GIMPS forum, exploded.

The content of the posts posted on the forum is related to the newly discovered Mersenne prime.

Everyone is talking about it.

All the news is inseparable from keywords and content such as 'new Mersenne prime', 'two Mersenne primes found in a row', and 'Chinese volunteer Wang Hao'.

Everyone who understands the Mersen prime number and understands the discovery detection mechanism feels very incredible.

From the establishment of GIMPS to the present, in more than 20 years, only 17 Mersenne primes have been found, of which 14 were discovered 10 years ago, and only 3 Mersenne primes have been found in the past ten years.

This is because the later the number of masons, the greater the amount of detection and computation, tens of millions of mason numbers and millions of mason numbers, of course, the detection requirements are not the same level.

The development of computer hardware is very fast, and there will be a replacement every few years, but it is still far from catching up with the expansion of the demand for Mason number detection.

Nowadays, every Masonne number detected takes several months to run on an ordinary computer, and GIMPS participants can complete a few Masonne number tests on a personal computer, which is already remarkable, let alone find a Mersenne prime.

However, Wang Hao, a volunteer from China, found two Mason primes in just one week.

The members of the GIMPS forum, first of all, ruled out the factor of hacking, many of them are mathematicians, computer experts, just look at the website situation, you know that there is no sign of hacking, under normal circumstances, there will be no hackers to hack into the distributed computing network where all the information is public.

That doesn't make any sense.

Website and software errors can also be ruled out, because there is a person in charge who stands up and says that there are no errors in the website or software.

"The news that the new Merson prime number is displayed on the website is the information that the software detects automatically and updates automatically." Blosser, who is in charge of website maintenance and software updates, was surprised to see the information and sent a post to clarify.

Blossomer's explanation also completely ruled out the possibility of error, in other words, the new Mersenne primes shown were most likely true.

A lot of people feel unacceptable.

How can human luck be so good?

Someone posted and pointed out, "This Wang Hao from China is a mathematician, and he has a certain reputation, I checked, he completed the proof of Artin's constant at an international conference is very influential, could it be that he cracked the mystery of Mersenne primes, and knows which ones will be Mersenne primes?" ”

Immediately, several mathematicians below stood up and retorted, "This is impossible, there is no law to Mersenne primes." ”

"I'd rather believe that he was lucky than that he was able to crack the law of Mersenne primes."

"It is possible to find Mersenne primes continuously, but it is absolutely impossible to find the law of Mersenne primes. I have been engaged in mathematical research for more than 20 years, and I have a very good understanding of Mersenne primes, which are like ordinary primes in numbers, and there is no fixed law at all. ”

Many people on the forum focused on the discussion.

Curtis Cooper, who is also a mathematician, also gave his opinion on this, "I also think it's impossible. It was luck, but there was also an element of his understanding of the Mason number. ”

The latter is critical.

Among the people who found the Mersen primes were dentists, couriers, or whatever, but most were mathematicians and computer specialists.

Curtis Cooper also discovered the Merson prime, and he relied on his knowledge of mathematics to filter out some numbers and customize them for analysis and testing.

The discovery of other Mersenne primes is also mostly found through custom detection, and only laymen who don't understand it at all, or just use programs to do system stress tests, will do the detection according to the numbers assigned by the system.

Curtis Cooper's statement has won the support of many mathematicians and computer experts, but at the same time, they still believe that Wang Hao's luck is really good enough to explode.

Even if there is a lot of research on the Mersan number, it is important to know that the Mersenne prime number is very rare in the Merson number.

For example, there are more than 664,500 prime numbers below 10 million, and only 38 of the Mersen numbers corresponding to their 'exponents' are Mersen primes, and the probability is less than 1 in 10,000.

If it is to screen more than 50 million prime numbers for detection, the probability of the corresponding Mersen prime number appearing is even lower, and there are only two or three hundreds of thousands of numbers, or even none at all.

This probability is not an exaggeration to say that it is a needle in a haystack.

On the other side, the night of Seohai University.

