Chapter 418: Small World

The phone call ended.

Within 20 minutes, Lu Zhou heard knocking sounds from his front door.

Lu Zhou came out of the toilet and went downstairs.

He then saw Professor Fefferman who was breathing heavily at his front steps.

Upon seeing him, Fefferman immediately asked, “You really, really solved it? The Navier–Stokes equation?”

Lu Zhou looked at Professor Fefferman, who was gasping.

“… Do you want to catch your breath first?”

“No, it’s fine.” Fefferman leaned against the door with his hand and said, “Tell me, how did you do it?”

Fefferman was usually gentle and easy-going; he had never been this serious before.

Lu Zhou could tell Fefferman was craving for an answer.

“… Long story, come with me.”

Lu Zhou turned around and walked upstairs.

Lu Zhou brought Professor Fefferman to the second floor, and they went into his study room. He cleaned up his messy table and floor before he pulled out a one-hundred-page manuscript. He handed the manuscript to Professor Fefferman.

Professor Fefferman took the manuscript and began to think while Lu Zhou spoke.

“I made references to the L Manifold thesis that I published in Annual Mathematics a while ago. If you haven’t read that, I suggest you read the two theses together.”

Professor Fefferman ignored Lu Zhou’s advice and stood there flipping through the pages without saying anything else.

An hour passed by.

Finally, he put down the thesis and spoke emotionally.

“… Unbelievable, this is incredible.”

An hour wasn’t enough to understand the core ideas of the thesis, but for Fefferman, it was enough time to skim through the thesis.

A major mathematics conjecture proof had to pass through rigorous review from the entire mathematics community, but after an hour of reading, Fefferman couldn’t find any mistakes.

The thesis ideas and words were smooth, rigorous, clean, and neat.

Fefferman was mostly surprised at Lu Zhou’s ingenious mathematics methods.

“It really is shocking.” Lu Zhou made two cups of coffee, and he handed Fefferman a cup before he said in a joking tone, “When I proved the last lemma, even I was surprised by my own wit.”

Professor Fefferman took the coffee. He then shook his head and said, “No, it’s not just the last lemma, you don’t understand what you did.”

Lu Zhou asked, “What do you mean?”

“You used the L Manifold to introduce a differential geometry method into the partial differential equations. You’ve even successfully integrated the principle of topological psychology… I’ve never seen this before.”

Professor Fefferman felt a little thirsty, so he took a sip of the coffee.

After that, he spoke in a half-joking tone.

“Gromov, who introduced the concept of pseudo-holomorphic curves into differential geometry, invented symplectic geometry. And Qiu Chengtong, who introduced the partial differential method into differential geometry, was the founding father of geometric analysis. In my opinion, the L Manifold has the same significance. If I were you, I would think about naming this new mathematical field.”

Lu Zhou didn’t want to think of another name.

“Let’s talk about naming things later, I need to rest right now.”

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Fefferman’s reaction was strong, and he immediately said, “No! You can’t rest, not until you transfer the manuscript into an electronic file!”

Fefferman didn’t look like he was joking, so Lu Zhou said, “… But can’t I postpone the uploading of the thesis for a few days? I was invited to do an hour-long report, surely they will allow me to do this.”

I’m an internationally renowned scholar, they must give me some leeway?

I’m not postponing on purpose, I’m just too tired.

Professor Fefferman shook his head.

“You can postpone the upload, but this is a hundred-page thesis, how long do you plan on postponing? Not to mention, you have to edit some of the details in the thesis. I will send a letter to the International Mathematical Union for you. What you have to do now is to sort out your thesis within three days, a week at the latest!”

Professor Fefferman placed the coffee cup on the table and started to walk out the door.

However, he suddenly remembered something.

Fefferman took a deep breath before he turned around and looked at Lu Zhou.

“Oh yeah, I nearly forgot. I have to say thank you.”

“Thank you?” Lu Zhou smiled and said, “What is there to thank me for? You’re a member of NS research project team as well.”

Professor Fefferman shook his head and said, “No, I’m not talking about that.”

He paused for three seconds before he cleared his throat and spoke in a solemn voice.

“Whether it is about boats producing ripples on water or jets producing turbulence in the sky, mathematicians and physicists believe the Navier–Stokes equation can predict these phenomena…”

Lu Zhou was stunned.

He suddenly felt like he had heard this quote somewhere before.

Lu Zhou replied, “… Although the Navier–Stokes equation was proposed in the 19th century, we have a very little understanding of the equation.”

“That’s right,” Professor Fefferman said with a smile as he nodded at Lu Zhou. He then said, “Hence, we are the first scholars in the world to change the history of mathematics and challenge the Navier–Stokes equation puzzle!”

The study room went silent for a moment.

Lu Zhou finally remembered where he heard this monologue before.

“… This is the declaration speech from the Clay Institute at the Millennium Mathematical Conference at the French Academy?”

“That’s right,” Professor Fefferman said. He then smiled and continued, “On May 24th, 2000, at the Millennium Mathematical Conference at the French Academy, the Clay Institute announced seven Millennium Prize Problems, one of which is the Navier–Stokes equation. This monologue was regarding the Navier–Stokes equation.

“And I was the person that gave this monologue.”

Lu Zhou was stunned.

He knew the seven Millennium Prize Problems was created by the Clay Institute, and he knew about the Millennium Mathematical Conference held at the Paris Academy.

But he never thought that the person who proposed the Navier–Stokes equation as one of the Millennium Prize Problems was his research project team member?

This was almost like he defeated the person that wrote the exam…

Okay, that metaphor wasn’t appropriate.

“Defeat” wasn’t the right word.

“Congratulations, Professor Lu,” Professor Fefferman said. As he held Lu Zhou’s right hand tightly, he said, “You have re-written history, and I, am the witness of this historical moment!

“Remember to upload the thesis on time. Also, protect this manuscript, it might become a museum-worthy item one day.”

Fefferman smiled before he left.

As Lu Zhou looked at him leaving, he smiled and shook his head.

He looked at the manuscript in his hand and whispered, “… Princeton really is a magical place.”