評論
打印
It involved a kind of mathematics that Nick Katz is an expert in.
其中包括的一類數學問題正是尼克·凱茲所擅長的。
I think another reason he asked me was that he was sure I would not tell other people,
我想他問我的另一原因是他確定我不會告訴其他人
I would keep my mouth shut, which I did.
我會守口如瓶，也正是如此。
Andrew Wiles and Nick Katz had been spending rather a lot of time
安德魯·懷爾斯和尼克·凱茲一起花了許多時間，
huddled over a coffee table at the far end of the common room working on some problem or other.
縮在公共休息室遠角的一張咖啡桌那兒，共同研究這樣那樣的問題。
We never knew what it was.
我們從不知道那是什么。
In order not to arouse any more suspicion,
為了不引起更多的懷疑
Andrew decided to check his proof by disguising it in a course of lectures which Nick Katz could then attend.
安德魯決定通過喬裝的方式來驗證他的證明，以一個課程的方式，尼克·凱茲亦可參加。
Well I explained at the beginning of the course that Flach had written this beautiful paper
在這堂課的開始我解釋道，弗拉赫寫就了這篇漂亮的論文，
and I wanted to try to extend it to prove the full class number formula.
而我力圖要拓展它，以證明整個類數公式。
The only thing I didn't explain was that proving the class number formula was most of the way to Fermat's last theorem.
我唯一沒有說明的是證明這個類數公式是通往費馬最后定理的康莊大道。
So this course was announced. It said calculations on elliptic curves, which could mean anything.
這個課程隨即出了通告。說是與橢圓曲線的計算，但其意味深長。
Didn't mention Fermat, didn't mention Taniyama-Shimura,
沒有提及費馬，沒有提及谷山-志村猜想，
there was no way in the world anyone could have guessed that it was about that if you didn't already know.
如果你不是已然知曉，這個世界上不可能再會有誰猜到其真正是關于什么的。
None of the graduate students knew and in a few weeks they just drifted off
沒有研究生知道，而數周后他們陸續退出了，
because it's impossible to follow stuff if you don't know what it's for, pretty much.
因為如果你不知道它的用意，就不可能跟得上，確實如此。
It's pretty hard even if you do know what's it for, but after a few weeks I was the only guy in the audience.
即使你知道它的用意，也是相當困難的，但過了幾周，我就成了唯一的聽眾。