A shout suddenly came from the top floor of the computer experiment building, "Ah~~~"

Several people in the building hurriedly went to the central laboratory to check, and saw Zhang Zhiqiang in an excited state, "You guys are here, come and see!" New Merson prime, found! ”

"I was already asleep just now, and I happened to dream that I found the Merson prime, so I came to take a look, but I didn't expect to find it!"

"This is the second one!"

Zhang Zhiqiang said excitedly with red eyes, everyone else could understand his emotions, it was too difficult to find a Mason prime, and he found two in a week.

Although it is not Zhang Zhiqiang's achievement, he can be regarded as the second person to contribute.

Others also talked excitedly, "The second Mason is prime, which is really amazing." ”

"It is estimated that public opinion will explode tomorrow!"

"This time, our computer lab is definitely in the limelight, not only domestically, but also internationally!"

"You see, the GIMPS forums have gone crazy and are talking about this topic."

They discussed staying in the computer lab and squatting there, waiting for the next day, as if they were afraid that the numbers would run away.

In the morning, some media had already noticed the news and began to report.

Most of the reports are a little uncertain," said Professor Wang Hao of Xihai University, who is suspected of having found two Mersenne primes. ”

"There was shocking news at GIMPS, and within a week, two Mersenne primes were suspected to have been detected, and it was found that the person was Professor Wang Hao of Xihai University."

"Is this a mistake, or is it true information? GIMPS Announces Detection of Second Mersenne Prime ......"

This matter has even been on the hot search on the Internet, and public opinion is even hotter than the last time.

I found a Mersenne prime before, which is a progress in finding Mersenne primes, and in just one week, a new Mersenne prime was discovered, and it was found that the person was still Wang Hao, and things became very unusual.

It also happened in history that the same person found two Mersen primes.

For example, the 43rd and 44th Mersenne primes were discovered by the same team using GIMPS, but there was also a nine-month interval between them.

Now it's just a week, and the quick discovery of two Mersenne primes is beyond the 'normal range'.

The question was raised as to whether an override operation was performed.

A professional computer expert immediately stood up and pointed out, "Even with high-performance supercomputing, it will take more than 100,000 hours to cover and detect the corresponding Mason number of the 60 million to 70 million interval indexes." ”

"Obviously, that's not possible."

As a result, public opinion paid attention to Xihai University and Wang Hao, who discovered two Mason primes.

At eight o'clock in the morning, Wang Hao came to the computer laboratory on time.

He knew in advance that he had found the second Merson prime, but he was not surprised, but he just went around and talked to a few familiar people, and after noting down the specific number, he hurried to the workshop to verify.

Wang Hao has already shaped two functions.

One is a verification function, which can be substituted for a prime number to calculate the coordinates, and the other is a decision function, which can determine whether the coordinates are within a region or on an edge line, the former indicates that 'the probability of being a Mersenne prime is high', and the latter indicates that it must be a Mersenne prime'.

After substituting the newly discovered Mersenne prime, it is a pity that the coordinates of the corresponding function appear in the coverage of the decision function, but not on the edge of the area covered by the decision function.

"It seems that it is still necessary to use computer means to do verification, and the next work, mathematical research can no longer be solved."

Wang Hao thought about it and began to write a program, he wanted to make a 'function verification' program, that is, to substitute an exponent into the function, calculate the coordinates corresponding to the Mason number corresponding to them, and whether they are in the area covered by the determination function.

Because both functions are complex, the program is not easy to design.

Fortunately, Wang Hao's own function is very familiar with the solution method after substituting the numerical value, and it took him a morning to finally complete all the design of the program.

Then he went to the central laboratory.

At this time, the central laboratory was still very lively, not only people from the computer laboratory, but also people from other colleges came over, and several leaders of the school came over, paying special attention to the discovery of the Mersenne prime problem, they knew that Wang Hao was busy researching something, and they did not bother in the past.

In the hallway.

Chen Qinghua, Zhu Jianrong and Luan Haiping were standing together, discussing the announcement of the school.

