The military-industrial scientific research system of the academic master.

Later after watching the press conference, Chang Haonan returned to his bedroom and turned on his computer, preparing to send the proof process in three languages ​​and an explanatory document that had not been published on arXiv to Tang Lintian as agreed.

Although he was basically certain from the beginning that his proof process was correct, Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, as a serious scientific research institution, would definitely wait until the results were finalized before posting the results.

If you open the champagne in advance, even if it is later proved that the champagne was not opened incorrectly, it will always seem a bit unreserved.

However, the moment he opened the mailbox, Chang Haonan was shocked by what was inside -

Due to server resource issues, most mailboxes will set a storage capacity limit.

Around the turn of the millennium, this limit was generally in the range of a few hundred MB to a few GB.

Considering that emails in this era do not support attachments that are too large, it is generally difficult for normal people to save so many emails.

But Chang Haonan did it.

When uploading the paper to arXiv, he didn't think too much about it and habitually attached the school email address he had used in previous submissions.

What is the result...

Can be imagined.

Because I have received too many emails in the past few days.

His mailbox space exploded...

Of course, it doesn’t mean that the emails sent after the explosion are gone.

If processed in time, it can still be queued in from the server.

But it's still an exaggeration...

"Wow, what a mistake... I should have registered a new email address..."

While Chang Haonan sighed, "I have never seen such a scene before," he began to check whether there was any important content mixed in.

In fact, judging from the date of sending the emails, his mailbox had been filled up three days ago.

At that time, the final review results had not yet come out.

Therefore, most of the people who sent him emails were people Chang Haonan had never heard of.

For example, a student or researcher from the mathematics department of a certain school may ask him if he can explain a certain part in the paper.

After all, it is the proof of the Poincare conjecture. The so-called "simple and easy to understand" is only compared to the method used by Perelman in the previous life, which took others three years to understand.

There is still a threshold.

However, you don't need to reply to this type of email.

Because soon there will be someone who can understand and explain it to them.

Apart from this most important category, there is no regular pattern for the rest.

Some were just advertising, some were promoting newly established academic journals, and even several students from different countries sent their personal information and asked if they could study with Chang Haonan...

To be honest, one of them has a pretty good resume.

Moreover, the other party also stated in the email that although the mathematical community has not yet reached a conclusion, he has read the entire content and is very confident in the correctness of the proof process.

More importantly, she found that every step in the paper was set just right, and there was no sign of the large number of leaps in thinking and confusing descriptions of new theoretical frameworks that are common in general mathematics papers. Therefore, she was very interested in the author's unique writing style and hoped to continue her doctoral studies in Chang Haonan's research group after obtaining her master's degree this year...

To be honest, after watching it, even Chang Haonan was a little moved.

It’s a pity that the nature of his research group is so special that he can’t recruit foreign students at will.

However, after a brief hesitation, he did not throw the email directly into the recycle bin like other emails, but wrote back to the student named Maryam Mirzakhani, affirming her past resume, but saying that mathematical research is currently only his personal interest, so he has no plans to recruit graduate students in this field.

He was originally planning to recommend Perelman, another author of the paper, to Mirzakhani, but after some consideration he decided not to do so.

After all, the latter is the epitome of what the other party calls the "jumping thinking" writing style, and even his peers would call it outrageous...

As Chang Haonan cleared out space in his mailbox, some emails sent in recent days were also transmitted from the server.

In fact, the review team basically understood the entire proof process in just three days, and only conducted multiple rounds of repeated checks and confirmations in the next four days because they felt it was too outrageous.

It was just to avoid the situation like Wiles' that the information was not disclosed to the media before the final results came out.

But the mathematics community had actually heard about this a long time ago.

Therefore, the emails sent to Chang Haonan's mailbox at this stage already contained a lot of important content...

“They are really positive…”

Chang Haonan looked at the four web pages arranged 2*2 in front of him with a somewhat amusing look.

Above are the invitations for articles sent to myself and Perelman by the four major mathematics journals almost at the same time.

