In the cutting-edge research field of theoretical physics, it was common to throw a particle into a chaotic system that was difficult to predict.
By observing the particle, the system could be indirectly observed.
In fact, Lu Zhou's idea for this experiment was largely based on his work experience at CERN.
If the plasma system was like a billiard table locked in a black box, and the plasma was like the billiard balls on the table, then there was nothing better than "hitting" in a fixed direction to figure out the situation on the billiard table.
As for the "white ball" particle, there was nothing more suitable than helium-3.
First of all, its atomic diameter was small enough. It was composed of two protons and one neutron, which was close to the atomic mass of tritium. Its nuclear structure was more stable! Not only did it avoid multi-atomic collisions, but it was also easier to pass through the plasma.
In order to reach the temperature of the fusion reaction between helium-3 and deuterium, the current temperature and electromagnetic field had to be increased by at least a hundred times. Therefore, even if it was used on a stellarator, the helium-3 fusion reaction could be ignored.
Therefore, using helium-3 for this experiment was the most appropriate choice!
Considering the number of particles in the plasma system, the interference of a helium-3 atom on the entire system was almost negligible. After all, the impact of throwing an atom into the system was much smaller than inserting a probe!
The helium-3 atom that passed through the plasma would collide with the particles in the system. The electromagnetic waves generated by the collision would act as "sound", and they would be heard by the observation equipment connected to the outside of the device. Using this data, the macroscopic and microscopic parameters of the plasma could be analyzed.
After that, the helium-3 atoms that passed through the plasma would collide with the target material, and at the same time, they would separate from the entire system.
As long as the helium-3 atom was continuously fired into the plasma and collected the electromagnetic wave data generated by the collision, as well as the impact data from the target material, Lu Zhou was confident that he could use a mathematical method to indirectly analyze the interference of the helium-3 atom in the plasma system. This way, he could indirectly deduce the properties of the system itself.
This was too abstract, but a simple analogy could be made.
We measure the refractive index of water. If we directly study the water itself, the whole experiment is undoubtedly complicated. However, if a beam of light was shot into water and the refractive index was calculated by observing the change in the angle between the light and the interface, the whole experiment would be much simpler.
The idea of Lu Zhou's experiment was to use helium-3 particles as a beam of light!
"… We only need to set up a palm-sized target material on the first wall of the stellarator to capture the helium-3 particles emitted from the atomic gun. We can record the electromagnetic wave signals emitted by the collision of helium-3 and tritium atoms during the emission cycle, as well as the energy and impact angular momentum of the helium-3 hitting the target material. We can indirectly analyze the data carried by the plasma under high temperature and pressure!"
"Let's not talk about whether this can be done or not." Professor Lazerson stared at Lu Zhou and said seriously, "Are you sure you can process this data? If we launch N particles, the variables involved will be more than N to the power of N! Also, we have to consider the magnetic field disturbance of the plasma itself … "
When the variables of a physical model were large enough, even a supercomputer would not be able to complete the calculations.
However, Professor Lazerson's words did not scare Lu Zhou.
Lu Zhou answered Professor Lazerson's question with a confident tone, "I'm not sure if other people know, but I'm 90% sure."
Building a mathematical model and solving a mathematical model were two different concepts. Even though the variables seemed large, it was actually a headache for a supercomputer.
If it was just building a theoretical model, Lu Zhou was quite confident in his abilities.
Professor Lazerson hesitated, and he still could not make a decision.
Theoretically speaking, this idea seemed to work, but the premise was that Lu Zhou could build a theoretical model of the entire system based on the electromagnetic wave excitation data of the helium-3 atoms.
If the collected data could not be used effectively, even if they succeeded, it would be a waste of effort.
Data that could not be used was no better than "noise" in an experiment.
"… Give me a reason to believe you can do it."
"Is Goldbach's conjecture enough?"
Professor Lazerson said, "It's not enough! That only means you're an expert in the field of number theory, it doesn't mean anything to me! "
"What about the theoretical model of the electrochemical interface structure?" Lu Zhou saw that Professor Lazerson was about to refute, so he immediately said, "I know what you want to say. This only proves that I'm good at theoretical chemistry and computational chemistry, but it doesn't mean that I'm suitable for plasma research, right?"
