A genius? I just love studying.

Chapter 301 The Second Negotiation

Southern University of Science and Technology

Materials Synthesis Laboratory
Chen Hui stood in front of the control panel, the cold white light of the laboratory illuminating his slightly pale face, but his eyes burned with an almost obsessive focus.

The first six failures were not wasted; each set of data served as a stepping stone, bringing him one step closer to the vague truth.

He made unprecedentedly fine adjustments to the model's parameters and even rewrote an environmental control algorithm in an attempt to better bridge the gap between ideal and reality.

"Seventh generation sequence, start." Chen Hui's voice was deep and steady as he pressed the final confirmation button.

hum...

The synthesis device awoke once more, its humming sound seemingly more steady than ever before.

The high-energy laser array emitted a more concentrated beam than before, and the substrate inside the vacuum cavity was heated to a near-perfect critical temperature.

An airflow of nickel, phosphorus, and lead salts was introduced, and under the absolute precision of the model, it began to perform an atomic-level dance.

On the holographic screen, the complex molecular structure blueprints shone like stars, while the dots representing the actual synthesis process extended and built along the path guided by the blueprints with an astonishing degree of accuracy.

This time, everything went surprisingly smoothly.

The progress bar is moving smoothly, 30%...50%...70%...

There were no stress alarms, no energy fluctuations, and no signs of lattice distortion.

All parameters are running smoothly within the green safety zone!
Even the monitoring system remained silent, as if unwilling to disturb this near-perfect process.

Chen Hui's heart began to beat faster and faster uncontrollably.

He could sense that this time was different!
The structure diagram generated by the model and the actuator have achieved an unprecedented level of synergy.

He could even see the crucial three-dimensional conductive path taking shape little by little, with each atom seemingly falling into its most appropriate place.

85%...90%...95%...

Hope swelled in his chest like a balloon being gradually inflated.

His fingertips felt slightly cold, and he unconsciously held his breath.

Success has never been so close.

99%!

The generation progress has reached 99%!
With only a few final atomic bonds remaining to close, the entire structure will be fully formed.

finished!
The progress bar has jumped to 100%!

The synthesis sequence terminates automatically.

Inside the vacuum chamber, a thin sample, about the size of a fingernail, with a dull metallic luster, floated silently. It was intact, with a smooth surface, and showed no signs of collapse or distortion.

No failure! It's done!
A tremendous, almost overwhelming joy surged through Chen Hui's head, making him slightly dizzy. He almost clenched his fists and shouted.

Xue Qikun and his classmates in the laboratory couldn't help but cheer softly.

But Chen Hui forcibly suppressed this impulse.

The most crucial step is not yet complete.

He took a deep breath, manipulated the robotic arm with utmost care, and transferred the sample that embodied all hope to the superconducting testing platform, slowly immersing it into the liquid nitrogen Dewar tube at -196 degrees Celsius.

The cold liquid nitrogen boiled violently for a moment, then was covered up.

The circuit is connected.

Chen Hui's eyes were fixed on the resistance monitoring screen, his heart pounding in his chest.

The numbers on the screen started fluctuating, and then... they started to drop! Dropped sharply!

Here it comes! Now! Chen Hui's pupils dilated sharply.

The number plummeted, getting closer and closer to that long-awaited zero...

However, just before the resistance value was about to hit zero, it suddenly stopped!
It is not a stable zero, but an extremely low, yet exceptionally stable, and no longer changing tiny resistance value!
It remained at that number, like a cold mockery.

Zero resistance is the absolute hallmark of a superconductor; any finite resistance means failure.

Almost simultaneously, the magnetic levitation monitoring unit next to it also transmitted data, showing that no obvious Meissner effect was detected.

The sample lay quietly at the bottom of the liquid nitrogen, showing no sign of levitation.

It is not a superconductor.

It is just an ordinary material with an extremely perfect structure and excellent electrical conductivity.

The laboratory was deathly silent.

Only the hissing sound of the evaporating liquid nitrogen seemed to be playing a somber elegy for this failure.

This may be the research project that Chen Hui has experienced the most failures in, but it is by no means the most difficult one. It has only been a little over a month since it started.

Although Chen Hui was somewhat disappointed, he was not discouraged.

