649 Serious Flaws
It was proven?
When Lu Zhou looked at the screen, his face was full of surprise. He put down the coffee cup in his hand.
“Are you sure it was proven? Is it not a possible proof idea?”
“Yeah, I am… The author of the thesis claimed that he solved the Yang-Mills existence and ma.s.s gap problem. Also, this guy’s background is impressive,” Luo Wenxuan said while looking at the author’s information. He spoke in disbelief, “Brian Caro, professor at Oxford University. A member of the Royal Society, academician of Academia Europaea. Partic.i.p.ated in the Higgs particle discovery. Won five medals, including the Inst.i.tute of Physics Isaac Newton Medal… Unbelievable, he’s sixty years old.”
Sixty years old wasn’t exactly the golden age for physics research, but it wasn’t old enough for significant memory decline. However, even then, making such an achievement at this age was no piece of cake.
Lu Zhou had never even heard of Professor Brian Caro, but maybe that was because he didn’t know a lot about the theoretical physics community.
After Lu Zhou heard Luo Wenxuan talk about Brian’s accomplishments, he began to ask questions.
“Is the thesis already released as a preprint? Or just the abstract?”
Luo Wenxuan clicked his mouse and said, “The preprint is already released.”
Even though this type of situation was rare in the mathematics world, it wasn’t rare in the physics world, especially in the field of theoretical physics. For a major theoretical physics problem like this, a lot of experienced professors like to publish a preprint of their theses to prevent other scholars from stealing their glory.
After all, it was very difficult to produce results in theoretical physics. Being one step behind could lead to years of extra hard work.
Lu Zhou was intrigued. “Print a copy for me.”
“Okay… But I don’t understand why you like to read printed papers, isn’t it easier to read it on an e-reader?”
“There’s no special reason why, I just like being able to physically touch the thesis.”
Even though Lu Zhou would read papers on his phone, that was only when he didn’t have access to the printed version.
If he were sitting on a sofa or studying at a desk in the library now, he would much rather prefer reading a printed copy of the thesis. Not only was it easier to make notes, but it was also easier for him to write down inspirational thoughts that come to mind.
The printer started humming.
Luo Wenxuan was reading the thesis on his computer when he suddenly said, “What if he is correct?”
Lu Zhou paused for a second and looked at him strangely.
“Good for him then, what’s the problem?”
Luo Wenxuan looked at him in disbelief.
“You won’t feel sad?”
Lu Zhou: “What’s so sad about it?”
Luo Wenxuan looked helpless as he said, “But, we researched this problem for so long, we are one step away from the finish line. You don’t feel anything?”
Lu Zhou said nonchalantly, “I don’t feel anything. I don’t really care who solves the problem, it’s all the same for me.”
Lu Zhou had already won the Fields Medal and the n.o.bel Prize. He didn’t crave for more medals. He researched these problems purely because he wanted an answer. If someone else was inspired by his research and successfully solved the Yang-Mills existence and ma.s.s gap problem, he would actually feel more satisfied than if he had solved it himself.
Luo Wenxuan looked at Lu Zhou. He opened his mouth and sighed.
“Okay then… I don’t feel the same at all.”
Lu Zhou said, “You’ll get there eventually.”
…
After a minute or two, the twenty-page thesis was printed.
One could say that a lot of care had been put into this thesis, especially since it was a preprint version.
The formatting met all of the normal journal standards and the proof section of the thesis was clear and concise. It wasn’t like those typical Internet preprints, which were full of mistakes.
After the thesis was printed, Lu Zhou sat down on a sofa and began to read the thesis abstract and content.
Overall, Brian Caro did a pretty good job, both from a mathematical and a physics perspective. Even though there was still a gap between him and top scholars, Caro’s ability matched his reputation.
What surprised Lu Zhou the most was that the method adopted by Brian Caro was similar to the idea that Lu Zhou and Luo Wenxuan had. Brian Caro’s thesis was also based on Professor Jaffe’s thesis in Annual Mathematics. It tried to explain the Yang-Mills existence and ma.s.s gap by finding the particle ma.s.s m.
However, Lu Zhou and Caro had different methods of finding the particle ma.s.s m.
Brian Caro didn’t introduce a Quantum Yang-Mills Field. Instead, he used a method similar to Weinberg, he introduced a scalar s.p.a.ce-time manifold to solve this problem.
However, even though there were many nuances in the thesis, in Lu Zhou’s opinion, this thesis wasn’t rigorous at all.
After all, the ma.s.sless strong interaction problem couldn’t be solved by using a simple “symmetry breaking” method.
“His proof is very close, but it’s still a bit off.” Lu Zhou put down the thesis and grabbed his coffee mug. He noticed that his coffee was cold, so he walked up and made himself another cup of coffee.
Luo Wenxuan immediately looked up. “So, is he correct?”
“Yeah, but don’t gloat too much. We can still learn some stuff from his thesis, like how he used the existence of a four-dimensional gauge field to normalize the lattice point or how he set a constant effect on the torus Euclid s.p.a.ce… Of course, there are many problems.”
Luo Wenxuan: “Like what?”
“Like when he talked about the normalization of grid points, he didn’t prove that the lattice step size limit tends to zero. Therefore, his method of defining the torus Euclid s.p.a.ce-time isn’t rigorous, it’s actually wrong.”
Lu Zhou gently blew on his cup of coffee and took a sip. He paused for a few seconds before saying, “But I’m not sure if it’s because this is a preprint version. He might have already found a good proof method, but just didn’t post it yet.”
This type of scenario was pretty common.
After all, a lot of high-quality theses on arXiv were perfected through constant discussion and revision.
Luo Wenxuan: “So he didn’t prove it?”
“It seems so. I don’t care what other people think, in my opinion, he didn’t succeed.” Lu Zhou sighed and looked a bit disappointed.
He originally thought Professor Brian could show him something novel. He didn’t expect Professor Brian to make so many mistakes.
As expected, Lu Zhou had to rely on himself to solve the problem.