CHAPTER 478: CHAPTER 154 PAPER PUBLICATION_2

Considering this situation, the council has decided to wait until Ann.Math officially publishes tomorrow before releasing the report summary online, to avoid causing any unnecessary confusion for the attending experts.

Apparently, among those hosted today, only Zhang Yuanling and Shen Chongxing were unaware of this. Everyone else showed no signs of surprise; after all, they had been surprised already.

People don’t get surprised by the same thing twice.

But to Zhang Yuanling, it wasn’t just surprise. He, of course, knew about Qiao Yu’s Generalized Modal Axiomatic System, as he was the one who reviewed the initial project proposal.

Moreover, he didn’t slack off; even though Qiao Yu was only sixteen when he submitted the proposal, Zhang reviewed it very thoroughly.

No one would underestimate a sixteen-year-old capable of solving issues like the Geometric Langlands Conjecture, even if it meant identifying an error and providing a solution.

Not to mention that this contribution allowed Qiao Yu to present at the World Algebraic Geometry Congress.

But, as he said during the meeting, Qiao Yu’s idea indeed had merits, and the prospects it painted were enticing.

Truly completing this proposition, however, still had many issues, especially the lack of sufficient mathematical basis, which made him feel a formal axiomatic definition was still far off.

Honestly, Zhang Yuanling could say he did not harbor much personal bias when reviewing Qiao Yu’s proposal. After all, he was ready to support it if Yuan Zhengxin insisted the topic was important and promising.

At most, he just thought Qiao Yu was quite young, and Yuan Zhengxin along with Tian Yanzhen seemed a bit hasty.

When Qiao Yu voluntarily decided to withdraw, Zhang Yuanling gained respect for the young man.

But who would have thought that in just over two months since August, this project already bore results, with the related paper not only making it to Ann.Math but also pushing the upper bound of prime gaps to 6 based on this framework!

This turned out to be quite awkward.

Originally just a routine annual evaluation of the Natural Science Foundation, this incident now seemed to explicitly target Qiao Yu, effectively killing off an exceptionally important project!

Admittedly, even if it clarified that he had no intention of targeting, it at least suggested that his judgment might not be sharp enough.

This highlights the differences between project evaluations in science and engineering disciplines versus various evaluations in the humanities and social sciences.

For the former, there is a definitive outcome as to whether results can be achieved. The line between success and failure is obvious, and application value is directly reflected in the results.

For the latter, success often relies more on expert opinion.

There can be a thousand Hamlets in the eyes of readers, but there can’t be a thousand definitions and interpretations of the Riemann Conjecture.

Thus, after the initial shock, Zhang Yuanling felt somewhat embarrassed. Countless questions surged through his mind, yet he felt it inappropriate to ask them at this moment.

Fortunately, a colleague from Shuangdan University was there to speak up.

Of course, Shen Chongxing didn’t necessarily intend to pose questions on Zhang Yuanling’s behalf; in fact, he was quite surprised himself.

"This... I heard from Professor Zhang about Qiao Yu’s Generalized Modal Axiomatic System, which is said to be a grand concept, but has such a large project been completed so quickly?"

"Not really, it’s said that only a basic framework was established. But there’s no need to worry too much about its correctness. As Tao Xuanzhi mentioned, he was one of the reviewers, and several other reviewers, who are..., all gave it high praise."

Pan Yuedong reiterated the luxurious team of reviewers for Qiao Yu’s submission.

Even though Academician Pan had no real connection to this, with such a legendary group of reviewers, it was irresistible for everyone to recite them in such a situation.

After all, these names were legendary figures in modern mathematics.

"So, you’re saying that Professor Tao also reviewed this paper on prime gaps?" Shen Chongxing asked again.

"Yes, not just Professor Tao, but Professors Zhang Yuantang and Zhang Shuwen, along with many professors researching number theory, all reviewed it. Frankly, the proof is very rigorous.

Particularly the section explaining the number-theoretic understanding of prime modal distances, you should look into it closely, Professor Zhang. I believe Qiao Yu’s framework will greatly aid your research."

Pan Yuedong sincerely concluded, as this is what he truly thought.

He had also read Qiao Yu’s paper on the Generalized Modal Axiomatic System—it had great value.

Obviously, saying that the current framework can solve Weyl group-related problems is impossible, but it’s definitely inspirational.

If, as Tian Yanzhen suggested, Qiao Yu intends to incorporate concepts such as group theory and graph theory into this generalized framework in the future, it’s possible there could be multiple solutions for Weyl group-related problems.

"Indeed, as Professor Pan said, once the paper is officially released tomorrow, I will certainly download it immediately to study." Zhang Yuanling responded with mixed feelings.

...

It was once again proven that no matter the community, when a supposed small secret is known by one or two people, it essentially means everyone knows.

Sixteen years old, a new axiomatic framework, god-tier reviewers in the math world, and driving the prime gap upper bound down to single digits twelve years later...

The density of the information was extremely high, and any pair of these facts could spark significant discussion. Combined, they naturally multiplied the interest.

The most significant effect was using the magnification effect of this conference to make many accept the fact that Huaxia truly has a mathematical genius.