Top Student at Their Peak

At least that's what he thought. After all, Lott Degen always felt that the people who held the reins of the Princeton board were not that smart, and he was not open to any arguments on this point.

After a long time, his bald old friend finally put down those two papers.

Noticing this movement from the corner of his eye, Lott Degen smiled and asked, "Haha, Pierre, when you were working on the modal space structure fifty years ago, did you ever think that one day someone would delve into this question to such an extent?

Tell me, you must have felt that Andrew proving Fermat's Last Theorem using the crucial mathematical framework you provided was already the pinnacle of your life, right?"

Yes, this bald old friend was none other than Professor Pierre Delini, whom Qiao Yu had met once at the World Algebraic Geometry Congress, one of the strongest figures in the world of mathematics.

The Fields Medal, the Abel Prize, and a host of other awards, all demonstrated his contributions. Especially his research on modular forms, which provided many useful tools for subsequent mathematicians, including Qiao Yu's paper.

For example, in the derivation of Qiao Yu's related theorem, he directly used the unicity proposed by Delini. In defining modal distance, Delini's geometric analysis of the Galois representation was directly applied.

After all, the framework proposed by Qiao Yu was an attempt to geometrize number theory, which aligned with the research direction previously pursued by Delini to a certain degree.

Pierre Delini ignored the chatterbox Lott Degen, closed his eyes immediately after putting down the papers.

He was still pondering over this framework that defined numbers entirely as elements; numbers no longer represented a single value but a point in a multidimensional modal, carrying a wealth of attributes and relationships...

This was not just a mathematical change, it could even be understood as a philosophical transition.

In traditional mathematical perspectives, numbers only represented a static point or value, but now the paper's author directly endowed numbers with modal properties, making numbers a dynamic, multidimensional existence.

Future number theorists would no longer study the numbers themselves, but rather the behavior and interaction relationships of numbers as elements.

Not only was it a design of genius, but it was sufficiently audacious!

The only pity was that the paper was too short. Only the most basic definitions.

He couldn't help but start thinking whether this modal space could capture the more complex group theoretic symmetries among numbers?

For example, could the branching behavior of the Galois representation find a direct correspondence in modal geometry?

Just thinking about these things gave him a bit of a headache. Yet beside him, Lott Degen was still chattering.

"Hey, Pierre, don't you want to know who the author of the paper is? You could beg me, and maybe I might tell you before you review the paper."

Pierre Delini opened his eyes, glanced at Lott Degen beside him, and murmured in a low growl, "Can't you be quiet for a moment, Lott! Such a distinct personal style article, who else could it be but that kid Qiao Yu!"

Lott Degen was apparently surprised and asked suspiciously, "Distinct personal style? Why didn't I see it?"

Of course, Pierre Delini wouldn't tell this friend that he had already been informed by others that Qiao Yu was working on related research.

Yes, Tao Xuanzhi had already sent him an email discussing the feasibility of Qiao Yu's ideas.

So he said calmly, "Because you always fail to see the deeper connections, which is also why you haven't won the Fields Medal. Qiao Yu's approach to mathematical research has always been bold and radical!"

Lott Degen was silent... then said, "But there are two papers. So you can at most be half-correct."

Despised, but there was nothing he could do about it; he indeed hadn't gotten a Fields Medal. But he had won the Abel Prize and the Wolf Prize, unfortunately, the other party had also won these two awards, and even earlier than he did...

"I don't understand why two papers had to be published? Even together, the two papers only amount to twenty-five pages." Pierre Delini couldn't help but complain.

From his perspective, the validation of the second paper interleaved into the first would make the entire paper appear to have more solid arguments, more complete.

"Because he thinks it's important to give other members of the research group more opportunities, I think this reason is very commendable!" Lott Degen provided an unconvincing reason.

Facing Pierre Delini's probing gaze, Lott Degen shrugged and added, "Well, actually, it's a very simple reasoning, geniuses are privileged. Think about your youth, didn't you ever act willfully?"

It must be said, this reason left Pierre Delini speechless.

Yes, when he was young, indeed many big names were very tolerant of him.

Alexander Grothendieck, Jean-Pierre Serre... and many other mathematical masters at the time provided him with much help.

Even when Grothendieck withdrew from mathematical research, he still provided much help on the Weil conjecture and continuously supported him in conducting independent research.

It must be understood that cross-disciplinary research in algebraic geometry, number theory, and representation theory wasn't mainstream in the last century, but at that time both his mentors and colleagues were almost infinitely tolerant of his ideas, which led to his later achievements.

"All right, I'll review the two papers together as soon as possible. Also, Professor Tao Xuanzhi is very interested in Qiao Yu's research, if you haven't found a more suitable reviewer yet."