Research starts with PhD students

Chapter 195 No living person is allowed on the ground!
The Science, Technology and Industry Bureau has raised the confidentiality of the "strong splitting" research to the highest level, and the verification experiments are naturally also kept absolutely confidential.

Within the experimental base, only a limited number of people in Tong Zhiguo's team knew the specific content of the research.

I don’t know about the others, they are just doing what they were told.

Other people involved in the experimental research have signed confidentiality agreements. They all work in key national scientific research departments and have experience in participating in confidential research. However, in the process of directly participating in the experimental work, some discussions and speculations are inevitable in private.

Many people believe that the research they are doing on nuclear fusion seems to be a marginal technology because the main core of the experiment is the Tokamak spiral magnetic field control device.

Some people also have different opinions.

For example, Ni Hongyu.

Ni Hongyu is the team leader of the engineering equipment group. He is responsible for the debugging and operation of all equipment in the experimental base, so he is very familiar with the equipment conditions.

This understanding made him realize several key points of the experiment - vacuum environment, high temperature and high pressure, and strong magnetic control.

Because the core of the experiment is the Tokamak spiral magnetic field device, he has always believed that strong magnetic control is very important, and he also speculated that it was some kind of experiment to confine particles.

This kind of experiment obviously does not meet the confidentiality standards, so it would be more appropriate to let the Institute of High Energy Physics do it.

Therefore, the research may be related to the unknown physical phenomena discovered by the Institute of High Energy. Perhaps some technology was discovered during the discovery process, and then a temporary base was built to carry out the research.

Ni Hongyu didn't tell anyone else, he just thought about it on his own and was always confident in his own judgment.

Now, the confidence is gone.

"If there is any discovery in the experiment, the base will be abandoned. Is it because of confidentiality? But this location is confidential enough..."

Ni Hongyu found himself unable to understand, and what he couldn't understand even more was that there was no need to constrain the particles in the experiment. How could he test the particles without constraining them? If he didn't test them, wouldn't the experiment be in vain?
Although he had many doubts, he could only keep them to himself. After all, this was a research with a high level of confidentiality.

(Tokamak magnetic field device)
Tong Zhiguo did not explain further.

He is a scholar with a very practical spirit. When he receives a task, he knows what he should do.

The main goal of the research is to verify the theory.

Only when the theory is correct will it make sense to discuss technology, otherwise everything is just empty talk.

Therefore, the first task is to verify the "strong splitting" theory. They must see the phenomenon in the experiment, and then consider things like test data and data analysis.

The phenomenon verified by 'strong splitting' is also very clear. The low level is the abnormal enhancement of internal energy.

For example, a large amount of heat may even affect the operation of the equipment.

If the intensity is higher, the equipment may explode. If the intensity is even higher, a large explosion may even occur.

This phenomenon is too clear.

The main purpose of their job is to observe phenomena. As for particle control and high-precision detection, these are research works that they will only start after the theory has been verified.

By then, it might not be his job anymore.

Tong Zhiguo does not completely ignore data. What he is mainly concerned about is particle control and high-precision detection, both of which require very advanced equipment, a large amount of funding and a lot of experiments.

Until the theory is verified, all of this is meaningless.

Therefore, the most important thing is to make the experiment reach the theoretical lower limit, and then you can directly conduct the first experiment. It doesn’t matter even if nothing can be detected and there is no phenomenon.

They will conduct a second and third experiment, increasing the intensity each time until the intensity reaches a certain limit.

By then, there will be nothing to be found and we will have to give up.

Tong Zhiguo still had some expectations for the experiment. After all, he was the one leading the team to do the verification, but when he thought about it carefully, it felt a bit extravagant.

The probability that this theory is correct is too low.

Even if the theory is correct, the numerical range of theoretical calculations will not be accurate, and the experiment may not yield any findings.

In the short term, the fact that the experiment did not yield any findings does not mean that the theory is wrong, but it at least shows that it is very difficult to carry out technological transformation in the short term.

Then the research is meaningless for the time being and can also be abandoned.

……

When Tong Zhiguo's team was preparing for the first experiment in full swing, the electronic version of the paper published in the Annals of Mathematics had already caused a huge sensation internationally.

At the theoretical conference on partial differential equations held by the Donggang Mathematical Center, participating scholars collectively studied the papers published by Zhang Shuo's team.

Many top scholars in the world have also noticed the paper published in the Annals of Mathematics.

Although the paper was only published in electronic version, it is unusual for the Annals of Mathematics to suddenly publish an electronic version of the paper.