The robotic arm has removed the failed sample and placed it in a specially designed inert environment sample box.

It looked so perfect, with a dark gray metallic sheen and smooth edges, reflecting a faint light under the laboratory lights. It was a work of art, a useless work of art.

Chen Hui put on gloves, carefully picked up the sample box, and placed it under a high-magnification scanning electron microscope. He needed to see firsthand what kind of devil was hidden beneath this perfect structure.

The image became clear on the screen. The atomic probe slowly swept across the sample surface.

“Structural integrity… is close to 100%.” He muttered to himself, his tone revealing neither joy nor anger. “The lattice arrangement matches the model structure diagram by 99.97%, and the bonding strength… is also fully up to standard.”

The synthesis process was virtually flawless.

The accuracy problem of the actuator seemed to have been truly overcome in the seventh attempt.

So what's the problem?
His brows were furrowed tightly.

If it's not a problem with the synthesis, then it can only be... the structure diagram itself? Or, is there a problem with the underlying theory that generates this structure diagram?

He returned to the console and retrieved the entire dataset from the seventh experiment.

This time, he no longer focused on the parameter curves of the synthesis process, which were almost perfect, but instead devoted all his energy to the computation logs of the model itself and the structure files of the final output.

Countless lines of code, complex quantum mechanical calculations, band structure simulations, and electron cloud distribution probabilities began to flow like a waterfall across the screen...

His gaze, like the most sophisticated filter, rapidly scanned this cryptic information.

Xue Qikun opened his mouth to speak, but ultimately said nothing, simply letting Chen Hui move the mouse rapidly and letting the data stream on the screen flow like a waterfall.

This level of data is simply beyond the capacity of humans to process.

He understood that Chen Hui might find it hard to accept this failure, and perhaps he was just unconsciously blaming himself.

Time passed in silence, with only the occasional soft sounds of Chen Hui swiping the screen and tapping the keyboard to zoom in on specific areas.

Suddenly, he stopped moving.

His gaze was fixed on an intermediate output of the model's electron correlation energy calculation.

This is an extremely complex many-body interaction simulation used to predict the electronic behavior of materials at extremely low temperatures, and it is the core of determining whether a material is superconducting. "Here..." he murmured, his fingers rapidly tapping, extracting this section of the calculation process and comparing it with the assumed parameters in the earlier theoretical derivations.

A tiny, almost negligible difference has emerged.

The model uses an approximation based on a historical database when calculating the specific coupling strength between the d orbitals of nickel atoms and the p orbitals of phosphorus atoms.

This approximation is reliable in most cases, but in this novel structure that pursues ultimate performance and is extremely sensitive to electronic behavior, this tiny approximation may produce a non-adiabatic side effect.

He pulled up a magnified view of the low-temperature resistance-temperature curve of the sample.

The curve showing the decrease in resistance near the critical temperature has an extremely subtle plateau characteristic that is not typical of a superconducting transition.

Like a curve that should have fallen smoothly, it was gently lifted by an unseen hand and then stopped at that extremely low but non-zero resistance value.

“I understand…” Chen Hui’s voice was hoarse with excitement, a tremor from discovering the fatal flaw. “It’s not the structure that’s wrong, it’s the soul that’s wrong!”

The atomic structure generated by the model is perfect, but the approximate calculation it is based on causes deviations in the behavior of electrons within this perfect structure.

When electrons flow, they encounter an extremely weak but insurmountable scattering barrier, preventing the formation of Cooper pairs and the achievement of true zero-resistance superfluidity.

It came very close to superconductivity, but due to a tiny compromise in underlying calculations, it was forever left outside the threshold.

The problem lies not in the hardware, or even in the synthesis process, but in an overly crude assumption in the core algorithm of the model!

Chen Hui leaned back in his chair and pinched the bridge of his nose, but a fire had been rekindled in his eyes. His sense of defeat was gone, replaced by a deeper understanding and a desire for challenge.

He did not fail; he simply discovered a deeper, more fundamental problem.

He took action immediately.

His hands flew across the console, bringing up the model's core code library and finding the electron correlation energy calculation module.

