In addition to being the center of mathematics in the world, the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton is also a sacred place for the theoretical physics community, making countless physicists feel a pilgrimage mentality.

Because there have been so many famous physicists who have worked here.

For example, Einstein, who immigrated to the United States, von Neumann, Oppenheimer, and so on.

Even Yang Zhenning and Yang Lao have spent more than ten years of research here.

It's the place top physicists are most happy to visit.

At present, Edward Witten, the physicist who is said to be the most likely to inherit Einstein's brilliance, is also conducting research here.

……

"Witten, did you find your strings today?"

普林斯顿高等研究院内的一间咖啡厅中，德利涅端着一杯咖啡走了过来，坐在了其中的一个座位上，然后对旁边的人说道。

Spending the afternoon in this café is what the scholars who work here like to do, and some of them even like to do research here, anyway, they only need to have paper and pen to study theories.

For example, the person to whom Deligne greeted, Edward Witten.

The relationship between the two is very good, because they both admire each other's achievements.

As one of the top physicists and one of the top mathematicians today, there is also a sense of sympathy between them.

Hearing Deligne's words, Witten immediately said angrily: "Don't mention this kind of thing, it's rude to mention it again." ”

Deligne laughed, then picked up the coffee cup in his hand and took a sip.

For an old scholar like him, who has reached the Great Perfection in academics and is also in a semi-retired state, he will no longer devote all his energy to research, so when he sees that Witten is also old, but he is still seriously engaged in research, he can't help but ridicule.

For Edward Witten, though, it was a last resort.

Because he has never been able to find the "strings" predicted in Theory M, it has become his heart disease, so even if he is 69 years old this year, and even 70 years old next year, he has never given up research.

As for the M theory, or superstring theory, it is a theory that even ordinary people will find awesome.

Through a very rigorous method of derivation, he deduced a mathematically impeccable conclusion, that is, the most basic composition of the material world is not a subatomic particle, but strings, which in turn constitute various subatomic particles, and then these subatomic particles constitute atoms, and finally have the material world.

At the same time, within the framework described by this theory, both quantum mechanics and general relativity are perfectly reconciled in a self-consistent model.

Therefore, superstring theory is considered the most promising "everything" theory to unify quantum mechanics and relativity.

Of course, "most promising" means that it has not yet achieved this ultimate goal.

Because the scholars of superstring theory have never discovered the "string" of the universe that they have dreamed of finding.

而作为超弦理论的集大成者，综合了五种超弦理论，M理论的提出者，爱德华·威滕当然也就称得上是最迫切找到“弦”存在证明的那个人。

“老实说，我已经做好了准备，这一辈子都找不到弦了。 ”

After a while, Witten sighed and said, "There has never been any physical experiment that can help us to accurately discover the existence of strings, whether directly or indirectly, unless we can build a particle collider larger than the earth, which can help us accurately observe the strings." ”

"Perhaps, God has been playing a joke on us to make us realize the basic structure of the universe, but we can't find it."

"It's like turning us blind."

"Humans, it's still too small."

Witten's voice seemed a little lonely.

In any case, it is absolutely cruel for a scholar that the theory that has been painstakingly researched can never be verified.

Especially because it cannot be verified, there are no fewer scholars in the academic community who oppose string theory.

These opposing voices also put a lot of pressure on Witten.

Sensing the negativity of his old friend, Deligne was silent for a moment, then patted Witten on the shoulder and said, "Take it easy, although I don't know much about physics, I am a mathematician, and I will always believe in the results derived from mathematics." ”

"What's more, maybe at some point in the future, or even later, you'll be able to find the light of day for the solution?"

Deligne's comfort made Witten smile helplessly.

"Thank you for your comfort, as for the kind of thing that will find the dawn of the problem later...... Well, I'll just mean it. ”

Just kidding, this kind of problem, can you say that you find it?

Suddenly, at this moment, a voice came from the side: "Hey, Witten, something big has happened!" ”

"The edifice of our physics community is about to collapse again!"

威滕哭笑不得地说道：“这次又是怎么崩塌的？ ”

As the most well-known meme in the field of physics, the term "physics edifice" has collapsed too many times in the history of physics in the past hundred years.

Including superstring theory, it was also the culprit that caused the collapse of a certain physics edifice.

"No kidding this time, it's real this time!"

The person who spoke finally walked in front of them.

Nathan Seiberg is also a fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton.

He is also a scholar of string theory and has a very close relationship with Edward Witten.

At this time, his face was very solemn, and he showed the tablet computer he was holding in his hand to Witten.

Seeing the cyborg's solemn appearance, Witten also restrained a smile on his face and looked at the tablet.

Displayed on the tablet is Arxiv, a paper in the direction of theoretical physics.

"A New Standard Model Series Expanded ......"

Seeing this title, Witten was not stunned, "A new expansion of the Standard Model? What is this? ”

Isn't the standard model series expansion used by the physics community all perturbation expansion?

