Chapter 175 Won the Crafford Prize in Mathematics and Astronomy at the Same Time

Speaking of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, perhaps many people are not very clear about what kind of organization it is.

But when it comes to another award related to it, more than 99.99% of people know it.

Nobel Prize!

The famous Nobel Prize is awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

Moreover, the announcement of the Nobel Prize begins in October.

Of course, Xu Chuan never thought that he would win the Nobel Prize now, although he has made some achievements in mathematics and physics this year, and it can even be said that he has pioneered a master-level calculation method in the astrophysics community and received the recommendation of Nobel Prize bigwig Professor Sal Perlmutter.

He also didn't think that he would win the Nobel Prize now.

However, he thought about another award awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the "Crawford Prize", which is as famous as the Nobel Prize.

The Crafoord Prize is a world science award established by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1980. The fund comes from the donation of Holger Crafoord and his wife Anna-Greta.

The award-winning disciplines include mathematics, earth sciences, astronomy, biological sciences and arthritis. It is awarded once a year to reward outstanding achievements in one of the disciplines.

Its award scope is the scientific fields not covered by the Nobel Prize.

Although the Nobel Prize is the most influential award in the world today, especially in the field of natural sciences (physics and chemistry), it is recognized as the highest honor for researchers.

However, the natural science fields covered by the Nobel Prize are extremely limited, only physics, chemistry, physiology and medicine.

Mathematics, which is very important for natural sciences, is not included in this list (this rumor is more common, I will write about it later, and I will write about it later, which is not a word count for writers). Of course, earth sciences, astronomy and other disciplines that have made a series of major breakthroughs in the 20th century are also not included.

In order to make up for this defect, in 1980, another Swedish tycoon Crafoord decided to establish a Crafoord Prize, which awards these scientific fields not covered by the Nobel Prize.

Unlike the almost fixed award month and date of the Nobel Prize every year, the award time of the Crafoord Prize occasionally changes.

Generally, the award ceremony is held on "Crawford Day" in September or in May. Only one field is awarded each time, and the prize money reaches 500,000 US dollars, plus an award certificate.

The number of winners is also similar to the Nobel Prize, with no more than three people awarded each time.

In addition, apart from these two months, the Crafoord Prize may sometimes be postponed to other dates.

For example, this year's Crafoord Prize was delayed from May to November before being announced.

This is related to the work efficiency of the discipline committee of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, and whether there are scientific research results of sufficient value in previous years.

In some ways, the Crafoord Prize is even more difficult to get than the Nobel Prize, because the selection of the Crafoord Prize in previous years is almost one person per subject per year. And the Nobel Prize has two or three people per subject every year.

Especially the two subjects of mathematics and astronomy, before 2012, these two subjects were classified together.

In other words, after four years of reincarnation, mathematics and astronomy have to compete for a Crafoord Prize, and the difficulty is even higher.

In addition to these natural sciences, the Crafoord Prize has another special award.

That is research in the field of arthritis.

If there is a significant enough breakthrough in this field, you can also get the Crafoord Prize, which is something in the medical field. In fact, it overlaps slightly with the Nobel Prize, but no one will mind.

This is because in his later years, Mr. Crafford, the great scientist who established this award, had been suffering from severe rheumatoid arthritis.

However, it is worth mentioning that the Polyarthritis Award is solely responsible for a special committee, and the award and prize money will only be awarded when it is proven that the progress in this field is worthy of being awarded.

It aims to vigorously promote the medical development in the field of polyarthritis and reduce the number of patients.

Since its establishment in 1980, the Crafford Polyarthritis Award has only been awarded four times, which shows that the selection of the Crafford Award is strict and has not been abused.

This is a world-class award. Although it has not been established for a long time, its popularity is gradually increasing and it is respected by the world scientific community.

Compared with the Nobel Prize awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Xu Chuan hopes to get the Crafford Award, because even in his previous life, he has never won this award.

That's right, in his previous life, he won the Fields Medal and other top mathematics awards for solving the seven millennium problems, but he has never won the Crafford Award.

