Start as a top student and move towards the stars and the sea

After the meeting, Qiu Chengtong did not leave immediately. After making eye contact with Ning Chen, he waved to Ning Chen to come over.

Ning Chen was sure that Qiu Chengtong was calling him, so he walked over.

"Ning Chen, I'm glad you came here. This time you are the youngest among everyone. How are you? Do you feel a lot of pressure?"

Ning Chen also smiled when he heard this and said:

"There will definitely be pressure, but I will definitely do my best to conduct research on the subject."

Ning Chen knew that although he had achieved very impressive results in the autumn competition, he had only published two papers in the second area in the field of mathematics research.

Compared with those with PhDs and master's degrees from top universities, I still have a lot to improve.

"Well, I have great expectations for you, and I believe you will not let me down this time. Ning Chen, do you regret not accepting my invitation last time to study in the Department of Mathematics of Shuimu University for graduate school?"

Ning Chen knew that whether he answered regretfully or not at this time, it was somewhat inappropriate.

After thinking for a while, Ning Chen replied:

"Professor Qiu, I am still very confused about this choice, but now I still hope that I can focus on the research of the next topic."

"Haha, that's true. But you don't have to worry. No matter how many times you reject me, the door of Shuimu University will always be open to you. Whether you are a student of Shuimu University or not, I will do my best to help you grow. "

Qiu Chengtong really hopes that the Chinese mathematics community will get better and better, and naturally he doesn't care where a student comes from.

Hearing Qiu Chengtong's words, Ning Chen was also very moved.

"Thank you Professor Qiu, I will not let you down."

…

In the following days, Ning Chen actively participated in open classes given by experts every day and chatted with other students in the training camp about many topics related to mathematics.

These experts are all the top mathematics scholars in the country, and even foreign scholars were invited by Qiu Chengtong. This allowed Ning Chen to learn a lot from them.

Regarding the topic selection, Ning Chen also had some ideas, but he had not yet made a final decision.

On this day, Qiu Chengtong personally gave an open class to everyone.

In the open class, Qiu Chengtong told some stories about his experiences in mathematics research.

"You must know Calabi's conjecture, right?"

After hearing Qiu Chengtong's words, many students below nodded.

The Calabi Conjecture, proposed by Italian mathematician Calabi in 1954, discusses the possibility of a gravitational field without matter distribution in a closed space.

This conjecture was proved by Qiu Chengtong himself 24 years later.

At this time, Qiu Chengtong was only twenty-seven years old.

After that, Qiu Chengtong solved multiple mathematical problems in succession and won the Fields Medal, the highest award in mathematics.

"But in fact, the Calabi conjecture has not been completely solved by me. I have only solved the Calabi conjecture in which Chen is negative and zero, and the Calabi conjecture in which Chen is positive has not been successfully solved yet. If any of you If you are interested, you can try it later.”

When Qiu Chengtong said this, he was obviously joking, and everyone laughed after hearing it.

This is a mathematical conjecture that no one has solved for more than 50 years. Everyone knows that this problem is not something they can solve.

"Is Chen Lei the correct Calabi conjecture? Isn't this the famous Qiu Chengtong conjecture!"

Ning Chen also has some understanding of the content of this conjecture. Qiu Chengtong has put forward his own hypothesis on this issue, believing that the existence of the "Kahler-Einstein metric" in high-dimensional space where the first Chen type is positive can be , transformed into a stability problem of algebraic geometry.

As for whether this conjecture is correct, Qiu Chengtong himself has not been able to complete the proof.

"How about... just take this issue as my future research topic?"

At this time, Ning Chen suddenly had such an impulse.

However, Ning Chen also knew that the difficulty of solving this conjecture was far greater than the previous topics Ning Chen had studied.

Although the level of Qiu Chengtong's conjecture is still lower than that of Riemann's hypothesis and Goldbach's conjecture, if it can really be solved, it will be enough to cause shock in the world of mathematics.

