My Study Chat Group is Full of Real Big Shots

Chapter 153: Chapter 151: You’re Trying to Lure Him to Yan University?

He saw the tall, blonde, blue-eyed foreign woman standing in front of Li Dong’s door.

Liu Ruochuan’s steps faltered. He then sized Li Dong up and down with an exceedingly strange look.

’This kid... he’s only a freshman!’

’He’s only been in Shanghai for a few days for an academic conference?’

’Has he already been corrupted by the sugar-coated bullets of capitalism, or should I say... by a beautiful woman?’

”Ahem...” Liu Ruochuan coughed loudly, a reminder for a certain someone to mind his conduct. This was a sanctuary for scholarly exchange.

Seeing the look on Liu Ruochuan’s face, Li Dong quickly began to explain.

”Teacher, don’t get the wrong idea!”

Li Dong pointed to Sarah in front of them.

”She’s Professor Arthur Penrose’s student, Sarah.”

”She came looking for me a couple of days ago, saying that Professor Penrose wanted to meet me.”

”I was busy preparing for my presentation, so I told her we could visit him together with you after the conference.”

Hearing this, Liu Ruochuan’s expression didn’t relax. Instead, it grew a bit more solemn.

Just then, Sarah approached. She clearly recognized the dean of the Yan University School of Mathematics and gave a polite, slight bow.

”Professor Liu, hello.”

”My mentor, Professor Penrose, is very eager to meet Mr. Li Dong.”

’Arthur Penrose!’

Liu Ruochuan mused internally.

’He’s an absolute titan in the international field of analytic number theory!’

’Professor Penrose had previously sent a formal letter to Yan University, expressing his wish to fly to Huaxia to meet Li Dong, an offer they had politely declined at the time.’

’Now that he’s gone this far, it would be unreasonable and impolite to avoid him any longer.’

Liu Ruochuan turned to look at Li Dong. Seeing Li Dong nod, he then turned to Sarah and said,

”Alright. Since Professor Penrose is so gracious, Li Dong and I will go visit your mentor now.”

Led by Sarah, the two soon arrived outside Professor Penrose’s suite.

”KNOCK KNOCK.”

Sarah knocked and opened the door, leading them inside.

Before entering, Liu Ruochuan had been a little worried.

’After all, some things couldn’t be discussed.’

However, when they walked into the room, Professor Penrose immediately stood up at the sound.

But he didn’t exchange pleasantries with Liu Ruochuan, who was walking in front.

It was as if this academic titan had no grasp of social etiquette whatsoever, leaving Liu Ruochuan hanging.

He walked up to Li Dong and gripped his hands tightly.

”Mr. Li Dong!”

Penrose’s voice was filled with excitement.

Yes, he called him ”Mr. Li Dong.”

Just based on how far Li Dong had iterated that algorithm and the professional theoretical knowledge he had displayed during his defense, he was more than deserving of the title ”Mister.”

”I am utterly fascinated by the algorithm you published in *Mathematics Computing*!”

”May I discuss it with you in depth?”

Standing to the side, Liu Ruochuan was completely dumbfounded.

’What’s this foreigner’s game? Not even a single pleasantry, just straight to the point? Is sincerity his ultimate weapon?’

Penrose noticed their astonishment and let go of Li Dong’s hands, looking slightly embarrassed.

”My apologies, I may have gotten a bit too excited.”

”Ever since I began studying analytic number theory, I have been captivated by the genius of Bernhard Riemann.”

”I’ve studied his contour integrals, I’ve studied the asymptotic expansion of the Riemann-Siegel formula, and I have tried countless times to plot that critical line, Re(s) = 1/2, on the complex plane.”

”But the computational complexity was like an insurmountable wall.”

Penrose’s gaze turned somewhat fanatical.

”Until I saw your algorithm! A dimensionality reduction strategy using Chebyshev interpolation and non-linear FFT grid expansion... When I saw the zero data cascading down like a waterfall in my lab, I even felt like the god of mathematics was calling to me!”

Li Dong was stunned by his words.

’Professor Penrose might be a little overly dramatic, but Li Dong could definitely feel his sincerity.’

He could only say, a bit apologetically,

”Professor Penrose, I am truly very sorry.”

”For certain special reasons, I cannot disclose the complete underlying logic of this algorithm at this time. I hope you can understand.”

Upon hearing Li Dong’s refusal, a flash of disappointment crossed Professor Penrose’s eyes. But unlike Zhou Shenzhi, he didn’t try any moral blackmailing. Instead, he let out a long sigh.

”I understand. The jewels of science always need time to settle.”

Although they couldn’t discuss the algorithm, Penrose didn’t ask them to leave.

He had Sarah brew some fresh black coffee for the two of them, and the three sat down on the sofa, naturally drifting into a conversation about mathematics.

”Mr. Li Dong, I see you have a profound understanding of the Zeta function.”

”I wonder, have you done any research on the Generalized Riemann Hypothesis?”

