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Chapter 107: Chapter 104: Rosetta Stone

Yan University Science Teaching Building.

A large lecture hall with a capacity of two hundred people.

Today was a *Mathematical Analysis* class taught by Professor Liu Ruochuan, a titan of Yan University’s School of Mathematics.

The last time, during the fundamental architecture class, Li Dong had sat in the back row and hadn’t even gotten close to Academician Gao after class ended.

He’d learned his lesson this time, dragging his three brutish roommates along early to grab front-row seats.

However, they had still seriously underestimated the terrifying dedication of Yan University’s gunners.

When they arrived fifteen minutes early, the first three rows were already completely full. Even the seats in the fourth and fifth rows had water bottles on them, placed there to save the spots.

”Did these animals sleep in the Science Building last night?”

Wang Hao couldn’t help but complain.

But since that was the situation, the four of them could only trudge dejectedly to the back of the classroom and sit down.

As the bell for class rang, Professor Liu leisurely strolled onto the lecture stage.

At Yan University, the students all loved him. And why was that?

Because every one of his lectures was filled with historical anecdotes and classical references that left these sheltered prodigies boiling with excitement.

”Class, I assume you’re all quite skilled at Calculus by now. After all, we don’t have any minors under the age of fourteen in this class, do we?”

”And even if we did, I imagine they’d be pretty slick with it. But...”

He glanced at the students, who didn’t seem to appreciate his humor, and continued.

”But our class today isn’t about teaching you how to solve problems. It’s about teaching you how to see the world.”

Professor Liu Ruochuan didn’t write the abstruse epsilon-delta notation on the board. Instead, he started the discussion with the most fundamental concept: prime numbers.

”I’m sure you all know what a prime number is. The definition itself is simple: a positive integer greater than 1 that can only be divided by 1 and itself.”

”But the distribution of prime numbers along the number line is as elusive as a ghost.”

”We can grasp their overall asymptotic distribution through the Prime Number Theorem and Dirichlet’s theorem, but as for where any single prime number will appear, there has never been a precise general formula that can predict it.”

”For thousands of years, countless top mathematicians have tried to advance our understanding of the pattern of prime numbers from a vague statistical trend to a precise mathematical expression, but they have never been able to take that final step.”

Professor Liu Ruochuan’s voice gradually rose in volume.

”Until the appearance of Bernhard Riemann!”

”And what did Riemann do?”

”He refused to confine his gaze to the real number line. Instead, using the Zeta function long-since proposed by Euler, he performed a groundbreaking analytic continuation, elevating the entire problem of prime numbers to the much broader complex plane!”

”He discovered that all the secrets of prime number distribution were hidden within the non-trivial zeros of this Riemann Zeta function! As long as the pattern of these zeros could be understood, the distribution of those seemingly chaotic prime numbers could be expressed with perfect precision!”

”And over 160 years ago, he proposed a hypothesis.”

”All non-trivial zeros of the Zeta function lie on the critical line, where the real part is 1/2 on the complex plane.”

”These zeros are like a chord written by God. The position of each zero corresponds to a frequency that controls the fluctuations in the distribution of prime numbers!”

The classroom was silent; every freshman was completely captivated.

Sitting in the back row, Li Dong nodded repeatedly.

What Professor Liu was talking about was precisely what his mobile workstation was calculating frantically, day and night.

But Professor Liu Ruochuan’s digression didn’t stop there. What he was about to discuss was...

...not just a pearl in the field of number theory, but a universal language that could connect the entire world of mathematics.

”If the Riemann Hypothesis is the crown jewel of number theory, then what I’m about to discuss is the grand unified theory of the modern mathematical world!”

Professor Liu wrote two words on the blackboard in large letters—[Langlands Program].

”The Rosetta Stone. You all know of it, right?”

”A single stone inscribed with three languages, which allowed archaeologists to decipher ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs.”

”In the world of mathematics, algebra, geometry, and analysis are like three completely separate languages.”

”Number theorists can’t understand harmonic analysts, and geometers find algebra too abstract.”

”But! The Langlands Program is like the Rosetta Stone of mathematics!”

”It seeks to build a magnificent bridge between Galois representations in number theory and automorphic forms in harmonic analysis!”

”Once this bridge is fully complete, you’ll discover that dead ends in Algebraic Geometry that seem impossible to solve can be resolved with ease, simply by translating them into the language of analysis using this ’stone’!”

The freshmen below the stage were fired up.

At that moment, however, Li Dong, sitting in the back, frowned.

Automorphic forms... Harmonic analysis...

He suddenly thought of Old Yang, and of that paper from Duke University—”On the Local-Global Compatibility for GL₂ Automorphic Representations in the Case of Ramification Index Not Exceeding 2”!

’GL₂ automorphic representations... Isn’t that one of the core puzzle pieces of the Langlands Program?!’

Li Dong had a feeling there was a story behind that paper and Old Yang.