Without exception, the content is all about the proof of the Poincare conjecture.

In fact, normally, although there is competition between different journals, considering the image of the academic circle, they will not snatch food from their competitors.

It's so ugly to eat like that.

So in the first few days, everyone thought that the paper had been submitted somewhere else, so everything was fine.

But after realizing that the paper had not actually been submitted, it was a completely different story—

Everyone could predict that this paper would be cited by tens or millions of later generations, just like Watson and Crick's paper discovering the double helix structure of DNA.

The impact factor brought by this terrifying number of citations cannot be completely ignored even by the top journals.

In the end, of course, he still didn't reply.

But I took a screenshot of this famous scene, and saved these four emails...

This is an unprecedented achievement that will be hard to come by in the future...

……

In this way, it was not until that afternoon that Chang Haonan finally sent the planned email to Tang Lintian.

Then, I received a reply from the other party almost immediately.

Just one short sentence.

"Your phone has been unreachable for several days."

"..."

Only then did Chang Haonan come to his senses.

Why do I always feel like something is not right today——

Normally, when this kind of news comes out, there should be countless calls coming in.

But Chang Haonan lives in a rather special place, so the phone number at home, even if it is an external call, is only known to a very small number of people in the Science and Technology Commission system and some comrades who are specifically responsible for providing logistical support.

Since he started seclusion last month, he hasn't touched his phone.

Even though the battery life of the phone in standby mode is quite amazing, it has been out of power for quite some time...

Thinking of this, Chang Haonan hurried downstairs to the living room to charge his mobile phone which had been turned off long ago.

The first person to call was Tang Lintian.

“Are you watching the press conference?”

After the call was connected, the other party got straight to the point.

"Uh……"

This question made Chang Haonan stunned:

"Isn't it over already?"

He clearly went upstairs to reply to the email only after he finished reading the interview.

"No, you're talking about the interview with the review committee this morning. That must have ended long ago."

Tang Lintian explained:

"This is a press conference held by the Clay Mathematics Institute, the same organization that announced the reward for solving the seven great mathematical problems of the millennium... CCTV 9 (CCTV 9 is still the English channel at this time, not the documentary channel) is broadcasting the entire event."

Chang Haonan immediately became interested.

A million dollars or something like that is secondary to him right now.

The key is that he wants to see the other party's reaction.

He also read some newspapers these two days and found that the day he uploaded the paper to arXiv was exactly the same day that the institute announced the reward...

Turn on the TV.

Appearing on the screen were the sponsor of the Clay Institute, Landon Clay, and its director, Arthur Jeff.

The two of them were surrounded by a bunch of microphones.

And the reporter just happened to ask the most critical question.

That is the reward.

Does it count?

After all, this is just such a coincidence.

Many people have speculated whether the Poincare conjecture will be eliminated and a new one will be brought in.

When he heard this question, the muscles on Landon Clay's face twitched noticeably.

A million dollars.

It’s not that he can’t afford the money, but he is really not mentally prepared at all.

According to Arthur Jeff, it would be difficult to solve all of these seven problems in the next century, and it would be quite good if someone could solve one within 10 years.

And spending money is secondary.

Mainly a slap in the face.

At the Millennium Mathematics Conference, Jeff performed an embarrassing act in the physical sense.

But it's uncomfortable to be uncomfortable.

Clay still has to have face.

You have to give it.

And judging from the results alone, the impact of this coincidence on the research far exceeds the value of a million dollars.

Therefore, he adjusted his mentality slightly and replied in a deep voice:

“I have to say, this is indeed a wonderful coincidence.”

"Perhaps from a legal perspective, whether the proof of the Poincare conjecture falls within the scope of the reward is a debatable question, but personally, I prefer to understand this coincidence as an arrangement of fate."

"Therefore, the Clay Institute will recognize the validity of this reward, and according to the terms previously agreed upon, will officially award the two authors a $2001 million reward one year after the proof is presented, that is, on May 5, 24!"