This incident immediately attracted attention.

When scholars paid attention to it, they found that it was actually the argument for the conventional value of the NS equation.

Suddenly, there was an uproar.

Everyone in the academic circle understands the significance of the NS equation argument and knows how important it is to prove the smoothness of the NS equation. At the same time, they are also shocked.

Shocking, this word is no exaggeration.

The NS equation has many applications, but in fact, it is not well known among ordinary people.

In comparison, the Goldbach conjecture is much more famous, probably because it is easy to understand.

The current surprise of the mathematical community over the proof of the NS equation is like the surprise of ordinary people learning that the Goldbach conjecture has been proved.

There is no doubt that many people will pay attention to the news.

Who proved it?
Why is it so amazing?
Chen Jingrun's argument for the "1+2" ​​problem is the research that is closest to proving the Goldbach conjecture, but being close is just being close, and there is a world of difference between this and completing the proof.

That's the situation now.

At the International Congress of Mathematicians, Zhang Shuo proved that there is no singularity at the turbulence transition position, but he only proved one position, which is a drop in the ocean compared to the scope covered by the NS equation.

If it is an argument based on conventional values, the scope has already expanded to the extent of the 'ocean'.

Many scholars start studying the contents of a paper immediately after reading it, and many institutions do the same.

The Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton organized a temporary team the day before to conduct research and analysis on the contents of the paper.

The leader of the team was Edward Hoffman.

"Annals of Mathematics" is an academic journal supported by Princeton University, so it is not surprising that they can get the paper before publication.

The Newton Institute, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and the Clay Institute have also organized temporary teams to study the paper.

The demonstration under natural boundaries and conventional values ​​can cover all engineering fields and is infinitely close to completing the demonstration of the NS equations. The rest is a pure mathematical problem.

In other words, if there is no problem in the argumentation process, it means that the NS problem has been solved within the scope of application.

This kind of research is so important!

……

When the international mathematics community was paying attention to Zhang Shuo's paper, there were naturally a lot of reports in domestic and foreign media.

Zhang Shuo was also affected and received a large number of emails.

Many of them sent congratulations. In fact, it is a bit too early to congratulate, after all, the paper has just been published and has not yet been confirmed by the international authoritative mathematical organization.

In the face of the NS equation problem, the authority of Annals of Mathematics is not worth mentioning. Zhang Shuo patiently replied to several emails, but later found that there were too many email messages, and many scholars he didn't know also sent messages, so he simply handed the work over to Li Liushuangyue and asked Li Liushuangyue to help reply to the emails.

The PDE workshop lasted only two days.

Many issues were discussed at the meeting, but the most impressive one was the research on Zhang Shuo's thesis.

In this process, Luo Yongjun naturally became the protagonist.

In fact, the protagonists should be two people, Luo Yongjun and Li Weihua, but Li Weihua obviously does not have the shamelessness of Luo Yongjun. When talking about problems with other people, he is humble and low-key.

Luo Yongjun went on stage and gave a high-profile report. He also assured others that there were no problems with the research and gave some explanations on the difficulties in the demonstration process.

During the entire seminar, Luo Yongjun could be said to be the most popular.

Even when he returned to Soochow University, he still said happily, "The whole conference is to study our paper."

“In fact, I told Academician Jiang about this, but he didn’t believe me. Later, I found out that the paper was published in electronic format and in the Annals of Mathematics. His expression was very interesting.”

“The seminar just talked about some difficult points. It passed the review, but it felt meaningless…”

Luo Yongjun is right.

Being approved at a seminar does not really mean much, mainly because the domestic mathematics community has little influence and authority.

If the partial differential equations conference is organized by the Mathematical Union, with many of the world's top scholars in the field of partial differential equations attending, the review will become very authoritative.

Only domestic scholars attended this conference. Even though they were all top scholars in the field of partial differential equations, only a few of them were truly recognized internationally.

When faced with the major NS equation problem, half of the people who agree will be eliminated because some scholars' main research areas are not partial differential equations.

In fact, even internationally renowned mathematical institutions seem to lack authority when it comes to the NS equation problem.

For example, the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton.

Even if they say they agree with a proof paper on the NS equation problem, other mathematical institutions still have to conduct repetitive research to make sure there are no problems with the proof process of the paper, because such important research must be recognized internationally, rather than by a single institution.

The international mathematical focus is on the NS equation problem, but the research has been completed after all.