The strict selection of this award is extremely famous.

If a candidate has ever worked on nuclear energy research, weapons research, war research, etc., no matter how outstanding his achievements are, he will be directly excluded from the Crafoord Prize.

The Nobel Prize does not have this restriction. Many nuclear energy researchers have won the Nobel Prize, but no nuclear energy researcher has ever won the Crafoord Prize.

After receiving the call from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Xu Chuan's eyes brightened a little. After confirming the other party's intention, he quietly waited for the other party's announcement.

"Dear Mr. Xu Chuan, you have won this year's Crafoord Prize in Mathematics and Crafoord Prize in Astronomy for your great contribution to the Weyl-Berry conjecture, the actuarial calculation method of celestial body parameters using the Xu-Weyl-Berry theorem, and the observation of celestial body information in the hydrogen envelope of Betelgeuse."

"The award ceremony will be held at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm, Sweden on December 25, 2016. Welcome to your arrival."

The voice of Professor Anri Rodling, organized by the Discipline Committee of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, was transmitted to Xu Chuan's ears from thousands of miles away through the mobile phone, making his heart skip a beat.

Even after experiencing the grand scenes of the Nobel Prize, Xu Chuan couldn't help swallowing his saliva, so much so that he thought he had heard it wrong.

The Crafoord Prize in Mathematics and the Crafoord Prize in Astronomy were awarded to him at the same time?

This thing that no one would believe, actually happened to him?

In history, there has never been such a thing that the mathematics award and astronomy award in the Crafoord Prize were awarded to one person at the same time in the same year.

This is too incredible and crazy. No wonder the Scientific Committee of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has postponed the awarding time of the Crafoord Prize from May to December.

This is no less significant than winning two Nobel Prizes in the same year.

When the news is officially delivered in two days, the heat will explode.

After confirming that the award information is correct, Xu Chuan put down his mobile phone and stared out the window.

The Scientific Committee of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences made a really bold decision, which made him a little unconfident.

This kind of breaking of history and unspoken rules is not something that everyone is willing to do.

What's more, he is only 18 years old this year and will not be 19 until December.

It is already a lot of pressure to award a world-class award to such a young scholar, and on this basis, the mathematics award and astronomy award are awarded to him at the same time. It can be said that the pressure will be directly maxed out.

Even Xu Chuan, who won this award, couldn't help but sigh at the boldness of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

I'm afraid no one will be able to break his historical record in the future.

The awarding of the Crafoord Prize in Mathematics and the Crafoord Prize in Astronomy to Xu Chuan at the same time was the result of a debate organized by the Scientific Committee of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for more than half a year.

Although this is very bold and breaks the previous rules, it is reasonable.

It has been four years since the Crafoord Prize in Mathematics was awarded to Terence Tao in 2012. Although the Fields Medal was awarded in 2014, to be honest, in these four years, there has been no outstanding achievement that can definitely win the Crafoord Prize in Mathematics.

The achievements of the 2014 Fields Medal winners did not completely solve a certain problem. Compared with the problems solved by those winners, their previous contributions to mathematics are the key.

Compared with the Fields Medal, the Crafoord Prize pays more attention to complete results.

On this basis, Xu Chuan, who completely solved the Weyl-Berry conjecture, undoubtedly fell into the eyes of the Scientific Committee of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

There is no doubt that this is a "big" mathematical conjecture.

Although it is not well-known, it is far less famous than the weak Goldbach conjecture, the twin prime conjecture, and Hilbert's 23 questions, which are ranked similarly.

But in terms of difficulty, the difficulty of the Weyl-Berry conjecture can be ranked in the top three among these problems.

Professor E.B. Davies, a member of the Royal Society of the United Kingdom, and others once called this problem an "extremely difficult" problem, which shows that its difficulty is well-deserved.

Compared with those previous contributions to mathematics, the complete Weyl-Berry conjecture is undoubtedly more valued by the Scientific Committee of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

But it must be said that Xu Chuan is so young that the Scientific Committee of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has been arguing since the Princeton exchange meeting in February until May and June.

