Of course, for these four rookies who have just entered academia, this incident can make them feel very shocked, but for Li Mu, or the editor-in-chief of "Nature", Joss Winston , it’s really too normal.
This is how the big guys are treated.
When Li Mu faced the editor-in-chief with whom he had collaborated before, he smiled slightly.
"Since Editor-in-Chief Winston personally came to invite me, I actually quite like you. After all, we have always had a good cooperative relationship."
"What a coincidence, just this morning, Science also sent me an email, inviting me to submit my paper to them."
Hearing this, Joss Winston immediately became alert.
"Then how did you reply to them? You probably haven't agreed yet, right?"
"You must vote for us!"
"Look, I even brought the agreement and the USB flash drive, and I'm just waiting to copy the paper back from you."
Li Mu laughed: "Of course, don't worry, I've definitely not agreed yet. At this point, we can discuss more."
"Okay, okay, let's discuss it more." Joss Winston nodded repeatedly.
Afterwards, Li Mu said to his four students: "You guys wait a little longer."
The few students who didn't know what to say all nodded like chickens pecking at rice, then sat down next to them one after another, with their hands on their legs, acting obediently, and then looked at Li Mu with eyes filled with admiration. .
Be good, this is their mentor.
On the first day of school, they were allowed to witness what it means to be awesome.
Probably, if they have established their own reputation in the academic world in the future, when reporters interview them and ask them about their impressions of their mentors, today's scene will probably be mentioned by them.
Joss Winston also looked at the four of them at this time, and then asked Li Mu: "It seems to be the admission period of Oxford University recently. These four young people should be Professor Li's graduate students, right?"
Li Mu nodded: "Yes."
Joss Winston smiled, then turned to look at Yuan Siping and the four others, and said kindly to them: "Children, first of all, congratulations on becoming Professor Li Mu's students."
“Believe me, this is definitely the most important opportunity in your life, and you will also receive better guidance than others. I hope you can continue to exert the spirit of your mentor and bring more supreme truths to our science. "
As the editor-in-chief of "Nature", Jos Winston is still considered a big shot and an old-timer to Yuan Siping and the other four, so when faced with his blessing, the four of them hurriedly stood up and thanked him.
"Thank you Mr. Winston!"
The four young people said one after another.
At the same time, they were also muttering in their hearts. Fortunately, Winston was not talking about bringing into play the tradition of their mentor, but bringing into play the spirit and following the tradition of Li Mu...
Start by solving an academic problem?
For example...the twin prime conjecture?
Oh, this problem has been solved by their mentor, and it needs to be changed - well, they can't think of any problems left for them to solve at the moment. As for the other unsolved problems among the seven Millennium Problems, The five problems to be solved are completely out of the options. Even in their dreams, they would not consider the Millennium Problem.
Afterwards, they watched quietly as Li Mu and Joss Winston talked about the details of publishing the paper.
For them, this is even more amazing. They can submit articles to a top journal like Nature, and the editor-in-chief personally visits them, and they can continue to negotiate terms with the editor-in-chief. This kind of thing is really too much for them. It's science fiction.
But now, it was actually happening in front of them.
About ten minutes later, Li Mu negotiated various conditions with Joss Winston.
With a smile on his face, Joss Winston stood up and shook hands with Li Mu, "Then I won't disturb Professor Li."
Before leaving the office, he did not forget to look at Yuan Siping and the other four, and said with a smile: "If you have any excellent papers in the future, you must give priority to submitting them to Nature!"
"Okay, okay."
The four people nodded.
It's just a matter of voting for "Nature"...
Those of them who are majoring in mathematics should forget it. Probably Yuan Siping, who is majoring in mathematical physics, still has a chance. After all, readers of "Nature" generally don't like to read those complicated and tedious mathematical derivation processes. They care more about it. These are the results that are more exciting when you hear them, such as the explosive discovery that can collapse the building of physics, the discovery of something that can solve cancer, or the news of room-temperature superconductors - so no matter how fake the paper seems, no matter how fake the experiment is, No matter how difficult it is to reproduce, no matter how obviously exaggerated the data is, there is a high probability that it will be included in such a top publication.
After sending Jos Winston out of the office, Li Mu also turned to look at his four students.
