The contents of the posts posted on the forum are all related to the newly discovered Mersenne prime numbers.
Everyone is discussing.
All news is inseparable from keywords and content such as ‘new Mersenne primes’, ‘two Mersenne primes discovered in succession’, ‘Chinese volunteer Wang Hao’, etc.
Everyone who understands the Mersenne prime numbers and the discovery and detection mechanism finds it very incredible.
From the establishment of GIMPS to now, in more than 20 years, only 17 Mersenne primes have been found, 14 of which were discovered 10 years ago, and only 3 Mersenne primes have been found in the past ten years.
This is because the later the Mersenne numbers are, the greater the amount of detection and calculation will be. The detection requirements for tens of millions of Mersenne numbers and millions of Mersenne numbers are certainly not at the same level.
Computer hardware is developing very fast and will be updated every few years, but it is still far behind the expansion of the demand for Mersenne number detection.
Nowadays, each detection of a Mersenne number requires an ordinary computer to run for several months. It is already remarkable for GIMPS participants to use a personal computer to detect a few Mersenne numbers, let alone find a Mersenne prime number.
However, Wang Hao, a volunteer from China, found two Mersenne primes in just one week.
The members of the GIMPS forum first ruled out the factor of hacker intrusion. Many of them are mathematicians and computer experts. Just looking at the website, they knew that there was no sign of hacker intrusion. Under normal circumstances, there would be no hacker intrusion.
A distributed computing network where all information is disclosed.
That doesn't make any sense.
Website and software errors can also be eliminated because the person in charge will stand up and explain that there are no errors in the website or software.
"The message about the new Mersenne prime number displayed on the website is the information automatically reported and automatically updated by the software detection information." Blosser is responsible for website maintenance and software updates. He felt incredible when he saw the information, so he sent a post to clarify.
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Blosser's explanation also completely rules out the possibility of error. In other words, the new Mersenne prime numbers shown are very likely to be true.
Many people find it unacceptable.
How can people's luck be so good?
Someone posted and pointed out, "This Wang Hao from China is a mathematician and has a certain reputation. I checked and found that the proof of Artin's constant he completed at an international conference was very influential. Could it be
He cracked the mystery of Mersenne primes and knows which ones are Mersenne primes?"
Several mathematicians immediately stood up and refuted, "This is impossible, Mersenne prime numbers have no rules."
"I would rather believe that he is lucky than that he can crack the law of Mersenne prime numbers."
"It is possible to find Mersenne prime numbers continuously, but it is absolutely impossible to find the rules of Mersenne prime numbers. I have been engaged in mathematics research for more than 20 years and have a very good understanding of Mersenne prime numbers. This type of number in Mersenne numbers is like
Ordinary prime numbers are the same among numbers, there is no fixed pattern of occurrence."
Many people on the forum started discussing this.
Curtis Cooper, who is also a mathematician, also expressed his opinion on this, "I also think it is impossible. This is luck, but there is also the factor of his understanding of Mersenne numbers."
The latter is crucial.
Some of the people who find Mersenne primes include dentists, couriers, or others, but most of them are mathematicians and computer experts.
Curtis Cooper also discovered the Mersenne prime numbers. He relied on his understanding of mathematics to screen out a part of the numbers and custom-made analysis and detection.
The discovery of other Mersenne prime numbers is mostly done through custom detection. Only laymen who don't understand it at all, or who just use programs to do system stress tests, will do the detection according to the numbers assigned by the system.
Curtis-Cooper's statement won the support of many mathematicians and computer experts, but at the same time they still believed that Wang Hao's luck was so good that it exploded.
Even if there is an in-depth study of Mersenne numbers, it is important to know that Mersenne primes are very rare among Mersenne numbers.
For example, there are more than 664,500 prime numbers below 10 million. Among the Mersenne numbers corresponding to them as 'exponents', only thirty-eight are Mersenne prime numbers, and the probability is not even one in ten thousand.
arrive.
If more than 50 million prime numbers are screened for detection, the probability of corresponding Mersenne prime numbers will be even lower. There will be only two or three numbers out of hundreds of thousands, or even none at all.
It is no exaggeration to say that this probability is like finding a needle in a haystack.
