Orion Crest, Series_1

Chapter 93: It's not easy to ask you out

　　In fact, Helfgott was not the first to challenge this weak conjecture. Long ago, a Soviet mathematician, Vinogradov, proved that when an "odd number is large enough, it can be written as the sum of three prime numbers".

　　This is also known as the "Goldbach-Vinogradov theorem", or the "three prime number theorem".

　　Helfgott's work completed the last leg of this century-long relay race, reducing the number to "10^30".

　　Orion was impressed by the fact that he had invoked the three-prime theorem in his proof of the twin prime conjecture.

　　Back to the hotel, he began to carefully organise his notes.

　　Many of Mr. Helfgott's ideas were interesting, whether it was about the choice of generating functions for power series, or the solution of asymptotic problems, there would be many innovative aspects.

　　It seems that in the past two years, this professor was not satisfied with his success on the weak conjecture of Goldbach's Conjecture, but rather, he has further refined his theory.

　　Compared to the paper in 2013, what he reported in this presentation had a much more concise and rigorous content.

　　After organising all the notes on his computer, Orion turned over the original notes in his hand and lay on his bed, lost in thought.

　　Should he continue to study the sieve theory?

　　Or should he switch to the circle method?

　　It was a question worth thinking about.

　　The former hadn't made much of a move after a few decades, while the latter seemed to produce results all the time.

　　"...... Is the question just how to find a lower bound in the large set of even numbers that fits the conditions and is small enough?" While flipping through the pages, Orion muttered, "In that case, the idea of proving this problem is somewhat similar to the twin prime conjecture."

　　Just then, there was a knock at the door.

　　Orion threw his notes aside, sat up from the bed, and opened the door.

　　Appearing in the doorway was Wynston, who greeted him as soon as they met.

　　"Hey."

　　Orion asked suspiciously, "What's up?"

　　"It's almost Christmas, don't tell me you're going to stay here and work on maths problems, there's a basketball game on the 23rd, I got two tickets from a friend, want to watch it together?"

　　The 23rd, presumably the day after tomorrow.

　　If Orion remembered correctly, there happened to be a one-hour presentation that day.

　　Generally speaking, those who had the opportunity to give one-hour presentations were either the biggest names in the field, or the most recent major discoveries.

　　Either way, Orion didn't want to miss it.

　　Orion shook his head and politely declined, "Thanks, but I'm not really interested in the game, and I don't want to miss a presentation that day, so why don't you find someone else to go with you?"

　　Wynston sighed and had a defeated look on his face, "Come on, you're coming to Princeton soon, you've got to try and learn to fit in. It's not like home ...... At the very least, you've got to love a sport."

　　Orion thought about it and said in a relaxed tone, "I don't think that there's any need to force myself to adapt to a lifestyle that doesn't suit me in the first place. I prefer to go at my own pace and let life adapt to me than to try to adapt to life."