After taking the advice, I became a top student.

Yanbei University, School of Mathematical Sciences

"This is academic misconduct!"

"He's deliberately making things difficult for us!"

"He's abusing his power for personal gain!"

An angry roar came from the office. Zheng Mingyang looked at the rejection letter on the computer screen and was so angry that his face turned red.

He had submitted his paper, “A Lower Bound Estimation of the Distribution of Prime Numbers in Arithmetic Series,” to the Duke Mathematical Journal a year ago.

Generally speaking, the review period for Duke Mathematics Journal is 6-12 weeks, and he should have replied within three months at the longest, but it has been delayed for half a year.

His paper didn't prove any major mathematical problem that no one in the world could understand, so the review process for such a paper would naturally be very long.

However, he only solved a small problem concerning the relationship between the distribution of zeros of the Dirichlet L-function and the distribution of primes in an arithmetic series, which did not require such a long review period.

Even though he waited for half a year, the other party kept asking him to revise the formatting issues, which dragged on for another three months. So, three months ago, he submitted a retraction request.

Today, the other party finally replied again, rejecting his request to withdraw the manuscript and providing suggestions for revision.

The reason given was that his proof was incomplete.

The opposing side argues that in the proof of Lemma 3.2 in the paper, the paper claims that this lower bound can be derived from the known Siegel theorem and certain analytical methods, but there is a jump in the given derivation process. The paper assumes a certain convergence rate of an integral, but this convergence rate actually requires a more precise estimate.

Therefore, the proof in this paper is incomplete and revision is recommended.

Upon seeing this reason, Zheng Mingyang was so angry he laughed.

They've already made him revise the formatting issue for three months already, why didn't they bring it up earlier? Now that he wants to retract the paper, they suddenly tell him that there's an incomplete proof in the paper. If there's nothing fishy going on here, Zheng Mingyang will change his name.

Because any mathematician studying this field knows that the incompleteness of Lemma 3.2 does not affect the credibility of the conclusions in his paper.

It's like he wrote a detective novel in which the murderer entered the room through a secret passage. He had already described the existence of the secret passage in the book, but he didn't draw a structural diagram of the secret passage. Then the editor sent it back for revision, asking him to add the structural diagram of the secret passage.

Zheng Mingyang disagreed and wrote to the editor to appeal, saying that although the proof of the lemma was incomplete, it did not affect the correctness of the conclusion, because the lemma could be proved in other ways, but he had not yet thought of the most concise way to write it.

However, the editor replied that the reviewers insisted that without this lemma, the paper's conclusions were invalid.

Zheng Mingyang was so angry he almost smashed his computer.

Since they were both in academia, he guessed that the other party was deliberately making things difficult for him.

Upon inquiry, the truth quickly came to light.

The mathematics community may seem large, but internationally there are actually only a handful of people who study a specific problem.

It turns out that a professor at Duke University was also researching a similar problem and was about to complete a paper whose conclusions overlapped with or even competed with Zheng Mingyang's paper.

If Zheng Mingyang's paper is published first, then the Duke University professor's paper will lose its novelty.

He didn't know who the reviewer was, but it was most likely also a professor from Duke University.

So the other party did not reject the manuscript, but asked him to revise it, which prevented him from turning to other journals.

This is truly outrageous!

"Okay, okay, calm down."

Your friend Zhao Yiming advised, "Submissions are based on the time of acceptance. As long as you quickly complete the supporting documentation and submit the revised manuscript, I want to see if they dare to tamper with it again."

If Duke Mathematics Journal really dares to defy public opinion and publish a later-submitted paper first, they can easily expose this matter based on the submission records.

He wanted to see if the other party dared to gamble with the reputation of Duke Mathematics Journal.

However, they must provide complete proof; otherwise, a flawed paper proves nothing.

After listening, Zheng Mingyang shook his head with a wry smile, "If this proof were really that easy to obtain, I wouldn't be so angry."

"Isn't all anger a result of a lack of strength?"

Zheng Mingyang chuckled self-deprecatingly, "Isn't this just impotent rage?"

He knew that this time he would probably have to suffer in silence, since he was simply outmatched.

It's often said that there are many behind-the-scenes dealings in domestic journals, and that you can't publish a paper without connections. However, the grass isn't always greener on the other side. If you don't have absolutely overwhelming strength, you still need connections.

Tell me about it.

Zhao Yiming went to Zheng Mingyang's side, picked up the paper that Zheng Mingyang had printed, and began to study it carefully.