Zhang Shuo's work was not affected. He continued to focus on basic experimental work, either staying in the Condensed Matter Physics Research Center or in the Correlated Matter Laboratory.

The two large physics institutions have conducted many basic experiments and accumulated a large amount of data.

During this process, funds are being consumed rapidly, and more than 400 million has been spent.

The next step is to conduct larger experiments, which will require more funding.

Zhang Shuo was discussing the next step of the experiment with Xiao Hai and Yang Zhengkun. He talked a lot about the requirements of the experiment and the data to be measured.

Xiao Hai and Yang Zhengkun both frowned.

Yang Zhengkun is the director of the Correlated Matter Laboratory. He shook his head and said, "Zhang Shuo, your experimental plan is too large and too complicated."

“This requires a lot of funding.”

Xiao Hai said, "Funding is only one aspect. The experiment you mentioned later requires improved equipment, or even new equipment. If you want to do detailed testing, you need to introduce high-end equipment."

“Our lab can only answer part of the question.”

“Some labs can do it, but it requires a lot of funding, and some labs can’t do it at all.”

"The requirements for magnetic field control are too high, and the detection accuracy of particles is too high. Such experiments only need a few times, and may cost tens of millions of dollars..."

Zhang Shuo was also a little distressed.

The 20 million dollars he received for winning the Fields Medal sounds like a large amount, but when it comes to researching theoretical models of electromagnetic force and gravity, it is not a drop in the bucket, but it is definitely not enough.

Zhang Shuo hesitated for a moment and asked, "Our research has made some progress. Do you think it is possible to apply for a large-scale project based on this? We can also apply jointly with your laboratory."

He has considered applying for the joint program.

This is one of the options.

Xiao Hai immediately shook his head and said, "Don't be ridiculous, it's impossible. Even if it's a joint application, the funding is not enough."

He continued, "Experimental funding is only one of them, because the experiment requires some special equipment, so we need to modify the high-precision equipment."

"First, we need to buy high-precision equipment, and more than one. Since research involves buying equipment, it is hard to say how much money is needed. Maybe 100 million or 200 million is not enough."

"Even if our two laboratories apply together, plus funding from the school and the province, I think we can only raise 50 million at most."

“It is very difficult to approve a project worth over 100 million yuan. It is simply impossible in theory!”

Xiao Hai's words were very decisive because he was very experienced.

He felt that whether the project could be applied for or not mainly depended on Zhang Shuo's personal influence, but it was impossible to apply for a project worth over 100 million yuan, as it was not easily approved. Similar large-scale projects would take two to three years just for the initial demonstration.

If the research is only supported by theory, and it is a theory that you have researched yourself, applying for tens of millions of dollars in funding is already very remarkable.

Zhang Shuo thought about it and realized that what Xiao Hai said was right. He even considered "finding funds" himself.

His personal influence is already huge.

With such a large fan base, could you do a 'scientific research fundraising' to get your fans to support your scientific research career?

……

While Zhang Shuo was struggling with funding, Tong Zhiguo's experimental team was already preparing for the first test experiment.

During the preparation for the experiment, most people in the base did not care, because the experimental detection basis could be said to be very poor, and because the experiment did not take into account the control of particles, the internal detection accuracy was very low.

The detection is very poor, what data can be measured?
Many people even think that testing experiments are meaningless and are just to let the equipment run, that is, to test the stability of the equipment.

But when the experiment was about to begin, Tong Zhiguo gave a very strange order -

"All personnel not participating in the experiment, evacuate thirty kilometers from the base."

"The personnel involved in the experiment immediately entered the air-raid shelter after operating the equipment."

"Not a single living person is allowed on the ground..."

After this order was issued, it caused a great discussion within the experimental base. Even though it was a confidential research, because they participated in the experimental preparations throughout the process, they did not feel that there would be any danger at all.

As Ni Hongyu and Tong Zhiguo were evacuating the base, they couldn't help but ask, "Academician Tong, why did you withdraw from the base? Was it because of the confidentiality of the research?"

Tong Zhiguo glared at him and said nothing.

Ni Hongyu also knew that he asked a question that he shouldn't have asked, so he could only turn his head quietly.

He really didn't understand.

A strong magnetic field and a high-temperature vacuum environment were created inside the experimental device, but they would only affect the neutron beam inside. Their intensity was much weaker than the tokamak spiral magnetic field controlling deuterium particles.

The intensity and danger of magnetic field control experiments for nuclear fusion are much higher, and the experimenters are nearby during the experiments.

Why evacuate now?

Is this research so secretive?

(End of this chapter)