On the other side, it’s night at Xihai University.
A cry suddenly came from the top of the computer laboratory building, "Ah~~~"
Several people in the building hurried to the central laboratory to check, and saw Zhang Zhiqiang in an excited state, "You are here, come and see! The new Mersenne prime number has been found!"
"I was already asleep just now, and I happened to dream that I found Mersenne primes, so I came over to take a look. I didn't expect that I actually found them!"
"This is the second one!"
Zhang Zhiqiang said excitedly with red eyes. Everyone else could understand his emotions. It was too difficult to find a Mersenne prime, but he found two within a week.
Although it is not Zhang Zhiqiang's achievement, he can be regarded as the second person to contribute.
Others also talked excitedly, "It's the second Mersenne prime. This is really amazing."
"I guess public opinion will explode tomorrow!"
"Our computer laboratory will definitely steal the show this time. It will be famous not only domestically but also internationally!"
"Look, the GIMPS forum has gone crazy, everyone is talking about this topic."
They discussed staying in the computer lab and squatting there, waiting for the next day, as if they were afraid that the numbers would run away.
In the morning, some media had noticed the news and started reporting it.
Most reports are somewhat uncertain, "Professor Wang Hao of Xihai University is suspected of having found two Mersenne primes."
"Shocking news came out of GIMPS. Within a week, two Mersenne primes were suspected to be detected, and they were found to be Professor Wang Hao of Xihai University."
"Is this a mistake, or is it real information? GIMPS announces the detection of the second Mersenne prime number..."
This incident even became a hot search topic on the Internet, and the public opinion was even more heated than last time.
The discovery of a Mersenne prime number was a progress in the search for Mersenne prime numbers. In just one week, a new Mersenne prime number was discovered. The person who discovered it was still Wang Hao, and things became very unusual.
It also happened in history that the same person found two Mersenne primes.
For example, the 43rd and 44th Mersenne prime numbers were both discovered by the same team using GIMPS, but the time interval was as long as nine months.
The rapid discovery of two Mersenne primes in just one week is already beyond the 'normal range'.
Someone asked whether a covering operation was performed.
A professional computer expert immediately stood up and pointed out, "Even if a high-performance supercomputer is used, it will take more than 100,000 hours to cover the Mersenne numbers corresponding to the index between 60 million and 70 million.
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"Obviously, that's impossible."
So public opinion paid attention to Xihai University and Wang Hao, who discovered two Mersenne primes.
At eight o'clock in the morning, Wang Hao arrived at the computer laboratory on time.
He knew in advance that the second Mersenne prime number had been discovered, but he was not surprised. He just walked around and talked with a few familiar people. After writing down the specific numbers, he hurried to the workshop for verification.
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Wang Hao has already created two functions.
One is a verification function, which can be substituted into prime numbers to calculate the coordinates, and the other is a determination function, which can determine whether the coordinates are within the area or on the edge line. The former means that 'it is more likely to be a Mersenne prime number', and the latter means 'it must be a Mersenne prime number'
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After substituting the newly discovered Mersenne primes, unfortunately, the coordinates of the corresponding function appear within the coverage area of the decision function, but do not appear on the edge of the coverage area of the decision function.
"It seems that we still need to use computer means for verification. The next work can no longer be solved by mathematical research."
Wang Hao thought about it and started to write a program. He wanted to make a 'function verification' program, which is to substitute each index into the function, calculate the coordinates corresponding to their corresponding Mersenne numbers, and determine whether they are in the area covered by the function.
Inside.
Because both functions are relatively complex, it is not easy to program them.
Fortunately, Wang Hao created the function himself and was very familiar with the solution method after substituting numerical values. It took him a whole morning to finally complete all the design of the program.
Then he went to the central laboratory.
At this time, the central laboratory was still very busy. Not only people from the computer laboratory, but also people from other colleges came over. Several leaders of the school came over, paying special attention to the problem of Mersenne prime numbers. They knew that Wang Hao was busy.
I was studying something without bothering me in the past.
In the corridor.
Chen Qinghua, Zhu Jianrong and Luan Haiping were standing together, discussing the release of announcement information by the school.
