Pretending Not to Show Off Is the Most Nerve-Racking

On the first day of the academic conference, Shen Qi listened to several presentations as an audience member.

Gong Changwei reported on the significant research achievements he and his team have made in the fields of Analytic Number Theory and Algebraic Number Theory, winning applause and widespread praise from the audience.

As a candidate for this year's Breakthrough Prize in Mathematics, Gong Changwei's presentation was outstanding. He will attend the International Congress of Mathematicians in a few months and will be invited to give a 45-minute presentation. He has a good chance of winning this year's Fields Medal.

Faltings then reported on the remarkable achievements he and his team had made in the fields of Elliptic Partial Differential Equations and Parabolic Partial Differential Equations, which were met with widespread praise.

Faltings is expected to share the $3 million Breakthrough Prize in Mathematics with Gong Changwei; both are considered frontrunners.

Based on his research achievements in Partial Differential Equations and Differential Geometry in recent years, experts generally believe that Faltings winning this year's Fields Medal is a foregone conclusion.

Faltings has won three Math Prize in the past year, and barring any unforeseen circumstances, this year's Breakthrough Prize in Mathematics will be his fourth major award in a year.

The reason for the flurry of prestigious Math Prize prior to the Fields Medal Prize is twofold: firstly, Faltings and his Princeton team have indeed made undeniable and outstanding contributions, which have been recognized by the international Mathematics Community.

Secondly, Princeton's influence and resources played a role; they were helping Faltings. with operations and building momentum.

The goal is clear: Princeton very much hopes that Faltings will win this year's Fields Medal.

Princeton Mathematics Department in the 20th century was quite arrogant; they never advertised or did any marketing, there was no need for it.

Since the beginning of the 21st century, the international situation has become increasingly complex, and Princeton's dominant position has been severely challenged.

Ngô Bảo Châu is the most vivid example.

Mathematician Ngô Bảo Châu, who holds dual French and Vietnamese citizenship, appeared on the cover of Time magazine in 2009, and consequently won the Fields Medal in 2010.

Ngô Bảo Châu's contributions to the Langlands Program were undoubtedly outstanding.

However, the immense influence of the Paris school behind Ngô Bảo Châu cannot be ignored. Multiple factors contributed to Ngô Bảo Châu winning the 2010 Fields Medal on behalf of the Paris school.

That year, Princeton's rising star Hoffman, failed to win any awards. He and Ngô Bảo Châu were researching almost the same topic, the fundamental lemma of the Langlands Program.

No one had ever heard of Hoffman, while Ngô Bảo Châu had already achieved great success and become a master of her generation.

Princeton can no longer afford to be arrogant. Their recent focus has been on promoting Faltings and Shen Qi, one in his thirties representing the present and the other in his early twenties representing the future.

"Professor Faltings, your report was brilliant! Your treatment of the semilinear equations with independent variables is simply a miracle in the field," Shen Qi congratulated Faltings after the meeting.

"Qi, it seems you're quite knowledgeable about Partial Differential Equations as well?" Faltings asked, somewhat surprised. "What area of study do you actually specialize in?"

"Mathematical Physics and Algebraic Geometry, Ordinary Differential Equations and Partial Differential Equations, algebra and Mathematical Analysis, topology and logic. Recently, I have been quite interested in number theory and Functional Analysis, and have made some small research results. Compared with Professor Faltings, my little achievement is nothing. You are a hot candidate for the Fields Medal, the highest-level lecture at IMU, in one hour," Shen Qi said modestly.

"We'll discuss this in detail when we get back to Princeton." Faltings, who had just impressed all the mathematicians present, was now taken aback by Shen Qi.

"Qi, if you can achieve outstanding results in all ten fields, I am willing to repeat my graduate studies and choose you as my advisor." Faltings patted Shen Qi on the shoulder and left.

After taking a few steps, Faltings turned back and said, "Don't mess up your report tomorrow."

The next day, Shen Qi dressed in his finest clothes and arrived at NASA's main conference hall for the mathematics report with great pomp and circumstance.

According to the pre-arranged agenda, Shen Qi will be the second to deliver a report this morning.

The first presentation in the main mathematics session was "A Corollary on the Distribution of Zeros of the Riemann zeta function," given by James Maynard, a renowned number theorist from Oxford University.

Actually, this British master is quite young; Maynard just turned 31 this year, and including this year, he has three chances to compete for the Fields Medal.

