Now that the data was in his hands, the problem was how to deal with it.
There was a lack of theoretical support from quantum chromodynamics.
However, from a statistical point of view, the number of samples was too small, and there was no useful conclusion to be drawn.
After analyzing the 10 gigabytes of data for five nights, Lu Zhou finally came to a conclusion.
If he wanted to confirm whether or not this abnormal bump was a characteristic peak, he would have to run a few laps on the Hadron Collider. With the current amount of data, the accumulated cases could not even reach a 3 sigma confidence level. It could not even be considered a "sign" in physics, let alone a "discovery".
After five nights of closed-door research, Lu Zhou took the five days of research results and data to Professor Lu Shenjian.
It was impossible for him to convince CERN by himself. After all, he was just an intern, and his status was too low.
After explaining his point of view to Professor Lu Shenjian, Lu Zhou thought that even if the old man did not agree with his opinion, he would at least be emotional about the discovery. He did not expect to get a negative answer.
"The Hadron Collider will not start just because of your whim. If you want to find 750 GeV particles, the collision energy needs to be at least 1.2 TeV or even 2 TeV. This is not a small amount of money. Not to mention that the LHC's schedule is full, and CERN has endless experiments to do. Everyone wants to verify their theory, but the funding is limited. "
Lu Zhou did not give up. He tried to persuade Professor Lu, "But Professor, since the" post-standard model era ", we have not discovered any new particles. Don't you think this may be an opportunity?"
Yes, whether it was the tetraquark or the pentaquark, they were all particles that had been observed before. However, the confidence level was less than 5 sigma. They were called "signs" in academia, and could not be confirmed as "discoveries".
If the 750 GeV signal was confirmed as the existence of a new particle, Lu Zhou did not know what it meant for physics. This was because he did not know what the particle was.
However, he was certain that if this discovery was confirmed to be true, it would at least receive a Nobel Prize.
"To be honest, I'm not optimistic," said Professor Lu. He shook his head and said, "750 GeV is too heavy. From the perspective of quantum chromodynamics, it deviates from the theoretical basis."
Lu Zhou emphasized, "But we have observed this signal on ATLAS and CMS detectors! You think it's just a coincidence? "
"Yes, you're right, it's not necessarily a coincidence." Academician Lu nodded and pointed to the data on the paper. He said, "But have you ever thought that it might just be a two-photon signal produced by gluon polymerization?"
Lu Zhou nodded. "You're right. There is indeed such a possibility, but it is precisely because of this that I need to use experiments to prove that my guess is correct!"
Professor Lu looked at his student who was getting more and more excited. He smiled and paused for a second. He then sighed and said, "I understand the excitement in your heart, but similar things have happened before. Personally, I want to help you test the results, but unfortunately, we are not a member of CERN. We are only cooperating with CERN. Whether it is me or Old Gao from Shuimu University, we don't have much say here. We can't do this experiment at the BES in Beijing. "
Lu Zhou went silent.
Just like the old man said, the Hadron Collider belonged to someone else, so they had to prioritize their own research. Unless you could come up with conclusive evidence, you could not convince the head of CERN, but you could at least make them interested in your theory.
However, this was a vicious cycle.
If they did not conduct experiments on this energy zone, there would be no evidence at all. Unless someone else did a collision experiment with energy above 1 TeV and then looked for these leftovers from other people's data …
But when would they do that?
Even if they did find these things, it would have nothing to do with him.
After all, he could not stay at CERN and watch other people's experiments. He still had to go back to school and do his PhD at Princeton.
When Lu Zhou returned to his room, he laid on his bed and looked at the thesis in his hand.
Suddenly, he coughed and asked in a low voice.
"System, are there any particles at 750 GeV?"
The system did not respond.
Is it because my physics level is not high enough?
Or is it because this kind of question is a directional question? Based on his previous experience, any questions that involved direction were not within the system's response area.
F * ck sake, I feel like general points are more and more useless.
Lu Zhou took a deep breath and sat up from his bed.
It was too early to give up. Not to mention that he was not a person who gave up easily.
In fact, there was still a chance.
CERN would not start the Hadron Collider for an intern because he was not important enough.
If that was the case, then he would find someone important enough to convince the person in charge of CERN!
Recently, there were many big names in the theoretical physics community gathered here. There were a lot of people who were important enough.
If everything went smoothly, these people would stay until the end of the month. They would wait for CERN to hold the European Nuclear Research Conference and report the results of the pentaquark before gradually leaving.
Now, there was only one thing that Lu Zhou had to do, and that was to perfect his theory before the end of the month.
…
Perfecting the theory seemed easy, but it was not that easy to do.
If he wanted to convert this physics problem into a mathematical problem, the key was that he had to use mathematical methods to prove that when there were enough samples, the bulge in the 750 GeV energy zone would form a characteristic peak.
This sounded like a statistical problem, but in the case of a lack of samples, it was almost impossible to solve this problem using pure statistical tools.
He needed more evidence.
Then, he had to analyze the evidence and come to a new conclusion.
"… This is the experimental data collected from the ATLAS and CMS detectors during the LHC's search for the Higgs particle in 2012 and 2013. However, you should know that the Higgs particle is only 125 GeV. When we were looking for this thing, we did not make the collision energy that large."
In the office, Professor Grayer threw the USB into Lu Zhou's hands.
Lu Zhou took the USB and said sincerely, "It's fine, thank you very much!"
After thinking about it, he could only ask Professor Grayer for help.
Although the two had not known each other for a long time, Professor Grayer and Lu Zhou got along well. Although Professor Grayer was not optimistic about the content of Lu Zhou's research, he did not stop him. Instead, he helped Lu Zhou collect a lot of valuable data.
Although these documents were not confidential, they were not completely open to the public. If he didn't know anyone in CERN, it would not be easy for an intern to get this data.
Professor Grayer smiled and said, "You're welcome, it's a piece of cake. Speaking of which, have you made any progress in your research?"
Lu Zhou nodded and said, "A little bit."
Professor Grayer said, "If you want to use the Hadron Collider, my suggestion is to find someone in the theoretical physics community to work with, instead of building a car behind closed doors. After all, no matter how good your theory is, it still has to be supported by the LHC data. "
Lu Zhou, "That's what I plan to do. But before that, I want to make my theory more reliable."
Professor Grayer asked, "Do you have a suitable target?"
Lu Zhou shook his head and said, "Not yet …"
He wanted to wait until his theory was more complete. Then, he would take the thesis and try it out one by one. For example, he could wait for a big name's lecture and wait for the lecture to end before he went to the lecture.
If this did not work, then he had no other choice.
Professor Grayer thought for a bit and asked, "Do you need me to recommend someone?"
Lu Zhou paused for a second and immediately said, "Of course! Do you have any suggestions? "
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