Professor Lazerson did not say anything, but his eyes spoke volumes.
Lu Zhou was not discouraged.
He continued, "But what I want to tell you is that my research is all about data processing, and the scale of the data I've processed is not much smaller than the amount of data we're about to face!"
This time, Professor Lazerson did not say anything. Instead, he fell into silence, as if he was thinking.
Seeing that Lazerson did not speak, Lu Zhou continued to speak.
"Believe me, it sounds difficult, but it's not unsolvable! All we have to do is insert a helium-3 probe into the plasma. The only thing that sounds ridiculous is that it's only the size of an atom.
"If we succeed …"
Lu Zhou paused for a second and stared into his eyes. He then said in a serious manner, "This is undoubtedly a Nobel Prize-level invention."
The Nobel Prize didn't just reward great theoretical discoveries, it also rewarded major inventions that changed human civilization.
For example, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was announced in October 2017, and it was awarded to the three scholars who invented the cryogenic electron microscope. This was because biologists relied on their invention to publish a lot of theses.
Just like what Old Qiu said, if they could establish an observation method to directly observe the macroscopic and microscopic parameters of the plasma system under high temperature and pressure, it would have a huge impact on the entire field of plasma physics.
Also, this technology would undoubtedly promote the development of the entire controllable nuclear fusion project!
"That sounds …"
Professor Lazerson took off his glasses and took out a pair of glasses cloth from his pocket. He began to rub the lenses.
The lenses became brighter and brighter, and the pupils reflected in the lenses became more and more excited.
However, he couldn't make up his mind.
After waiting for nearly ten minutes, Lu Zhou looked at his watch.
Lu Zhou was about to give up and find someone else to cooperate with. However, Professor Lazerson suddenly put on his glasses again.
When he looked at Lu Zhou again, there was no longer any contempt in his eyes.
Instead, there was …
Excitement!
"… This sounds interesting!"
When Lu Zhou heard this, he finally sighed in relief. He smiled and reached out his right hand.
"I'm glad to hear that."
In the end, the answer he got wasn't "that sounds unrealistic".
…
Convincing Professor Lazerson saved Lu Zhou a lot of trouble.
Princeton's Plasma Physics Laboratory had world-class standards, and it had research agreements with many controllable nuclear fusion research units around the world. Therefore, Princeton had a considerable advantage in terms of resources and talents.
This was something that other research institutes didn't have.
If Professor Lazerson didn't want to cooperate, Lu Zhou would have to send a letter to the Max Planck Society and try to become a visiting scholar at the Max Planck Society's Institute for Plasma Physics.
As for building a laboratory that was comparable to PPPL in terms of research and development capabilities …
Not to mention the research resources that money couldn't buy, a few hundred million USD wasn't enough.
After reaching an agreement with Professor Lazerson, Lu Zhou referred to the other experts' suggestions and named this technology "He3 atom probe".
As for the name of the project team, it was even more concise, with only three characters —
“He-3”
Over the next few days, Lu Zhou basically went back and forth between the Institute for Advanced Study and the Plasma Physics Laboratory. He would either read plasma related literature or sit down with Professor Lazerson and the other plasma physics experts and engineers on the "He-3" project to exchange ideas on the specific experimental design.
Obviously, the conclusion of the theoretical research didn't make Lu Zhou idle. Instead, the new work made him even busier.
While Lu Zhou was busy with the "He-3" project, it was time for the new Annual Mathematics journal to be published.
The thesis that he submitted to Annual Mathematics officially met with his peers in the field of partial differential equations.
Lu Zhou didn't pay much attention to the mathematics community's reaction to the publication of his thesis.
In his opinion, this wasn't a particularly outstanding research result. At most, it was just adding a brick to the foundation of his predecessors' research.
However, sometimes fate was a strange thing.
To Lu Zhou's surprise, the development of things was exactly the opposite of what he expected.
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