229: Chapter 229 Professor Shing-Tung Yau's Praise

Three days later.

On the official website of the School of Mathematical Sciences, Peking University, as well as on the notice boards within the faculty, the official list of candidates for this year's Doctoral Student graduation thesis proposal defense was posted.

Once this list came out, barely half a day had passed.

After someone took a photo and posted it on the SMTH BBS and the predecessor forums of Zhihu, it quickly began to cause a massive stir throughout domestic university circles and across the internet.

It wasn't just because the presenter was Zhao Yang, an academic star who naturally attracted massive traffic.

More crucially, it was that extremely eye-catching thesis title clearly printed on the public list:

"A Proof Path for Goldbach's Conjecture Based on a New Type of Weighted Sieve Method."

The internet was in a complete uproar; countless people were discussing the matter, and the heat directly pushed it to the headlines of major portal websites.

"Holy crap! Holy crap! Holy crap! I lack the words to express my shock, so one 'holy crap' will have to do. Is God Zhao planning to defy the heavens? Using Goldbach's Conjecture for a doctoral graduation thesis?"

"He's crazy, absolutely insane. I'm from the Yanda Math Department, and the faculty group chats exploded today. This is '1+1' we're talking about! Something the older generation of mathematicians couldn't solve in a lifetime, and he's using it for a proposal? If he can't prove it, does he even want to graduate with his doctorate?"

"This is the style of a true big shot. Others pursue a PhD to get a degree and find a job; he's pursuing a PhD and just happens to solve an unsolved mystery of humanity spanning hundreds of years along the way. Talk about maximum prestige!"

Of course, the internet never lacks voices of doubt and pessimism.

"Isn't this too arrogant? This is a world-class problem. His previous solution to the twin prime conjecture could be called good luck, finding a clever entry point. But the parity problem of Goldbach's Conjecture is a sheer cliff in the mathematical world. A mere freshman dares to touch this? I think he's gotten a big head since becoming famous and doesn't know his limits."

"I think this is a publicity stunt by Peking University. They definitely want to use Zhao Yang's fame to create more big news. When the time comes, they'll just show some minor progress and announce the proposal passed. Whether he can actually prove it in the end, who knows?"

"Analyzing rationally, Goldbach's Conjecture currently requires brand-new mathematical tools. If Zhao Yang really can develop a 'New Weighted Sieve Method,' even if he can't completely prove 1+1, as long as he can push Chen's Theorem half a step further, that would be an achievement worthy of the history books."

Public opinion on the internet was like boiling water, with everyone saying something different. But everyone's eyes were focused on the upcoming proposal defense.

One week later.

Peking University School of Mathematics, First Tiered Lecture Hall.

This event, which was originally just an ordinary doctoral proposal defense, had been forcibly elevated to the specifications of an international academic conference.

The audience was packed with people; even the aisles were filled with master's and Doctoral Students and young teachers auditing the session.

And at the very front row in the panel of review experts, the lineup was nothing short of extremely luxurious.

At least thirteen top domestic mathematics professors had come. Besides several academicians and Changjiang Scholars from the School of Mathematical Sciences, Peking University itself, there were also academic titans who had specially rushed over from neighboring Tsinghua University, the Academy of Mathematics and Systems Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and other top universities in Yanjing.

Even Professor Shing-Tung Yau, a fields medal winner and international mathematics master who had just returned to the country for academic exchange, had specially canceled other plans to sit in the center of the audience as an invited review expert.

Zhao Yang, wearing a simple white shirt and holding a USB drive, walked onto the podium.

He inserted the USB drive into the computer and opened the PPT.

After doing this, Zhao Yang cut straight to the chase and began his proposal presentation.

"Professors, the direction of my proposal today is Goldbach's Conjecture."

Zhao Yang clicked the presentation remote, and a series of extremely complex formulas appeared on the screen. "As everyone knows, since Mr. Chen Jingrun proved '1+2', the traditional Sieve Method has reached its logical limit. The fundamental reason is that Selberg's Sieve Method, when estimating the count of prime numbers, cannot distinguish between integers composed of an odd number of prime factors and those with an even number of prime factors. This is the parity problem."

"The core idea of my paper is to completely abandon the traditional path of improving the Sieve Method."

Zhao Yang's tone was calm, but the viewpoint he tossed out was earth-shattering.

"I have constructed a brand-new weighted function model. I've named it the 'Dynamic Topological Sieve'. This Sieve Method combines the idea of high-dimensional manifold mapping, mapping one-dimensional integer sequences into multi-dimensional topological spaces, and uses geodesic distance to circumvent parity entanglement..."

Zhao Yang spoke on stage for a full forty minutes.

The thirteen top professors in the audience looked more and more serious as they listened, their brains involuntarily beginning to function at high speeds.

As soon as the presentation segment ended, the session moved into the question and answer defense.

An old academician from Tsinghua University was the first to challenge him: "Zhao Yang, this multi-dimensional mapping concept you've introduced is indeed ingenious in theory. However, when the mapping space exceeds four dimensions, your error term E(x) will expand exponentially. How do you guarantee that the final integral main term can suppress this error term? You haven't provided a proof of convergence."

Facing this questioning, Zhao Yang's expression remained calm; he had long expected this.

He directly picked up a piece of chalk at the blackboard.

"Regarding the convergence of the error term."

Zhao Yang explained while writing, "I have introduced a regulation factor γ(s) similar to the distribution of the zeros of the Riemann Zeta function. On the critical line of the complex plane, using contour integration, the error term of the high-dimensional space can be reduced in dimension. The specific derivation steps are as follows..."

Zhao Yang quickly filled the blackboard with derivations of partial differential equations and complex functions.

The old academician stared at the blackboard for five minutes, nodded silently, and asked no further questions.

Immediately afterward, professors from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Peking University, and Tsinghua University also began to launch their own attacks on Zhao Yang's proposal.

It couldn't be helped; Zhao Yang's proposal was a bit too bold. Using the proof of Goldbach's Conjecture directly as a research topic was unprecedented!

These professors each began to raise their own doubts; they wanted to see exactly to what extent Zhao Yang understood Goldbach's Conjecture!

Faced with these extremely tricky questions raised by the top professors.

Zhao Yang answered them all with composure.

This defense lasted for a full two hours.

Finally, Professor Shing-Tung Yau, who had remained silent throughout, picked up the microphone.

The entire lecture hall instantly fell silent.

"Zhao Yang." Professor Shing-Tung Yau looked at the young man on the stage, his eyes showing undisguised admiration.

"This Dynamic Topological Sieve framework of yours is very grand, and also very dangerous. It's like walking a tightrope. If any dimension's mapping breaks during the proof process, the entire proof will completely collapse."

"However—"

Yau's tone shifted, "Mathematics needs exactly this kind of highly disruptive imagination. Currently, I cannot find any fatal logical loopholes in this framework of yours."