Back at Beijing Normal University, waiting for Zhou Chen was naturally warmly greeted by the school leaders. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

This is the normal state of human nature, and Zhou Chen doesn't think it's strange, let alone vulgar.

But in the next few days, as he said before, he has to keep a low profile, and he needs to give the people around him time to adapt to a certain level, otherwise it will backfire and add some moths.

So in addition to accepting interviews from a few media under the arrangement of the university, Zhou Chen's interview requests for most of the media were rejected on the grounds of academic busyness.

In fact, Zhou Chen has been really busy these days, in this semester, his "Astrophysics" elective course has been reopened, and the number of students who have signed up has more than doubled, but considering the continuity of the course, he basically chose those students who signed up last semester.

And Zhou Chen calmed down, and he also had some things to do.

This time he went to participate in the seminar on "General Relativity, Curved Space-Time Quantum Field Theory", which had a deep impact on Zhou Chen, and he found that most of the experts attending the meeting were gray-haired old men and old ladies, and it seemed that in this field, the top researchers did not have too many young faces, and he was probably one of the few invitees under the age of 40.

Zhou Chen can roughly understand this phenomenon, after all, as a relatively mature field at the junction of macroscopic physics and microphysics, this field is full of too many uncertainties, and only those who are persistent in physical ideals will dedicate their youth.

We all know the importance of the grand unification theory in the physics world, but we are too aware of the vast barrier that the grand unification theory lies through, after all, people are pursuing reality, and without enthusiasm for physics, who will set foot in this field that may not be able to produce results in a lifetime?

The theory of great unification is like a high mountain standing in front of people, with beautiful world on both sides, what is the meaning of climbing over it?

"The mountains look up, the scenery stops, although you can't yearn for it."

Zhou Chen sighed, and the passion for wanting to climb this high mountain suddenly appeared in his heart. If you live for a lifetime, you need to be vigorous! Although this is a problem that even the Odo civilization has not solved, and it is a sign of the leap from a third-level civilization to a fourth-level civilization, Zhou Chen feels that he can give it a try, and he may not succeed, but at least he can't be discouraged.

Earth Residency, Academy of Sciences.

The competition of the thirteen scientific disciplines had just come to an end, and the newly appointed heads of the disciplines were eager to try their hand at this time, when the news of the establishment of the "Great Unification Theory" project came from the Provisional Committee of the Academy of Sciences.

As soon as the news of the Great Unification Theory, an important symbol of the promotion from a third-level civilization to a fourth-level civilization, was announced, the entire Academy of Sciences immediately began a heated discussion. Everyone had their own ideas, but none of them opposed the project.

Although the current Earth Fleet, even if it absorbs some of the technology of the Odo civilization, is at best only in the middle and late stages of the second-level civilization, this does not prevent them from setting a lofty goal. The establishment of the grand unification theory means that the fleet has a long-term goal, which shows that the earth fleet is by no means an ordinary civilization willing to wander in the universe.

This is a very important spiritual shift, indicating that they are no longer gathered together for the purpose of fleeing, but that many of them form a tightly knit organization for the sake of the inheritance of civilization. They represent the future of civilization, and this kind of inspiration makes the scientists on the Earth fleet have a kind of soul-cleansing effect, and at this moment they suddenly realize the importance of having organization and planning, and in a trance they believe that one day the civilization of the earth they represent will rise strongly!

Time passed quickly, and four months passed in the blink of an eye.

In the past four months, the Earth Fleet has developed in an orderly manner, growing in scale little by little, establishing order little by little, and the operation of the Academy of Sciences has increasingly met the requirements of the project, forming a set of effective management models. In short, it is slowly maturing.

Earth, in a rented house near Beijing Normal University, it is the scorching heat again, and the air conditioner in the room is hitting 27 degrees, which is blowing.

The sun is shining outside the window, and the gentle breeze blows the branches and leaves outside, giving people a feeling of being at ease.

"Alas, the quantization of the theory of relativity is really not simple, although several models have been established roughly, but the models always cannot match the reality perfectly, either contradicting each other, or the calculation is becoming more and more cumbersome, and it is impossible to advance at all."

Zhou Chen threw the pen in his hand aside, looked at the scratch paper full of formulas, and leaned back on the chair.

