A genius? I just love studying.

Chapter 292 Enabling Mathematicians Worldwide to Learn Chinese

Chen Hui finally understood why everyone in the audience was looking at him so strangely.

“I know you prefer research, but don’t rush to refuse. I’ll help with the management work, so it won’t take up too much of your time. But if you need to make adjustments in certain areas, if you’re in charge, then you can make the decision without having to ask anyone else.”

"This is the greatest freedom that Professor Qian has given you!"

Perhaps having guessed Chen Hui's thoughts, Song Yuntao spoke first.

Chen Hui was silent.

He did tell Qian Xuesen that he wanted a free research environment, but he didn't expect it to be this free.

And this freedom, he really wanted.

"Thank you for the welcome."

After a moment of contemplation, Chen Hui looked down at the audience and walked onto the podium. “Everyone here must have only one goal: to make the sun shine on the blue planet. I am confident that I can achieve this goal, but I also need everyone’s help.”

The crowd below the stage looked at Chen Hui, their feelings a mix of emotions.

They had certainly heard of Chen Hui's legendary story long ago, but they didn't know enough. If they knew as much as Qian Lao, they probably would have made the same choice without hesitation.

But even now, they still have doubts.

Of course, a burst of enthusiastic applause erupted from the audience; there was no hesitation whatsoever, only pure passion.

Everyone here is a seasoned veteran, so naturally they wouldn't express their suspicions so openly.

"Okay, everyone, disperse and go do what you were doing."

Chen Hui waved his hand, not intending to waste too much time.

After everyone had left, he turned to Song Yuntao and said, "You will continue to be in charge of the research institute. I will focus on the research of plasma turbulence and plasma instability."

Although he spent these days at home playing with Rui Rui and Qing Shan, Chen Hui wasn't just playing around. In addition, during his time at Princeton, he now has a very clear understanding of the current state of research on controlled nuclear fusion and has already chosen his research direction.

To achieve controlled nuclear fusion, the reactor's energy gain must be greater than 1. However, a gain of only 1 is not very useful; for commercial use, it must be at least 10.

To achieve an energy gain greater than 1, the core principle can be summarized as the Lawson criterion and the triple product. The plasma must simultaneously meet three stringent conditions: 1. extremely high temperature; 2. sufficient particle density; and 3. sufficient energy confinement time.

This value must exceed a critical threshold to achieve ignition and energy gain.

Regarding condition 1, achieving plasma temperatures of over 100 million degrees Celsius is no longer an insurmountable technical obstacle. Large-scale facilities such as China's EAST and Europe's JET have repeatedly achieved and stably maintained temperatures well over 100 million degrees Celsius.
Neutral beam injection and radio frequency wave heating technologies are already very mature.

At the same time, increasing plasma density itself is not particularly difficult. Of course, the density cannot be increased indefinitely. It must be high enough to generate sufficient fusion reactions, but not so high as to destroy the stability and confinement of the plasma. This is an important operational challenge, but not the most fundamental bottleneck.

The most critical bottleneck lies in having enough energy to constrain time.
It measures the ability of a plasma to retain its thermal energy; in other words, how long it would take for the plasma's energy to dissipate if all external heating were turned off.

This time must be long enough for the energy generated by fusion, mainly alpha particles, to make up for energy loss and achieve self-sustaining combustion.

This is also the scenario with the most problems encountered in real-world experiments. Plasma is composed of charged particles, and its behavior is extremely complex and full of turbulence. These turbulences cause energy and particles to cross magnetic field lines at extremely high speeds, leaking from the plasma core to the edge, and eventually collide with the wall and dissipate.

In addition to microscopic turbulence, there are also macroscopic magnetohydrodynamic instabilities, such as ELMs and tearing modes. These instabilities can instantly destroy the magnetic surface structure, causing a huge burst of energy loss.

Of course, there are also other factors, such as the energy confinement time being roughly proportional to the square of the device size. As long as the device is made large enough, a decent energy confinement time can be obtained.

However, the larger the device, the higher the cost, and the more complex the system, the more difficult it is to control. This is also a variable that needs to be balanced.

Especially given that high-temperature superconductivity research is still facing bottlenecks, controlling a huge magnet system is also a huge challenge.

Although EAST at the Institute of Plasma Physics can operate for a long time, exceeding 1,000 seconds, its energy confinement time is still relatively short, which is why EAST's energy gain is much less than 1.

