The discovery of the pentaquark was exciting news for the entire theoretical physics community.
However, for Frank Wilczek, he was not in a good mood recently.
Of course, his good mood was not ruined by the Hadron Collider. It was because of a bet from six years ago.
Six years ago, at a physics conference in the Azores, he made a bet with a man named Garrett Reese.
Mr. Reese, who somehow got an invitation letter, stood up and made trouble when he was talking about the standard model. He insisted that supersymmetric particles did not exist because they could not find supersymmetric particles. Mr. Frank, of course, firmly defended theoretical physics and predicted that the Hadron Collider (LHC) would detect supersymmetric particles within six years!
Then, they made a bet in front of everyone.
The arbitrator of this bet was the host of the conference at the time, Professor Max Tegmark of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The bet was $1,000.
Now, six years had passed. After more than two years of rest, the LHC finally restarted the experiment on June 3rd and successfully increased the energy to 13TeV. However, even though the pentaquark was discovered, there were still no signs of supersymmetric particles.
Although the standard model was once again correctly tested, it was useless. He still lost the bet.
As for the reason, he overestimated CERN's ability and was too optimistic about the performance of the LHC upgrade.
In fact, in the physics world, gambling was not a rare thing.
Frank Wilczek was a gambler, and this was not the first time he made a bet.
In 2005, he made a bet with the "beautiful scientist" Jenny Conrad of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was convinced that the LHC would detect the Higgs particle, while Jenny thought that the LHC would not be able to detect it.
At that time, the bet was gold chocolate coins provided at the Nobel Prize award ceremony. The final result was obvious. Frank won the bet and received 10 gold chocolate coins.
However, this time, he was not so lucky. Unfortunately, he lost the bet.
In fact, winning or losing did not matter. For these scholars, betting was at most a way to relax after work.
However, the problem was that Mr. Garrett Reese, who made the bet, was not easy to deal with.
First of all, Mr. Reese was not a physicist at all. He graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles with a PhD in philosophy and was now a bridge construction worker.
Secondly, the greatest "achievement" of this PhD in philosophy was to use the Lie group E8 structure that had only recently been analyzed by mathematicians to construct the legendary Grand Unification theorem and predict more than 20 particles …
Einstein's unfinished work had always been a treasure pursued by theoretical physicists. However, theoretical physicists were not the only ones who coveted this treasure. There were also countless people who did not understand physics.
Mr. Garrett Reese was probably the most cultured person in the civil sciences. At least, he was much more cultured than the idiots in North America who stubbornly believed that the Earth was square and sent themselves into the stratosphere with their own rockets.
It was also because of this that many people gave him the title of 'King of the People' …
Although his mathematical theory, which was integrated with philosophy, was despised by both mathematicians and physicists, it was quite popular in some places. It was even published in a book.
Because of this, it was very embarrassing for Wilczek to lose this bet.
A Nobel Prize laureate in physics lost to the "King of the People".
Although he calmly admitted that he lost on his personal Twitter account and fulfilled the $1,000 gentleman's agreement, it was obvious that he wasn't as calm as he appeared on his social media platform.
It was not about the $1,000. It was about the guy named Reese showing off on the Internet all day long.
Recently, a lot of people teased him about this. He could not help but slap himself in the face. Why did I make a bet with this garbage?
It was so embarrassing!
Mr. Frank sat in the office prepared for him by CERN. He drank coffee while browsing the latest paper on the pentaquark particle on the arXiv website.
Suddenly, his assistant knocked on the door and walked in.
"Mr. Frank, someone asked me to bring you something."
Mr. Frank replied, "What is it?"
The assistant replied, "It looks like a paper."
Although he was not in a good mood recently, he still spoke.
"Let me see."
"Okay, sir."
Frank took the printed paper from his assistant and flipped through it. He asked casually, "There's no name on it? Who gave it to me? "
Assistant, "According to the person's self-introduction, he is an intern."
"Intern?" Frank frowned slightly, but he didn't throw the paper aside because of his identity. Instead, he continued to read it without changing his expression.
To be able to intern at a place like CERN, he definitely had the ability … At least he was not an ordinary person. In fact, a lot of people did not lack knowledge, they just needed an opportunity. If this paper was interesting, he did not mind teaching the intern.
This was also the reason why he was so popular here.
At first, Frank was just casually glancing at it. However, as he continued to read the thesis, the expressionless Frank gradually showed a hint of interest.
When he saw a certain word in the thesis, his expression suddenly froze. His interested expression gradually became serious.
Frank put down the paper in his hand and looked at his assistant.
"How do you contact this person?"
The assistant paused for a second and said, "He didn't leave a phone number, but he left an address. It's at a hotel near the CERN building. If you want to see him, I can find him for you. "
"Help me find him, this paper is interesting," said Frank as he threw the paper on the upper left corner of the table.
Generally speaking, the theses that were placed here were interesting to him. At the very least, they were worth his time.
As for the pile on the right side, most of them ended up in the office shredder …
…
After Lu Zhou handed the paper to Frank's assistant, he thought that he would have to wait for a few days. He did not expect happiness to come so suddenly.
The next morning, Mr. Franck Wilczek's assistant came to the hotel and brought him to the office on the R1 floor.
And the first thing the old man said when he saw him was, "You're a good teacher.
"What do you think it could be?"
Lu Zhou said without hesitation, "Supersymmetric particles!"
In fact, the possibility of this was very small. Even he did not believe that it could be supersymmetric particles, but he had to say it.
This was a gimmick, just like getting investments.
However, Mr. Frank was obviously not that easy to fool. He laughed and shook his head.
"That's not realistic."
"But it's possible. Maybe it's something else, but no matter what it is, it's worth our research, right?" Lu Zhou continued, "Do you want to make a bet? I'll bet a hundred dollars that there's something there. "
The old man's eyebrows twitched. He coughed and said, "There's no need for a bet."
Lu Zhou was stunned.
He knew that the old man's favorite thing to do was to bet with others. Why did he suddenly change his mind?
Frank paused for a second before he continued.
"I'm a little interested in your discovery, but only a little. Regardless of whether I'm interested or not, CERN won't start the LHC for an unperfected theory. You didn't succeed in convincing me.
"However, I can give you a chance. You can improve your theory before the end of the month. Then, at the European Nuclear Research Conference at the end of the month, I will recommend you to give a report and report your findings to the physicists participating in the conference. If you can convince me with your theory, I can consider helping you convince others. "
When Frank said this, he stared into Lu Zhou's eyes.
Lu Zhou knew what the old man was waiting for.
Lu Zhou took a deep breath and responded to the old man's expectation with his eyes.
And his answer was only one word.
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