The cyborg didn't explain, but said, "You look at the summary first." ”

"Well, summary...... 利用重整化思想，构建出了一种新的标准模型级数展开式，规避了微扰展开中存在的非微扰现象……”

Seeing this, Witten was a little puzzled: "Walter? Don't use perturbation expansion? How can we study the properties of quantum?! ”

"Nathan, are you sure you didn't just find a random paper to joke with me? Without the use of perturbation expansion, neither the Standard Model nor string theory will become unstudied! ”

内森摇了摇头，“不要急，先看完。 ”

"All I can say is that I had the same idea as you at first, but after reading it, I realized that the edifice of physics really collapsed this time."

Nathan's words still made Witten endure and continue to read.

“…… The standard model implements the convergence of infinite series after series expansion...... The mass of the W boson is actually a bit higher......"

"What? Is the mass of the W boson one thousandth higher than that of the previous Standard Model? ”

Witten had more and more questions in his mind, and of course, more and more questions about the paper.

"In the past, the Standard Model has always been correct in its calculations for W bosons, and various experimental results have proved this, so why does this paper deny the experimental results?"

In the end, Witten shook his head and said he didn't agree.

The previous ones may be acceptable, but at this point, he feels that it is unreasonable.

After all, in the past, theoretical and experimental conclusions on the mass of W bosons were biased.

And isn't the conclusion in this summary tantamount to denying the results of the experiment?

This certainly doesn't make sense.

But at this time, Deligne next to him also looked over curiously.

He was interested in the collapse of the physics edifice, but he was more interested in why the attitudes of the cyborg and Witten were so different.

Just at a glance, his eyes were first attracted by the name of the author of the paper: "Alas, wait, the author of this paper is...... Li Mu? ”

"Yes, it's Li Mu, that math genius." Sai Borg nodded, and then said to Witten with a smile: "Didn't you say that you wanted Li Mu to be your student?" Don't believe him now? ”

Witten: "...... I retract what I just said. ”

Academia is a circle of credit.

People with high credit ratings, even if they give nonsense conclusions, people will have a skeptical attitude to verify it.

And the credit rating of big bulls like them is very high, and Li Mu is the same.

So Witten changed his previous attitude.

"But anyway, I still have to say that this conclusion is very incredible, and I need to read it in its entirety."

"Of course, that's why I came to you." Nathan Seborg nodded, clicked on the full text he downloaded, and said, "When you're done, you'll understand." ”

Witten didn't say anything, took the tablet, and looked at it directly.

And Drinne next to him also came up, and Edward Witten has been in contact with him for so long, he also has a certain amount of research in theoretical physics, coupled with his mathematical foundation, it is still not difficult to understand a theoretical physics paper, at least the mathematical argumentation part in it, there are not too many problems for him.

Soon, the first few steps of mathematical derivation in the paper attracted praise from Deligne: "Such mathematical skills are the right thing in his thesis, and among the mathematicians I know, only his mathematical derivation can be so brilliant, just like Ramanujan once was." ”

Witten nodded in agreement with Deligne's words.

As the best mathematician among physicists, and even won the Fields Medal for his application of mathematics in physics, he has always admired such wonderful mathematical derivations.

不过，对于这篇论文来说，数学方法相对来说已经不重要了，结论，才是最重要的。

However, this was only on his mind for the time being.

After reading a few more pages, both he and Deligne's expressions became shocked.

"Wait......! It's really ...... here Incredible, right? ”

论文中，一处精巧的推导手段，让这两位菲尔兹奖得主都惊住了。

How can you do that......

"The method of infinitesimal transformation is used to converge the original divergent infinite series...... He really did it! ”

At this moment, Witten had already believed what the summary said, and Li Mu had found a new way of unfolding that could replace the perturbation expansion.

In any case, perturbation expansion is only a mathematical method that can be replaced by another method.

Although it's hard.

But now, Li Mu's mathematical ability has proven the possibility.

Witten also realized that his past habit of using perturbation to expand had shaped his thinking.

And Li Mu's paper made him come out of this stereotype.

He was grateful, and at the same time his attitude towards the paper became more rigorous, even with a Christian reading the Bible.

This paper will be an inspiration for every mathematician.

As the pages went by, they read the whole paper until the end.

Neither Witten nor Drinne said a word for a long time.

Until the end.

德利涅率先说话了。

他从深深地震撼中回过了神，“偶买噶，这篇论文已经不是在用数学解决问题了，他是在用上帝的语言解决问题，他就是上帝！ ”

Perturbation expansion, as a very successful mathematical method, still faces the unsolvable problem of non-perturbation phenomena.

But the new unfolding method in Li Mu's paper almost made Deligne feel a kind of impeccable.

这是一个堪称完美的数学理论！

这时候，他忽然发现旁边的老友一直都没有说什么，就赶快摇了摇威滕：“威滕，你怎么不说话？ ”

Witten finally moved.

他瘫靠在了椅子上，望着天空，直到片刻后，脸上露出了一种学者特有的幸福笑容。

Deligne can read it.

"Old friend, your prophecy has come true."

"I really saw the light of day."

(End of chapter)