He still remembered the names on the paper: Jiang Yubai, Zhou Shenzhi.

Just as Li Dong was lost in thought, Professor Liu’s voice rang out again.

”We at Yan University, and especially you students of Yuanpei College!”

”Your goal shouldn’t just be getting a 4.0 GPA on your final exams, nor should it be just to churn out a few worthless papers to pad your resume!”

”You should set your sights higher!”

”Strive to solve those world-class, century-old conjectures! Go build your own mathematical bridges! That is the spirit a Yan University student should have!”

RING RING RING...

The bell signaling the end of class rang at that exact moment, and the atmosphere in the lecture hall reached its peak.

”Class dismissed!”

Professor Liu Ruochuan coolly set down his chalk.

The words had barely left his mouth when his three animal roommates, Wang Hao, Liu Qiang, and Chen Nan, shot out of their seats without a second glance at Li Dong.

Li Dong sat in his seat and smirked. He hadn’t moved an inch...

Sure enough, even though the three of them ran faster than dogs, a crowd had already swarmed Professor Liu.

At Yan University, you should never underestimate how fast the gunners are when it comes to asking questions.

Just as the three of them could only stare helplessly from the edge of the crowd, Li Dong’s phone vibrated.

He saw it was a call from Teacher Sun and answered it.

”Hello, Teacher Sun?”

”Li Dong! We have results,” Sun Xiang’s voice on the other end was trembling with excitement.

”The batch of Alpine Willow Chrysanthemums we worked on over the New Year holiday—after several months of tissue culture rapid propagation and photoperiod induction, the T0 generation positive mutant strain has successfully flowered and produced T1 generation seeds!”

Li Dong shot to his feet.

The T1 generation seeds were produced!

This meant their work on knocking out the homologous genes of the Alpine Willow Chrysanthemum at the molecular level had now been fully realized at the phenotypic level!

”Brother Liu said that now is the most critical period for phenotypic validation!”

”You’re needed to personally carry out the emasculation and artificial pollination experiments on the T1 generation plants. We need to verify with our own eyes whether it has regained its sexual reproduction capabilities after the gene knockout, and whether it can reproduce Mendel’s 3:1 segregation ratio.”

This was the final, crucial step to close the loop on the entire biology project!

If he didn’t personally produce this 3:1 segregation ratio, all their previous gene sequencing and knockout work would just be a pile of useless molecular data.

”I understand, Teacher Sun.”

After hanging up, Li Dong didn’t wait around to ask Professor Liu any questions and left the Science Building directly.

Going to another province for an experiment wasn’t a matter of an hour or two; he had to request a leave of absence.

At Yuanpei College, freshmen usually went to their counselor for daily administrative matters and leave requests.

Li Dong went to the counselor’s office, knocked, and walked in.

The counselor was a senior student pursuing his doctorate. He wore glasses and had a gentle, scholarly look.

”Li Dong? What can I do for you?” The counselor naturally remembered the top science scholar from Sichuan-Yu Province.

”Sir, I’d like to request two days of leave,” Li Dong reported truthfully.

”I’ve been working on an independent biology project, and the experiment has now reached the critical phenotypic validation stage. So, I’d like to request two days off to go to Zhejiang University.”

The counselor was taken aback by his words.

’Go to Zhejiang University?’

’Can’t we do it for you here at Yan University?’

Then he remembered that school had only started a few days ago, yet the project was already at the phenotypic validation stage. It was obviously something Li Dong had been working on in high school.

The counselor sized Li Dong up carefully.

He didn’t doubt Li Dong’s words. After all, this was Yan University’s Yuanpei College.

The kind of thing that would sound absurd at any other university was just about average here.

The counselor smiled, pleased.

”Oh, so you’re going to advance your research project. That’s a great thing!”

The counselor readily took a leave request form from his drawer and signed it.

”University isn’t a place that’s meant to chain you to a desk.”

”Since you have the ability to conduct your own research independently, you should go with confidence.”

”Thank you, Sir!”

With the signed form in hand, Li Dong returned to his dorm.

Only Wang Hao was back in the room. Liu Qiang and Chen Nan were probably still waiting to ask Professor Liu their questions.

At the moment, Wang Hao was grinding his way through the copy of *Algebraic Geometry* that Li Dong had recommended.

He was so deep into scheme theory that his head felt like it was about to explode, and he was on the verge of seriously questioning his own intelligence.

”Haozi, I’ve got to leave for two days. My leave is approved,” Li Dong said while changing his clothes.

”While I’m gone, keep an eye on my computer for me. Don’t let anyone unplug it. It’s still running calculations for non-trivial zeros. If the power gets cut, the last few days of work will be for nothing!”

Wang Hao grunted in acknowledgment and went back to grinding through *Algebraic Geometry*, clearly in a state of flow.

Except...

...is it really a ’flow state’ if you can be pulled out of it so easily?