Research starts with PhD students

Chapter 150 This is to bring down the expert!
In the last year of the last century, the National Science and Technology Awards were restructured, and at the end of each year, a National Science and Technology Awards Conference is held in the Great Hall of the Capital.

The National Science and Technology Awards Conference presents a total of five science and technology awards, and the National Natural Science Award is one of them.

The National Natural Science First Prize is the highest award in the field of natural sciences in China, and is awarded to researchers who have made significant scientific contributions in basic research and applied research.

There are only first and second prizes in the Natural Science Award, and the first prize is of great importance. The awarding principle is "better to have nothing than to have something of poor quality", and every project to be evaluated is carefully considered.

In the past 20 award conferences, only 14 projects won the first prize, ten of which were from domestic universities, and the remaining four were from research institutes affiliated to the Academy of Sciences.

Among them, Mizuki University, University of Science and Technology and Institute of High Energy Physics have all won first prizes twice and tied for first place.

All the winning projects are large-scale research projects that require a large number of scientific researchers. The academic fields include materials science, high-energy physics, quantum physics, biology, computer science, etc.

In mathematics, there is none.

The first prize in natural sciences for mathematics can be traced back to before the reform. The famous mathematician Chen Jingrun won the first prize in natural sciences with his "1+2" ​​proof of the Goldbach conjecture.

It is indeed a remarkable thing to be awarded the first prize in mathematics nowadays.

Wu Jianning said "amazing" many times with admiration, which shows how rare and precious it is to win the award and how great the honor of the award is.

This is the highest honor in domestic scientific research.

After talking about the Natural Science Award, Wu Jianning talked about the project review issue of the CP group.

"The date of the council meeting has not been determined yet, but it will generally be three months later, which should be after the New Year."

"But don't worry, the project team will submit the report as normal."

"This conference will invite many scholars from professional fields and conduct secret ballot..."

Wu Jianning talked about some of the rules of the review committee, and finally complained, "In fact, there is no need to go through so much trouble. As long as the review committee decides to suspend the review, the project can continue."

"That's why I went to find Wang Jin, that old-fashioned guy..."

He still sounded a little angry.

Even if the project review meeting fails, the CP group will not be affected in any way as long as the review committee takes the initiative to terminate the review process.

As a result, Wang Jin refused to listen and seemed to be looking for trouble on purpose.

This is also the reason why Wu Jianning was angry.

In fact, Wang Jin disagreed with the new direction of the CP group from the bottom of his heart. He was not the only one who disagreed. Many people on the review committee and the Institute of Physics of the Academy of Sciences also disagreed.

In Wang Jin's view, the research of basic physics must follow the international path.

Now the CP group is not following the international path, but wants to take a new path, which is totally unacceptable.

His personal research field is the standard model of particles. Because he is engaged in related theoretical work, he is more aware of how complicated theoretical work is.

This is just research following the "international direction".

innovation?

A new path?
Domestic physics research has not developed to the level of leading the world, especially in the exploration of cutting-edge physics, there is a huge gap with the international level.

High energy physics is such a field.

If the work in high-energy physics is counted as 100, CERN accounts for at least 70%, and all other institutions, including the Institute of High Energy Physics and Fermilab, account for at most 30%.

This is still conventional experimental physics research. If it were theoretical physics, the gap would be even greater.

Existing theories in the world include string theory, cosmology, etc. Others include the Big Bang theory, antimatter, dark matter, black holes, etc.

Among so many studies, are there any proposed by domestic scholars?

Apparently, none.

Wang Jin believes that the development of theoretical physics in China requires gradual accumulation, just like catching up in science and technology. First, one must imitate and then slowly catch up.

The new theory is just a way to attract attention.

It has to be admitted that Zhang Shuo's mathematical level is indeed very high, but he has little influence in the field of theoretical physics.

Even if there are some mathematical achievements, what good does it matter?
Does it require a project worth hundreds of millions to verify it?
Of course this won't work.

"We must come up with more feasible solutions, such as researching new signal conversion analysis methods. This is the normal direction."

"The research on CP violation itself has a theoretical basis, and the so-called new theory... is hard to say."

"The uncertainty is too high, and there is no international peer recognition. Our project is not intended for private theoretical verification."

Wang Jin spoke to others, showing a selfless attitude.

In fact, he also had some little thoughts in his mind that he was unwilling to admit, and that was resistance to new physics. Not only was he against new physics, he was also very resistant to the so-called unknown physical phenomena.

The reason is very simple. He is a "young academician" in his 50s and has a great influence in the fields of high-energy physics and theoretical physics in China.

If the new physics becomes popular and everyone pays attention to its content, then will he, or "they", who have devoted their entire lives to shaping the standard model of particles, still have any academic influence?

