From all-round academic master to chief scientist

"Lin, your report will start tomorrow. How are you? Are you ready?"

In Lin Xiao's office, Witten found him and asked with a smile.

Lin Xiao, on the other hand, lowered his head, as if the academic report he was going to give tomorrow that could be recorded in the monument of the history of physics had nothing to do with him.

Witten couldn't help but wonder, at this time, is Lin Xiao still conducting other research?

No wonder he was able to do what he did today.

After Witten felt a burst of admiration in his heart, he couldn't help but think of the most important report in his life.

In 1990, he formally proposed M theory at a conference that brought together many of the world's top string theory physicists. From then on, he classified all the various string theories in the world into one, realizing The grand unification of string theory.

It was after that that he became one of the most important physicists in string theory and gained a lot of fame in the entire physics community.

Recalling the day before the report, he had already anticipated how shocked his report would be to the physics community. He was so excited that he was far from being as calm as Lin Xiao.

After all, it is the unity of quantum mechanics and relativity!

The most important step in the theory of everything. Only when this step is completed can they finally achieve the unification of the four forces.

Although there are still many unsolved problems in physics, and the unification of the four fundamental forces is not their only goal, if they can understand this problem, it will have an incomparable significance for physics, at least it is better than simply discovering The existence of [string] is even greater.

Of course, as the proposer of M-theory, Witten still believes in the status of the M-theory he proposed. If they have studied M-theory to a complete level, it is likely to be the ultimate theory of the universe - Hawking's review of M-theory back then. Witten naturally agrees with this assessment.

However, Witten doesn't know what the complete form of M theory looks like. It may take hundreds to thousands of years, or even tens of thousands of years to complete, or it may be the day when mankind ushered in the end. It is not impossible that humans have not found the complete body of M theory.

After recovering from the memories in his heart, Witten looked at Lin Xiao again. Although he said something when he came in just now, Lin Xiao was probably in a state of mind, so he did not reply to him. Still immersed in research.

Witten can only envy this special immersive state. Maybe he could still do this when he was young, but now that he is old, he can no longer achieve this complete immersive state. .

Shaking his head, he stepped forward and took a look at what Lin Xiao was writing.

[φ(0,t)φ(0,0)~∑Anexp(-nt)……]

Looking at these things, Witten thought for a while and then knew what Lin Xiao wrote.

"Is it a mass gap issue... He is indeed still studying this issue... huh? Wait?"

When his eyes moved forward, Witten suddenly froze.

"Oh my God, what is this?!"

"This... proves that Yang-Mills theory satisfies Whiteman's axioms?"

"This means that for any compact simple gauge group G, a non-trivial quantum Yang-Mills theory exists on R^4?!"

Witten could no longer control his voice and exclaimed.

This paragraph of text was so familiar to him that he had even written it himself. However, when he originally wrote this line of text, it was a request to raise a question, and Lin Xiao wrote it at this time. This line of text is clearly a statement that solves the problem!

Yes, this is one of the seven millennium problems, one of the most important problems in theoretical physics, which will bring great significance to physicists' understanding of the strong interaction, the Yang-Mills gauge field problem. A question is the existence of the Yang-Mills gauge field!

Although Lin Xiao's words were in Chinese, and the Chinese characters in them were incomprehensible to Witten, the mathematical symbols were common, so he could easily see what Lin Xiao's mathematical derivation process in the previous part meant.

Seeing this, Witten was extremely shocked.

In other words, this problem that has troubled the physics community for many years has been half solved at this time?

Although strictly speaking, he only saw Lin Xiao's conclusion and not the previous content. Whether Lin Xiao has really completed the proof depends on the previous process.

But if you think about it being done by Lin Xiao, then this doubt will probably be eliminated by half. After all, Lin Xiao's ability is obvious to the whole world. Is there anything he has proven to have failed in the past?

Obviously not!

Well, Witten is already more than half convinced.

And this first question has been completed, so next, isn't Lin Xiao trying to prove the existence of the mass gap?

Looking back at the expression written by Lin Xiao on the draft paper, Witten was immediately convinced.

At this time, perhaps because Witten's few exclamations were louder, Lin Xiao finally came to his senses.

He stopped writing, looked at Witten next to him in confusion, and then said: "Witten? Why are you here?"

Witten immediately pointed to his scratch paper and said very excitedly: "Have you successfully proved that the Yang-Mills gauge field satisfies the requirements of Whiteman's axioms?"

Lin Xiao was stunned for a moment, then looked at the part that Witten pointed at, and then smiled: "I think it was probably successful."

