Training the Heavens

Chapter 188 Graduation Thesis
"Brother's conjecture? You've been working on Mersenne primes, why change to this?" Lu Qiujian even felt a little guilty after hearing this, because he was the first one to give Xu Chi's "Goldbach's Conjecture" to Huang Tunan to read. If Huang Tunan's research was delayed because of this article, he would become a sinner.

"Yes, you have found three new Mersenne primes. If you keep looking, you will definitely find more. If there are new discoveries, you may be able to solve this difficult problem. In terms of its status in the field of number theory, Mersenne primes are no worse than the Goldbach conjecture. Why do you want to change direction?" Qi Jiwen was also very anxious.

A few days ago, Huang Tunan just found the third Mersenne prime and published an article. It is foreseeable that letters from foreign mathematicians will become more frequent, because they all think that Huang Tunan must have mastered certain rules to be able to find three numbers in such a short time.

And this rule is the most critical. Lu Qiujian and Qi Jiwen also had similar ideas, so they persuaded him to continue.

Huang Tunan explained, "Finding the first three Mersenne primes took a lot of computing time. While the computer science professors kept quiet, they were definitely unhappy. They also had a lot of projects to do, and the school only had so many computers. If I used more, they would have less."

"Also, based on my judgment, finding new Mersenne primes isn't that easy. Last time it took over a month, and next time it might take several months, or even years. It's a huge waste to use so many resources on this."

This is the benefit of foresight. In the original history, on April 1979, 4, David Slowinsky and Nelson, computer experts from Cray Corporation in the United States, used the Cray-8 computer to find a Mersenne prime with more than 1 digits, which is the one Huang Tunan just found.

Slowinsky then used an improved Cray-XMP computer and spent several more years to find two new numbers between 1982 and 1985, which was not cost-effective.

By the way, at the beginning of the new millennium, Cray announced seven major mathematical problems: Poincare conjecture, Yang-Mills existence and mass gap, Bech and Swineton-Dyer conjectures, existence and smoothness of solutions to the NS equations, P/NP problem, Hodge conjecture, and Riemann hypothesis.

A high reward of one million US dollars was offered. Anyone who could solve any of the problems would receive a bonus of one million US dollars. Until Huang Tunan traveled through time, only the Russian mathematician Perelman solved the Poincare conjecture, but Perelman had no interest in the bonus.

"The Goldbach conjecture is different. I've had some inspiration lately. I'm still a long way from cracking it, but it's possible to make some progress."

The weak Goldbach conjecture was later completely proved by Harold Helfgott, a Peruvian mathematician and researcher at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris. Even if this achievement is not enough for the Fields Medal, it is enough to establish Huang Tunan's reputation.

In the decades that followed, mathematicians made many breakthroughs in the field of Goldbach's conjecture. A French mathematician, Ramaré, proved that every even number can be written as the sum of at most six prime numbers; then Terence Tao proved that every odd number can be written as the sum of at most five prime numbers.

If he fully understands these achievements, he can also bring them out. In contrast, in the field of Mersenne primes, apart from the continuous discovery of new numbers, mathematicians have made far fewer breakthroughs. So is there any need to consider which one to choose?
Ping Zetao and the others didn't know about this. After Lu Qiujian reported it, they immediately came to persuade Huang Tuanan, but he remained unmoved and still insisted on his own opinion. Considering that Huang Tuanan's research on Mersenne primes was already at the forefront of the country, and now that he had judged that this path was not feasible, they had no choice but to believe it.

"Tunan has already made great achievements. We should respect his ideas and not interfere with his research direction."

Huang Tunan had already left the talented young people at USTC far behind, proving that Soochow University had been right not to interfere with his study plan. Since that was the case, he should just keep up this good habit. Not long afterward, Lao Deng went to the hospital and caused trouble again. This time, not only did the hospital not tolerate him, but the security department directly escorted him away and sent him to the machinery factory. Upon seeing this, the factory leaders reduced their retirement benefits again.

Now Lao Deng no longer dares to make trouble, and Zhuang Hualin and his family can live their lives in peace.

In the next few years, Huang Tuanan studied hard while researching the Goldbach conjecture, and wrote a few short papers from time to time. Seeing this, the school leaders no longer interfered with his research. He did whatever he liked, and the school provided help according to his needs.

Before they knew it, Xiang Pengfei, Huang Xiaoting and Lin Dongzhe were admitted to junior high school one after another, and they were all affiliated with the Normal College, which is a key middle school in Suzhou. Several families were very pleased and set up a table to celebrate.

On the other hand, Zhendong and Zhenbei were both naughty kids, and their families didn’t care about them, so their academic performance naturally didn’t improve. In the end, they only got into an ordinary middle school with a very low ranking.

This really worried the old couple. The importance of the college entrance examination was increasing. Seeing their children fail to get into university, what would they do? If Pengfei and Xiaoting both got into university in the future, but these two didn't, they would be so angry that they would vomit blood.

They quickly wrote a letter to Zhuang Chaoying, hoping that Zhuang Chaoying could come back from the northwest to give the two children extra lessons, so that the two children might still have a glimmer of hope.

When Huang Tunan was in his senior year, a number of prestigious universities including Tsinghua University, Peking University, USTC, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and Fudan University sent people to him, wanting him to go to their schools for graduate and doctoral studies, but Huang Tunan refused without hesitation.

Life in Suzhou is so comfortable, why go somewhere else? His excuse was the same as before: I was only fifteen, still young, and didn't want to go too far away from home.

They could only leave with regrets, but the Normal College happily recommended him for a master's and doctoral program. As long as he completed enough credits and passed the thesis defense, he could get his doctoral degree in advance.

When it came time to write his undergraduate thesis, Huang Tunan made a bold move. The title he submitted to He Chengxuan was "Even numbers not less than 4 can be expressed as the sum of at most six prime numbers."

This is an important step in overcoming the weak Goldbach conjecture. If the article is confirmed to be correct, it will be eligible to be published in the four major international mathematics journals.

He Chengxuan couldn't help but complain about using such a high-level paper for his undergraduate graduation, "Tunan, this is such a waste!"

(End of this chapter)