics Research Center was probably set up specifically for Wang Donglai. However, with the brand of Peking University, Wang Donglai's identity naturally changed after he became the director again.

If this condition were placed on Huang Yun, he would have agreed to it.

In fact, as early as the beginning, he might have gone to Peking University.

With these thoughts in mind, Huang Yun spoke again: "Of course, Academician Tian also said that he will respect Donglai's ideas, and this condition will always be maintained."

"In addition, Academician Tian also made a suggestion, that is, he wants to invite you Donglai to Peking University for academic exchange."

"There is a tradition of academic exchanges between C9 universities. Now, it is normal for Academician Tian to make this suggestion."

Just as Huang Yun finished saying this, Xu Songyao spoke.

"Leave this matter to Dong Laiqi himself. No matter what choice you make, I will still support you, and the school will be your strong backing."

"Whether it's going abroad or going to Peking University, as long as it can help you gain something, that's fine!"

Xu Songyao's words were not false, but sincere thoughts.

He saw very clearly that Tangdu Jiaotong University was indeed inferior to Peking University in mathematics and inferior to top foreign universities. The gap was obvious.

Wang Donglai stayed here, and his growth rate was indeed not faster than when he went to these places.

If it was just for the sake of the mathematics major of Tangdu Jiaotong University and the academic status of Tangdu Jiaotong University, then Wang Donglai would definitely not be allowed to leave.

But Xu Songyao would not do this, because he understands a truth, which is to treat others with sincerity and repay others with sincerity.

Things were indeed as Xu Songyao thought. Wang Donglai rejected the offer from Peking University without any hesitation.

"I also ask Academician Huang to thank Academician Tian for his kindness. I am nostalgic and will not leave Tangdu Jiaotong University."

"However, there is no problem with academic exchanges. As long as the two schools communicate well, I don't have any problem."

Huang Yun also had a faint smile on his face and breathed a sigh of relief.

But I secretly made up my mind to never do anything like this again.

"Okay, I will tell Academician Tian about this."

"However, compared to this matter, I am more looking forward to your academic achievements. I have a hunch that our domestic mathematics major will usher in a huge take-off, and all of this is due to you!"

Huang Yun said with emotion.

(End of this chapter)