124: Chapter 124 Terence Tao's Attention

Inside the private room, the fragrance of tea curled in the air.

Dean Zhang Ping was dressed very simply, wearing a faded jacket that made him look like an ordinary retired old man, yet the rigorous scholarly aura about him could not be hidden.

“Student Zhao Yang, try this tea; it's Da Hong Pao.” Zhang Ping personally poured a cup of tea for Zhao Yang, without putting on any airs.

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“Thank you, Director Zhang.” Zhao Yang accepted it with both hands and thanked him politely, but his expression was neither humble nor arrogant, showing not a hint of nervousness in the face of an academic titan.

This steady temperament caused the look of appreciation in Zhang Ping's eyes to deepen.

“I'll get straight to the point.”

Zhang Ping set down the teapot and looked directly at Zhao Yang.

“I've read your paper; it's very outstanding. Especially regarding the application of the calculus of variations, it even gave me some inspiration. I'm here today on behalf of the Huaxia Institute of Mathematics to formally extend an invitation to you.”

“We will handle the transfer procedures. You can directly enter our School of Mathematics' Talent Class for a combined Bachelor's, Master's, and Doctoral program. Furthermore, if you are willing, I can make an exception and let you conduct research directly under me, training you as a Doctoral Student.

The institute's resources—including library materials, exchange opportunities abroad, and even stipends—will be provided to you at the highest standards.”

If these conditions were made public, they would be enough to drive every mathematics student in China crazy.

Studying directly under Zhang Ping meant having one foot already through the door of becoming an Academician; the future academic path would be a smooth journey.

However, Zhao Yang was silent for a moment and gently shook his head.

“Director Zhang, thank you for your kindness. But, I cannot go.”

Zhang Ping was stunned for a moment, his brow furrowing slightly. “Why? Is it because Beijing Forestry University won't let you go? You don't need to worry about that; I can go coordinate with the Ministry of Education.”

“No, it's for my own reasons.”

Zhao Yang set down his teacup and spoke calmly, “I study mathematics not to become a pure mathematician. To me, mathematics is a tool, the underlying language for explaining the world. But I am more interested in using this language to reconstruct Biology and Informatics.

Mathematics is merely the language for my computational biology, computational chemistry, and computational physics, but it is not the ultimate goal of my scientific research.”

After hearing this, Zhang Ping fell into a long silence.

He wanted to refute it, to say that mathematics is the crown of science, the true science of sciences.

But looking at Zhao Yang's firm gaze, he knew this young man had an extremely clear self-plan that could not be shaken by a few words of persuasion.

“Biological computation...” Zhang Ping mulled over the term.

“You want to walk a path that no one has taken before?”

“Yes. I want to use the logic of mathematics to unravel the chaos of science,” Zhao Yang replied.

Zhao Yang replied.

“It's hard. Very hard.”

Zhang Ping sighed, then looked at Zhao Yang with a smile.

“But from your paper, I see that possibility. Your logical thinking ability and multidisciplinary talent indeed provide the foundation for interdisciplinary integration.”

“Since your mind is made up, I won't force it. However...”

Zhang Ping shifted the topic, taking out a business card and a red pass from his bag.

“This is my private number, and this is a pass for the Huaxia Institute of Mathematics Library and Archives and the Computing Center. Although you are unwilling to join us, I will consider you an external member of our School of Mathematics.”

“In the future, if you have any confusion in mathematics or need to consult any rare materials, you can come find me anytime or go directly to the institute.”

Zhang Ping looked at Zhao Yang before him with appreciation.

He valued Zhao Yang's spirituality and talent even more.

This young man was only a freshman and could already achieve this much; where would his future lead?

Zhang Ping looked forward to it; he was not stingy about forging a good relationship now.

“An elder's gift should not be refused. Thank you, Director Zhang!”

Zhao Yang solemnly accepted the items.

“Alright, don't be so polite. I have no other requests, except I hope that when you have new results in mathematics in the future, you don't forget our domestic journals.”

Zhang Ping made a joke and stood up.

A conversation that could have changed Zhao Yang's academic trajectory ended in such a peaceful atmosphere.

Zhao Yang did not choose to become Zhang Ping's disciple, but his talent and ambition still won the respect and friendship of an academic titan.

The domestic turmoil temporarily subsided, but the ripples stirred by the pebble Zhao Yang had thrown finally spread to the other side of the ocean.

USA, University of California, Los Angeles.

Fields Medalist and one of the men called the 'smartest mathematicians alive,' Terence Tao, was browsing the day's new arXiv papers in his office. This was a habit he had kept for many years.

Although the quality of papers on arXiv was a mixed bag, Terence Tao still enjoyed reading them; he had his own methods for finding papers.

The content on there wasn't always correct, and there were even many amateur scientists, but Terence Tao could always find some interesting papers or interesting ideas that brought him some inspiration.

His gaze swept over rows of titles, most of which he skipped quickly. With a professional level of mathematics, most math papers only require a glance at the title to roughly guess if the content is worth reading.

Thus, Terence Tao browsed through papers very quickly.

Rows of titles were flipped through by Terence Tao, with almost no pause, and his expression didn't change much.

Because this was the norm.

Until he saw the paper titled "An Improved Estimate for the Distribution of Primes in Short Intervals."

Terence Tao's movements finally stopped.

The title wasn't boastful, and it was an improvement-type paper in the field of prime numbers; it might be somewhat interesting.

Terence Tao clicked into the paper.

“Author: Yang Zhao...”

Terence Tao didn't recognize the name. But the smooth weighting in the Sieve Method mentioned in the abstract piqued his interest.

He had recently been thinking about the problem of prime distribution, trying to improve the existing GPY Sieve Method, but he had been stuck on the estimation of a certain error term.

He opened the PDF and began reading casually.

Ten minutes later.

Terence Tao sat up straight and picked up the scratch paper at his side.

Thirty minutes later.

He walked to the blackboard in his office and began rapidly writing formulas on it. The chalk made a crisp sound as it tapped against the board.

“Interesting, very interesting!”

Terence Tao stopped writing and looked at the results derived on the blackboard, an excited light flashing in his eyes.

“The author introduced an extremely clever variational function, successfully bypassing one side of the parity problem. Although he hasn't completely solved it, this line of thinking... is like chiseling a hole for light through a thick wall.”

“If this method is combined with the Bombieri-Vinogradov theorem... perhaps, the twin prime conjecture...”

Thinking of this, Terence Tao returned to his computer with a face full of excitement and opened his blog.

On that WordPress site, which received high attention from mathematicians globally, he updated a short post:

A promising new method for prime gaps.