Seeing the exclamation in their eyes, he smiled slightly: "What? Are you surprised?"
Anthony Alex first said: "Dear Professor, this is of course shocking. That is the editor-in-chief of Nature!"
Several other people nodded in agreement with Alex's exclamation.
However, Li Mu smiled, waved his hand and said: "Since you think this incident shocked you, then you should try to work hard until one day, such a thing can happen to you."
"this……"
The four people looked at each other. Could such a thing really happen to them in the future?
"Professor, is this a bit too difficult? Nature generally won't accept our pure mathematics papers." Tu Zhizhen's face showed helplessness.
Li Mu smiled and said: "I didn't say "Nature". Since it is mathematics, of course it is a journal like "Annals of Mathematics"."
"Annals of Mathematics"...
Ah this.
The four people looked at each other again.
Can this be done?
However, regarding Li Mu's words, Yuan Siping recalled the afternoon when he met Li Mu by chance in the cafeteria many years ago, and then witnessed the afternoon when Li Mu's paper was accepted by the "Annals of Mathematics".
It can be done.
"Of course, it is still difficult for you to realize this kind of thing now, so we will not talk about this matter for now."
"come on."
Li Mu sat at his desk and waved to the four students.
"More than half a year has passed now. I don't know how you have completed the tasks I left for you during the interview."
"As I told you before, when you enroll in school, I will check your completion."
After hearing the professor's words, the four new graduate students immediately became highly focused.
Come on, come on, it's time to check your homework.
Although the four of them have completed the task assigned to them by Li Mu in the past few months, they still can't help but feel nervous when they actually face Li Mu's inspection.
"Let's start with..." Li Mu glanced at a few people, and then pointed at Anthony Alex: "The decision is yours."
"You were the first to be interviewed at the beginning, now you have to start first."
Anthony Alex straightened up immediately, took a few deep breaths, and then solemnly nodded: "Okay, Professor."
Then he took his bag, took out the printed paper, and handed it to Li Mu.
"I think I have basically completed the topic you gave me, but I still hope you will check the final conclusion."
Li Mu took the paper and started reading it.
Of course, several other people nearby also came together and looked at Anthony's paper.
They all know that Anthony comes from the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris. As a mathematics student from one of the best universities in mathematics in the world, what level will his thesis be like?
They were all quite curious.
Then, take a look at the title of the paper.
Then, take a look at the title of the paper.
"Cyclic Class of Super Singular Trajectories of Mainly Polarized Abelian Variants"
The other three people gave up immediately.
Well, it’s not in this direction, so they’d better not torture themselves.
If they hadn't done in-depth research on this algebraic geometry thing, they would basically have no idea of understanding it.
Tu Zhizhen, for example, studied number theory, Yuan Siping studied mathematical physics, and Brahms-Liszt mainly studied the Langlands Program.
They are all somewhat different, probably in the direction of Brahms-Liszt, who dabbled in both number theory and algebraic geometry.
Therefore, after taking a few glances, they could only stay aside and listen quietly to Li Mu and Anthony's explanations.
Li Mu read the paper very quickly. It didn't take long before he nodded slightly and said, "Generally speaking, there is no big problem. You found the key when g=4."
At the beginning, the topic he left for Anthony was to determine the factors of the cyclic class of super singular trajectories when g=4 in the modulus space of the g-dimensional principal polarization Abelian variant.
Needless to say, the difficulty of this topic is needless to say. After all, the value of this paper is enough to publish a mathematics section.
Of course, for Anthony, this paper was very difficult to write, but since Li Mu could ask such a question in the first place, he naturally knew the answer a long time ago.
"Of course, there are still certain flaws in the complete proof process."
Hearing the "flaws" mentioned by Li Mu, Anthony immediately became nervous.
"am I wrong?"
Li Mu smiled: "Wrong, that's right, so I hope you can listen to what I'm going to say and sum up the experience well."
Then, he took some scratch paper from the side and began to explain the problems in his paper to Anthony, and taught him better ideas.
Of course, Li Mu would not give the answer directly, but would let Anthony think for himself.
As we all know, it is better to teach people to fish than to teach them how to fish.
In this way, time passed slowly, and Anthony's expression gradually changed from confusion to enlightenment during Li Mu's explanation, until finally, "I understand! Thank you, Professor!"
