From all-round academic master to chief scientist

Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris.

Lin Xiao was sitting at his desk, looking at the paper that narrowed the gap between prime pairs in the twin prime conjecture to 128.

The author of this paper is David Cayman, a professor of mathematics at Stanford University. He had a certain reputation in the past, but he was not well-known, mainly in the United States.

However, Professor Cayman achieved a breakthrough in this paper and produced a relatively powerful result. Now his fame has spread all over the world.

After all, it was the twin prime conjecture.

The twin prime conjecture refers to whether there are infinite pairs of prime numbers with a difference of 2.

For example, 3 and 5, 29 and 31, these numbers are all prime numbers, and the difference between them is 2, they are called twin prime numbers.

In 2013, Chinese mathematician Zhang Yitang made a breakthrough achievement in the twin prime number conjecture, proving that there are infinite pairs of prime numbers with a difference of less than 70 million. This is a weak form of the twin prime number conjecture.

And the method he used in this proof process also brought the possibility to other people in the mathematical community to continuously reduce this number. So other mathematicians used Zhang Yitang's method to reduce the number in just one year. The number of 70 million shrunk to 246.

But after that, people have no way to continue shrinking, which is also the limitation of Zhang Yitang's method.

Only by reducing this value to 2 can the twin prime conjecture be completely proven.

Professor Cayman combined Lin Xiao's round sieving method with Zhang Yitang's method, and then achieved another breakthrough.

"Well written."

After reading the entire paper, Lin Xiao nodded slightly.

Professor Cayman found a bridge between the two methods, and then integrated the sieve circle method into Zhang Yitang's method to achieve this final step.

However, in front of Lin Xiao, he was still just good.

Because his number sense told him that this method could only reduce the number 246 to two digits, but could not reach the limit of single digits. Naturally, it could not really be reduced to 2, completely proving the twin prime conjecture.

This also means that this method still has limits.

"Perhaps the sieve circle method can solve the twin prime conjecture without borrowing from other methods at all?"

Lin Xiaosheng came up with this idea.

Of course, the premise is that Lin Xiao perfects the sieving circle method again. After he created the sieving circle method, he always thought that there was room for improvement in this method.

"But if the sieve circle method needs to be improved, in which aspect should it be improved?"

Lin Xiao had doubts in his heart.

this is a problem.

But at this moment, a sound of 'dong dong dong' suddenly came from the door.

"Lin! Are you there?"

It was Alex's voice, which seemed anxious.

Lin Xiao was a little confused, what happened?

Leaving his seat, he opened the door.

Then he saw Alex outside the door with a very angry look on his face. When he saw Lin Xiao, he said: "Lin, have you seen it? That American is so hateful!"

Lin Xiao was stunned: "What happened?"

"It seems you don't know yet."

Alex said before walking straight into the room.

"Come and see this news! That American is so shameless."

Lin Xiao walked up. This was hateful and shameless. Who is this American?

Alex took the phone and showed Lin Xiao a piece of news displayed on it.

This is news from the Los Angeles Times, and the title of the news is [Professor Cayman: My work is as important as Lin Xiao’s work]

Lin Xiao was stunned when he saw this title. Why was he mentioned?

He looked down again and was speechless.

That Cayman claimed that he narrowed the prime pair gap value of the weak form twin prime conjecture to 128, which was as important as Lin Xiao's sieve circle method, and claimed that Lin Xiao's sieve circle method was only a pairwise comparison of the sieve method and the sieve circle method. The improvement of the round method, and the same is true for his work, the two people made the same contribution.

After seeing Lin Xiao finish reading, Alex said angrily: "How can there be such a shameless person? He actually said that the sieving method is just a combination of the sieving method and the rounding method? Just?!"

"How dare he say such a thing? If combining the sieve method and the circle method was as easy as he said, previous mathematicians would have completed this step long ago, and Goldbach's conjecture would have been proven long ago."

"I thought he was quite good before, but now I see that if this is the level of a mathematics professor at Stanford University, then I think I can do it!"

"Americans are really all the same. It's really abominable."

Seeing Alex defending himself, Lin Xiao, who should have been more angry, was now dumbfounded. It seemed like he wanted to help persuade him?

Of course, what Alex said is true. Combining the sieve method and the circle method seems very simple. It can be done in just a few words. It is like attracting two magnets, N-level and S-level, together. Just as easy.

However, its difficulty is actually how to make the N-level and N-level magnets of two magnets attract together without external force.

