Orion Crest, Series_1

Chapter 68: I'm looking forward to it

　　"Unbelievable, how did you realise they miscalculated?" Looking at Orion, Joannes' voice was filled with excitement and amazement.

　　It felt as if, having thought it was all going to be lost, he didn't expect the score to come back at the last minute.

　　"Sensitivity to numbers? I don't know how to describe this feeling. Anyway, I tried to do the maths where I felt something was wrong, and as I did the maths I realised the error," Orion laughed easily and continued, "I guess they were probably in a hurry, and if they had checked before filling in the charts, they certainly wouldn't have made that mistake... ...Our presentation will be the day after tomorrow?"

　　Joannes: "Yes, the day after tomorrow for the last one in the afternoon, I would suggest it would be better for you to relax tonight."

　　Orion shakes his head and chuckles, "Relaxing is better to wait for the night after tomorrow, the Syracuse guys are still waiting to see what we're up to. Get the last few steps done tonight, and I'll have to spend some time checking things out tomorrow."

　　There was no need to even think about it, Professor Brunos's research team must be hating themselves right now. It was almost predictable that at the acceptance meeting the day after tomorrow, that group of Yanks would definitely not let themselves off easily.

　　A month's worth of work was about to come to an end, and Orion didn't want to fail on the last metre to the finish line.

　　He was about to leave the venue when he suddenly heard someone calling his name.

　　"Orion!"

　　Turning around, Orion froze slightly in surprise at the sight of the person who had called out to him.

　　"Wynston?"

　　Giving a warm hug to his old friend and patting Orion's shoulder, Wynston laughed, "What a coincidence, I didn't realise that you were actually here, it's too small a world."

　　"It's quite a coincidence ...... This one is?"

　　Orion looked towards the old man next to Wynston, always felt that the face was somewhat familiar, but couldn't say where he had seen it before.

　　Wynston smiled and introduced, "Let me introduce, this is my mentor-"

　　"Edward Witten." Without waiting for Wynston to introduce, the old man smiled and took the initiative to extend his right hand.

　　Edward Witten!

　　Hearing this name, Orion was instantly shocked.

　　He had only heard Wynston say that his mentor was in mathematical physics, but he had never thought that his boss would be this big wig!

　　How awesome was this boss?

　　In the 80's, knot theory was hot, and many new knot invariants were discovered, one of the more famous ones being the Jones-polynomial.

　　While mathematicians were still busy figuring out this new concept and preparing to exploit this new continent, Witten jumped in at once and told everyone: there are as many different 3-manifold, multiplied by as many different gauge groups as there are different knot invariants similar to the Jones polynomials that can be constructed ......

　　The problem seemed to get simpler all of a sudden, yet that wasn't the most exasperating thing.

　　The most exasperating thing is that he followed it up by giving a set of topological methods for shear manifolds, which directly wiped out the entire treasure of the New World in one fell swoop, leaving others who had just set foot on the New World in tears.