“A more accurate local density approximation correction is needed… or, we can introduce dynamic mean-field theory to calculate this strong correlation effect…” He thought rapidly as he began to modify that part of the algorithm, replacing the rough approximation with a more accurate, computationally intensive first-principles calculation.

This is a massive undertaking, meaning that the next model calculation will consume several times the computing resources and time.

But he did not hesitate.

……

Beijing, courtyard house

"Professor Qian, I have good news and bad news."

Old Zhao stood at the office door, speaking with a half-smile.

"Stop beating around the bush, say it all at once."

Old Qian didn't give him a friendly look.

"The problem of the first wall material has been solved. One of Professor E's students accidentally discovered a new material in the waste. Unexpectedly, its performance is several times better than the current first wall material, and it can fully meet the needs of commercial reactor construction."

Old Zhao didn't mind and said, "Of course, the bad news is that the problem of high-temperature superconductivity has not been solved yet. The Max Planck Society has not agreed to cooperate, so I'm afraid there is little hope."

"Professor Chen's seventh experiment has also failed."

Everything is ready except for the east wind, but when will that east wind come?

Old Zhao sighed deeply, "The New Year is just around the corner."

After Chen Hui joined the research on controlled nuclear fusion, he overcame all obstacles and everything went incredibly smoothly. Just when he was about to reach the final step, he unexpectedly got stuck on high-temperature superconducting materials, which naturally made him feel somewhat resentful.

"Didn't the Max Planck Society resolve it?"

Old Qian frowned and immediately made a decision, "Send someone over to talk to them again. We'll just have to pay a higher price."

"Pay more of a price?"

Old Zhao asked with some doubt, "The other day Germany expressed interest in our seventh-generation fighter jet, and you're giving it to us too?"

"Since they want it, then give it to them!"

With a heart full of pride, Qian Lao waved his hand and said, "We can give them a quota of ten aircraft, or provide the blueprints and design concepts, but we must keep the key technologies in our own hands."

Old Zhao immediately understood; this was simply a way to strangle someone.

“Will they agree to that?”

"Let's talk first."

Mr. Qian didn't care at all. "At worst, the industrial technology of gallium oxide can also be used as a bargaining chip. We can accept losing out in other aspects. Of course, we can't really give them the seventh-generation fighter jet."

Everyone understands that truth always lies within the range of cannons.

They are able to grasp the truth now because they possess the seventh-generation machine. If they were to hand it over, even if they eventually built a nuclear fusion power plant, it would be hard to say whether the power plant would truly belong to them.

"clear."

This was precisely the meaning behind Zhao Lao's report: since they had encountered difficulties in the research of high-temperature superconductivity, perhaps they could try to achieve mutual benefit and win-win results through cooperation.

……

Max Planck Society, Institute of Chemistry Laboratory
What progress has been made in the research of models?

Huber looked at the mathematicians in charge of plasma modeling. More than two months had passed since Eremets' proposal, and he decided to keep track of the progress.

The mathematicians looked at each other, but no one could give an answer.

Clearly, they made no progress.

They even felt their minds were polluted because they spent so much time studying Chen Hui's paper, making it impossible for them to concentrate on the model research.

Huber's expression was not good. At this rate, it would be almost impossible to complete the mission in eight months. Now that he thought about it, it would have been better to have agreed to cooperate with China from the beginning.

"It's only been two months. The worst outcome is that we will continue to cooperate with them. We don't need to worry about these details."

Eremets quickly smoothed things over, saying to the mathematicians, "There's no need for everyone to feel pressured. If it succeeds, that's great. Even if it doesn't, we still have a backup plan, so it's alright."

Schulz did not attend the meeting; otherwise, he would have certainly given Eremets a few sarcastic remarks.

Huber was also displeased, but it was too late for regrets now; they had no choice but to go down this path.

However, at that moment, Huber suddenly picked up his phone, a look of delight on his face.

"China has initiated a second round of negotiations and has offered even more and more generous terms!"

Huber looked at Eremets, and this time, he suddenly thought the other was right.

Eremets was taken aback at first, then overjoyed.

"I knew it!"

"High-temperature superconductivity is not easy to research without a solid foundation!"

"They contacted us to say they were in trouble, and they gave up!"

"No matter what conditions they propose, we must not agree. I firmly believe that we will be faster than them!"

(End of this chapter)