Chapter 142: Small Earthquakes in Physics (Part II)
Agree, disagree; Great discoveries, malicious speculations; Genius ideas, crazy theories......
The entire physics community is starting to get a little frantic because of this superstring theory article in the first issue of Physical Review Letters in September, with arguments for and against.
Although there was a lot of noise outside, it didn't have any effect on Junxin at all. He still goes to and from class normally. Recently, his task has become very busy, he needs to know the research direction and progress of the professor before class, which requires him to consult a lot of materials and papers; Although he never spoke in class, he went through all the important things the professor said in his head, and even after being reborn, his memory was greatly improved, and he would feel tired. After class, he had to discuss some cutting-edge issues and corresponding professors according to the materials and papers he found, and his life was very fulfilling.
And soon the mathematics department of Princeton University spread the name of the Chinese who love to ask questions. At the beginning, the questions asked by Junxin were relatively simple, and many times they were a problem that could be solved by a change of thinking. However, in the future, the questions asked by Junxin became more and more complex and cutting-edge, and many times those professors had to go through a lot of reasoning and calculation to reach conclusions. Now, they even sometimes have to dedicate a discussion to a Wednesday afternoon tea discussion to get an answer.
Soon, Junxin's reputation spread among the professors. However, these professors are all welcoming to Junxin's questions, after all, this is a very encouraging thing at Princeton University. And those professors don't want the students they teach to be the kind of students who don't think on their own and only learn without asking questions.
At the beginning, Junxin's questions were watched by many mathematics students, after all, they were all elites in the mathematics field, and they already knew Junxin's achievements at the first mathematics seminar, so they were naturally very interested in everything about him, and even sometimes they would express their opinions on Junxin's problems. However, although the number of people around the group has not changed, there are fewer and fewer people who can express their opinions, and sometimes they can't even understand the content of the discussion, which is already a very deep problem. So much so that now, they sometimes don't even understand the issues being discussed.
However, the students of the University of Mathematics are the students of the University of Universality, and Junxin has recently seen more and more students in the library, looking up some of the information on the questions he has raised in the past few days, and some people have begun to take advantage of Junxin's free time to ask him related questions.
Even in the end, some students have already studied the problem he raised as a research topic on the basis of Junxin's consent, and even some students have begun to write a paper on a question raised by Junxin to be published. Of course, the name of the corresponding author is written in Junxin's name.
Princeton University has a well-known honor system, their exams and so on are never set up to proctor, but let the students of Princeton University self-supervise, so the long-established habit makes them write their own papers in great detail, so, unconsciously, Junxin has been the corresponding author or co-first author of several articles.
However, this did not last long, and just as Junxin was discussing some problems with Professor Thurston about the leaf-like structure of three-dimensional manifolds, Professor Edward Witten approached him.
"I'm sorry, William!" Apparently professors at the same university, Professor William Thurston and Professor Edward Witten were acquainted, "Can I borrow this student for a while?" ”
"Oh, hello, Professor Witten!" Thurston said with a misty look in his eyes, he was still immersed in the discussion between Junxin and him, "What do you say, borrow this child, of course, of course, oh, no, what are you borrowing him for?" ”
"Recently he wrote an article that caused a sensation in the physics community, which is about some inferences of Mr. Einstein's grand unification theory, and we think it is very valuable to study after discussion, so we would like to ask the author of the paper and the person concerned to explain it to us."
"Papers? The unification of physics? What's this, what's right? Professor Thurston glanced at the silent Jun Xin and said with a smile, "But Jun is a student of our mathematics department, and he is not a student of the physics department, right?" ”
"Professor Freeman-Dyson and a couple of other professors thought it was worth studying, and I knew he was the author of the paper, so I wanted him to go to the Institute for Advanced Study, okay?" Witten went on to explain.
"Oh, okay!" Professor Thurston shook his head, turned around and said, "Jun, that's all for the time being about the leaf-like structure of three-dimensional manifolds, I'm very interested in your idea of using Richie Flow, if you have time, you can write a paper on this, I think you can write an excellent paper with your performance, and now let's go to the Institute for Advanced Study with Professor Witten!" ”
"Well, thank you, Professor Thurston!" Junxin nodded, and then said to Professor Witten, "Professor, you can go." ”
This time I went to the Institute for Advanced Study not like the last time I visited the Institute for Advanced Study, and after leaving the school gate, the two of them got into a Ford car directly, and then walked in the direction of the Institute for Advanced Study.
"Professor, you should have made something successful about what I talked to you about last time, right?" Junxin asked.
Witten shook his head and said, "How can it be that simple? To be honest, I had never been exposed to supersymmetrical string theory until you explained your ideas to me, so I spent the past few days looking for relevant materials and articles, as well as the corresponding related people. As for the kind of model you're talking about, I haven't started working on it yet. However, I feel that there should be other models for computation in this way, so I've been thinking about this lately. ”
"I didn't pay attention to that!" Junxin nodded and said, "But why did Professor Dyson want to see me?" ”
"Your article on the solution of gravitons caused a stir in the physics community, and the Department of Physics of the Natural Sciences of our university and the Institute for Advanced Study of Natural Sciences and Physics are also discussing this article, and the result of the discussion is that this is a very valuable article, which finds a point in quantum mechanics that is compatible with the theory of relativity."
"Professor Dyson even suggested writing to you directly inviting you to be a fellow or academic visit at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, but," Witten said with a strange smile, "and when I told them that the person who made this result was our Princeton sophomore, and he was a sophomore in the mathematics department, it was a beautiful scene......
"Uhh