The controversy over the 750 GeV characteristic peak and the news of the Brookhaven National Laboratory quitting caused an uproar in the international community. However, Lu Zhou pretended like he didn't see it at all. He continued to complete his daily work and direct the operation of the collider.
There was no nuclear fusion on the Moon, and there was no way to put nuclear fusion on the Moon. The heat produced by the Pangu reactor could heat the local temperature of the nearby water by 1 to 2 degrees. They also had to change the heat vents from time to time to prevent excessive heat accumulation. The same device would fail in a few minutes on the Moon, where there was no lake or atmosphere.
Not to mention that there wasn't a large power demand on the Moon. Even though the collider consumed power, it couldn't be run all the time. The collider was currently powered by solar energy, storing electricity in the form of chemical energy. It would take three days to charge the collider for three minutes.
However, this model also faced a problem. The Moon's cycle was about 27.3 days, half of which was night time, and the day time was only about 13 days. At most, the battery array could be charged four times.
In other words, there were only four experiment opportunities a month, and each experiment opportunity was extremely important.
ILHCRC headquarters.
Luo Wenxuan sent the latest experimental data to Lu Zhou and spoke.
"It's going to be dark soon, we can still do one last experiment this month."
Lu Zhou took a look at the document and frowned.
Suddenly, he sighed softly and put the document in his hand on the table.
"It would be great if we could run a few more sets of data, our chances of winning would be much higher."
Luo Wenxuan: "There is a way … At my last meeting, someone suggested that we can build a solar power array and storage facility next to the collider. We can trade space for time, which can increase the number of experiments per month by 1.5 to 2 times."
Lu Zhou: "What's the budget?"
Luo Wenxuan said awkwardly, "A conservative estimate is US $1 billion."
US $1 billion …
When Lu Zhou heard this number, he couldn't help but smack his tongue.
Even if he wanted to spend this much money, it would be difficult.
The ILHCRC's annual budget was around US $2 billion to US $3 billion, which was shared by countries. Compared to CERN's fixed budget of a billion US dollars, the ILHCRC's financial situation was quite good. It was not like they couldn't afford the money.
However, it was too risky to spend nearly half of the budget at the beginning of the year.
After all, the ILHCRC was a huge research institution. It wasn't enough to just feed the collider, there were too many other things that needed money.
What's more, the installation of a solar array meant that the maintenance costs would double. Increasing the number of experiments per month sounded tempting, but it would not solve the root of the problem.
His 750 GeV proposal was already risky enough.
Lu Zhou tapped his finger on the table and thought for a long time. He then shook his head and spoke.
"It doesn't make much sense. The collider tube needs to be maintained after every experiment. Increasing the frequency of use will increase the maintenance cost of the entire device …"
It might even overdraft the life of the device.
High-energy particle radiation damage to materials was permanent. The higher the energy level of the collision experiment, the greater the impact, and the higher the maintenance cost.
This wasn't just a problem faced by the Lunar Hadron Collider; all of the high-energy collider experiments around the world were facing the same problem.
"The problem is money. Once the collider is started, there's no way we can afford it." Luo Wenxuan sighed and said, "It would be great if we could make money from the Moon."
Lu Zhou smiled and shook his head.
Make money from the Moon?
He wasn't the only one thinking about this. Many people, including Chen Yushan, had the same idea.
However, it was obvious that the Moon wasn't developed enough to make money from the Moon yet. At the very least, before his "Control of Earth and Moon" chain mission was completed, it would be too difficult to achieve this.
Lu Zhou: "Don't worry about money. Not to mention that the problem we're facing right now can't be solved with money alone. Oh yeah, it's Chinese New Year in a few days. After the last experiment is over, everyone should go home and celebrate the Chinese New Year. "
Luo Wenxuan made a helpless expression.
"That's all we can do."
…
The last experiment in January 2023 ended with a "spark" that was 360,000 kilometers away.
With the beginning of the long night period, the collider also entered its maintenance cycle to prepare for next month's experiment.
Even though the experiment was over, Lu Zhou didn't stop working.
