How Is That My Fault?

Edward Witten's father was a physicist who studied Theory of Relativity.

Following in his father's footsteps, Edward Witten possessed an extraordinary intuition for physics, to the point that even he himself could not fully articulate the profound physical theories he proposed.

Edward Witten then explained his Superstring Theory using mathematical language, for which he received the Fields Medal.

The International Mathematical Union awarded the prize to Edward Witten for his Grand Unification mathematical approach to Superstring Theory, a remarkable achievement and outstanding contribution.

Edward Witten claims he doesn't understand mathematics; he probably means he doesn't understand all of mathematics, only a little bit.

In the limited area of mathematics that Edward Witten knew, he surpassed the vast majority of professional mathematicians in the world, for example, in Low-Dimensional Topology.

Low-Dimensional Topology studies manifolds of four dimensions and lower. Due to the involvement of Algebraic Topology, Low-Dimensional Topology is closely related to Algebraic Geometry.

In this Algebraic Geometry class, Professor Witten explained his understanding of Low-Dimensional Topology and explored it further by combining it with String Theory.

The students in the classroom were mostly confused and understood very little. No one could interrupt Witten's lecture, as they couldn't understand what he was saying and didn't know how to get involved.

Witten had become accustomed to being misunderstood by the world. Not to mention these students, even his colleagues didn't really understand him.

In recent years, Witten has not supervised any graduate or doctoral students because his previous students disappointed him.

Despite possessing the ability to glimpse the mysteries of the universe and the truth of the microscopic world, Witten cannot find a successor.

"The microscopic world can be like this." Witten had a piece of chewing gum in his hand. He peeled off the wrapper and stretched the gum out, stretched it out, and stretched it out again.

"It can also be like this." Witten compressed the chewing gum again and again, finally rolling it into a small ball.

Witten used a piece of chewing gum to demonstrate the changes in the microscopic world, explaining simultaneously, "When we enter Four-Dimensional Space, the three-dimensional space we observe is completely different from the three-dimensional space we observe in three-dimensional space. If a three-dimensional simplex is a tetrahedron, then a four-dimensional simplex is a generalized tetrahedron with five vertices..."

"But no one has ever entered Four-Dimensional Space, or any higher-dimensional space." Finally, a student interrupted Professor Witten's lecture. This student was Shen Qi.

Witten walked up to Shen Qi and said, "So you're the only one who understood what I was saying?"

Shen Qi happened to have some chewing gum in his pocket. He unwrapped a strip of gum, stretched it, compressed it, and rolled it into a small ball. Mimicking Witten's tone, he said, "The microscopic world can be like this, or it can be like this, but the truth is actually..."

Shen Qi put the chewing gum in his mouth and chewed it. "That's how it is."

"Should I call you Einstein or Schrödinger?" Professor Witten asked with a smile.

"Shen Qi, my name is Shen Qi."

"Shen Qi, he successfully demonstrated 21st-century topology!" Witten suddenly became excited, his tone becoming increasingly animated.

Returning to normalcy, Witten continued, "Before this, I was talking about 20th-century topology. 20th-century theories are outdated, but no one questioned me, except for Shen Qi."

The other students looked at each other blankly, failing to grasp the true essence of 21st-century topology from the two pieces of chewing gum.

After class, Witten kept Shen Qi in the classroom and asked with great interest, "Have you studied String Theory?"

"No, Professor Witten, I actually don't understand physics." Shen Qi shook his head.

String Theory posits that all subatomic particles are not tiny points, but rather strings similar to Rubber Band.

The significance of String Theory lies in describing the entire universe with Grand Unification model. Of course, this theory is difficult to verify through specific experiments, at least at this stage.

"Although I have a bachelor's degree in physics, it's nothing special at Princeton," Shen Qi said with shame. "I tried to explain Professor Witten's problem mathematically: the Vector Space generated by the fundamental classes of a Projective Algebraic Manifold with positive Algebraic Subvariety in a projective algebraic manifold changes in real time."

"That's a good explanation. I gave the same explanation back then, and unexpectedly won the Fields Medal. You know, Shen Qi, I've never considered myself a mathematician, but it turns out that only a very small number of mathematicians in the world are truly insightful." Witten seemed somewhat regretful. He considered himself a physicist but unexpectedly won the Fields Medal, yet the Nobel Prize in Physics had always eluded Witten.

"Hehe." Shen Qi chuckled dryly. Witten meant that other physicists in the world had limited abilities. The Nobel Prize in Physics reviewers hired by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences could not understand Witten's physical theories, or even if they understood them, they could not verify them. Some people even said that String Theory was Pseudoscience.

Only mathematicians who engage in pure theoretical research can truly understand Witten's exceptional abilities.

Witten was quite popular a decade or two ago, but in recent years he has aged considerably, faded from the academic scene, and his career has cooled down.

"You are a talented student." Witten concluded his brief conversation with Shen Qi, who had left a deep impression on him.

After parting ways with Witten, Shen Qi suddenly had a brilliant idea. "Orbifold!"

In mathematics, the orbifold is considered a manifold with singularities.

Orbifold involves many branches, including topology, Algebraic Geometry, and String Theory, which Witten excels at.

In topology, orbifold singularities are often viewed as an orbifold structure on a topological manifold, similar to how Differentiable Manifold can be viewed as a topological manifold with a smooth structure.

Let's put the proof of the Riemann Hypothesis on hold for now, since we have no clue where to start anyway.

Shen Qi immediately went to the Flint Library, consulted some materials, and decided to conduct research on a relatively niche topic.

For Symplectic Manifold, only a few scholars in the world have proven that two Symplectic Manifold are equivalent if and only if their Fundamental Group are isomorphic.

Research on how to use the orbifold Fundamental Group to characterize Symplectic Orbifold Groupoid is almost nonexistent.

"I'll try working on an obscure topic for fun; who knows, I might even win an award." Shen Qi's desire to win an award was growing stronger, and he had been frequently provoked by it lately.

Not long ago, Shen Qi was provoked by Mary's husband, who had won 11 Math Prize in just a few years, like a devil.

Just now, Shen Qi was provoked by Witten, despite being a physics researcher, reluctantly accepted a Fields Medal.

Hoping to win the Fields Medal by proving the Riemann Hypothesis is probably a pipe dream.

Popular research topics attract many competitors, leading to fierce competition.

Even for niche research topics, as long as you can produce results, the chances of winning an award are very high.

However, the biggest obstacle to researching niche topics is the scarcity of useful references; it's difficult to find many compelling citations.

"So, I can only rely on my imagination." Shen Qi wrote a report and prepared to apply for project approval from Professor Muller.

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