Chapter 45
As the unofficial verification process seemed to be wrapping up, I began thinking about the next step.
That was, of course, to submit it to a journal officially!
“For that, I need to polish the paper more!”
“Isn't the paper already perfect by Ah-yeon standards?”
As I clenched my fists and burned with enthusiasm, Mom said,
“Of course, it's already a perfect paper by my standards, but...”
After the lecture ended, I learned something while answering the flood of question emails.
The parts I had taken for granted were not something readers would find obvious.
The logic itself wasn't wrong, but the explanations were unfriendly.
“Sniff, I wrote 125 pages trying to be nice and all...”
But what could I do?
No matter how smart someone is, a person trapped in their own little world can't be considered a great scholar.
A scholar must explain things well enough for others to understand.
At this rate, even if I submitted it to a journal, the reviewers would obviously get stuck on the same part.
“I need to rework it into a paper for readers. So, Mom, help me type!”
“Okay. If our Ah-yeon wants it, then as your mother I should help as much as I can.”
Mom said as she took off her apron.
✒️✒️✒️
This time, there was no need to type things out as quickly as I had when answering the emails.
I worked only during set hours each day and rested the rest of the time.
Mom also helped with typing around Arin's nap time.
That let Mom handle housework and revising the paper at the same time.
First, I grouped together the questions that came up most often in the emails.
Then I added more detailed explanations to those parts.
Why I chose this direction.
Why the other directions wouldn't work.
Why these conditions were sufficient.
The logic itself didn't change.
It was just a matter of fleshing it out.
“If I keep piling on the meat here, it'll get fat... but people do like chunky papers, so I can't help it...”
Each time I polished the paper, I uploaded a revised version to arXiv.
[On the Proof of the Riemann Hypothesis v2]
A week later.
Another question came in.
I revised the paper again.
[On the Proof of the Riemann Hypothesis v3]
I revised it again.
[On the Proof of the Riemann Hypothesis Final]
I revised it again.
[On the Proof of the Riemann Hypothesis Final Final]
…
[On the Proof of the Riemann Hypothesis The Real-Real Final Version]
[On the Proof of the Riemann Hypothesis Real-Real-Real-Real-Real Last One; If I Revise This Any More, Yoo Ah-yeon Is an Idiot]
[On the Proof of the Riemann Hypothesis The Real Last One, Sorry, I'm an Idiot]
[On the Proof of the Riemann Hypothesis King-God-Emperor-Absolute Last]
[On the Proof of the Riemann Hypothesis The End of the End, the Finale of the Finale]
Arin, looking at the filenames I had edited, said,
“Heehee, big sis, you're a dum-dum, a dum-dum.”
“Grrr... I'm so frustrated...”
I was so frustrated at having made myself look like an idiot that I almost teared up and bawled.
Mom also looked over the filenames and said quietly,
“... Ah-yeon, you're not going to submit this file name to the journal, are you?”
“Of course I'll change the name before submitting. What I upload to arXiv is just the version name.”
“Well, that's a relief.”
Tap-tap-tap-.
The work continued.
I kept compiling the questions from the emails, revising again, and beefing up the explanations. The paper became a little friendlier each time.
✒️✒️✒️
“Eeehyaaah! I can't do this anymore! That's really it! It's over! I'm not doing any more!”
No matter how stubborn I am.
Revising the same paper 34 times was enough to make me sick of it.
I declared defeat and stood up, stretching myself out.
Mom was already completely wiped out, collapsed face-first in front of the laptop.
“Finally... it's over...”
“Heehee, you worked so hard, Mom! I'll praise you lots!”
Pat-pat-.
I gently stroked Mom's exhausted head.
I decided to submit the finished paper directly to a top-tier journal.
There was no reason to drag this step out any longer.
The public lecture was over, and the unofficial verification was finished.
Going straight into the formal review process was the natural next step.
The target, of course, was a top-tier journal!
I was planning to submit it to the overseas math journal we subscribe to.
“If my paper gets published in the journal we subscribe to, I'll be so happy...”
Then if I walked by, they'd go, 'Whoa, look over there—it's Ms. Yoo Ah-yeon, the one who got a paper into a top journal,' whisper whisper, so cool, so cute, so amazing!—and stare at me, right?
Just imagining it made the corners of my mouth curl into a grin.
“Anyway, for that reason! I'll submit it to the journal right now!”
I submitted the final version of the paper, which had been revised 34 times.
✒️✒️✒️
The Math Major Gallery.
This was originally a place that already took a great interest in Yoo Ah-yeon's paper.
Then, once word spread that Yoo Ah-yeon had been active on this gallery under the fixed nickname [IQIsATotalGenius],
Yoo Ah-yeon was treated almost like a pseudo-idol here.
The gallery regulars kept a close eye on Yoo Ah-yeon's every move, and the head mod tolerated it.
