Research starts with PhD students

Chapter 209 Artificially creating gravity? Too sci-fi!
The new task, and most importantly, the experimental device.

The difficulty of perfecting the experimental device reached level B, while the research itself was only level C, which means that the device is the most core factor, and the data analysis after the experiment is not that complicated.

After determining the new direction, Zhang Shuo immediately went to the electromagnetic laboratory to check the equipment that had been delivered, including equipment for creating magnetic fields, vacuum equipment, particle generating equipment, and various types of detection equipment.

There are many high-end devices among them, but they have not been systematically constructed and can only be tested and used individually.

After these devices were transported here, they have been placed in various rooms. Most of them can only be operated and are not used for any special research work.

Zhang Shuo has not made any arrangements so far, and others can only perform simple maintenance on the equipment. If the equipment is not used for a long time, some problems may arise.

Now is the time to use it.

After visiting the equipment, Zhang Shuo made an application to the Science and Technology Department and the Science, Technology and Industry Bureau respectively, and then consulted the school's administrative department.

The electromagnetic laboratory is still managed by the school, because the "Electromagnetic Force and Gravitation Correlation Research" project was applied for in the name of the electromagnetic laboratory. In theory, the project is also managed by the school.

The school cannot interfere with issues such as equipment and funding, but it must provide certain support in terms of personnel.

In fact, the school has been prepared for this.

The school and the province have conducted research on the project and have approved four positions for researchers and three positions for engineers. All seven positions are regular staff members.

In other words, the Electromagnetic Laboratory and the Source Point Theory Research Office can recruit seven full-time researchers or engineers, and the rest of the staff will be recruited externally, which will require project funds to pay for salary subsidies.

Now the project is about to start, and there is still a lot of talent needed, including electrical, automation, physics, computer, etc. Talents in various fields need to be recruited.
Zhang Shuo also plans to build a team. The team does not need to be too large, but it must at least be equipped with talents in various aspects.

In reality, recruiting isn’t the problem.

After the project was officially confirmed, many professors in the school were eyeing the project quota. By joining a large project with over 100 million yuan in funding, they no longer have to worry about funding in the future, and it is easy to produce results by doing cutting-edge physics experiments.

There are also many scholars outside the school who hope to join Zhang Shuo's project.

The project application has been approved, but it has not yet been officially launched. Experiments are still being conducted in the Correlated Matter Laboratory and the Condensed Matter Physics Laboratory. The Electromagnetism Laboratory is just continuously shipping equipment but is not participating in large-scale basic experimental research.

After Zhang Shuo took the initiative to apply, before recruitment inside or outside the school had taken place, the military sent a team to join the project, including two researchers, three engineers, and four armed security guards.

Several scholars are supported by the Bureau of Science, Technology and Industry, which directly sent professionals to help Zhang Shuo build a team, and they are likely to stay here to work in the future.

The reason for sending armed security personnel is mainly because some of the research content may involve confidentiality issues.

So not everyone can join the project.

The higher authorities even notified the military stationed nearby, ready to cooperate with the project's research and other issues at any time.

Among the personnel sent by the military, two researchers are Professors Wang Qiang and Xue Baikun, one from Heilongjiang University of Technology and the other from the Institute of Electronic Science and Technology. They are experts in electronic information and high-precision testing respectively.

Among the three engineers who came, the person in charge was Wang Jianlong. Wang Jianlong has rich experience in equipment management and has been responsible for maintaining high-end equipment.

I used to work at the Rocket Research Institute, and now I’m at Soochow University, where I can provide a lot of support for the project.

Zhang Shuo met several people in the electromagnetics laboratory, inquired about the school’s personnel arrangements, and shook hands with Wang Jianlong, Xue Baikun and others.

“We’ll work together from now on!”

Xue Baikun smiled and said, "It is our honor to work with Professor Zhang Shuo."

"We said on the way here that we never expected to get a job like this."

“But we still don’t quite understand the research, and we look forward to Professor Zhang Shuo’s guidance in the future.”

After meeting Xue Baikun and others, Zhang Shuo took the lead in finalizing the first formal employee - Gao Xiaohong.

This can also be considered as taking care of your own people.

Gao Xiaohong has always wanted to engage in experimental work in the field of particle physics, but Soochow University could not provide the corresponding experimental environment, and she did not want to travel to the capital, so she let the team at the Institute of High Energy Physics Center work.

Now that he has the opportunity to participate in particle physics related research, Zhang Shuo did not forget to include Gao Xiaohong.

Gao Xiaohong was hired as an associate researcher. She is a full-time faculty member of Soochow University. It is just a subsidy that is paid to her and it does not take up a full-time position.

