Professor Liu Cannot Understand

Seeing this title, Liu Bin was a bit confused.

What is this thing?

Non-singular Analytic... Absolute Remote Abelian Conjecture?

This title felt somewhat familiar, though he couldn't recall where he'd seen it.

But then again, this topic didn't seem to be purely within the realm of Number Theory, did it?

While it included Number Theory, its main content was in Far Abelian Geometry, a more niche field. Its researchers were basically either top experts or graduate students aiming to develop in a niche area.

But why was the paper Xiao Yi wrote under this title?

Could it be a mistake?

He immediately switched to his WeChat interface and asked, "[Xiao Yi, did you send the wrong file? Did you send one of the papers you were reading?]"

Xiao Yi quickly replied, "[No, Professor, this is my paper. It's also the topic you suggested to me originally.]"

The topic I suggested to Xiao Yi?

Liu Bin thought hard for a moment, and suddenly, his cerebellum gave a slight twitch.

When he had recommended topics to Xiao Yi back then, he had indeed accidentally sent Xiao Yi a topic he had previously chosen for himself when picking from the topic database.

However, he had assumed Xiao Yi wanted to write a paper on Number Theory and wouldn't have picked a topic that combined Number Theory with Algebraic Geometry from the dozen or so options he sent.

Even he himself wasn't very confident about that topic.

And yet...

Xiao Yi actually produced a paper on it?

He immediately scrolled up through the chat history, finding the topics he had sent to Xiao Yi. Sure enough, nestled in between was "Non-singular Analytic and the Absolute Remote Abelian Conjecture."

Liu Bin put his hand to his forehead.

How on earth did this kid pick this one out of so many topics?

No wonder he said at the beginning that he wasn't doing too well.

Even he, as a professor, wouldn't be doing too well with it!

"[Teacher, is there something wrong with the file I sent?]"

At this moment, Xiao Yi sent another inquiry.

Liu Bin rubbed his temples, took a moment to compose himself, and then typed, "[How did you choose this topic?]"

Xiao Yi replied, "[I looked at all the topics, and then I noticed this one required knowledge of Algebraic Geometry. So, I became a bit interested. Plus, it looked more difficult than the other topics, so I chose it.]"

Liu Bin: "..."

Alright, what else could he say?

He should have expected this. Having worked with Xiao Yi for so long, he knew the kid was always fascinated by difficult problems.

However, the kid was also self-aware. While he was drawn to difficult problems, he wasn't blindly so. They were generally within his capabilities, allowing him to improve his skills.

It was just that this time, perhaps because Liu Bin had recommended it, Xiao Yi had made a misjudgment.

Shaking his head helplessly, he then told Xiao Yi the truth.

"[...That's how it is. So, this topic is indeed quite difficult for you. It's completely understandable if you felt you weren't doing too well.]"

Xiao Yi was stunned. So, all this time, he had actually been working on a topic suitable for a professor like Liu Bin?

A professor's topic?

"[Professor, then I...]"

Liu Bin continued to comfort him, "[Don't worry too much. At least it's given you experience in writing a paper. Even if the conclusion isn't reached, or there are errors in the process, it can still provide you with some lessons for your next paper.]"

However, Xiao Yi, who had been somewhat bewildered moments ago, paused after seeing Liu Bin's message and then replied, "[Professor, about the conclusion, I think I've proven it. It's this Absolute Remote Abelian Conjecture. The derivation process is fine; I've verified it.]"

This time, it was Liu Bin's turn to be stunned.

What?

You proved it?

Liu Bin: "[Are you sure?]"

Xiao Yi: "[It should be fine; I've verified it.]"

Liu Bin: "[Wait a moment.]"

After sending his last message, Liu Bin switched back to the document interface, his mind consumed by one thought.

This kid proved it?

This kid actually proved it?

If he really proved it, then he...

He didn't even know what to say.

The purpose of this topic was to solve a conjecture. There were many conjectures in mathematics, not just well-known ones like the Goldbach Conjecture or the Riemann Hypothesis, but also many obscure ones. The goal was to solve relatively difficult problems, and the Absolute Remote Abelian Conjecture in Xiao Yi's topic was no different.

For this type of topic, simply proving the conjecture is already valuable enough.

Unlike some other papers that aim to construct new theories, the value of those papers depends on which problems these new theories can solve.

Therefore, if Xiao Yi truly proved this conjecture, then he would truly be the Math Demon King.

"Let me read it, let me read it," Professor Liu tried to calm himself down.

He turned the page, his gaze shifting to the paper.

First, the abstract... forget it, why bother with the abstract? He'd go straight to the main body.

The abstract is for others to read after the paper is published; he wouldn't waste his time on it.

He entered the main body.

The first part was the introduction to the topic, mainly introducing the Grothendieck-Remote Abelian Conjecture and stating that Shinichi Mochizuki had already solved it, using this to introduce the Absolute Remote Abelian Conjecture.

The first part was fine, so he moved on to the second part, where the proof began.

"Non-singular Analytic. Let K be a complete non-archimedean field of mixed characteristic (0, p), let Ok be its ring of integers, and take its residue field... If for every point X of the second-class X^an, there exists a finite cover f: Y → X... then X is said to satisfy non-singular analytic..."

"..."

And so, Professor Liu read it almost meticulously, sentence by sentence.

The more he read, the more astonished he became.

This kid was a born genius for mathematics!

The proof was incredibly rigorous, and it lacked the bad habits of some mathematicians, such as "obviously" or "easily derived." At least from a reader's perspective, such a paper was very comfortable to read.

Professor Liu could only hope that Xiao Yi would maintain this good habit.

Beyond his amazement at the rigorous proof process, what made Professor Liu even more incredulous was that there were no errors. He couldn't find any mistakes at all.

Could it be that Xiao Yi had actually cracked this conjecture?

However, before he could confirm this fact, he discovered a problem.

That problem was: he couldn't understand it anymore.

A full professor couldn't understand a paper written by a high school student.

If this were to get out, people would generally assume the high school student's paper was terrible, which is why the professor couldn't understand it.

But Professor Liu knew that this was because the content of the paper had surpassed his own area of expertise.

His main research areas did indeed lean towards Number Theory and Algebraic Geometry, but this topic involved Far Abelian Geometry, which was beyond his research scope.

He was stumped for a moment.