As for how to attract the N-level and N-level magnets together, there is only one way, which is to reconcile their magnetism. To combine the sieve method and the circle method, you need to reconcile these two methods first, so that They don't repel each other.

But obviously, their difficulty is extremely high, which has stumped the mathematics community for nearly a hundred years at least. It was not completed by Lin Xiao until last year.

But now Professor Cayman, with just a "just", has erased the difficulty, and then puts his results on the same level as Lin Xiao's, calling it shameless, and also No exaggeration.

In addition, this newspaper did not understand the facts before reporting the incident, which makes people doubt its intentions.

All in all, in layman's terms, their behavior was just an insult to Lin Xiao.

However, Lin Xiao is now in France and not in the United States. It is impossible for him to come to the door to protest. Moreover, he is a professor at Stanford University and the media is the Los Angeles Times. He has no power. How can he make them apologize? ?

Seeing Alex's angry look, Lin Xiao patted him on the shoulder and said with a smile: "Okay, actually there is nothing to be angry about, and this is my business, you don't need to be so angry. .”

"That's okay, you are my friend!"

Alex said: "I will mobilize other friends now to scold him under this news!"

With that, Alex was about to call his friend.

Seeing this, Lin Xiao quickly grabbed him and said, "Thank you, Alex, but I have my own solution to this kind of thing."

Alex was stunned, "Your own solution?"

Lin Xiao nodded and said, "Yes, my own solution."

He smiled slightly: "As long as I complete the proof of the twin prime conjecture, do you think this is the most powerful counterattack to him?"

Hearing Lin Xiao's words, Alex sighed and said: "Lin, although you proved Goldbach's conjecture, the twin prime conjecture is also difficult. Are you sure you can prove it successfully?"

Lin Xiao shook his head, "Not yet."

"but……"

There was a kind of confidence in his eyes, "Do you think I can't prove it?"

Alex was startled, looking at Lin Xiao's calm but inexplicably convincing face. He suddenly felt that even though it was the twin prime conjecture as famous as Goldbach's conjecture, in Lin Xiao's hands, it seemed to be really A miracle can happen again.

After a while, Alex nodded and said, "I believe in you, you will definitely succeed."

"now it's right."

Lin Xiao smiled and then patted Alex on the shoulder.

"Meow~"

At this moment, another soft cat meow came from the dormitory.

Lin Xiao turned his head and looked at the bed. Mimi looked at him as if she was also cheering him up.

"Huh?! Do you actually have a cat?"

When Alex heard the cat meow, he was immediately surprised.

He had never been to Lin Xiao's room before, and he really didn't know that Lin Xiao actually had a cat.

Lin Xiao stepped forward, hugged Mimi, and said with a smile: "Of course, this cat flew here from China with me, and it is quite close to me."

Alex also stepped forward, reached out and touched Mimi's fur, and said, "It's great. If I didn't find it troublesome, I would definitely keep it."

Lin Xiao said with a smile: "Sometimes when studying mathematics, raising a cat can bring you inspiration."

"Really? Then I'd like to give it a try."

"Of course, Tao Zhexuan also got a cat last year, just because he listened to my recommendation."

"Then I have to give it a try."

Alex laughed.

Next, after the two chatted for a few more words, Alex planned to leave and not disturb Lin Xiao anymore.

However, before going out, he said to Lin Xiao: "By the way, Lin Xiao, no matter what, I and my friends will still help you. We are all in Paris, and you are one of our own."

This is the mathematics center of the world. Now there are people who actually want to cause trouble in this pure land of mathematics and touch their mathematical genius. None of them will agree to such a thing.

In this regard, Lin Xiao did not stop him. The American professor's behavior was definitely immoral. If the other party could learn some lessons, Lin Xiao would be happy to see it.

"Thank you then."

"We are friends!"

Alex smiled and left.

Lin Xiao hugged Mimi and returned to the table, stroking it gently. Suddenly she received an ins message. She glanced at it and saw that it was from Tao Zhexuan.

After reading the content, Terence Tao apparently also learned about the news, so he expressed comfort to him.

"Don't worry about that guy, we don't like this kind of person"

Seeing this news, Lin Xiao smiled slightly. Sometimes it's good to have so many friends.

Then he replied: "Thank you, I don't care, I will only use my own method to fight back against him." 』

After sending this message, Lin Xiao turned his attention to the paper in front of him again.

Before the final riposte, let's have some appetizers.

Then, let’s first prove that Cayman’s method still cannot completely solve the twin prime conjecture.

And this is not difficult.