These days, he was either listening to the reports of various research groups at the ILHCRC headquarters, listening to the reports sent by the representatives of the groups on the data analysis of the previous month, or holding meetings with other experts at the ILHCRC headquarters to discuss the experimental data collected last month and formulate the next experimental plan.
The huge amount of data meant that it was impossible for him to carefully screen every section of data. He could only rely on his intuition in mathematics and physics to check every link as much as possible.
He remembered that seven years ago, during the two weeks when everyone was doing a summary report on the experimental data, he should have been on stage in the lecture hall.
But now, his work had risen from a part to a whole, and his identity had changed from an ordinary scientific researcher to an academic leader who would lead the future of global physics.
Thinking about it now, he felt emotional.
However, now was obviously not the time to look back at his life.
The mountain of work made Lu Zhou want to split himself in half. One in the conference room, one in the chairman's office.
11 o 'clock in the morning.
In the conference room.
Lu Zhou repeatedly looked at the sorted experimental data and frowned.
The results of the last experiment were still not ideal. From the feedback data from several sets of detectors, although the 750 GeV characteristic peak appeared, the confidence level was still below 3 sigma.
Lu Zhou looked at the Dalitz diagram several times and looked at the series of green dots hovering below 125 GeV. He then suddenly spoke.
"It's not completely fruitless. At least the data we collected in the low-energy section is consistent with CERN's results. At the same time, the 750 GeV characteristic peak did show a weak signal. The experimental evidence tells us that the appearance of the characteristic peak is not a coincidence. "
Everyone at the conference table looked at each other.
Compared to a valuable clue, this sentence sounded more like a consolation that said, "This is not a loss."
Witten pondered for a long time before he spoke.
"Then what do you think it is?"
"It's just a conjecture." Lu Zhou paused for a second and continued, "There is something that is difficult for us to directly observe or understand in the matter that makes up the elementary particles. For example … Look at the clock on the wall. "
Everyone followed Lu Zhou's line of sight, and they all looked at the clock that was gently ticking.
Lu Zhou paused for a second before he continued, "Just like the pendulum.
"… Just like its pendulum, when the pendulum moves to the sides, it is blocked by something, so we can't see it. Only when it appears in the center can we use traditional methods to observe it directly."
Witten rubbed his chin with interest.
"What an interesting analogy … Do you mean that the treasure we are looking for will only appear at a specific time?"
Lu Zhou replied in an ambiguous tone, "No … But it is possible that we can only observe it at a specific time."
Professor Franck Wilczek spun his pen and frowned.
"How do you plan on verifying this conclusion?"
It could only be observed at a specific time. This kind of ambiguous conclusion wouldn't solve any problems. They were discussing methods of observation, not reasons for not being able to observe it.
Lu Zhou shrugged and said, "No conclusion can be verified at the beginning, including your 'time crystal' … Of course, I will design an experiment to find a way to solve this problem. I will try to solve it before the experiment starts next month. At least this will give our collider something to do."
Witten hesitated for a second and said, "It's China New Year soon, is that okay?"
"It's nothing, don't worry about me." Lu Zhou tapped the conference table with a pen cap. He looked around the conference table and said, "This meeting is over for the time being, dismissed."
The meeting was over.
After leaving the conference room, Lu Zhou went straight to the chairman's office.
Lu Zhou told his secretary to bring him a sandwich and a cup of coffee. He took out the notes from the previous meeting and held them in his hand.
"Where is the problem …"
After thinking hard, Lu Zhou already had a clue in his mind, and his intuition told him that this clue pointed to the result he had been dreaming of.
However, this clue was too vague. He couldn't find an answer even after thinking for a long time.
Suddenly, a string of text bubbles appeared on the lower right corner of the laptop, interrupting his thoughts.
Xiao Ai: [Master! Good news! (???? (???) ノ]
Lu Zhou looked at the computer and asked, "What good news?"
Xiao Ai: [Master's experiment has results! (?????)????】
Experiment?
Lu Zhou paused for a second and quickly realized.
Xiao Ai wasn't talking about the physics experiment.
It was something else.
The Void Memory experiment …
Lamp pen.
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