Afterwards, he got his paper back from Li Mu as if he had found a treasure, and it contained various corrections given by Li Mu. To him, these corrections were like a magical secret book.
Li Mu did not forget to say something to him at the end: "Just tell me when you publish your paper. It's up to you which journal you want to publish in. I can also recommend it to you."
"Okay, thank you Professor!"
Li Mu's words moved Anthony even more. To submit a paper, you only need to tell the instructor. Such a degree of freedom makes students like them not excited.
This is the experience of having a great mentor.
At least you don’t have to worry about your papers being snatched away.
In the office, when the other three people saw Anthony's happy and excited look, the nervousness they felt before gradually subsided.
Their professor is quite good.
"Next, Tu Zhizhen, come on."
"Okay professor!"
When he heard his name being called, Tu Zhizhen immediately picked up his paper and walked over.
Until the end, Tu Zhizhen returned to his position as if he had found a treasure, and then began to absorb what Li Mu told him.
Next, it was Brahms Liszt’s turn.
Naturally, it’s the same plot.
In this way, all three people finished speaking, and in the end, only Yuan Siping was left.
Li Mu looked at him, and Yuan Siping immediately picked up the paper without him shouting.
"Professor, here we come."
He was embarrassed to show others that he and Li Murao knew each other, and if he didn't tell others, others wouldn't know that he was a student of Shanghai Jiao Tong University.
Li Mu looked at him and smiled slightly. Then he did not show that he knew him. After taking his paper, he asked: "How is your result?"
The question he left for Yuan Siping was the most difficult question during the interview.
So he was also curious about how far Yuan Siping had completed it.
Yuan Siping scratched his head and said: "That problem is a bit difficult. I dare not say how far I have completed it, but the only thing I can say is that I am quite satisfied. At least... I tried my best. "
Li Mu nodded: "Just do your best."
Then he stopped talking and started reading the paper.
At the beginning, the question he left for Yuan Siping was [to demonstrate the role of dimensional forces in the spontaneous symmetry breaking of the Higgs mechanism].
This question is also a relatively hot issue in the physics community. From the time he left this question to Yuan Siping, until now, although the physics community has achieved certain results on this issue, there has never been a conclusion.
"The Higgs mechanism gives mass to elementary particles. In gauge field theory, in order to satisfy local gauge invariance, the mass of gauge bosons must be set to zero. Since the vacuum expectation value of the Higgs field is not equal to zero, spontaneous The symmetry is broken, so the gauge boson gains mass, creating a zero-mass boson called the Goldstone boson, and the Higgs boson is accompanied by the Higgs field Particles are vibrations of the Higgs field. By choosing the appropriate gauge, the Goldstone boson will be canceled out, leaving only the massive Higgs boson and the massive gauge vector field."
“Before the emergence of dimensional force theory, there was an unsolved mystery that cannot be ignored regarding the fact that the vacuum expectation value of the Higgs field is not equal to zero.”
"However, with the advent of the dimensional force theory, this problem has become traceable."
Li Mu stated relevant theories while looking at Yuan Siping's paper.
He turned the page very quickly, which made Yuan Siping wonder. At such a fast speed, was Li Mu really watching?
But soon, I will remember when I participated in the international college physics competition with Li Mu. Li Mu was famous for his speed.
Forget it, it’s better not to think about it.
He calmed down his thoughts, and then continued to listen to Li Mu's story seriously.
Soon, Li Mu finished flipping through his paper.
For now, his paper can only be called a preliminary achievement.
However, Li Mu still gave praise because he did not expect Yuan Siping to solve this problem so quickly.
"It's still very good. You have grasped the key. In the Higgs mechanism, symmetry is the key."
"The Lagrangian function is symmetric, but the world it describes is not."
"The dimensional force theory gives the possibility of asymmetry."
"If you don't understand what I'm saying, I recommend you read my recent paper."
"That's the paper on the conjugate model of weak interaction force and dimensional force."
"After reading it, if you understand it, I believe you will have a deeper understanding of this issue."
Having said this, Li Mu closed the paper without making any corrections on it, and then handed it back to Yuan Siping with a confused look on his face.
"That's all."
The first lesson given to his students ended here.
(End of chapter)