Chen Qinghua wanted Zhu Jianrong to mention the computer laboratory more often when drafting the manuscript. It would be best to 'obfuscate' Wang Hao's affiliation so that people who read the news would think that Wang Hao is the research institute of the computer laboratory and a professor of the School of Computer Science.
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Next to him, Luan Haiping listened with a dark face, and his vicious eyes seemed to reveal that he had the urge to strangle Chen Qinghua to death. He kept objecting, "Wang Hao is a professor of the School of Science. Even if we don't talk about the school, we can't talk about it."
He's from the School of Computer Science? Doesn't this mean he's lying?"
"What lies?"
Chen Qinghua immediately asked Sanlian, "Has Wang Hao been in the computer laboratory all the time? Were the two Mersenne prime numbers discovered in the computer laboratory? So the announcement of the results said, Professor Wang Hao from the computer laboratory, what problem can there be?"
?”
"Uh~~~"
Wang Hao came over and stood beside him.
Chen Qinghua noticed that Wang Hao was suddenly a little embarrassed, and immediately said, "Wang Hao is also here. Let me tell you bluntly that we are not poaching him to the computer laboratory. Instead, for this result, we will complete it in our computer laboratory."
Yeah, there’s no point in talking about the School of Science in the announcement, right?”
"Why is it meaningless? It is very meaningful. The School of Science also needs..." Luan Haiping immediately refuted.
Wang Hao was not interested in the School of Computer Science or the School of Science. Anyway, it was just an announcement from the school. He simply pretended not to see it at all and walked past lightly.
He came to see Zhang Zhiqiang.
Zhang Zhiqiang still had red eyes, and he had not rested since three o'clock in the morning.
Wang Hao advised, "Go back and get some sleep. It's worth being happy to find Mersenne primes, but don't be like this..."
"Don't worry, I can still hold on!"
Zhang Zhiqiang said nonchalantly that he indeed felt very tired and wanted to go to the office to relax for a while.
There is something else to do now.
"Stop the detection program and calculate this first..."
Wang Hao copied the written code to the computer and simply explained, "This is a screening program for Mersenne numbers. It can be said to be an optimization of the previous program, and it may become more accurate."
He was a little unsure.
He would not dare to say that the research he did was correct until the results came out 100%.
Zhang Zhiqiang immediately regained his energy, stopped the detection program that had been running, and started executing the code he had just copied.
Prime numbers below 100 million are entered as data, and there are three files at the output end.
The first file records the ‘exponent P’ and the corresponding coordinates at the edge line of the decision function.
The second file records the 'index P' within the coverage range of the decision function, the corresponding coordinates and the closest distance to the edge line.
The third file contains the remaining excluded prime numbers, their corresponding coordinates, and the shortest distance to the edge line.
The function is relatively complex, and the program is also relatively complex, and the amount of calculation required is very large. Even with the existing computing power, it will take more than three hours to complete the entire execution.
Zhang Zhiqiang was pushed to rest.
Wang Hao simply waited in front of the computer, watching the program execution and waiting for the output results.
…
At two o'clock in the afternoon, Chen Qinghua and Zhu Jianrong went to the central laboratory together, found Wang Hao and handed him a handwritten announcement.
"We have discussed it over and over, but I still want you to see it. You are the party involved. How about reading this announcement?"
"If you say yes, we will send it." Chen Qinghua looked at Wang Hao seriously. The announcement said, 'Professor Wang Hao works in the computer laboratory and found two Mersenne primes in a row.'
This vague statement sounds like Wang Hao is a researcher in the computer laboratory.
Wang Hao didn't care about this. He just glanced at it, threw the handwritten announcement aside, and said, "Dean Chen, Director Zhu, don't rush to issue the announcement yet, it's just two Mersenne primes."
"...Just?" Chen Qinghua looked puzzled.
Zhu Jianrong also tugged at the corner of his mouth and found that the two Mersenne primes were just 'just'. Wasn't his tone too loud?
Wang Hao ignored their reactions and opened a file on his computer. Eleven numbers were recorded on it, eight of which had standard red fonts, and the remaining three were still black.
He pointed at the three black numbers and said seriously, "These three serve as the exponents of the Mersenne number. Let's verify it."
"If nothing else happens, they should all be Mersenne prime numbers."