Although he doesn't study the distribution of prime numbers, he does work in analytic number theory, so he might be able to provide Zheng Mingyang with some information. He also wants to help his friend get revenge.

"I have a vague feeling that this equation is related to some kind of trigonometric function product, but I can't write it out precisely."

When Zheng Mingyang talked about his paper, he immediately became serious. "I tried to express S(χ) as a circumferential integral using the Perron formula, and then estimated the integral. However, since the circumferential path passes through the zero of the L function, I couldn't handle the case where the zero might be close to s=1."

After Zhao Yiming finished reading the paper, Zheng Mingyang also started writing and drawing on the draft paper, explaining his work.

"I've also tried using the duality of eigenvalue sums and Gaussian sums, but I need a bridge between finite and infinite sums, and I haven't found that bridge yet."

"I even tried using the exponent sum from elementary number theory to estimate it, but I don't know how to relate the exponent sum to L(1, χ)."

After Zheng Mingyang finished speaking, he looked at Zhao Yiming expectantly, "I lack a clever invariant that can connect the infinite sum S(χ) with a finite product, or a finite sum."

He hoped his friend could give him such an equation, like a superhero riding a colorful cloud to save him.

Zhao Yiming's brows were already furrowed.

He now understood why his friend had given a wry smile.

This problem is indeed not something that can be solved in a short time.

After racking his brains for a while, Zhao Yiming finally looked up and sighed softly, "I can only take my time to work through it. Doing math is sometimes like writing a novel; you need inspiration."

Zheng Mingyang's anxiety finally died.

However, he did not give up. This paper was the culmination of two or three years of hard work, and no matter what, he was determined to publish it in the end.

What else can we do but complete the necessary documentation?

Don't forget there's a marking session this afternoon.

As Zhao Yiming left the office, he reminded them that he had come here to discuss this matter as well. The Chengdu Provincial Mathematics Association had invited them to create several questions for the National High School Mathematics League provincial competition, so they would also be involved in online marking.

Zheng Mingyang shook his head. "I don't have time to deal with this right now. You handle it for me."

Zhao Yiming was helpless.

Seeing Zheng Mingyang's flustered state, he didn't say much.

……

Chengdu University of Science and Technology

Chen Mo found his seat, sat down by the window, ate a banana, put on two pairs of glasses, drew three infinity symbols on the table with his right hand, and then rolled his eyes at the ceiling.

Seeing his strange appearance, the other examinees in the same examination room all looked over, and some even chuckled softly.

Lin Zhiyuan and Qiu Mingyuan exchanged a glance, wondering what Chen Mo was up to.

Lin Zhiyuan was right; they actually met in the exam hall today, and the three of them were in the same exam room.

The three exchanged a glance, and each saw a strong fighting spirit in the other's eyes.

At eight o'clock sharp, the bell rang.

The invigilators distributed the exam papers.

The first test is out of 120 points, consisting of 8 fill-in-the-blank questions and 3 problem-solving questions, with a test duration of 80 minutes.

After trying out the curls, Chen Mo quickly glanced over them.

The fill-in-the-blank questions were much easier than Chen Mo had expected; they were basically free points, presumably to give the contestants a taste of success and prevent them from losing confidence.

The first problem in the problem-solving section was about sequences, the second was about analytic geometry, and the third was about combinatorics.

Chen Mo picked up his pen and started writing, almost without pausing.

Fill in the blanks, done in 15 minutes.

The first problem is open to problem-solving; you have 5 minutes.

The second course, 5 minutes.

The third course, 10 minutes.

The total time was 35 minutes.

Chen Mo checked everything and, after confirming there were no basic errors, looked up at the time.

8:35.

The exam still has almost an hour left.

He hesitated for a moment, then remembered Zhou Zhi's instructions. Instead of handing in his paper early, he closed his eyes and began to rest, reviewing the new knowledge he had learned in the past few days.

Qiu Mingyuan, who had just finished the second major question, looked up and saw Chen Mo, who was resting with his eyes closed, and was slightly taken aback.

He subconsciously glanced at Chen Mo's exam paper. Of course, he wasn't trying to peek at the answers; he just wanted to confirm someone's question.

Then he saw the exam paper filled with writing.

"So strong!"

Qiu Mingyuan felt a chill run down his spine. He had already overestimated Chen Mo enough, but he hadn't expected that he would still underestimate him.

There are limited spots available for the winter camp, and his goal this year is to make it to the national team; he can't afford to falter in the provincial competition.

Suddenly, the pressure came.

Qiu Mingyuan looked at the exam paper again, his expression more serious and focused than ever before.