"As expected, Maynard is also tackling the Riemann Hypothesis." In Shen Qi's memory, he had never seen Maynard's report, "A Corollary on the Distribution of Zeros of the Riemann zeta function," so this was the latest research result from Maynard's team.

"There are no more than five top number theory research teams in the world, and Maynard's team is one of them," Professor Muller said, as he, Mary, and Jonas sat around Shen Qi.

Maynard's report then officially began, and the entire room fell silent.

At the outset, Maynard uses a beautiful asymptotic formula to find the smallest prime number in an arithmetic sequence.

Then, the "Maynard matching method" came into play. Combining hyperbolic summation and complex integral methods, Maynard cleverly obtained an important corollary of the zero distribution of the Riemann zeta function.

Wow, Maynard's got some skills!

Shen Qi was startled. This Englishman was very powerful. Maynard had quietly improved the "Maynard matching method". In terms of actual combat effectiveness, the improved "Maynard matching method" was no less effective than the "Shen's twin matching method".

Different approaches, same goal.

Shen Qi's team and Maynard's team have already formed a fierce competition, and it remains to be seen who can complete the proof of the Riemann Hypothesis first.

"That concludes my report, thank you!" Maynard's report was a great success, earning thunderous applause from the audience.

"Fortunately, Maynard only got a deduction," Professor Muller said calmly.

"My heart was pounding in my chest!" Mary clutched her chest, a sense of relief washing over her. "But Maynard's deduction is utterly weak compared to our two expressions."

"If the odds don't appear, Maynard will be the number theory star this year." Jonas smiled, completely unfazed.

Shen Qi took a few deep breaths; it was about to be his turn to go on stage and give his report.

The host said, "Next, please welcome Professor Shen Qi from Princeton University to give a report. His report will cover 'The Muller -Shen Theorem and its Supplementary Approximation Theorem for Banach space' and 'A Proof of the Riemann Hypothesis Based on the 'Twin Matching Method''."

Amidst the clamor and chatter of the audience, Shen Qi stepped onto the stage. "Wow, this is such a large international conference, I'm a little nervous!"

The mathematicians from various countries in the audience are all talking about me!

"Did he really prove the Riemann Hypothesis?"

There hadn't been any prior indication of anything amiss.

"This should be the first public report from the Princeton team."

"If Shen Qi completes the proof of the Riemann Hypothesis, it will be the greatest mathematical achievement of the 21st century so far!"

"Just as great as the proof of Perelman's Poincaré conjecture!"

"I remain skeptical; such a significant research finding shouldn't have been completely unknown beforehand."

Various opinions came from mathematicians from different countries, but regardless, Shen Qi, who had not yet spoken, attracted a great deal of attention, far exceeding that of Maynard, who had just stepped down.

This fully illustrates the importance of the title. Shen Qi's title, "Proof of the Riemann Hypothesis Based on the 'Twin Matching Method'", is far more sophisticated than Maynard's title, "A Corollary on the Zero Distribution of the Riemann zeta function".

"Hello everyone, I'm going to give a report now." Shen Qi composed himself, trying to calm down.

The entire audience was completely silent, eagerly awaiting Shen Qi's performance.

There are those who hope Shen Qi's performance will be successful, and those who are happy to see him make a fool of himself.

While sensational headlines may attract attention, substantial content is the key to winning people's hearts.

Shen Qi began his formal report.

"The 'Muller -Schen theorem' for Banach space has been widely recognized in the Mathematics Community. Everyone here is an expert, so I won't go into details. The original paper was published in the 'Annals of Mathematics,' and interested colleagues can look it up themselves."

Shen Qi operated the page-turning pen, causing the PPT on the large screen to flip rapidly. He finished scrolling through the 38-page document, "The 'Muller -Shen Theorem' of Banach space," in 30 seconds.

"That opening was amazing..." Gong Changwei, sitting in the audience, laughed speechlessly. This junior brother of mine is really something else. Who can understand or comprehend your report like that? I, a number theorist, am completely baffled. However, I can't refute you, Shen Qi, because your "Muller -Shen Theorem" was published in the Annals of Mathematics and has been widely recognized by the Mathematics Community.

"Alright, next I will briefly introduce the supplementary approximation theorem of the 'Muller -Shen theorem'." Shen Qi was well-mannered, and his stage performance became increasingly composed, confident, and controlled.

That's how it is with being pretentious; you're most nervous when you're about to start, but once you enter that state of perfect harmony with being pretentious, you become fearless.