In the end, Luo Wenxuan stubbornly didn't accept his proposal. He said that he would bring back the Clay Institute's check and hand it over to Lu Zhou.
Lu Zhou thought about it carefully and felt like his proposal was a bit inappropriate. Therefore, he didn't make things difficult for Luo Wenxuan. Instead, he asked the finance department of the Institute for Advanced Study to send him US $100,000 in travel expenses. He also wished Luo Wenxuan a good time in France.
Luo Wenxuan didn't reject this money. Not only that, but he even asked for a month of vacation.
It seemed like he was planning on spending the money before coming back …
Forget about Luo Wenxuan in Europe.
Over the past few days, Lu Zhou had received many congratulatory messages from people.
Some of them were his Princeton students and colleagues. Some of them were colleagues that he had interacted with at academic conferences, and some were friends that he had interacted with.
For example, Tao Zhexuan.
The two worked closely together when they were researching Goldbach's conjecture. They had a good relationship in private. Both of them were well-rounded scholars. Their research covered almost every direction in the mathematics field, so they had a lot to talk about.
Tao Zhexuan smiled and congratulated Lu Zhou, "Congratulations, another Millennium Prize Problem has fallen in front of you. Maybe the Clay Institute should update their" question bank ". By the way, can you tell me your next research project? "
Lu Zhou: "I probably won't be researching mathematics for a while. I'll be thinking about how to use mathematics to change science."
Tao Zhexuan: "Like going to the Moon?"
Lu Zhou: "One of them!"
Tao Zhexuan: "This sounds exciting. My wife works for NASA, and she always shares things with me that are far from my field of research. If you succeed, remember to save a seat for me. I've never traveled to the Moon in my life. "
Lu Zhou smiled and joked, "There will be a day like this. Who knows, maybe one day I'll hold an academic report on the Moon."
After hanging up the phone, Lu Zhou stood up from his office chair. He was about to go downstairs to the cafeteria for lunch when his phone rang again.
He took out his phone and saw that it was Sheng Xianfu. Lu Zhou didn't hesitate and immediately pressed the answer button.
"Hello?"
"Professor …"
Lu Zhou heard something wrong in Sheng Xianfu's voice and immediately asked without thinking.
"Another explosion? Did you hurt anyone? Is the equipment I borrowed okay? "
Upon hearing this, Sheng Xianfu almost choked on his breath. He coughed a few times and said, "What explosion again? We're not researching bombs. Is there a need to be so nervous? "
Lu Zhou: "…"
In a sense, fusion reactions are more terrifying than ordinary bombs, right?
However …
It was good that he was fine.
Heaving a sigh of relief, Lu Zhou said speechlessly, "Then why are you being so mysterious?"
Sheng Xianfu rubbed his nose awkwardly. "I'm just excited."
Lu Zhou: "… Excited?"
"Yeah." Sheng Xianfu, who was holding his phone, nodded and said in a trembling voice, "I think we … succeeded."
The phone went silent for half a minute.
Lu Zhou took a deep breath and spoke.
"I'll be right there, we'll talk when I see you."
After that, Lu Zhou hung up the phone and called Wang Peng.
"Pick me up at the mathematics department building."
Wang Peng didn't ask much and only replied with one word.
"Okay."
After a 20-minute drive, a black sedan with a red flag stopped at the entrance of the research institute.
After getting out of the car, Lu Zhou didn't stop at all. He quickly walked through the entrance and walked straight to a corner of the research institute.
Ever since the last safety incident, the miniaturization of controllable fusion research team moved from the corner of the physics department to a temporary warehouse next to the research institute. Even so, the occasional passersby would unconsciously take a detour.
Lu Zhou quickly walked to the entrance of the laboratory. Before his foot even touched the door, he heard deafening cheers erupt from the laboratory. Even the glass was trembling.
"What's going on?" Lu Zhou hurried into the laboratory and quickly found Sheng Xianfu, who was full of excitement.
"The idea of using liquid metal as the working solution is correct! According to the experimental data, when liquid lithium is used as the working solution, we can exert more sound pressure on the bubbles through the ultrasonic emitter! It also makes the volume of the bubble collapse more stable! " In order to restrain the excitement in his heart and make himself speak more nimbly, Sheng Xianfu's shoulders were trembling.
When Lu Zhou heard that his conjecture was verified, he couldn't help but look happy.
However, compared to the success itself, he was more interested in how they did it.
"Why did we fail last time?"
Sheng Xianfu said excitedly, "At first, we tried to increase the power of the ultrasonic emitter, but we couldn't increase the neutron multiplication rate. Finally, we found out that the key to the problem was the deuterium-tritium gas mixture!"
Lu Zhou: "What did you guys do?"
"We injected the gas to preheat it!"
Lu Zhou's heart thumped, and he immediately said, "You're ionizing the deuterium-tritium gas mixture?"
Sheng Xianfu was full of joy as he said, "Exactly!"
Lu Zhou had a look of realization on his face, and he roughly understood what they were doing.
By ionizing the deuterium-tritium gas mixture, then injecting it into the liquid lithium through the air inlet, even though the ionization temperature of tens of thousands of degrees was nothing compared to the instantaneous temperature of tens of millions of degrees, when the expanded ionized gas was injected into the liquid lithium, it would have a larger surface area than at room temperature. The energy transmitted to the bubble would also increase.
In this case, the rapidly collapsing bubble would obtain a higher instantaneous temperature, thus meeting the conditions for the DT fusion reaction!
Professor Li Changxia, who was standing next to Sheng Xianfu, was also full of excitement as he said, "We found a more stable way to achieve controllable fusion! We are once again at the forefront of the world! "
"Yeah …"
Lu Zhou looked at the crude black metal tube in the middle of the laboratory and couldn't help but have a look of fascination on his face.
The design plan for the Hall-effect propulsion unit had been retrieved from Debris No.3. Once the five-axis linkage CNC machine tool was installed in the space shuttle assembly center, Xiao Ai would be able to complete the production. Now that the miniaturization of controllable fusion had been solved, there was nothing that could stop him from completing the blueprint in his mind.
Of course, even now, this "reactor" was still very crude. Whether it was power or energy utilization, it was far inferior to the huge magnetic confinement fusion device like the Pangu reactor. The high cost of not being able to be reused made it almost impossible for it to be used in general transportation.
However, this miniaturized fusion power plant wasn't used to provide energy for production and living, so this shortcoming didn't matter.
Considering its advantages in terms of volume and energy density, as well as its advantage in power compared to fission batteries, even though it was "slightly" more expensive, the advantages outweighed the disadvantages.
Combined with the Hall-effect propulsion unit that he retrieved from Debris No.3, this device would redefine aerospace, just like how gunpowder redefined warfare.
It wasn't an exaggeration to say that the entire world would change because of their discovery today …
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