A genius? I just love studying.

Chapter 170: The Idea Has Arrived

"Mr. Yang, you are of a higher generation, but you should still be reasonable, shouldn't you?"

Just then, a discordant voice rang out, "Chen Hui's talent is obvious to all. If he were to do other research, he would surely achieve great things. But if he were to study the Yang-Mills equations, he would probably spend his whole life on it, and he might not even succeed in the end."

"From both a public and private perspective, this is not a good choice. You can't ruin a good child's future for your own selfish desires, can you?"

As soon as these words were spoken, the entire conference room fell silent. Some of the more timid individuals even had the urge to turn around and leave. While such a clash between big shots was exciting, it was also a case of collateral damage, and they didn't want to be caught in the crossfire.

The speaker was Wen Liang, a researcher at the China Institute of High Energy Physics, who was also a member of the judging panel for this year's Outstanding Young Scientists Award.

Of course, he also has another identity: a student of Cao Jun, the director of the China Institute of High Energy Physics. Cao Jun's teacher was Academician Wang Yifang, who was also the leader who advocated for China to build a large particle collider back then.

Unfortunately, the leader of the opposition to the construction movement back then was Yang Zhenning.

Scientific research in physics and biochemistry is quite different from that in mathematics, where a clear mind is often all that is needed to produce amazing results.

However, research in physics and biochemistry requires experimental assistance, or even relies primarily on experiments. And experiments require instruments. Specifically in high-energy physics, particle colliders are indispensable instruments. In the words of Academician Wang Yifang, without particle colliders, the China Institute of High Energy Physics would just be an ordinary research institute.

But if the particle collider is built, the China Institute of High Energy Physics will be transformed into a world-leading research institute.

Or to put it more directly, if CEPC is indeed built, then the Institute of High Energy Physics, which has a collider, can easily publish an article in a top journal in the relevant field. However, if it is not built, it would be difficult for a scholar to publish a single article in a top journal even if he works hard his whole life.

Perhaps Academician Wang Yifang's starting point was good, but the construction cost of 200 billion (about 30 billion US dollars) is not something China can afford. In fact, it is highly likely that the construction will seriously exceed the budget as the construction progresses. For example, the budget of the US Superconducting Super Collider (SSC) soared from 3 billion US dollars to 8 billion US dollars, and was eventually halted due to uncontrolled costs.

Even if the budget is well controlled and the project is completed, the annual maintenance costs will still be astronomical. For example, the Large Hadron Collider in Europe cost $100 billion, and its annual maintenance costs are as high as $17 billion.

Furthermore, China's current foundation in high-energy physics is far inferior to that of the West, and it even relies on the West for some key technologies. If it is actually built, it is hard to say whether it will benefit others.

This is likely why many physicists internationally support Academician Wang Yifang and hope that China will build a large particle collider.

Given China's current situation, it is not yet at the point where it can squander 2000 billion yuan in scientific research funding. High-energy physics research is indeed of great significance, but its help to China in the short term is limited.

It's hard to estimate how much progress and impact this money could have generated if invested in other, more immediate research areas, such as semiconductors or new energy sources.

It's no longer meaningful who was right and who was wrong about what happened back then, but at least the grudge has been formed. Perhaps the argument started as just a difference of opinion or a conflict of ideas, but once it really started, morality was no longer important, and it became a matter of life and death.

Yang Zhenning already had too many titles, which is why the decision-makers at the time took his opinion seriously and ultimately called off the project that was of great significance to their Institute of High Energy Physics.

Even now, they haven't given up. They keep coming up with new solutions, cutting budgets, and proposing phased construction, among other things.

Wen Liang didn't want to see the Yang-Mills equations turn into the Yang-Mills theorem at this time, adding another jewel to Yang Zhenning's crown. If that happened, who in the Chinese academic circle could rival his prestige?

Wouldn't their nearly ten years of hard work be overturned with a single word?

Furthermore, his suggestion was reasonable. Chen Hui could have devoted himself to more meaningful projects that would yield results in the short term, instead of wasting his talent on the bottomless pit of the Yang-Mills equations.

"How about it, Chen Hui? As long as you consider a more practical topic, we certainly won't make things difficult for you. With your talent, you could easily be selected as an Outstanding Young Scientist, let alone an Excellent Young Scientist."

Wen Liang looked at Chen Hui, his gaze blatantly tempting him.