In addition to the experimental aspects, the Origin Theory Research Office is also preparing to expand, that is, to recruit new researchers.

In fact, Nanjiang Province and Soochow University have already decided to build a theoretical physics research center around Zhang Shuo, and have even completed the site selection, which is just to the west of Soochow University's Yangming Lake campus.

The Yangming Lake Campus is 60 kilometers away from the main campus. It is located in the suburbs of Sudong City, but the surrounding area is also very prosperous. It is surrounded by university towns and commercial streets and has a very good geographical location.

Most importantly, there is a large area of ​​​​open space near the west side of the Yangming Lake campus, which is very suitable for building laboratories and academic centers.

……

After the project was officially launched, recruitment work began in full swing.

Those who want to join the project must not only go through the regular recruitment process, but also pass a background check to prevent any problems.

The project team expanded rapidly.

In just one month, the project team had nine researchers and associate researchers, more than a dozen engineers and other staff.

The team's initial work was to continuously assemble, debug and modify equipment.

The workplace is mainly in the open space behind the electromagnetic laboratory building, where a two-story laboratory building has been quickly built. The first floor of the laboratory building is more than five meters high, and the second floor is a regular office floor with many offices and rooms.

This laboratory building was simply named 'Electromagnetism Laboratory Building No. 2'.

In front, of course, is Laboratory Building No. 1.

On the first floor of Laboratory Building No. 2, the main laboratory was in a mess, with various equipment placed all around and a lot of spare parts piled on the ground.

Researchers and engineers either assemble equipment according to blueprints, debug equipment, study electricity or solve other problems.

These tasks also made the main laboratory very messy. Everyone was busy with their own work, and the construction of the experimental equipment was progressing steadily.

At the same time, Laboratory Building No. 1 is also undergoing internal renovation, which will completely separate students' classrooms and laboratories, with each side occupying half of the space.

At that time, a wall will be built on the ground to completely separate the two sides.

Zhang Shuo stood in the lobby of Laboratory Building No. 2, looking at the hot scene inside, and made a rough estimate in his mind, "At this rate of progress, it will probably take another two months, right?"

"Two months is not a long time."

Yao Qiming was standing nearby. He said with a big smile on his face, "Normally, it would take several months to solve a problem encountered while debugging a high-end device. If it only took two months to complete the device transformation, it would be very fast."

“The support from above is really great!”

Yao Qiming was filled with emotion. He never thought that one day the electromagnetic laboratory would become like this, and even received full support from higher authorities.

Two months seems a bit long for Zhang Shuo.

Generally when doing a certain research, it feels like a few months is a very long time, but there is no way to speed up the construction of experimental equipment.

It can be said that this is already the fastest speed. Just as Yao Qiming said, this progress can only be achieved with the support of superiors. Otherwise, if high-end equipment encounters a problem, it may take several months to solve it.

Time quickly entered November, and Zhang Shuo devoted himself to the construction of the experimental device, striving to avoid problems during the construction process, otherwise subsequent adjustments would be complicated.

After more than two months, the construction and renovation of the laboratory building has been completed. Zhang Shuo can now stay on the second floor of Building 2 with peace of mind and start planning some experiments.

Because the research involves theoretical basis issues, Tang Haiyi and Guo Hua from the Source Point Theory Research Office also came to work in Laboratory Building No. 2.

One of them is a dedicated theory office.

Because they had not been working in the office in the High Court building for a long time and it was troublesome to go there to get the information, they simply decided to move all the information here.

This incident made Tan Youming very uncomfortable.

Tan Youming has always hoped that the Origin Point Theory Research Office will remain in the Institute for Advanced Study, but it will eventually have to move to the laboratory building of the School of Physics. He feels depressed just thinking about it.

"Do you really have to move things? You can work here occasionally..."

Tan Youming was a little reluctant to leave.

Zhang Shuo was walking out with some information in his hand. He shook his head and said, "It's more convenient over there. We need to combine theory with experiment. Besides, the High School is a mathematics school after all. It's not really suitable for theoretical physics research."

You can tell by just looking at Tang Haiyi and Guo Hua, who seldom communicate with other professors from the Higher Academy.

There is very little overlap in the academic fields of both parties.

Tan Youming sighed and said, "But the office will remain, and you guys should not leave. Just don't come back at all."

"Of course." Zhang Shuo said with a smile, "I am still a researcher at the High Court, and the Source Point Office cannot be withdrawn. We are just taking the information away temporarily, and we may need it again in the future."

"That's good!"

