94: From Technological Warfare to Space Empire

Chapter 107 Are there five states of matter? (Please subscribe! Please continue reading!)

But no one can confidently say that BEC can definitely be implemented in a laboratory.

"Who knows if it's just a math game?"

"Who knows if this state actually exists in the real world?"

He looked at Lin Yu with a deep gaze.

He spoke frankly and sincerely.

"Xiaoyu, this is what people who do theoretical research fear most."

"You spend ten or twenty years building a laboratory inside."

"It's like sacrificing the youth of countless people."

"But in the end, it may very well prove that this path is a dead end."

"I've seen this kind of thing many times."

"And I know that there are people working on this, such as Wyman and Cornell in the United States, Ketterle in Germany, and Steven Chu and his group. They are all working on it."

At this point, Academician Zhou flicked his cigarette ash.

"I met Wyman once when I went to the United States for a conference the year before last."

"That's what he said too, that it will definitely be done within 5 years."

But in the end, Academician Zhou could only manage a bitter smile.

"Xiaoyu, it's not that I don't believe you."

"I hope this is true too."

What I want to tell you is that you need to understand that science is not something that can be achieved with just intelligence.

"We still have to endure hardship, wait patiently, bear loneliness, and withstand failure."

"If possible, I really don't want you to waste your precious youth on this."

Lin Yu only mentioned it briefly.

But Academician Zhou was somewhat overwhelmed.

He really didn't want to see young people wasting all their resources and youth in a poor and inefficient experimental environment.

"That's the kind of thing that Bose peptides are. It's useless if the theory is beautiful; you have to verify it to convince the world."

"That road was much more difficult than we imagined."

After Academician Zhou finished speaking, Academician Wang nodded in agreement.

He knew about this thing too.

When a boson is cooled to absolute zero, it collapses into a quantum state.

But the problem is too big.

Absolute zero is not easy to achieve at all.

"Xiaoyu, we're not trying to discourage you."

"That's really what happened."

However, Academician Wang is more approachable than Academician Zhou.

Academician Zhou prefers to think rather than speak.

Academician Wang prefers to think in a way that is close to people.

I prefer to study things step by step with others.

"But we older folks are not going to dismiss the efforts of young people like that."

"Why don't you first share your understanding of bosonic states?"

Lin Yu took to heart what Academician Zhou and Academician Wang said.

He knew that Academician Zhou was right.

If he hadn't already determined that this thing could be developed in the future.

He didn't dare say he wanted to do this.

After all, the unknown is the most terrifying thing.

Moreover, given the current industrial conditions and level of scientific instruments...

Laser cooling technology wasn't developed until the mid-80s.

Everyone is still in the exploratory stage.

If we don't rely on the power of the future like he does.

It really takes countless people's thirties and forties to dedicate their youth to this before anything can be achieved.

However, since the chief academician was willing to test him, he was willing to answer.

He turned around, picked up the chalk, and began drawing a diagram on the blackboard.

"Bose-Einstein condensate, or BEC for short, is the fifth state of matter, in addition to the solid, liquid, gas, and plasma states."

These words were meant for Commander Hou.

He knew that, unless one was specializing in theoretical physics, this was actually a rather niche subject.

"When the temperature drops low enough, the platinum color states lose their individual identities and all become the same quantum state."

"At this point, matter will exhibit many incredible properties, such as superfluidity, coherence, and nonlinearity —"

Lin Yu's words were actually meant for Academician Zhou and Academician Wang.

These are fundamental studies on bosonic particles.

It is the most basic of the basics.

Whether or not someone understands these concepts can indicate the depth of their understanding of bosonic states.

Academician Wang nodded, agreeing with Lin Yu's assessment.

However, in the physics community in 1994, BEC was still a theoretical concept.

Although Einstein predicted its existence 70 years ago, no one has actually observed it in a laboratory until now.

Only Lin Yu knew that it would be the following year, that is, next year, 1995.

Cornell and Wieman in the United States will achieve BEC through rapid cooling of rubidium atomic gas.

He was awarded the Nobel Prize in 2001.

Then, Lin Yu began to talk about the research done in later generations.

He wrote several formulas on the blackboard.

"Mr. Wang, Mr. Zhou, please take a look."

"The core of so-called Bose-Einstein condensation is the statistical distribution of bosons."

"Unlike fermions, bosons are not restricted by the Pauli exclusion principle; multiple bosons can reside in the same quantum state."

.

"When the temperature drops below a critical value, a macroscopic number of bosons will simultaneously explore the ground state, forming a quantum object within a macroscopic system."

At this point, Lin Yu drew a temperature-density phase diagram.

"And this critical temperature can actually be calculated precisely using a formula."

Lin Yu wrote down formulas one by one on the blackboard.

This greatly alarmed Academician Zhu and Academician Wang.

These are beyond the scope of their studies.

However, the rigorous logic and clear derivation in the formula clearly show that it has been carefully considered.

Simply put, it doesn't seem fake.

Lin Yu continued.

"BEC is not just a phenomenon of rarefied atomic gases; it can exist in a wider range of systems."

"In fact, superfluid helium is essentially a partial BEC."

"The Cooper pairs in a superconductor should also be bosons. They will also undergo BEC."

"Even—the universe itself."

At this point, Lin Yu spoke with certainty.

"Bose-Einstein condensates must be real."

"We can continue by applying another formula."

The two academicians were somewhat stunned.

The universe? The universe itself?

The universe is something on a macroscopic scale. What does this mean?

Academician Wang gestured for Lin Yu to continue.

Lin Yu nodded and wrote a few words on the blackboard.

"Cosmic microwave background radiation."

"This thing is definitely one of the pieces of evidence that proves the real existence of the boson state."

"Mr. Wang, do you know the temperature of the cosmic microwave background radiation?"

The cosmic microwave background radiation is a core research topic in physical cosmology and astrophysics.

It also intersects deeply with theoretical physics, particle physics, and general relativity.

It is one of the cornerstones of modern cosmology.

Because it is the most crucial and direct observational evidence for the Big Bang theory.

Anyone who has studied astrophysics and the origin of the universe.

Everyone knows what the cosmic microwave background radiation is.

Academician Wang thought for a moment. He wasn't an expert in this field; he only remembered that such a thing had happened, but he had completely forgotten the specific temperature.

It was Academician Zhou, who was always silent and unsmiling, who spoke up.

"2.725 Kelvin."

The universe itself is a giant Bose-Einstein condensate.