Zhang Jiping frowned. He disliked Wen Liang's overbearing behavior, but his actions were beyond reproach. Chen Hui's research topic was indeed somewhat impractical. His suggestion was for Chen Hui to change his topic, or at least to accumulate more knowledge in mathematics and physics before conducting research in this area.

Yang Zhenning merely glanced at Wen Liang. Although he was old, he was not senile and knew what was going on, but naturally he would not argue with a junior.

He turned around and looked at Chen Hui standing on the stage.

Chen Hui naturally shook his head, "I've recently become interested in this topic, and I want to study things that interest me."

A bright smile appeared on Yang Zhenning's aged face, not because Chen Hui had chosen to study his theory, but because he admired the young man's perseverance.

"Doing scientific research isn't like picking on a persimmon; you can't just pick the softest one!"

Chen Hui was afraid of offending people, so he didn't speak too bluntly. Tian Yang, however, was not afraid. After Chen Hui gave his answer, he immediately snorted and said, "If we don't study it just because it's too difficult, then there's nothing easy in this world. Scientific research, scientific research, which one isn't difficult?"

"What others can't do, Chen Hui might be able to do too!"

"How will you know if you don't try?"

Chiu Cheng-wu also spoke up, saying, "I never agree with young people being too ambitious and setting their goals too high, but I also never object to young people daring to try!"

He has a lot to say on this matter. Back then, his teacher asked him to study the Riemann Hypothesis, but he resolutely refused because he knew his own abilities. However, he believed that Chen Hui could do it.

Ultimately, the Yang-Mills equations differ somewhat from other Millennium Problems. Many people have already made some impressive progress on them, and although finding the final solution remains difficult, it is time for a genius to provide a definitive answer, just as Perelman did with the Poincaré conjecture.

Zhang Jiping smiled wryly; he had anticipated this situation when these three bigwigs appeared.

He tried to smooth things over by saying to Chen Hui, "Okay, let's end the defense here for today. We'll notify you of the results via email."

Chen Hui didn't care whether he was selected as an Outstanding Young Scientist or not; he would still study the Yang-Mills equation.

Tian Yang, however, was not having it. He turned to Zhang Jiping and said, "Old Zhang, don't try to fool me with that. Give me a straight answer: will my grand-disciple's outstanding young researcher project be approved or not?"

"Old Tian, ​​we are disciplined!"

Zhang Jiping's expression changed, and his voice became serious.

The atmosphere in the meeting room became strange, and everyone looked at Chen Hui with odd expressions. Although everyone knew what was going on, it was indeed inappropriate to bring it up in public.

The professors waiting for their defenses backstage in the conference room also looked gloomy. Compared to the others in the conference room, they were the stakeholders and their feelings were naturally more profound.

"Since you want to study the Yang-Mills equations, you can't really have no ideas at all, can you?"

At this moment, Yang Zhenning, who was sitting in the middle of the first row, spoke up.

As scholars, everything ultimately comes down to academic level, especially in mathematics. No achievement can be faked; right is right, and wrong is wrong. There can't be an absurd joke like the Hanxin-1. "Originally, I didn't have any ideas, but after several discussions with Professor Zheng and my mentor these past few days, I have some general thoughts, but they are still very immature."

Chen Hui answered respectfully.

At first, he didn't recognize the old man's identity, but when Wen Liang called him Old Yang, he immediately knew who the old man was.

China's first Nobel laureate!
Although Mr. Yang later became a U.S. citizen, he was indeed a Chinese citizen when he received the award.

Furthermore, the achievement that earned Professor Yang the Nobel Prize was the law of parity non-conservation, but Professor Yang's Nobel Prize-level achievements are not limited to this one. There is also the unification of electromagnetism, the famous Yang-Mills equation, which is also a Nobel Prize-level achievement. It's just that because Professor Yang had already won the Nobel Prize, it was not awarded again.

Professor Yang's status in the physics community, even if he doesn't make it into the top five in history, is definitely in the top ten. In a few decades, he will surely be included in physics textbooks and be on par with Newton and Einstein.

Chen Hui couldn't help but feel excited that such a person was sitting in the audience watching his defense and even discussing the Yang-Mills equation with him.

Zheng Nanning, sitting on the judges' panel, smiled slightly. This is truly a grateful and good child.

At the same time, he was also somewhat expectant. He knew that Chen Hui had gained something that day, but he had no idea how much he had gained.

The professors backstage stared wide-eyed at the stage, some incredulous. "Could this kid have actually achieved something?"