”For example, the distribution of non-trivial zeros of Dirichlet L-functions on the character group—do you think its pair correlation statistics also follow the GUE model?”

Li Dong could tell that Penrose was truly terrible at small talk. Who starts a conversation by throwing out problems as if it were an exam?

’But would I shy away from your challenge?’

Li Dong set down his coffee cup.

”Professor Penrose, I believe it’s not just a matter of following it.”

”If we analyze the zeros of the L-function using the functional equation and the Euler product, you’ll find that as the modulus q of the conductor tends to infinity, the primitive characteristics of its zero distribution actually have an extremely strong homotopic mapping relationship with automorphic L-functions.”

”One could even say that as long as we can handle the boundary truncation error under non-principal characters, it could absolutely serve as another powerful analytical tool for verifying the local-global compatibility in the Langlands Program!”

The moment he said that,

not only Penrose, but even Liu Ruochuan, who had been sipping his coffee on the side, looked up!

’The Langlands Program? Local-global compatibility?’

’Isn’t that Jiang Yubai’s fucking field of research?’

’This kid can actually use an analytical perspective on L-functions to cut directly into algebraic geometry, Jiang Yubai’s greatest strength?’

Professor Penrose’s eyes lit up even more as he listened. He continuously threw out one number theory concept after another, some of which were even questions he himself was puzzled by.

And Li Dong could always approach them from a physical or geometric intuition, offering unexpected lines of thought.

Gradually, in Penrose’s eyes, the person sitting across from him was no longer a nineteen-year-old freshman.

It was as if he were seeing the young, brilliant Riemann who had stood on the stage at the University of Göttingen and delivered ”On the Hypotheses Which Lie at the Bases of Geometry”!

’No weaknesses!’

Before they knew it, more than an hour had passed.

Li Dong glanced at the time and felt it was about time to leave.

”Professor Penrose, it’s getting late. Thank you for the coffee. Teacher Liu and I will take our leave now.”

The two stood up.

As he walked them to the door, Professor Penrose finally couldn’t suppress his inner yearning and couldn’t help but ask,

”Mr. Li Dong, please forgive my persistence... When exactly are you planning to make this algorithm public?”

Li Dong looked at this pure-hearted scholar and spoke frankly, without hiding anything.

”If things go slowly, it might take a few years.”

Hearing it would take that long, Penrose was clearly disappointed.

For a mathematician obsessed with the distribution of prime numbers, a few years was far too long.

However, Li Dong added another sentence.

”But, when the algorithm enters the core optimization phase, I might work with a few professors from our Yan University School of Mathematics to optimize its local convergence issues.”

Huh?

Liu Ruochuan’s brain instantly short-circuited.

He stared at Li Dong with wide eyes.

’For real?’

’This kid is going to bring out the algorithm for them to research and optimize together within Yan University?’

Behind Penrose’s back, Li Dong winked at Old Liu, signaling him to keep quiet for now, and then said his goodbyes to Professor Penrose.

The door clicked shut.

Professor Penrose walked back to the sofa alone, sat down slowly, and muttered to himself,

”Share the research... with professors from the Yan University School of Mathematics?”

”Then...”

”Does it have to be a professor from Yan University?”

In the hallway.

Liu Ruochuan finally couldn’t hold it in anymore.

”Kid, were you serious with what you told Penrose just now? Are you really planning to publicly research this algorithm at our Yan University?”

Li Dong chuckled and shook his head.

”Teacher, not publicly.”

”I’m pretty sure this algorithm of mine will end up in Huaxuan’s hands.”

Liu Ruochuan understood. This was a matter concerning all of Huaxia.

Li Dong continued,

”When the time comes to help Huaxuan with the engineering implementation, everyone will definitely need to discuss the algorithm.”

Liu Ruochuan frowned and asked,

”Then why did you tell Professor Penrose that?”

Just as the words left his mouth, Liu Ruochuan’s footsteps came to a sudden halt.

He looked at Li Dong in disbelief.

”You kid... You’re not planning to poach him for our Yan University, are you?”

Li Dong didn’t say a word, just revealed a ”kindly” smile.

’Of course. Why else would I have only answered his questions instead of asking my own? The moment I realized Professor Penrose worships Riemann like a god, I decided to leak a little of that Riemann-esque thinking.’

Looking at Li Dong’s smile, Liu Ruochuan had a sudden thought. ’This kid didn’t just sell me out, did he?’

Afterward, they returned to their respective rooms to rest.

Li Dong opened his door, walked over to his desk, and sat down.

He was a man of his word. Since he said during the defense that he would post the paper on arXiv, he was going to post it.

He logged onto arXiv.org.

He took the paper, ”A Proof of Montgomery’s Conjecture on Association in the Interval |α|∈[0, 4],” and published it online directly as a preprint!

Click. Submit!

Having done all that, Li Dong closed his laptop and stretched.

”Time for bed!”