Student publishes in journal

A senior student from a second-tier university in Guangdong Province recently published a paper in an international mathematical journal.

However, his focus on this feat has caused him to miss the registration deadline for next year's entrance exam for postgraduates, possibly jeopardizing his dream of continued education.

Wang Xiaowei, 22, from the School of Mathematics and Information Science at Shaoguan University, spent six months working on a number problem which media reports say has puzzled mathematicians for 60 years, eventually finding a counterexample to negate a long-held conjecture.

His paper, "A Counterexample to the Prime Conjecture of Expressing Numbers Using Just Ones," was published in the Journal of Number Theory on October 15.

Wang's achievement has brought him overnight fame both within and outside of his university, but he remains humble.

"I don't feel much excitement about it, and it hardly influences my life," Wang told the Global Times. "The only thing that really excites me is being engaged in numbers."

No pain, no gain

Wang's years of effort have finally led to success. He has been fascinated by mathematics, particularly numbers, ever since he was in junior high.

"My math teacher in junior high school really sparked my interest in the subject," Wang told the Global Times. "Since then I have been in love with numbers."

When he was in high school, he read Unsolved Problems in Number Theory, a book by famous British mathematician Richard K. Guy, and got the idea to work out the problems presented in the book.

"I had to put the idea aside because my research skills were still at a low level," Wang said. "I have been improving myself since then."

In November 2011, Wang felt ready and engaged himself in exploring the conjecture of expressing numbers using just ones, which appears in Guy's work. He spent four months finding a counterexample to negate the conjecture and two months writing the paper.

During these six months, Wang could often be seen reading books alone, and calculating figures on his papers. No one knew what he was doing. However, Wang never felt lonely or bored.

"Solving math problems is just like playing an interesting game," he said.

After he completed his paper, Wang found that no domestic periodical wanted to publish his work. They told him his research was too narrow and that they could not find an expert to evaluate his paper. "It made me very frustrated," he said.

Wang then sent his work to the Journal of Number Theory in April, and was surprised when they agreed to publish his paper on October 15.

"Many people think that research on number theory is not useful," Wang explained. "On the contrary, number theory is applied widely and is useful in cryptology and information science, both of which are widely used by banks and the military."

Some media outlets have reported that Wang's English is not good and that he did not pass the College English Test 4 (CET 4). "That's a misunderstanding," Wang explained.

He said that his English was indeed not good in high school but in college, his English has gotten much better.

"I am not good at exams, and I was focused on numbers during that period, with less time to prepare for the English exam, which led to my failure on the CET 4," Wang said. "I communicate with foreigners in English, and my paper published by the Journal of Number Theory is even written in English."

Predicting the future

Wang currently faces a dilemma. On one hand, his work was published by a well-known academic journal in his field, and he wants to continue his career in number theory. On the other hand, he may not be able to continue his studies because he has missed the registration deadline for the postgraduate entrance examination.

And since Shaoguan University doesn't have the qualification to recommend him as a postgraduate student, the door to other universities through recommendation has been shut. Many people have suggested that he apply to foreign universities, but he says that tuition would be a problem.

Shaoguan University is doing its best to help him, but nothing has panned out yet. Despite all this adversity, the number theorist seems confident.

"I don't want to be bothered too much by that. What I pursue is knowledge, not a diploma," Wang said, adding that he hopes that his story may encourage other people.