A Trip to KAIST
Park Moo-yeol. Professor of mathematics at KAIST. Early fifties. Specializes in analytic number theory.
In other words, he was a colleague professor researching a field similar to mine.
Our areas overlapped, so we'd casually ask about each other's work without reservation, and despite the big age gap, he was such a good guy that we got along almost like brothers.
And he was the one who'd uploaded my research notes to GitHub.
Professor Park had put real effort into deciphering the scribbles in my notes. That meant he truly believed the research I'd done before dying held value. Anyone skeptical or dismissive wouldn't have even picked up those notes to begin with.
"Professor Park Moo-yeol... I know him too. I've seen him a few times at conferences, and I attended seminars with Professor Shin Ijun."
"Right now, he's the most trustworthy person we can turn to."
If we ran into a crooked professor, there was a real risk they'd steal the credit in the worst case. We had no power, after all.
But I knew Professor Park's character, so I decided to trust him and reach out.
"But will Professor Park even agree to meet us? He won't just see us if we show up out of the blue, right?"
"Yeah, I think so too. We need to cast some bait first."
Casting the bait was Mom's job.
Mom found Professor Park Moo-yeol's email address and sent a short message.
Han Seol-ae
"Will this be enough?"
"Yep. Perfect!" I gave her a thumbs up.
Two days later, a reply came to Mom's email.
Park Moo-yeol
"Nice!" "Oh yeah!"
Clap! Mom and I high-fived in excitement the moment we saw the reply.
A-rin must have thought it looked fun, because she whined to join in.
"Me too, clap clap!" "Okay, A-rin, you too!"
Clap!
A-rin high-fived with me and Mom too.
On the appointed day, our family bustled around early in the morning to get ready.
Dad checked the car seats, Mom packed snacks and extra clothes for the car.
I stuffed the 125 printed pages of the paper tightly into my cute pink kids' backpack.
"A-yeon, does it all fit?" "Yep... yawn."
The bag bulged a bit, but I zipped it shut with all my might.
I hugged the bag to my chest and climbed into the toddler car seat.
I was starting to want to stop using the car seat soon, but Dad said anyone under 140cm tall could get choked by a regular seatbelt, so car seats were mandatory.
In the end, I was doomed to sit in one for the next few years... sob sob.
"Uuung-. Sleepy-. yawn."
Mom picked up yawning, rubbing-eyed A-rin and buckled her into her toddler seat.
A-rin was still three, an age when kids sleep a lot. But honestly, I was five and still slept plenty too.
On average, I slept about 11 hours a day, A-rin around 13? It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say we spent more time in dreamland than reality.
At this rate, aren't we honorary citizens of Dreamland? Someone give me citizenship! I want dual nationality too!
Click. Mom double-checked our seatbelts and sat in the passenger seat.
"Alright, ready? Let's go!"
Dad started the engine. Vroom.
"Mmm nya..."
I, who was sleepy from waking up early, soon started dozing off with my head bobbing.
...How many tens of minutes passed?
"Waaah! Wow! Where we going? Huh? Unni? Where we going?"
A-rin woke up, eyes sparkling, kicking her feet in the car seat.
Her excited fussing woke me from my nap too.
"A-rin, sleep good? We going Daejeon."
"Unniii! What's Daejeon?"
"Um... kinda in the middle of our country. Wait a sec."
Rustle rustle. I pulled out the map from my pink kids' backpack.
Of course, no smartphone, so it was an old-school paper map book.
Flip. "Look, A-rin, this Korea. This our house, this where we going."
"Ooo! Cool! What's this?"
"Ni hi hi, first time seeing map? See these wiggly lines? That's the highway we're on now!"
"Ooo! Highway!"
We chattered away in the back seat. Mom was snoring softly, Dad drove while listening to the radio.
"A-rin, look! Tunnel!"
"What's tunnel?"
"Hole that gets all dark inside!"
Whoosh.
"Gasp...! Dark! Unni! It really dark!"
A-rin giggled.
"Ni hi hi. This unni knows everything."
"Best unni!"
Watching a kid with little world experience react with wonder to everything was pretty fun.
We rolled down the window, and cool wind blew in. My hair tickled in the breeze.
We arrived at KAIST. The campus was vast and beautiful.
Dad decided to take A-rin wandering around campus.