Tan Youming breathed a sigh of relief and brought the topic back to the experiment. "I don't understand your research either, but Zhang Shuo, you have to be extra careful when doing physics experimental research, especially the verification of theoretical physics."

"One is the safety issue, and the other is that after you have made a discovery, don't rush to publish the results."

He said more seriously, "You are a Fields Medalist, and you also have a great influence in the field of high-energy physics, but many people are watching your project."

"The higher authorities are indeed optimistic and have provided sufficient funding and personnel support, but precisely because of this, we cannot afford to make any major mistakes."

Zhang Shuo also nodded seriously.

He naturally knew what Tan Youming meant, because the project he applied for was a theoretical verification research, and the funding scale exceeded 100 million yuan, and the higher authorities also provided such great support.

The problem is that many people do not believe in the origin theory. They think that spending so much money to verify a theory that may be wrong is a complete waste of funds.

Zhang Shuo has a great reputation and high prestige, and with the wholehearted support of his superiors, naturally no one would openly stand up to oppose him, but there is still a mentality of watching the joke.

If anything goes wrong, someone will definitely step forward to point it out.

However, Zhang Shuo did not care, because the research he did and the results he obtained were all completely certain to be correct.

……

Zhang Shuo hopes to build a verification and technical research team for the source point theory.

This is a big project.

What is important is people, not experimental equipment. Some people will stay and some will leave.

He sat in his office, overlooking the scene outside the window, and looking down at the list in his hand. Each person was a person joining the project.

In addition, there is a list of recommendations from schools and provinces specifically prepared for the 'Theoretical Physics Research Center' that is being built.

It is impossible to build a 'Research Center for Theoretical Physics' with only a few people. Naturally, many researchers need to be recruited, and a certain degree of talent introduction is also needed.

There is no need to consider theoretical talents for the time being, and there are enough project personnel for the time being, but compared with the scale of the two electromagnetic laboratory buildings before and after, the number of personnel is relatively small.

“We may need to continue to expand our staff in the future, but how to expand it will depend on the results of the experiment.”

Zhang Shuo said with some anticipation, "Let's consider the experimental issues for now."

Xue Baikun stood in front of the window, also looking at the scenery outside. He turned his head and asked curiously, "I have been here for three months, and I have been modifying the equipment or debugging various devices according to the plan. I still don't know what specific research to do. Others are also very curious."

"Director, can you explain it briefly?"

Zhang Shuo smiled and said, "You guys never asked, and I never told you, but you at least know that it has something to do with electromagnetic force, right?"

"I know this." Xue Baikun nodded.

Zhang Shuo did not explain directly, but thought for a moment and said, "How about this, gather all the researchers and hold a meeting to discuss this issue specifically."

……

Zhang Shuo said he wanted to gather all the researchers, but in fact, only less than ten people were gathered.

Engineers do not attend such meetings.

Those who came were full-time researchers, specially appointed researchers, associate researchers, etc., including Yao Qiming, Xue Baikun, Wang Qiang, Zhang Dawei who was recruited later, and associate researchers Fan Youwei, Xue Bing, Gao Xiaohong and Zhu Zhenqi.

Tang Haiyi and Guo Hua also attended the meeting, and with Zhang Shuo there were only eleven people in total.

The scale of having so many researchers is definitely not small, but compared with the large conference room, the number still seems a bit pitiful.

Zhang Shuo glanced at everyone. Some of them looked very familiar to him, while some were still unfamiliar.

Everyone kept quiet.

After joining the project team, they have been doing equipment-related work, and this is their first time to attend a formal experimental research meeting.

What Xue Baikun said was also the idea of ​​other people. Most of them didn't know what the experiment was specifically about, nor did they know what the goal of the experiment was.

Zhang Shuo sat in the main seat and was silent for a while. Finally, he said, "Our project started a few months ago, but the initial work was to install and modify the equipment."

"Everyone should have a general idea of ​​what this device does specifically. High-intensity electromagnetic fields, particle generators, vacuum, high-precision detection, etc."

"What are we going to do?"

Zhang Shuo stood up and turned his head to continue, "To put it simply, it is to create a chaotic force field of electromagnetic force and gravity under a certain electromagnetic field strength."

"To put it bluntly, it is artificially created gravity!"

As soon as the words fell, there was a chaotic sound in the conference room. Several people couldn't help but look at each other and saw surprise in each other's eyes.

Unbelievable, even.

Artificially creating gravity? To others, they might think it's just a joke.

Zhang Shuo is different.

Now Zhang Shuo is definitely not joking. He is a top mathematician and has a great influence in the fields of high-energy physics and theoretical physics.

Even so, artificially creating gravity... sounds too sci-fi!

(End of this chapter)