Ning Chen thought, since he didn't think of any other good research topics for the time being, he might as well go back and do some research first.

After class, Ning Chen returned to his dormitory, looking for information about Qiu Chengtong's conjecture, and studied it carefully.

After some research, Ning Chen became more and more aware of the difficulty in solving this conjecture.

Even Qiu Chengtong himself has tried many methods, but they all ended in failure.

Ning Chen spent a few days and finally found a new and possible way to solve this problem.

"If the solution to this class of fourth-order completely nonlinear elliptic equations can be found, then this problem can be solved."

Looking at the equation that he had spent several days working out, Ning Chen felt like he had more than enough ambition but not enough power.

Although Ning Chen proposed a new direction, it was like he was doing the final question and only wrote the first step.

Ning Chen doesn't have any ideas yet about how to proceed with the remaining steps.

However, the date for the thesis defense was very close, and Ning Chen had no time to change other topics, so he had to bite the bullet and start the PPT.

On the day when the thesis defense began, each student participated in the thesis defense one by one in the order determined previously.

Because time is a little rushed, the topics chosen by many students are relatively conservative, and the novelty and research significance are not so prominent.

Of course, there are also some students whose topic selections make Qiu Chengtong very satisfied. Once these topics are successfully studied, they will all have high academic value.

"Okay, next classmate, Ning Chen!"

Hearing his name being called, Ning Chen walked in.

"Hello teachers, I am Ning Chen from Shengzhou University."

Qiu Chengtong had also been looking forward to Ning Chen's appearance for a long time and asked quickly:

"Ning Chen, tell me what topic you want to study."

Ning Chen opened his PPT and said to Qiu Cheng and others:

"The topic of my research is Qiu Chengtong's conjecture."

Hearing Ning Chen's words, several professors, including Qiu Chengtong, were surprised.

After a few seconds, a professor next to Qiu Chengtong said:

"Ning Chen, in front of Professor Qiu Chengtong, you said you wanted to study Qiu Chengtong's conjecture. You are really courageous."

Qiu Chengtong smiled and said:

"Courage is a good thing. When I was young, I was very courageous and dared to study the Calabi conjecture. In the end, I figured it out. If no one dares to study these difficult problems, then these conjectures will always be conjectures. That’s all.”

Qiu Chengtong expressed his affirmation of Ning Chen's bold topic selection, but Qiu Chengtong also wanted to know why Ning Chen dared to challenge this difficult problem that has troubled mathematicians around the world for more than fifty years.

"Ning Chen, first tell me why you chose this topic." Qiu Chengtong asked.

"Actually, I have considered several other topics before, but after I listened to Professor Qiu's open class, I became very interested in the Qiu Chengtong conjecture. After that, I spent a few days studying the Qiu Chengtong conjecture. There has only been a small amount of progress in the proof method.”

"This made me more aware of how difficult it is to solve Qiu Chengtong's conjecture. But at this time, it was too late for me to change the topic, so I had to choose it as my research topic this time."

Ning Chen truthfully recounted his experiences over the past few days, and Qiu Cheng and others couldn't help but laugh after hearing this.

"Of course, the several topics I considered before were not very satisfactory to me in terms of novelty and research significance. Even if I cannot solve Qiu Chengtong's conjecture in the end, I am willing to invest a few months of time and energy to try my best Try it with your own strength."

After listening to Ning Chen's explanation, Qiu Chengtong said to a professor next to him:

"Ning Chen, your courage is commendable, but I think your steps are still too big. Maybe in a few years, you will really have such strength, but it is difficult to challenge Qiu Chengtong's conjecture so early. The topic is still too early for you. I suggest you change the topic. There are still many topics that are more suitable for your research at this stage."

Before Ning Chen could answer, Qiu Chengtong said first:

"Professor Dong, don't rush to a conclusion yet. We haven't listened to Ning Chen's defense process yet. Ning Chen, you just said that you have made some small progress, please show us."