The Biggest Trend This Year: Tackling the Millennium Prize Problems

Teams from universities, research institutes, and other academic institutions follow the projects; wherever there is a research project, there is a research team.

Shen Qi has officially taken over as the head of the "RT Third Expression Project," while Professor Muller has stepped down to a secondary role.

The team's main front-line players are: Shen Qi, Mary, Ou Ye, and Jonas.

The technical support expert team members are: Faltings, Lyndon Strauss, Muller, and Gong Changwei.

Mary has recently made significant research achievements in the decomposition of the RT Third Expression, and her contribution ranks second only to Shen Qi, surpassing Ou Ye.

In fact, Mary's current status is the most prestigious; she is a full-time research fellow in the Princeton Mathematics Department.

Shen Qi is a prospective lecturer at Princeton, and has not yet officially started his job.

Jonas earned his Ph. D. in the Mathematics Department from Princeton University, where he worked as a research assistant under Shen Qi.

Ou Ye is a graduate student at Columbia University, with the least seniority and the lowest degree.

"Qi, I can tell you love your girlfriend very much. You assigned her the most difficult decomposition task," Mary said to Shen Qi. She had met Ou Ye once, Ou Ye had visited Princeton once.

"Mary, thank you and Jonas for your recent contributions." Shen Qi smiled and said, "I love my girlfriend, and I love you both."

"The first half is the truth, the second half is just polite talk." Mary handed Shen Qi a bulging, heavy file folder. "You've completed the task you gave me. Is there anything else I need to do?"

Shen Qi opened the file folder, took out the documents, and checked them. "The signature is Mary -Schmidt? Mary, you changed your name again?"

"Mary Schmidt is my original name. I'm back to where I started, a new beginning." A few months ago, Mary's full name was Mary Schultz -Schmidt, where Schultz is her husband's surname and Schmidt is her original surname.

Shen Qi asked, "Mary, I didn't mean to pry into your privacy. I was just concerned about the well-being of my team members. So, you've officially gone through the divorce proceedings?"

"I've already signed it, but he hasn't." Mary's face was icy, filled with resentment and a sense of despondency.

Now that the matter was out in the open, Shen Qi had nothing more to hold back. "You two are still legally married, Mary. What I'm trying to say is that your legal husband, Professor Peter Schultz, is perhaps our team's strongest competitor. In Professor Faltings' odds for the Fields Medal, Peter Schultz is ranked fifth, higher than me, who is sixth."

"Then defeat Pete Schultz," Mary said resolutely, eager to defeat her legal husband.

Shen Qi shuddered. This German woman was truly formidable; when she got angry, she was even willing to kill her husband.

What did her Mary, Peter Schultz, do to make her so cruel? She is helping a Chinese man devise a mathematical solution to defeat her German husband.

Shen Qi's team and Schultz's team do not conflict in their respective research areas.

Shen Qi has recently been working on number theory, while Schultz has always been working on Algebraic Geometry.

However, there will inevitably be fierce competition between 22-year-old Shen Qi and 32-year-old Schultz for the Fields Medal.

Most European media outlets and mathematics colleagues, and even Asian media outlets and colleagues outside of China, are almost unanimously optimistic about Schultz.

Shen Qi enjoys high approval ratings in China and North America, with his voter base concentrated in the Chinese Capital -Hebei region and the northeastern United States.

"Algebraic Geometry has gathered some of the world's brightest minds, and Peter Schultz is among the best." - Comment from the British journal Nature.

"If even the mathematician who proved the Riemann Hypothesis cannot receive the Fields Medal, then what is the point of this award? Shen Qi, he should receive the Fields Medal." - Comment from the American journal Science.

With the Fields Medal draw date fast approaching, all parties are building momentum.

In late July, astonishing news came from Europe.

The Royal Society of Edinburgh awarded the Peter Schulzkiss Prize in recognition of Schulz's outstanding contributions to the field of mathematics.

This is Schultz's 12th Math Prize at the age of 32.

Aside from the Fields Medal, as well as the Wolf Prize and Abel Prize awarded to the old man, Schultz won almost every major award that someone his age could win.

At an academic conference in Edinburgh, Schultz presented a report entitled "<p-dimensional algebraic cohomology (p, p) forms>".

The Mathematics Community is excited.

Schultz tackled the Hodge conjecture, one of the most difficult problems in Algebraic Geometry, and achieved initial results!

The Hodge conjecture is also considered the most difficult and challenging of the seven Millennium Prize Problem in mathematics.

In an interview with the BBC, Schultz said, "Within three years, I will completely prove the Hodge conjecture. You ask me about this year's Fields Medal? This year, I don't need to rely on the Hodge conjecture, yes, I don't."

"German mathematician Schultz has made a major breakthrough in his research on the Hodge conjecture!"

"Schultz could win the Fields Medal without relying on the Hodge conjecture!"

"Schultz could win the Fields Medal with just his master's thesis!"

News of praise for Schultz flooded the internet overnight.

There's a legend about Schultz: when he was a graduate student, he wrote a paper and had it reviewed by his advisor, the famous mathematician Rapoport.

Professor Rapoport was stunned. After reading Pete Schultz's dissertation, he immediately made a decision. "Pete, you don't need to continue with graduate studies, nor do you need to pursue a doctorate. You will receive your doctorate immediately."

In this legendary version, Schultz did not go through the doctoral stage; he directly obtained a PhD in mathematics after completing his master's degree.

In this master's thesis, Peter Schultz created a completely new mathematical framework called "perfectoid-spaces theory".

The term "perfectoid-spaces" can be understood as "quasi-perfect space theory." Schultz's theory is hailed as one of the most promising frameworks for Algebraic Geometry in the coming decades.

Therefore, Schultz is a strong contender, and it is widely believed that Schultz can win the Fields Medal with just a master's thesis.

Just now, Schultz unleashed an even bigger move, launching an attack on Hodge conjecture.

Princeton, USA.

Shen Qi's team was extremely nervous, and they studied Schultz's latest report, "<p-dimensional algebraic cohomology (p, p) form>, overnight."

In fact, only three people in the team are proficient in Algebraic Geometry: Shen Qi, Muller, Faltings.

Mary, Jonas, Ou Ye, Gong Changwei, Lyndon Strauss all specialized in number theory.

"Schultz has derived a corollary that can partially characterize algebraic homology classes on nonsingular projective Algebraic variety algebraic varieties. If he can produce five more such convincing corollaries, he could very well prove the Hodge conjecture completely within three years."

After studying Schultz's latest report, Shen Qi couldn't help but sigh, "What's going on in the Mathematics Community? Is tackling the Millennium Prize Problem really that popular this year?"