k*****n
发帖数: 417 | 1 http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_c24597bf0101cf89.html
A summary of interview with Zhang Yitang by Lizhen Ji and Ping-Zen Ong
in Taipei, in the evening of July 13, 2013.
A detailed (Chinese) version transcribing the 2 hour interview will appear
later.
This is the first face-to-face interview with Zhang by mathematicians.
1. Right after the big typhoon, we (Ji and Ong) interviewed him at the math
dept of Tai Da.
2. About His name. Tang is his mother's last name, it also means the whole
Chinese people as in Tang people. Yi also means "Number 1". This name was
picked by his grand father, who was a school teacher and wrote beautiful
words.
3. at the age of 10, he read the popular book series "1000 why" (10个 万 为
什么 ). volume 8 deals with math. He read "Goldbach conjecture" and "Riemann
hypothesis" in this volume, but "Twin prime conjecture" was not mentioned
there.
4. He did not get normal education (middle or high school education), and at
the age of 15, he went to the countryside with his parents to Hubei. He
read a book by Xia Daoxing called "pi and e", which inspired him. He might
still have this book. He was intrigued why pi and e are irrational numbers.
He could easily understand about e, but it was more difficult about pi. Then
later he read a book by Hua "Introduction to Number theory" and understood
better. His pure interest motivated him to study mathematics on his own.
5. He took the entrance exam to university twice. He did not do so well at
the first time, but did very well the second time. He was very happy that he
did well in Chinese. When he entered college, he decided to study
mathematics. His interest has always been interested in number theory. His
reason is that in number theory, problems are simple to state, but it is
often difficult to solve. He also emphasized that he was not encouraged by
the success of Chen Jinrun, especially the report about Chen around 1978. In
1973 at the age of 18, before he learned calculus, he read the paper of
Chen Jinrun without fully understanding it.
6. When asked if he had any mathematics hero, he said that when he was young
, Gauss was his hero, but later he had none and felt that he was as good as
great mathematicians (he can do as well as them). But he admired two people
Andrew Wiles and Grigori Perelman.
7. In his work on the twin prime numbers, people all read that he had a
breakthrough on July 3, 2012. The big idea he got on July 3 last year was
that he realized that the problem could be reduced to several cases. He felt
that he could handle them, especially one case was simple to be proved. But
he was not completely right. The simplest case turned out to the most
complicated. This is the place where the Weil conjecture was used. But he
quickly learned the relevant theories and patched up the arguments. He is
very happy with this.
8. He learnt basic techniques in analytic number theory from his teacher Pan
at Bei Da. This has been crucial to his work on the twin prime problem,
From his Ph. D. adviser Mu, he also learned to do explicit computation in
algebraic geometry.
9. Zhang emphasized that it is important to learn new things, a broad vision
, a high goal, and combine various things. During the 8 year period from
getting Ph.D. degree until he worked at University of New Hampshire, he
tried to read and learnt many new things. Though he was busy with work (he
worked for his friend, who had several business), he can always find time to
do mathematics. Thought he did not have access to a math library, he made
copies of things he needed.
10. He is now working on another big problem, the Siegel zero problem and is
making substantial progress. A Siegel zero is a type of potential
counterexample to the generalized Riemann hypothesis. It was named after
Carl Ludwig Siegel because of his work in 1930s. Its existence or non-
existence will have a huge impact on many problems in number theory.
11. Teaching is important for Zhang and he still remembers vividly the
effective and inspiring teaching of two excellent teachers in college.He has
been thinking about writing a book on analytic number theory.It will not be
in the usual format "Definition, Theorem, Lemma, Proposition ..." Instead
he will explain how problems arise, why we should consider them, the
essential points ..., i.e., emphasizing the more global picture side. For
example, he does not agree with some people who plan to read his paper on
twin primes line by line to fully understand it (or all the details). | k*****n
发帖数: 417 | 2 老张现在研究Siegel zero problem ：
He is now working on another big problem, the Siegel zero problem and is
making substantial progress. A Siegel zero is a type of potential
counterexample to the generalized Riemann hypothesis. It was named after
Carl Ludwig Siegel because of his work in 1930s. Its existence or non-
existence will have a huge impact on many problems in number theory. | D******n
发帖数: 707 | 3 期待老张的书，中国有思想的教材太少了。
★ 发自iPhone App: ChineseWeb 7.8
【在 k*****n 的大作中提到】
: http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_c24597bf0101cf89.html
: A summary of interview with Zhang Yitang by Lizhen Ji and Ping-Zen Ong
: in Taipei, in the evening of July 13, 2013.
: A detailed (Chinese) version transcribing the 2 hour interview will appear
: later.
: This is the first face-to-face interview with Zhang by mathematicians.
: 1. Right after the big typhoon, we (Ji and Ong) interviewed him at the math
: dept of Tai Da.
: 2. About His name. Tang is his mother's last name, it also means the whole
: Chinese people as in Tang people. Yi also means "Number 1". This name was
| s*****V
发帖数: 21731 | | i****g
发帖数: 3896 | 5 老张从来就没评论过莫吧？
【在 s*****V 的大作中提到】
: 好像对莫也不是一棍子打死
| p*********g
发帖数: 5964 | 6 老张是虚怀若谷的人，
【在 s*****V 的大作中提到】
: 好像对莫也不是一棍子打死
| d******0
发帖数: 471 | 7 https://freeweibo.com/weibo/%E5%BC%A0%E7%9B%8A%E5%94%90
Losuver：在台湾大学偶遇张益唐大师，人很谦逊，一言一行都非常formal, 有幸合影
，我说看了网上很多关于您的报道，…他说:"我自己从不敢看那些！" | c***n
发帖数: 2232 | 8 "For example, he does not agree with some people who plan to read his paper
on twin primes line by line to fully understand it (or all the details)."
这句很搞。 | L*********s
发帖数: 3063 | 9 这句话陶看到估计会吐血半升，你们虽然技术上很强，但是对number theory没有
global picture，所以没有首先做出来
paper
【在 c***n 的大作中提到】
: "For example, he does not agree with some people who plan to read his paper
: on twin primes line by line to fully understand it (or all the details)."
: 这句很搞。
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