When the Crafford Mathematics Award in May and June was decided, Xu Chuan's research in the astronomical community came out.

He observed and calculated that there was another companion star in the body of the red supergiant Betelgeuse.

This was undoubtedly the most explosive news for the astronomical community at the time.

Although this is not impossible according to the judgment of the astronomical community in the past, no one has ever observed such a star.

Because massive stars will expand in their later years, even if there are companion stars around them, they will be swallowed up and fall into the core of the parent star.

The probability of the existence of such a companion star that is swallowed by a late-life star but still maintains its own orbit is theoretically too small.

And more importantly, after the companion star is wrapped by a late-life massive star, it is difficult to observe it through ordinary astronomical observation methods.

If Xu Chuan had not completed the calculation using the Xu-Weyl-Berry theorem to calculate the parameters of celestial bodies, I am afraid it would take humans a long time to discover this companion star.

Perhaps it will not be discovered until the Betelgeuse supernova explosion.

This is normal.

Because the volume and diameter of Betelgeuse in its later years are still expanding, and as the outer hydrogen envelope expands, the hidden position of the companion star will become deeper and deeper.

Some abnormal data and astronomical phenomena that can be observed now may not be observed in the future.

And this discovery instantly stunned the professors of the scientific committee responsible for judging the astronomy prize of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

How did the war suddenly spread from mathematics to them?

This year's astronomy prize has actually been decided long ago.

Professor Roy Kerr from the University of Canterbury in New Zealand and Professor Roger Blandford from Stanford University in the United States shared the astronomy prize for their research on "rotating black holes (black holes with angular momentum) and their effects".

This was originally this year's Crafford Astronomy Prize.

But now, the rotating black holes (black holes with angular momentum) and their effects are far less important than the discovery of "a companion star in the hydrogen envelope of Betelgeuse".

Of course, if that's all, it is highly likely that it will not affect the results that have already been selected.

At most, it will allow the scientific committee responsible for judging the astronomy prize of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences to confirm the Crafford Astronomy Prize four years later in advance.

But the next method was used when a companion star was discovered in the hydrogen envelope of Betelgeuse.

The Xu-Weyl-Berry theorem method for calculating celestial body parameters astonished the entire astronomical and astrophysical communities as soon as it was born.

No one had ever thought that a general mathematical method could be used to calculate the information of stars hundreds, thousands, or even trillions of light years away.

Not only calculations, but also more accurate than those ancient methods.

This is the most important thing.

Quoting Professor Sal Perlmutter, a reviewer of the journal Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics: "This is the moment when the old king abdicates and the new king ascends the throne."

A new and more accurate method for calculating distant celestial bodies is undoubtedly extremely important to the astronomical community.

This is like the importance of calculus to mathematics.

In this case, if the Crafoord Prize in Astronomy is delayed for another four years to be awarded to Xu Chuan, it may cause dissatisfaction in the entire astronomical community.

Therefore, the professors of the Astronomical Science Committee, who had already completed their work tasks, became busy again, discussing whether to modify the Crafoord Prize in Astronomy.

Anyway, because of the lag in mathematics, this year's Crafoord Prize has not been announced yet. It is not a big deal to modify the winner.

Moreover, these two research results, whether it is the discovery of the companion star in the hydrogen envelope of Betelgeuse or the method of calculating celestial parameters by the Xu-Weyl-Berry theorem, are more important than the previous "rotating black holes (black holes with angular momentum) and their effects".

However, there is another problem.

That is, the mathematics jury has determined that this year's Crafoord Prize in Mathematics will be awarded to Xu Chuan.

If they give the Crafoord Prize in Astronomy to Xu Chuan this year, this year's Crafoord Prize in Mathematics and Astronomy will both be his.

This is really terrifying.

But if it is not given, the dissatisfaction of the astronomical community may greatly impact the credibility of the Crafoord Prize.

Therefore, the Crafoord Prize, which should have been announced in September, was delayed again and again, and was not announced until early November.