"It's incredible, it's incredible. Although, as you said before, as long as the contradiction between quantum mechanics and relativity in gravity is solved, it can in turn help prove this problem, but no matter what, you succeeded so quickly! "

Lin Xiao shook his head, "It's only half the battle. The other half is more critical."

The mass gap is the core question. If the former, which is the first question, only reveals more mathematical correlations, then the proof of the mass gap will directly reveal that the current quantum collider cannot collide. The discovery of physical phenomena is exactly what physicists are pursuing.

Although mathematics is very important to physics, the physical phenomena and the nature of the universe revealed through mathematics are the most critical.

"But no matter what, you are very close to success now."

Witten admired sincerely.

"I haven't finished my questions yet, but you have already finished two questions. Oh, now I suddenly understand why some people on the Internet say you are as smart as an alien. Now I am also starting to get curious."

"Uh..." Lin Xiao touched his nose and said, "Maybe aliens are not as smart as me?"

After all, aliens may not have cheats like him, right?

Witten was stunned for a moment, and then he laughed again, "That makes sense."

"By the way, your report is tomorrow. Do you plan to bring this proof to the report?" Witten said: "Just in time, I also saw many mathematicians coming just now. The field report attracts more than just physics, I really want to know what their expressions will be when you tell them this surprise in the report tomorrow."

Lin Xiao smiled and said: "This proposal can be considered."

But then, he lowered his head again, looked at his scratch paper, and frowned slightly.

"However, instead of talking about giving them a surprise tomorrow, it is better to think about how to give them a bigger surprise."

"A bigger surprise?"

Witten had a puzzled expression on his face.

"Well, a bigger surprise."

Lin Xiao nodded.

"What do you mean..." Witten followed Lin Xiao's gaze to the end of his sight, which was still those proofs about the quality gap.

Witten suddenly felt a sense of absurdity: "Do you want to prove the quality gap problem before tomorrow's report? Is this... possible?"

No matter how you think about it, this shouldn’t be possible, right?

After all, looking at Lin Xiao's writing process on the draft paper, he has just begun to prove the quality gap.

Lin Xiao smiled, "Witten, do you still remember the suggestions I gave you regarding your problem?"

"Of course...could you also use that method?"

Lin Xiao smiled and said: "Maybe, of course, tomorrow, you may receive a surprise that I have specially prepared for you."

"A surprise just for me?"

Witten became even more curious. Lin Xiao proved the quality gap problem. How to surprise him?

But when he wanted to ask, Lin Xiao had lowered his head again, probably thinking again.

Seeing this, Witten shook his head slightly, forget it, since it was a surprise, let's leave the answer until tomorrow.

Then he didn't stay any longer and quietly left Lin Xiao's office.

The office became quiet again.

The birds outside the window chirped a few times. For these creatures that are suspected to be the descendants of dinosaurs, they would never imagine what the terrifying ape erectus inside is studying. However, for the birds, there is no need to care. The birth and destruction of the universe.

…

The earth rotates around itself, and for the humans above, it is just one day.

At the same time, in Lin Xiao's office, he straightened his waist and yawned deeply.

Then, he lowered his head again and looked at the draft paper, his eyes frowning.

"No... no, no, there is still one last step left, but which step should it be..."

One night passed, and all night long, he did not rest, and kept trying to solve the final quality gap problem. However, he still has not solved it until now.

Just as he thought at the beginning, the idea he told Witten at the beginning was also helpful for the quality gap problem, but when he came to the last step of writing, he was finally stumped.

And at this moment, his cell phone rang.

"Lin Xiao, your report will start at ten o'clock. It's already past eight o'clock now. Why don't you come to school yet?"

Dean Zhao Qi called. Although he lost the opportunity to undertake this report alone, his enthusiasm was still very high.

Lin Xiao suddenly woke up, opened the curtains, and looked outside. The sunlight had already crossed the distance of one astronomical unit. The light that shone from the surface of the sun five hundred seconds ago covered his body.

"It's already dawn..."

"Huh? Liang...?"

"That's right, Photon!"

Suddenly, Lin Xiao's eyes lit up, and his somewhat sleepy brain seemed to have gained energy due to the photoelectric effect under the sunlight.

And perhaps because Lin Xiao had lost his voice, Zhao Qi said again: "Lin Xiao?"

Lin Xiao finally came to his senses, and then said with a smile: "I understand, Dean Zhao, I will be here soon."

"good."

Then, hung up the phone.

Lin Xiao stood up and first called Qi Shangao, who was now responsible for protecting him.

"Prepare to take me to Beijing University. Also, please buy me a bottle of coffee. Well, okay, hang up."

Putting down his phone, he raised his head again and looked at the rising sun in the sky outside the window.

"Thank you, Sun."

…