Of course, EAST also has great practical significance. It tells all researchers in controlled nuclear fusion that the reactor can maintain a reaction for a long time, verify steady-state operation technology, solve the problem of "long-term confinement", and accumulate technology and experience for the continuous operation of future reactors.

However, if you want to truly put it into commercial use, a thousand seconds is clearly not enough; you need at least a year.

Meanwhile, to obtain a longer constraint time, tokamaks are typically operated in H mode.

In H-mode, a transport barrier spontaneously forms at the plasma edge, greatly reducing energy leakage. However, H-mode also brings new problems, such as edge-localized modes, which are periodic and destructive energy bursts that pose a huge threat to materials.

Chen Hui chose to start with the plasma turbulence problem because solving these two problems with mathematics is also a matter of professional expertise. At the same time, if these two problems can be solved, the latter two problems can be greatly alleviated, ultimately achieving the goal of energy gain greater than 10.

All sorts of thoughts flashed through Chen Hui's mind. He looked at Song Yuntao and asked, "Is there anything I can do for you?"

Song Yuntao looked at Chen Hui and gave him a shy smile. "I heard that you and Schultz are very close friends. They recently completed the laboratory synthesis of a high-temperature superconductor. I wonder what the latest progress is?"

"If we can achieve room temperature superconductivity, or even high temperature superconductivity, it will be of great benefit to our subsequent research."

Song Yuntao didn't stand on ceremony either.

The reason he agreed to let Chen Hui be in charge was naturally because he had taken these factors into account from the beginning.

"No problem, I'll contact Schultz."

Chen Hui nodded. For the past year or so, under the surveillance of S.H.I.E.L.D., he had rarely contacted other mathematicians, including Schultz and Tao, for fear of endangering them. But now he no longer had that concern.

However, obtaining high-temperature superconductivity is clearly not an easy task; there's no such thing as a free lunch.

Therefore, on the one hand, he can try his own research on high-temperature superconductivity, and on the other hand, he still needs to focus on the research of plasma turbulence. At worst, everyone can cooperate. Chen Hui is still very confident in himself.

"Great!"

Song Yuntao's expression brightened, and he continued, "There's also the issue of the first-wall material. Although there probably isn't a container in the universe that can withstand plasma temperatures of hundreds of millions of degrees, the magnetic field confines the plasma. The challenge for the first-wall material is actually extreme heat load and neutron irradiation. Currently, the material is prone to swelling, embrittlement, and transmutation under prolonged strong irradiation."

“Your relationship with Academician E Weinan is quite special. I wonder if you could persuade them to join our research?”

Academician E Weinan has now made a name for himself in China. With the help of Chen Hui's model, they have successively overcome several difficult problems in materials science, and their contributions are evident in the materials of many components of the seventh-generation fighter jet.

"I will contact Academician E Weinan, but I can't guarantee it."

Chen Hui nodded.

"This is enough."

Song Yuntao was very confident. He knew how Academician E Weinan had risen to prominence, and even if he didn't, given Chen Hui's current reputation, few people would dare to refuse to cooperate with him.

"temporarily unavailable."

Noticing that Chen Hui's gaze was still on him, Song Yuntao quickly smiled and waved his hand. He certainly wouldn't dare to let Chen Hui solve everything for him.

While there are indeed many problems to be solved, they are not to be trifled with.

"Your accommodation and research lab have been arranged long ago, and the plasma operation data collected over the years have been compiled and can be viewed in the internal database at any time."

Chen Hui nodded, very satisfied with Song Yuntao's ability to handle affairs.

His research room is on the top floor of the office building in the center of the park, and it is about 70 or 80 square meters. There is also an inner room where he can rest temporarily.

In the center of the office was a large solid wood desk measuring 1.5 x 2.3 meters, with a computer already placed on it and enough space left for him to work out calculations on scratch paper. Apart from that, the office only had a sofa and a coffee table. Chen Hui was very satisfied.

He didn't go to his residence; the research lab was his home, so why would he need a place to live?

I sat down at my desk, turned on my computer, and opened the paper I had mostly completed from my USB drive. Unlike my previous papers, this one was entirely in Chinese.

At least in the field of mathematics, many scholars do not write academic papers in Chinese.

However, if the author of the paper is Chen Hui, many people would probably not let it go. In addition, if the title of the paper is "Proof of the Riemann Hypothesis", most mathematicians would probably flock to it.