Zhou Chen has lived a very fulfilling life in the past few months, the Earth Fleet has been on the right track, the scientists of the Academy of Sciences have counted the Earth Branch, the total number of people has exceeded 10,000, and all the plans are also going on step by step, and Zhou Chen only needs to take care of it a little in normal times.

It didn't take much time to take classes on this side of the earth, and several companies had also entered a period of rapid expansion, and because of the epidemic incident, they had also been treated leniently by various governments, so Zhou Chen's main focus was on how to quantize the theory of relativity.

However, this matter is extremely difficult, and there are many setbacks.

Yang Xi picked up his scratch paper and glanced at it, and said in admiration: "These mathematical formulas look so complicated, I, a layman, get dizzy when I see it." ”

"Yes, the more the transformation becomes, the more complex it becomes, so that it can't be advanced at all, not because of the method, but because the mathematical tools are limited." Zhou Chen sighed and said.

The study of physical phenomena usually requires the use of mathematical modeling methods, but the mathematical models established by complex physics research institutes are often complex and frustrating, so if you want to become a well-known physicist, you must first become a good mathematician.

The world we perceive may not be able to see the real because of sensory modifications, and mathematics, a discipline composed of rational deduction, pays attention to self-consistency, that is, starting from the premise of axioms and definitions within a system, a series of divergences and deductions cannot lead to contradictory existence, until a system and a branch are produced.

Within this system and branch, the mathematical definition of "nature" is correct, so that in a way, science that has been mathematically deduced is always true and not deceiving.

But what does it mean that mathematics is a metaphysical subject? That is to say, mathematics is also constantly developing and progressing, and the self-consistent system deduced by mathematics today will certainly be correct tomorrow, but this system may be replaced by another, more advanced self-consistent system.

People feel that the new system is easier to use, so they gradually start to use tomorrow's system, and slowly forget about today's system.

For example, planar Euclidean geometry based on zero curvature of space, spherical Riemannian geometry based on positive curvature of space, and pseudospherical Lobachevsky geometry (hyperbolic geometry) based on negative curvature of space are all developed in different periods, and they all provide a mathematical basis for different physical theories.

For example, Euclid's plane geometry provided a mathematical basis for Newtonian mechanics and most physical kinematics, Riemannian geometry provided a mathematical basis for Einstein's theory of relativity, and Lobachevsky geometry, although it had no specific application, it provided an ideological premise for the emergence of Riemannian geometry later, which shows how important a mature mathematical system is to the study of physics.

And even in the same self-consistent system, different mathematical tools will bring different degrees of experience to people's calculations. For example, the advent of calculus made it extremely easy to find the limits and find the area and volume of irregular objects.

Therefore, it is entirely possible that a reasonable mathematical tool, or even the establishment of another self-consistent mathematical system, can become a magic means to "simplify the complex".

Zhou Chen found that under the existing mathematical system, no matter how he transformed, the obtained model was so complicated that people could not continue to advance, which was already shown in the complex Lorentz transform and inverse transformation when he wrote "The Simultaneous Transitivity of Relativity", and when he deduced the surface gravitational formula of black holes in "On the Thermodynamic Laws of Black Holes".

At this time, he couldn't help but have the idea of a different way of thinking, should he consider abandoning the original system and building a new system?

This work was undoubtedly boring and arduous, Zhou Chen had considered it before, but he gave up at that time.

Now it seems that this work still needs to be promoted.

"Looks like I'm going to change my mind." Zhou Chen thought for a while, and said to Yang Xi with a smile, "Instead of studying physics on the basis of existing mathematics, I think it is better to reorganize the mathematical foundation under your feet and re-consolidate it." ”

"You mean to say that instead of physics, you will study mathematics?" Yang Xi's beautiful eyes blinked and said with surprise.

Zhou Chen shook his head: "No, the two paths look different, but in the end, they are actually the same path." I think so, since the grand unification theory has encountered a setback, it is better to make a breakthrough from the side of mathematics. ”

"But you said you were going to keep a low profile for a while."

"I also want to keep a low profile, but I can't keep a low profile!" Zhou Chen stretched his hand and looked at the ceiling with a relaxed expression.

Yang Xi covered his mouth and smiled: "But it's been low-key for four months!" ”