[Title : What's the title of Ah-yeon's revised paper, lol]
[On the Proof of the Riemann Hypothesis Really, Really Final Version]
[On the Proof of the Riemann Hypothesis Real-Real-Real-Real-Real Last One; If I Revise This Any More, Yoo Ah-yeon Is an Idiot]
[On the Proof of the Riemann Hypothesis The Real Last One, Sorry, I'm an Idiot]
So ridiculously childish, lol.
- The gap between the paper and the title is insane, lol
- She's the GOAT of the Korean math scene, but her naming sense is straight-up elementary-school level.
- 'I'm an idiot' <- way too cute...
- Now she finally looks about five, lol.
- I thought she was a reptilian, but every time she shows those little kid moments, I feel reassured that she really is five.
[Title : Has Ah-yeon submitted to a journal now?]
Looking at how the arXiv revision frequency has dropped,
it seems like journal review has started.
I wonder which journal she'll submit to.
- Finally, the math world's doomsday showdown begins.
- The pressure on the reviewers must be insane, especially since the author had become a worldwide celebrity.
- ㄴ The moment they press reject, it's basically a death sentence.
- But I really hope it passes.
✒️✒️✒️
As soon as the journal's editor-in-chief got the notification that the paper had been received, he opened the file.
A paper on the scale of the Riemann Hypothesis couldn't be handled as a mere routine submission.
He personally skimmed through it.
The cover page, abstract, table of contents, and body of the paper.
After about 20 minutes of reading, the editor-in-chief closed the file.
He'd already read this paper back when Yoo Ah-yeon's lecture was all over the news.
The only thing that had changed since then was that each proof section was explained a little more kindly.
The scope was too broad for a small review team.
They'd need to assemble a larger, more specialized review panel than for an ordinary paper.
Analytic number theory, operator theory, spectral geometry, functional analysis, and so on...
Each field needed its own dedicated expert.
The editor-in-chief began selecting the reviewers.
Picking the right reviewers wasn't easy.
Someone who could verify the definition of operators on Hilbert spaces.
Someone who could check the explicit formula and zero-estimation parts.
Someone who could review the proof of the operator's self-adjointness.
Someone who could dig into the trace formula and eigenvalue matching.
A list of the top experts in each field was drawn up.
The editor-in-chief drew up the list and contacted the scholars.
And everyone accepted right away.
After all, this was none other than the Riemann Hypothesis, one of humanity's greatest unsolved problems.
There was no reason to refuse.
The review process was completely confidential.
Outsiders couldn't know who was handling the review.
But people in academia had a rough idea.
A professor at Princeton suddenly canceled a conference presentation.
A professor at Stanford postponed a joint research meeting by two months.
A professor at Cambridge went quiet for a while.
Even without saying it, it was easy to guess.
They were probably tearing into Yoo Ah-yeon's paper right about now.
✒️✒️✒️
The first two months were quiet.
The review panel examined their assigned parts, and academia waited for the results.
By the time three months had passed, the atmosphere began to change.
A quiet consensus started to form among the researchers doing unofficial verification.
At first, the wording was cautious.
— We looked carefully, but so far we haven't found any gaps in the logic.
— We'll need to look more closely, but for now there doesn't seem to be a problem.
But.
Those expressions began to change little by little as the fourth month began.
— This paper seems to be correct.
— That's what they said.
✒️✒️✒️
Month 5.
Changes began appearing in university seminars all over the world.
The seminars held by the researchers verifying Yoo Ah-yeon's paper changed direction.
From verification to explanation.
They had moved on from checking whether the paper was correct to explaining its contents to others.
That movement meant one thing.
They were no longer assuming there was any possibility this paper was wrong.
✒️✒️✒️
Month 6.
The journal's editor-in-chief posted a short statement to the academic community.
The content was simple.
— We recruited a review panel and examined it for months, but we couldn't find any errors in the paper. There are no gaps in the logic.
And the last line said this:
— The Riemann Hypothesis has indeed been proven.
✒️✒️✒️
Similar statements continued after that.
Mathematicians all over the world publicly stated their positions.
Through personal blogs, academic communities, or magazine interviews.
Their wording varied, but what they meant was this.
— I won't doubt it anymore.
This was how consensus formed in academia.
There was no vote, and no formal announcement.
What the world's top experts do not doubt.
Unlike in engineering.
In theoretical fields, that was effectively a verdict.
✒️✒️✒️
When Yoo Ah-yeon first gave the lecture, it was clearly just a 'claim'.
But.
Once academia reached consensus, the 'claim' became a 'fact'.
The media, sensing that mood, quickly began splashing it across the headlines.
[Math World Effectively Recognizes Yoo Ah-yeon's Proof of the Riemann Hypothesis]
[160-Year-Old Challenge Finally Solved]
[6-Year-Old Mathematician Yoo Ah-yeon Writes Math History]
Regardless of nationality, news outlets around the world poured out articles saying Yoo Ah-yeon had really solved the Riemann Hypothesis.
And.
Yoo Ah-yeon became the mathematician who proved the Riemann Hypothesis.