Peer review is a thankless job.

First of all, the job is unpaid, or the reviewers are usually paid in ways that are not related to money, such as journal acknowledgments, positions in the editorial office, free access to journals, discounts on page fees, etc.

Secondly, it is not easy to go deep into this field to judge whether a research result is correct or not when you have a limited understanding of a work.

If it is not an important proposition, it is fine, but a world-class problem such as the existence of the solution of the Yang Mills equation cannot be sloppy in terms of difficulty or importance, and even each line of the paper has to take a lot of valuable time for reviewers to revisit.

The reason why many people take this job is not only to be able to mix the "academic qualifications" of a reviewer in a well-known journal, but also because of a sense of social responsibility as a scholar and a sense of mission as a scientific research gatekeeper.

For an already accomplished scholar, Professor Feverman's motivation for accepting the invitation to review is probably the latter. But when he got the paper, all these irrelevant things were thrown aside by him.

From the first line of calculations, the smooth calculation process seemed to contain a magical power, which firmly caught his eye.

In particular, the understanding of the differential geometry of partial differential equations and the application of L-manifolds in the paper are so ingenious that he can hardly believe it.

He couldn't believe that a young theory, which had only been two years old since its birth, could develop to such a mature point in just two years.

“…… It's incredible. ”

It took about fifteen minutes to turn the first page of the text, and Professor Feverman couldn't help but sigh in his heart.

If he said that he had lost the soup because of the holiday before, he still had some regrets.

However, at this moment, there is no regret in his heart.

Time passed quietly in the office, and the sky outside the window gradually darkened.

Sitting at another desk, Wei Wen, who had finally completed the final solution, let out a sigh of relief and stretched out in a comfortable mood.

Just as he was about to get up and go downstairs to the cafeteria for dinner, he noticed that Professor Feverman, who was sitting at his desk not far away, was still maintaining his afternoon movements, staring intently at the paper in his hand, and the pen in his hand was writing something on the scratch paper from time to time.

After hesitating for a moment, but finally couldn't hold back the curiosity in his heart, Wei Wen asked.

Professor Lu ...... Is the certificate out? ”

Hearing this inquiry, the pen in Professor Ffeifferman's hand finally stopped.

Placing the paper on the table, he picked up the coffee that had been cold, took a sip, and after a long while, spoke thoughtfully.

"I can't make a hasty decision on such an important matter based on my opinion alone......"

Glancing at the paper on the table again, Professor Feverman paused and continued.

"But if it's just my personal opinion, then he probably did."

……

After completing the paper "Proof of the Existence of the Solution of Yang Mills' Equations", Lu Zhou sorted out the content written on scratch paper into the computer, edited it briefly, and sent it to the mailbox of the editorial office of the Annals of Mathematics.

There was hardly any suspense, and the paper quickly passed the review of the technical editor and entered the peer review process.

As for who the reviewers were, Lu Zhou did not know before the paper was published.

This kind of thing doesn't matter at all, though.

He had already checked the proof steps from start to finish before sorting them out on the computer. He was more than ninety percent sure that his proof was correct. No matter what the reviewer thinks, this problem can be considered solved for himself.

After confirming that the paper entered the peer review process, Lu Zhou ignored it and began the next stage of research.

In fact, proving the existence of a solution is only the first step towards the holy grail of modern physics of the Young Mills equation, and it is far from getting to the heart of the problem. At the very least, he had to find a general solution for this complex equation before he could study the problem of mass gaps.

From a mathematical point of view, it is undoubtedly much more difficult to find a general solution than to prove that it exists. At least if you just gnaw on the old book of the NS equation, it may not be enough.

In short, before finding a way to solve the problem, Lu Zhou did not rush to start the next round of retreat immediately. These days, he searches Arxiv for other people's research in the field to see if he can draw some inspiration from other people's work.

Unfortunately, the results were not ideal.

Although the position of the Yang Mills equation in modern gauge field theory is important enough, few people have taken the study of the general solution of this nonlinear partial differential equation as their research direction. While there are some interesting results, they often don't go deep into the core areas.

And this also means that he can only rely on himself for this part of the work......

On the last Wednesday of April, after taking a course on computational materials, Lu Zhou walked out of the classroom with a textbook in his arm.

However, as he walked in the direction of the staircase while thinking about the problem of Yang Mills' equation, a middle-aged professor shouted his name and trotted after him.

"Wait a minute, Professor Lu."

Standing in the corridor outside the lecture hall, Lu Zhou turned to look at the man who had stopped him, and cast a puzzled look at him.

"You are?"

After taking two breaths, the middle-aged professor smiled and said, "I'm Zhang Zhongqing, a ...... from the Institute of Physics Last time in physics class, we saw it. ”

"Oh," Lu Zhou immediately remembered who he was, so he said kindly, "It's Professor Zhang, is there anything wrong?" ”

Seeing that Lu Zhou actually remembered himself, Zhang Zhongqing smiled embarrassedly and said, "That's the case, didn't you give a class on strong interactions to the students of our Academy of Physics last time?" Many students responded that they felt sorry they didn't hear your class. It just so happens that quantum mechanics is a difficult point in undergraduate education, and if you want to learn it well, you especially need a certain amount of mathematical skills. If so, we would like to ask you to give a lecture on quantum mechanics. ”

"That's it, no problem," Lu Zhou smiled and said, "Then Saturday of this week?" ”

Seeing that Lu Zhou agreed, Zhang Zhongqing hurriedly smiled and said, "No problem!" The dean said, the time depends on what you are free, and we can do it at any time. That's it, I'll thank Professor Lu for the students of the Academy. ”

Lu Zhou: "Don't be so polite, I still like to give lectures to students." ”

Although teaching an undergraduate student will not help him solve any problems directly, he can think about the basic problems while giving him inspiration that he could not generate during the retreat.

Zhang Zhongqing said with a smile: "You still have to be polite, after all, your research work is so busy, and you have to find time to teach undergraduates." We're sorry to bother you like that—"

"Lu Zhou!"

He was only halfway through his sentence when a loud voice came from one end of the hallway.

Hearing this voice, the two of them stopped talking in unison, looking in the direction from which the voice came, and saw Academician Lu, who was wearing a gray coat, walking towards this side like a fly.

Looking at Academician Lu who was walking towards him in surprise, Lu Zhou was about to say hello, but before he could speak, he heard the old man who walked up to him say excitedly.

"You wrote that paper?"

Hearing this, Lu Zhou was subconsciously stunned.

“…… Which paper? ”

Without even taking a breath, Academician Lu said in an excited tone: "Proof of the existence of the solution of the Yang Mills equation!" ”

Hearing this, Zhang Zhongqing almost didn't choke on his own spit.

Young Mills' equation?!

Hold the grass!