"A-yeon, do your best."
"Yep."
"Unniii, come back quick!"
"Got it-."
Dad waved. A-rin waved too.
I took Mom's hand and entered the building.
It was the weekend, so campus was quiet and sparse.
Pat pat. Holding Mom's hand, I toddled down the hall. My short legs meant I had to scurry to match her stride.
"A-yeon, I'm nervous. You?"
"Yep."
In my past life, I'd met him without a second thought, but now I was just a cute, smart five-year-old kid.
If a five-year-old showed up with a paper claiming to prove the Riemann Hypothesis, most people would think it was a prank, get mad, or kindly shoo them away.
But I believed. Professor Park would recognize the true value of my paper...!
Checking room numbers as we walked the hall, we soon saw the nameplate.
[Professor Park Moo-yeol's Research Lab]
Knock knock. Mom knocked.
"Yes, come in."
Opening the door, a man in his early fifties sat at a desk piled high with papers and books.
His hair was streaked with gray. Professor Park Moo-yeol.
"Welcome."
The professor stood to greet Mom warmly as she entered, but froze when he spotted me beside her.
Then he looked at Mom, then back at me.
"Han Seol-ae... this child is?"
"My daughter. Actually... it's her who has business with you, Professor Park."
"...Pardon?"
The professor's eyes widened. I bowed politely.
"Hello! Professor Park Moo-yeol! I'm Yoo A-yeon!"
"..."
The professor was speechless for a moment, then looked at Mom with a flustered expression.
Mom swallowed hard and delivered her prepared line.
"Could we sit down and talk first?"
The moment we sat on the sofa, I unzipped the pink backpack.
I pulled out the tightly packed paper and offered it politely with both hands.
The professor took it with a strange expression.
The instant he checked the cover, his eyebrows shot up.
On the Proof of the Riemann Hypothesis
Author: Yoo A-yeon, Han Seol-ae
"...What is this...?"
The professor read the cover again.
"Proof of the Riemann Hypothesis?"
"Yes!"
"With Yoo A-yeon as first author."
"Yes!"
"How old are you?"
"Five."
"Whew—."
The professor rubbed his forehead and sighed.
Then he cautiously asked Mom.
"Han Seol-ae... did the child show interest in math, so you helped her make this for fun? If it's to nurture her curiosity, that's understandable—"
"Professor, I swear we're not here to prank you. Could you please read it?"
Mom spoke softly but firmly.
The professor hesitated, then opened the paper.
At first, he skimmed quickly.
But as pages turned, his pace slowed.
Page 10. 20. 30.
His expression began to change bit by bit.
Dozens of minutes passed.
The lab was silent.
I sat on the sofa, swinging my feet, waiting. To kill time, I watched the wall clock and bobbed my head to the tick tock.
Mom sat quietly, hands on her lap.
But I noticed. Squelch. Her palms were sweaty...!
Hee hee. Mom has her cute side too.Pat pat. I gently placed my hand on the back of hers and stroked it.
Meanwhile, the professor hadn't looked up from the paper for dozens of minutes.
Then.
"Hold on."
He stopped at a specific page.
The part where I defined operator H myself.
"This section... in the Hilbert-Pólya approach, constructing the operator like this."
The professor looked at me, paper in hand.
"Where did this idea come from?"
I stopped swinging my feet and met his eyes.
"I got inspiration from Professor Shin Ijun's research notes in the study!"
"...Even if you deciphered those notes, how...?"
"I read the notes carefully, and for parts I didn't know, I looked at Mom's major textbooks or searched online to study! Following Professor Shin Ijun's approach, after trying this and that, I found operator H that satisfies the three conditions—self-adjointness, spectrum, and trace formula—and proved that the real part of the non-trivial zeros of the Riemann zeta function is 1/2!"
"..."
The professor stared at me, dumbfounded.
He slowly turned to Mom.
"Han Seol-ae... did you teach the child what she's saying now?"
Mom shook her head.
"No. Honestly, I don't fully understand it myself. She's smarter than me... she's absorbed knowledge beyond a PhD just through self-study."
The professor looked at me, incredulous.
To add credibility, I went up to him and whispered in his ear.
"This is a super duper secret, but I'll tell only you, Professor. By the way, my IQ is 160. Hehet."