After returning to China, Chen Hui has been preparing this paper. It is now more than half completed, with only some details to be perfected. Of course, it also awaits the journal's preparation.

"Professor Chen, someone is looking for you."

Having just finished his thesis, Song Yuntao appeared in the office.

Chen Hui looked at the sky and realized that it was already dark. Indeed, time flies when you're studying.

"Who's looking for me?"

After saving the paper and locking the screen, Chen Hui asked curiously.

"Chen, it's been a long time."

Tao Zhexuan's voice came from outside the door, and the next moment he walked into the office with a smile.

"pottery."

Chen Hui was also very happy. At that time, he was stuck in Princeton, and Terence Tao did a lot of work for him. In the end, he heard that Terence Tao's research funding was cut off, and he eventually came to China.

"I was planning to go to Jiangcheng University to be your colleague, but I didn't expect you to come here."

Tao Zhexuan smiled and scolded him.

"You guys chat first, I'm going to get busy."

Upon seeing this, Song Yuntao quickly said hello and slipped out, closing the office door behind him.

Chen Hui then went to the sofa, invited Tao Zhexuan to sit down, took out the tea leaves prepared by Song Yuntao from the cabinet next to him, and began to brew tea.

"Want to be my colleague? That's easy!"

After boiling the water, Chen Hui said with a smile, "I'm currently preparing for a Chinese mathematics journal, and you definitely need to be one of the academic editors."

"What a coincidence! I just happen to have some research results recently, so I'll publish them in your journal."

Terence Tao did not look down on Chinese journals, nor did he question whether Chen Hui's move to start a Chinese journal was reasonable.

"Oh, what kind of results?"

Chen Hui asked curiously.

"It's at least a result of the second-highest level journal."

He's been in a great mood lately. He was worried that he wouldn't adapt well to China, but China has given him a lot of support, which has enabled him to not only rebuild his research team in a short time, but also produce results quickly.

He was seething with anger and wanted to give those guys who cut off his funding a good thrashing.

"Then I suggest you wait a bit longer and release it in the next issue."

Chen Hui understood Tao Zhexuan's eagerness to prove him wrong. Therefore, if Tao Zhexuan's paper were published in the same issue as his, it might not have gained much attention, and the effect of proving him wrong would be many times less.

"Oh?"

Tao Zhexuan stared intently at Chen Hui, his intelligence already giving him a vague idea of ​​what was going on.

Chen Hui didn't mince words and said bluntly, "In the first session, I plan to present a proof of the Riemann Hypothesis!"

Shocking!

Almost simultaneously, the water in the kettle next to them began to boil.

Chen Hui poured boiling water into the teapot.

Tao Zhexuan finally closed his mouth, his eyes still showing shock. "I didn't expect you to actually do it! You did it so quickly!"

He didn't know that Chen Hui had already completed the proof six months ago, but it was only announced today.

"congratulations!"

Terence Tao opened his mouth, but suddenly felt that his achievement was somewhat tasteless yet too valuable to discard.

"Drink tea."

Chen Hui poured out a golden-orange tea from the teapot and gestured to Tao Zhexuan.

"So what's the journal called?"

After taking a sip of hot tea, Terence Tao gradually calmed down.

"Chinese Mathematics".

Chen Hui has never been good at naming things. He believes that names are not important. When he publishes a series of heavyweight papers in journals, the whole world will remember his name.

"How will it be published?"

"quarterly!"

The journal's preparation is now in its final stages, with many details finalized: "One issue will be published quarterly, with strict quality control and no limit on the number of articles. Only the articles that meet the standards will be published; if they do not meet the standards, none will be published."

After a long silence, Terence Tao said to Chen Hui, "Thanks."

He then understood Chen Hui's intention in having him release the second installment.

If the first issue of *Huaxia Mathematics* features a proof of the Riemann Hypothesis, one can imagine the attention the second issue would receive—exactly the effect Terence Tao wanted.

"No need to thank me. Ultimately, it depends on the quality of your paper. I'm very strict."

Chen Hui said with a smile, "You'd better study Chinese well for the next three months. If you make too many grammatical errors, you won't be able to pass the review."

Terence Tao was both amused and exasperated. "You..."

He has been in China for almost half a year and has already learned Chinese quite well.

But other mathematicians will probably have to deal with this rather difficult language next. If they don't know Chinese, how will they understand the proof of the Riemann Hypothesis?
(End of this chapter)