The top student must be diligent

In the interview, he said: "If the Higgs field is the greatest achievement in physics at the end of the last century, then I dare to say that the X field will become the greatest achievement at the beginning of the 21st century."

"The Higgs mechanism helped us figure out why fermions, W bosons, and Z bosons have mass, while photons and gluons have zero mass. It helped us improve the Standard Model, and it also provided a basis for cosmology research. Provided very important help. ”

"The X field will provide us with great help in further understanding the strong interaction and even unifying the strong and weak interactions."

"I don't know if you have heard of the grand unified theory in physics. It is generally believed in the physics community that the three basic forces of electricity, weak force, and magnetism are unified together to form a grand unified theory. It has a huge impact on our understanding of the universe. significance."

"...Obviously, Xiao Yi is not only an excellent mathematician, but also an excellent physicist. He mentioned that after observing a large number of W boson signals in the LHC, he analyzed the possible After the existing problem, it was intuitively connected to a magical physical field he derived during the study of the mass gap problem of the Yang-Mills equation, and finally determined the existence of the X field. "

"This is something that only outstanding physicists can do. If you want to ask whether he can inherit my ability in mathematics and physics, then I would say that you are superficial. His ability in mathematics is better than mine." , As for physics, he doesn’t study string theory, so there is no talk of inheritance.”

"As for the mass gap problem in the Yang-Mills equation he mentioned...I don't know when he will be able to prove this problem, but what I want to say is that we can wait and see, I believe he can bring us surprises."

The evaluation made by Professor Witten is not low. As a Fields Medal winner, he said that Xiao Yi's mathematical ability is better than him, which already surprised people.

And his explanation of the X field can make ordinary people understand how important this new physics achievement is.

Of course, Witten was not the only one who accepted the interview. In addition, Higgs, who was in the UK, also accepted an interview with the broadcaster.

"I am very happy to be able to hear about such important discoveries in physics at this age. Although I am often proud of the Higgs mechanism, I have always been very clear that the Higgs mechanism is not perfect from a human perspective. Even in terms of scale, no physical theory is perfect. What we can do is to improve our understanding of the world step by step. "

"The X field will also become the first important progress in this field in our physics community in this century."

"Although I don't know if I can still see a more intuitive explanation of the X field in the physics community at my age. Well... it's probably impossible. However, I still want to express my gratitude to Xiao Yi - "

"Thank you for letting me know that there is such a law of the universe before I go to see God."

Peter Higgs, as the proposer of the Higgs mechanism and the predictor of the Higgs particle, his status in the world of physics is definitely at the forefront of history, and his evaluation is even more enriched by this fire. got fuel.

…

In the café of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton.

"Oh my god, Xiao Yi actually went to study the quality gap problem!"

Peter Sarnak sat down next to Deligne and Bombieri, pointing to the news on his phone and exclaimed.

"I was just wondering why I haven't heard any results from his research in almost a year. It turns out he was planning something big."

Deligne rolled his eyes: "That's because you didn't pay attention to others at all, okay? Xiao Yi has devoted his energy to physics and materials for almost a year. He has issued PRL, JACS, and even As for nature, oh, don’t forget the paper CERN published on science, Xiao Yi’s name is also in it.”

Sarnak said: "Forget about the paper in Science, there are almost more than 2,000 authors, right?"

Regarding the paper jointly completed by CERN and the China Institute of High Energy, Xiao Yi is naturally among the authors.

However, for papers in the field of high energy physics, because their projects are often completed by many people, and everyone is responsible for processing some of the data, so as long as they are contributors, All will be listed in the author column, regardless of the difference between one author and two authors.

This is also a unique signature rule for high-energy physics, ensuring that everyone who contributes to experiments and papers can get the signature rights they deserve.

Deligne shrugged: "It's still Science after all, and Xiao Yi is more or less the main person who completed their paper. Without the mathematical method Xiao Yi provided them, how could they have found it?"

Sarnak: "Let's not talk about this. It has nothing to do with our mathematics. I want to know now, can we really witness the solution of a millennium problem at a conference of mathematicians?"

Deligne pointed to the door of the coffee shop and said, "Here, the real owner is here, just ask him."

They turned around and saw Edward Witten walking in at this time.

Sanak immediately waved and shouted: "Hey! Witten, when did you come back?"

Witten heard the voice and waved to them first, then went to the bar to ask the waiter to pour a cup of coffee, and then came over.

"I came back last night, what happened?"

"Of course it's about CERN. Xiao Yi didn't tell you how far he has studied the mass gap problem?"

Witten took a sip of coffee, then shook his head and said, "Didn't the news say it? He just said that he was close to the final answer, but it's not clear where he is, after all, this is the key to his topic."

"Okay." Sanak had to give up.

Witten smiled and asked, "Why are you interested in physics now? You are so concerned about the mass gap problem."