Will they still be experts by then?
What Wang Jin said was true. The failure of the project review was a joint decision of the review team, and he was not the only one who was resistant to the new research direction of the CP group.

Many scholars in the relevant fields are resistant to this.

In fact, it is very simple to understand - I have studied the standard model of particles for my entire life and finally became a top expert. Now you tell me that the popular thing has become new physics?
I have been studying fermion Hubbard model quantum computing for twenty years, and you tell me that I can directly solve it numerically?
I have been solving the NS equations for my whole life, and you tell me that I can do direct numerical simulation?

This is to bring down the experts!
……

At the same time, many people noticed the Weibo message released by Zhang Shuo, and also knew that the CP group project review failed because of the "theoretical basis".

Some people downloaded the paper out of curiosity, and then a lot of discussions appeared on the Internet.

"I was so arrogant that I thought I could understand Zhang Shuo's paper just because I have a PhD in physics!"

“I actually downloaded it!”

"The Book of Heaven!"

"Even with some annotations and explanations, I still can't understand the meaning of the various symbols..."

"What on earth does it say!"

Many people do not care about the content. After all, it is an obscure theoretical problem, an expression of physical theory in mathematical language, and it is separated from the basis of experiments, making it even more difficult to understand.

They are still concerned about the project review of the CP group.

This is very opinionated.

Many professional scholars also saw it. Wu Jianning called Zhang Shuo again and briefly talked about the paper. "You want to publish your paper in Physical Review Letters?"

"The Council should be more stable now!"

Zhang Shuo and Wu Jianning chatted about the paper for a while, and suddenly asked about the work of the CP group, "If the project review fails, will it affect the equipment modification work of the CP group?"

This came to my mind suddenly.

If the equipment transformation work of the CP group is not affected and the problems encountered in the internal transformation are solved, it will be completed in more than a month, and then the first experiment can be carried out.

Three months...

Maybe we can conduct two experiments during this period?

Zhang Shuo is still very much looking forward to it.

Wu Jianning said, "That won't happen. Project review is a process. If the review fails at the conference, a formal review meeting for the project will be initiated. Only if the review fails at the formal meeting will the project be suspended."

"If the meeting in three months doesn't pass, it will be troublesome. In principle, no more funding will be allowed in the future. The project team will have to undergo a major transformation, or re-apply to the higher authorities, so disbanding is possible..."

Zhang Shuo listened patiently.

He didn't care about the problem of not passing after three months. As long as the transformation of the CP group could continue, the transformation would be completed in more than a month.

Then, the first experiment can be carried out.

If there can be a major discovery, what is the point of project review? The review committee cannot block a project that can lead to a major discovery, right?
He was somewhat looking forward to it.

On the other side, Wu Jianning was still a little worried.

One of the important reasons why the project review committee blocked the CP group's research was that its theoretical basis had not been recognized by international peers.

Now that the paper can be published in Physical Review Letters, it means that it has gained international recognition to a certain extent.

However, whether a paper is recognized cannot be judged simply from its publication. Physical Review Letters is a top journal in the field of physics, but because of the large number of articles published, not every article is influential. The public publication of a paper can only be said to have a certain degree of persuasiveness.

That’s how Wang Jin saw it. When he was with a few people in the office, he said, “Issuing a PRL doesn’t mean anything.”

"PRL has published a large number of papers, which is just a regular top journal. It only shows that his mathematical work is indeed good, nothing more."

"Given Zhang Shuo's level, it's normal for him to publish a PRL. But how can I talk about theoretical stuff?"

"Anyway, I stick to my opinion. Wu Jianning said to the public that I think Zhang Shuo's research is worthless, and I still think so."

"This kind of thing is like the eight-part essay in ancient times. It looks gorgeous, but it has no meaning..."

……

Soon, two weeks passed.

It has been calm for more than ten days, and the topics related to CP groups and theoretical papers on the Internet have lost their popularity.

No one seems to be paying attention to the relevant matters anymore.

"Physical Review Letters" released a new issue, and Zhang Shuo's paper "Electromagnetic Force and Chaotic Force Field: Unknown Physical Phenomena in Particle Collision Experiments" appeared in the journal as expected.

The media and individuals who paid attention to it were not surprised to see the paper, because they knew long before that Zhang Shuo's paper would be published.

Soochow University also prepared "promotional information" in advance and published it on the homepage of the school's official website. The title is "Research on electromagnetic force and chaotic conditions, innovative theoretical physics."

In this context, someone who was browsing the journal suddenly noticed a very surprising piece of information in the paper introduction:

Reviewer: Edward Witten, Princeton University.

Comment: "This is the most outstanding theoretical physics research since the new century. It has infinite prospects and may even bring about a new theoretical discipline!"

(End of this chapter)