Chen Qinghua wanted Zhu Jianrong to mention the computer laboratory more when he drafted the draft, and it was best to 'blur it' Wang Hao's affiliation, so that people who saw the news would think that Wang Hao was a professor at the research institute and the computer school of the computer laboratory.

Next to him, Luan Haiping listened with a dark face, and his vicious eyes seemed to reveal that he had an urge to strangle Chen Qinghua to death, and he kept opposing, "Wang Hao is a professor in the School of Science, even if he doesn't talk about the college, he can't be said to be from the School of Computer Science?" Isn't that a lie? ”

"What deception?"

Chen Qinghua immediately questioned Sanlian, "Has Wang Hao been in the computer lab?" Were the two Mersenne primes discovered in a computer lab? Therefore, the announcement of the results released reads, Professor Wang Hao of the computer laboratory, what can be the problem? ”

"Uh~~~"

Wang Hao walked over and stood beside him.

Chen Qinghua noticed that Wang Hao was suddenly a little embarrassed, and immediately said, "Wang Hao is also here, I will say bluntly, we are not going to dig him into the computer laboratory, but, for this achievement, it was completed in our computer laboratory, and it makes no sense to announce what the School of Science is, right?" ”

"How is it pointless? It's very meaningful, and the Faculty of Science needs to ......," Luan Haiping immediately retorted.

Wang Hao wasn't interested in any computer science and science colleges, anyway, it was just an announcement from the school, he simply didn't see it at all, and walked over lightly.

He came to find Zhang Zhiqiang.

Zhang Zhiqiang still has red eyes, and he has not rested since three o'clock in the morning.

Wang Hao persuaded, "Hurry up and go back to sleep, it's worth being happy to find the Mason prime, but don't be like this......"

"Don't worry, you can still hold on!"

Zhang Zhiqiang said indifferently, he did feel very tired, and he also wanted to go to the office for a while.

There's still something to do.

"Stop the test program and calculate this ...... first"

Wang Hao copied the written code to the computer and explained simply, "This is a screening program for the Mason number, which can be said to be an optimization of the previous program, and maybe it will become more accurate." ”

He was a little unsure.

Until the results are 100% out, he does not dare to say that the research he has done is correct.

Zhang Zhiqiang suddenly regained his strength, stopped the detection program that had been running, and began to execute the code he had just copied.

Prime numbers below 100 million are entered as data, and there are three files on the output end.

The first file records the 'exponential P' at the edge of the decision function and the corresponding coordinates.

The second file records the 'exponential P' within the coverage of the decision function, the corresponding coordinates, and the closest distance to the edge line.

The third file is the remaining excluded primes, the corresponding coordinates, and the shortest distance to the edge line.

The functions are more complex and the programs are more complex, and the amount of computation required is very large, even with the existing computing power, it takes more than three hours to complete the execution.

Zhang Zhiqiang was pushed to rest.

Wang Hao simply waited in front of the computer, watching the program execute, waiting for the output result.

……

At two o'clock in the afternoon, Chen Qinghua and Zhu Jianrong went to the central laboratory together, found Wang Hao and handed him a handwritten announcement.

"Let's discuss and discuss, or do we want you to see, you are the party, how about reading this announcement?"

"You say okay, and we'll send it." Chen Qinghua looked at Wang Hao very seriously, and the announcement said, 'Professor Wang Hao works in a computer laboratory and has found two Mersen primes in a row'.

This vague statement sounds like Wang Hao is a researcher in a computer lab.

Wang Hao didn't care about this, he just glanced at it, threw the handwritten announcement aside, and said, "Dean Chen, Director Zhu, don't rush to make an announcement yet, it's just two Mason primes." ”

“…… Nothing more? Chen Qinghua's eyes were full of puzzlement.

Zhu Jianrong also tugged at the corners of his mouth vigorously, and found that the two Mason primes were just 'just', and his tone was too big, right?

Wang Hao ignored their reactions, and instead opened a file on the computer, on which eleven numbers were recorded, of which there were eight standard red fonts, and the remaining three were still black.

He pointed to the three black numbers and said seriously, "These three, as an exponent of the Mason number, verify it." ”

"If nothing else, it should be all Mersenne primes."