Sanak waved his hand, "That's not the case. It's just a mathematician's concern for the millennium problem. What I want to know more is that if he really solves the mass gap problem, can he bring some new theories to the mathematical community? This is the key.

Witten nodded slightly, "That's right. ”

After taking another sip of coffee, he said with emotion: "I used to be very confident in my mathematics, so I also studied the mass gap problem for a while, but the conclusion I can draw in the end is that any current mathematical method can not help us make further breakthroughs in solving this problem."

"Especially in algebraic geometry and topology, Yang-Mills theory has a very deep connection with topology and geometry. Whether it is dealing with topological structures such as instanton solutions or geometric properties such as fiber bundles, more complex mathematical tools are needed. Unfortunately, I can't create such complex mathematical tools."

"Well... maybe proving the Hodge conjecture can help our research?"

Witten said with a smile.

Deligne leaned back comfortably in his chair and said: "Let's believe Xiao Yi. He has created many great theories, and I think this one is not bad."

Several people smiled: "You are right. "

...

Time passed quietly.

The discussion about W bosons gradually calmed down. Similarly, the discussion about X-field and mass gap also gradually calmed down.

Of course, this is only relative to the situation that the whole society was discussing before. For the corresponding scientific community, the discussion about them has never stopped. At least in CERN, the discussion about X-field has never stopped.

During this period, they almost re-searched and analyzed all the past data, trying to find signals that can directly prove the existence of X-field.

In addition, they are also preparing intensively for the next launch of LHC for collision mission.

The most important thing is to ask the European Union for money.

"Congressman Davis, really! If the existence of X-field can be found, it will be enough to train at least 20 Nobel Prize winners in physics for us! So what we need now is more funds to enable us to upgrade the LHC more. "

"I remember you said 15 last time, are you sure you are not lying to me?"

"Ah...really? Haha, actually, it is like this. We have recently discovered more important details through research. If you ask Professor Wilczek, he will definitely tell you so. I am willing to bet on the honor of Professor Wilczek as a Nobel Prize winner in Physics and promise you! "

"I think what you said is really exaggerated. Even for the Higgs particle, there are only three Nobel Prizes, and a total of 7 physicists have won the Nobel Prize. How can there be 20 people for this X-field?"

(Oh no, why does this congressman seem to understand it?)

"That's because you don't have a deep enough understanding of the significance of the X-field. The X-field can help us understand the strong interaction force and help us unify the strong interaction force and the weak interaction force. You see, if you count it this way, there are at least 2 Nobel Prizes. In the future, we will focus on what the X-field is specifically, as well as various other fields. 20 is a conservative estimate!"

"Really?"

"Can I still lie to you? ”

…

People in CERN all have their own things to do. On the other side, in St. Petersburg, as the day of the official opening of the International Congress of Mathematicians draws closer, the staff of the conference organizing committee also have their own things to do.

In a meeting, the chairman of the organizing committee, Berezovsky, called together their correspondents for the presenters and asked: "Have all the presenters you have contacted submitted their report topics?"

"Only half of them have submitted, and the other half have not submitted."

"The same is true for me."

" +1"

"…"

"Isn't there still a week before the deadline? I guess they won't submit before the deadline."

Berezovsky frowned and said: "Anyway, send them an email to inform them to submit quickly. It's just an introduction, not a paper."

"Yes!"

There are less than four months left before the conference. Generally speaking, all presenters at the conference need to submit the topics of their reports three months in advance, so that it is convenient for the organizing committee to prepare posters and put their report topics on the official website of the conference for promotion.

In this way, participants of those conferences can browse the information of their reports on the official website and select the reports of interest, so that they can participate in the reports when the conference is held.

This is certainly not a troublesome matter. After they sent out the notice, a few days later, they began to receive brief briefings from reporters intermittently.

until the last day before the deadline.

Berezovsky called another meeting and asked: "Have the briefings for all reports been received?"

"I've got it all here."

"I've collected them all too."

Soon, several dockers expressed their receipt.

However, there was another receptionist who weakly raised his hand at the last moment and said: "I still have one person missing..."

Berezovsky immediately frowned and asked, "Who is it? Do you actually pay so little attention to your report?"

"Uh, it's Xiao Yi."

Everyone was suddenly startled.

Xiao Yi?

That's okay.

Berezovsky's expression also condensed, and then he guessed: "Maybe he is conquering the key to the quality gap problem."

After thinking about it, he finally said: "Well... Then you can send him a message and give him another month of grace. By the way, I wish him a successful completion of the certificate."

Everyone lamented that he was indeed a powerful figure, and he said he would be lenient.

However, I feel relieved when I think that what they are solving is a millennium problem.

This kind of problem is a bit special and should be treated as it should.

Someone jokingly asked: "What if he's not done in a month?"

Berezovsky shrugged and said: "Then give it another month. Why do we require submission three months before the start of the report? It is to have redundant time when dealing with this kind of thing."