From all-round academic master to chief scientist

"Professor Lin, I have read your paper. First, please let me express my envy of your mathematical skills."

When the world of physics was once again in shock, Lin Xiaoze received a call from the United States.

The caller was none other than Edward Witten, the founder of M theory.

Lin Xiao was slightly surprised by Witten's call. Of course, he also knew that it must be because of the paper that he called to communicate with him.

After hearing Witten's first words, Lin Xiao couldn't help but laugh and said: "Haha, Professor Witten is so humble, you are also a Fields Medal winner."

"Needless to say too much about these issues. Anyway, after studying your multi-dimensional field theory many times, I have never discovered that such subtle deformations can be carried out. The only one who can find this connection is Professor Lin. .”

Witten said.

Indeed, as Witten said, Lin Xiao's paper is based on past theories. To do this, you need to have a keen enough sense of knowledge and a sufficient amount of knowledge.

Without these two, it is obviously impossible to achieve this, so this is why Witten admires Lin Xiao.

Otherwise, if it could be done easily, Lin Xiao's result would probably have been discovered by other physicists a long time ago.

This is like Maxwell's equations. The first version of Maxwell's equations was composed of twenty equations, including twenty variables, so even though the things in it already exist in the academic world, But if you want to do it, you also need a genius mind.

"Haha, I am really honored to be praised by Professor Witten like this."

Lin Xiao smiled at Witten's praise, and then said: "Of course, after talking so much, let's talk about Professor Witten's reason for coming to me."

"Well, that's actually the case, Professor Lin. I made some deductions about the content in your paper, and then came up with some surprising results."

"Oh? What is it that even Professor Witten pays so much attention to?"

Lin Xiao couldn't help but become interested.

Witten said it was amazing, so it must also be very heavy, right?

Witten said: "As you stated in your paper, by integrating the graviton in the standard model of our three-dimensional world to a four-dimensional form, then if we do not integrate, but differential Going down?"

"Will the differential continue?"

Lin Xiao started to think about it, and after a moment he was stunned: "Can it be differentiated exactly four times?"

"Yes, it is four times. After all, this function is not smooth. So, if we follow the realistic intuition, after differentiating to three times, it is equivalent to changing from three dimensions to zero dimensions, regardless of the graviton in the zero-dimensional space What would it look like, but why can we still differentiate next? It can’t be negative one dimension, right?”

Witten made another joke: "Or suddenly from zero dimension to eleven dimensions?"

After all, M theory has an upper limit of dimensional space of eleven dimensions.

However, Lin Xiao did not understand his joke, but thought about other things.

After hearing Witten's idea, he connected this method to the problem he was actually working on, namely the existence of the Yang-Mills gauge field and the mass gap problem.

The paper he wrote originally served this problem.

At this time, Witten's question gave him an idea.

That is, what if he also uses the form of continuous differentiation to analyze the gluons and quarks in the strong interaction force?

His distraction made Witten shout in confusion: "Lin?"

"Oh!" Lin Xiao came to his senses and then smiled: "Witten, I know what you mean. What you want to say is that the result of continuing to differentiate is the string you dream of, right?"

Witten said: "Yes, it's a string... To be honest, this differential process is really difficult. If it weren't for your integration method, I don't know how long it would take - of course, it's precisely because So, I thought that was the string, because the end result was so simple and beautiful, it was like I was seeing the string in digital form."

Lin Xiao pondered for a moment. Witten's idea also interested him. He also supported Witten's idea. After all, for him, the discovery of strings was of great significance.

Although in this regard, he has to say sorry to Witten, because he had already found decisive evidence for the existence of strings in the demonstration of wave coherence superposition equations.

Of course, Witten's idea also gave him the idea of ​​having more exchanges with Witten.

Thinking of this, he said: "Witten, I couldn't agree more with your idea. In addition, I also have some other ideas that I want to discuss more with you, so... do you want to come to China to stay for a while? ?Now I invite you to be a visiting researcher at my institute and we can have more discussions."

Hearing Lin Xiao's proposal, Witten was stunned for a moment, and then after a brief thought, he readily agreed: "I think I have no reason to refuse, and it just so happens that I can come to China for some fun."

Lin Xiao immediately smiled and said, "Then I welcome your arrival."

…

In this way, the matter of Edward Witten coming to the Dingguang Institute and becoming a visiting researcher at the Dingguang Institute at the invitation of Lin Xiao was decided and spread at the same time.

It seems quite normal. After all, it is an academic exchange. In addition to Witten's reputation, it is not a big deal to be invited to be a visiting researcher. However, as everyone in the academic community knows, Lin Xiao's paper was recently published not long ago. At this time, it turned out that Witten wanted to go over to discuss with him at this time. Could it be that they were going to do something big?

Of course, no one knows what sparks of wisdom will arise between a leader in string theory and a leader in multidimensional field theory, so they can only guess.

For the domestic physics community, Edward Witten's visit is something worthy of attention. He even has to conduct research at the Dingguang Institute for at least one month, which can't help but attract more attention. Dingguang Research Institute.

There are people who are envious, and there are people who are jealous. Of course, the Dingguang Research Institute is a big tree that attracts wind, and it is not itchy if there are too many lice.

In this way, in mid-April, Witten set off from the United States and came to Lin Xiao's Dingguang Research Institute.

"Witten, we meet again."

Seeing Edward Witten getting out of the car, Lin Xiao smiled and greeted him.

"Forest."

Witten also smiled and nodded towards Lin Xiao. Looking at Lin Xiao's still young face, he once again had the same emotions in his heart. Maybe when he has a head full of white hair, Lin Xiao will still be like this. Young, right?

After that, Lin Xiao did not keep chatting with Witten. There was not much formalism here, at least he would not let people go through the process after flying for more than ten hours, so he took Witten to a nearby place first. hotel, let him have a good rest for a day, and then proceed with some procedures, such as the ceremony to hire Witten to become a visiting researcher at the Dingguang Research Institute.

After that, Witten officially became a member of the Dingguang Research Institute and was the only foreign scientist.

At this time, the two finally had the opportunity to have direct academic exchanges.

…

"What? Lin, what you want to study is actually the issue of mass gap?"

Witten was extremely surprised when he heard Lin Xiao talk about the problem he wanted to solve.

"Yes."

Lin Xiao nodded, "I think current physicists all want to truly understand the strong interaction, right? And this is exactly what I want to solve."

"And if we can unify quantum mechanics and relativity, then I think this problem will be easily solved."

"Oh my God." Witten couldn't help but exclaimed: "If I hadn't come here, I probably would never have thought that your purpose would be this."

Lin Xiao smiled and said: "No matter what, at least I have taken the first step."

"Yes." Witten nodded slightly.

In that paper, Lin Xiao had already taken the first step. The theory of relativity was already involved in quantum mechanics, and the bridge in the middle was the graviton under the multidimensional field theory.

"So, Witten, do you have any thoughts on this?"

After hearing Lin Xiao's question, Witten thought quietly. After a moment, he suddenly said: "It is still difficult to unify the two and perfectly fit them together. However, you You should know about progressive freedom, right?”

"Of course I do...wait, what do you mean?"

Lin Xiao nodded slightly, and suddenly he understood what Witten meant.

Witten smiled and nodded at him, "Yes."

He knew that Lin Xiao already understood what he meant.