The meeting room fell silent again, awaiting Chen Hui's next performance.

They seemed to have forgotten that this was the site of the Outstanding Young Scientists Thesis Defense, and that Chen Hui's defense session had long since ended.

"Oh?"

"tell me the story?"

Yang Zhenning was also very interested.

"The existence problem of the Yang-Mills equations lies in the fact that its solution space is infinite-dimensional!"

Originally, this idea was still very immature, and Chen Hui hadn't figured out how to express it, but with Old Yang present, he naturally wouldn't let go of this rare opportunity.

“We want to prove its existence, which is like using an infinitely long thread to embroider a pattern that will never get tangled in four-dimensional spacetime. Every tiny tremor of the thread can cause the entire pattern to collapse. Traditional mathematical tools, such as perturbation expansion or finite element approximation, are like trying to untangle this tangled mess with tweezers, but they always fail in the face of the complexity of infinite dimensions.”

"Therefore, I believe the key to solving this problem lies in transforming an infinite-dimensional problem into a finite-dimensional one."

After speaking, Chen Hui stood on the stage and fell into deep thought.

"?"

The people who had been waiting rolled their eyes.

Transforming an infinite-dimensional problem into a finite-dimensional one—who doesn't understand this principle? Do you need to explain it to me?

If Chen Hui only came to this conclusion, then there is no reason for this defense to continue.

The bigwigs sitting in the front row naturally didn't think so. Since Chen Hui said he had gained something, it couldn't be just that.

"So, what is the key to transforming an infinite-dimensional problem into a finite-dimensional one?"

Chiu Cheng-wu voiced what everyone was thinking.

"It's topology!"

Chen Hui subconsciously replied, “Discrete four-dimensional spacetime into dynamic fractal grids. Each grid node carries a ‘quantum knot’ of the gauge group (such as SU(3)), i.e., principal bundle connection. These knots are nested in a self-similar way through fractal structures, which preserves the symmetry of continuous spacetime and avoids directly dealing with infinite-dimensional integrals.”

"It's like building a gently curved castle with Lego bricks—each Lego brick is discrete, but the overall structure can approximate a smooth curved surface."

Considering that not everyone in the meeting room was a mathematician, Chen Hui specifically used simple language to explain.

“Quantum chromodynamics has successfully achieved non-perturbative computation of strong interactions by discretizing spacetime into a four-dimensional grid. The gauge field (such as the SU(3) connection) at each grid point is represented by a link variable. The local gauge symmetry can still be maintained after discretization, which proves that the discretization method has physical rationality in gauge field theory.”

Chen Hui continued, "The fractal network generation algorithm can generate fractal meshes through a set of shrinking affine transformations. For example, in four-dimensional spacetime, each hypercube is recursively divided into smaller self-similar structures, and the mesh resolution is dynamically adjusted according to the local curvature of the gauge field..."

If what Chen Hui said before was the idea, the principle, then now he is explaining the specific operational methods, the techniques.

Everyone's expressions turned serious. This outstanding young scholar defense was related to the field of mathematics, and many people present had a certain mathematical background. They might not be able to fully understand what Chen Hui was saying, but they could understand some of the general ideas.

The professors who were waiting in the lounge for their defenses came out and sat down in the conference room, some even standing in the front aisle.

Tian Yang and Qiu Chengwu sat up straight, leaning slightly forward, their eyes fixed on Chen Hui on the stage.

Tian Yang then waved, and the staff pushed a whiteboard onto the stage.

Yang Zhenning felt a surge of warmth as he watched the young man speaking eloquently on stage. He had only come to watch the defense with a "what if" mentality, but unexpectedly, this little guy had given him another huge surprise.

He seemed to have truly seen a glimmer of hope!
It took Chen Hui a full half hour to finish explaining his ideas, by which time there were already six whiteboards on the stage.

When Chen Hui was about to wipe away the first whiteboard, Tian Yang stopped him and had the staff push another one over. This continued until the whiteboard occupied the entire stage, and the complex symbols surrounded Chen Hui like the halo of a Buddha.

The story ends.

Everyone felt a sudden discomfort, as if reading a novel and it had just come to an abrupt end just as they were about to reach the climax.

"But I haven't figured out how to handle the degrees of freedom in gauge fields yet."

Chen Hui's frustrated voice rang out. This problem had been bothering him for a long time. If this problem hadn't remained unresolved, his dissertation defense wouldn't have been so empty and meaningless.

(End of this chapter)