Reborn and become a Great Scientist

Chapter 347 86 Exciting Moments
"But," Eddington was still a little unwilling to give up, "you said that two hydrogen nuclei cannot fuse together to form a deuterium nucleus. Are there other reasons?"

Chen Muwu didn't know what strange ideas Eddington had thought of. He didn't say anything, but frowned and stared at Eddington with a puzzled expression.

"For example, is it because the electric potential difference of acceleration is not large enough, so the hydrogen nucleus is not accelerated to a sufficient kinetic energy, so only elastic collisions can occur between two protons, or they do not even have elastic collisions? Is it directly deflected by the Coulomb repulsive force of same-sex repulsion?"

This amount of accelerating voltage should be sufficient.

But Chen Muwu couldn't produce evidence now, and even if he explained it, it didn't make sense, so he had to be vague: "Maybe, but the particle accelerator we built in the Cavendish Laboratory can only convert protons at best. The energy is accelerated to the order of millions of electron volts, and if it is higher, it will be powerless.

"At least other people in the laboratory have accelerated protons under fixed conditions, but they still haven't found that two hydrogen nuclei can fuse to produce a deuteron, which Professor you hope to see."

Eddington was also helpless: "Well, since it is due to the limitation of the maximum acceleration voltage of this particle accelerator, this matter is indeed difficult to handle. But are there other factors? For example, the collision of two hydrogen nuclei They failed to fuse together to form a deuteron, let me think about it..."

The eyes hidden behind the lenses were serious, and it could be seen that Eddington was really thinking seriously: "Is it possible that two hydrogen nuclei carry two positive charges, while one deuterium nucleus only carries one positive charge?" Electricity. Because charge is not conserved before and after this reaction, it cannot happen? Chen, do you think this is true! We should add some free electrons to this experiment!"

Eddington felt that he had figured out why the particle bombardment experiment in the Cavendish Laboratory failed, and he was as excited as Columbus who discovered the New World.

"Uh, professor, professor! Please calm down."

Eddington's assumption made Chen Muwu feel angry and funny.

I don’t know the existence of positrons, and I don’t know that a positively charged proton can be converted into a neutron by releasing a positron and an electron neutrino through positive beta decay. Therefore, in order to satisfy the law of conservation of charge, one must be added to the reaction. Negatively charged electrons can balance the charge before and after the reaction. Eddington can be forgiven for thinking about this problem.

Because in the atomic nucleus proposed by Rutherford, in addition to protons, there are also electrically neutral particles composed of a proton and an electron.

Therefore, according to Rutherford's nuclear model, a helium-4 nucleus with a relative atomic mass of 4 and a charge of two positive charges should have two protons and two protons. Electrically neutral particles composed of electrons, which add up to four protons and two electrons.

However, even if Eddington believed that electrons were balancing charge conservation, it cannot be said that electrons did not appear before and after the entire reaction.

Could it be that in order to add some electrons to the reaction environment, should we add a cathode to the accelerator and let it emit cathode rays?
No matter who said that there were no electrons in this reaction, Chen Muwu would be the first to jump out and refuse to agree.

Although the hydrogen nuclei produced in the particle source are made by combining hydrogen molecules, electrons and protons from hydrogen gas, the hydrogen nuclei are separated from it by pressurized rectification.

However, the target of this bombardment experiment is not also the hydrogen nuclei floating in the space, but the hydrogen gas filling the reaction space.

The accelerated proton will have a certain probability of colliding with a hydrogen atom among the hydrogen molecules, and then try to carry out a nuclear reaction.

A hydrogen molecule not only has two hydrogen nuclei, but also a pair of electrons that form a covalent bond.

Electrons have always existed in this reaction, but Eddington subconsciously ignored them and thought they did not exist.

If you want to achieve what he envisioned, it is not impossible to use a hydrogen nucleus without electrons to bombard another hydrogen nucleus without electrons.

But to achieve this goal, two particle accelerators need to be placed face to face, a proton is accelerated on each side, and then the two protons are directed towards each other to have a face-to-face "collision".

But this idea was out of reach for the Cavendish Laboratory, which did not have a second particle accelerator.

After hearing Chen Muwu's meticulous explanation, Eddington finally accepted his point of view and realized that his idea just now seemed a bit naive.

In order to completely convince Eddington, Chen Muwu even searched for photos of the cloud chamber stored in the data room, and asked the former to completely believe in the proton through the images clearly recorded on the photographic films and the particle data calculated through the trajectory of the cloud chamber. When bombarded with protons, the products generated are also protons and protons, and no deuterium nuclei appear.

At this moment, Eddington was finally speechless, and the excitement he had just felt disappeared. He lowered his head like an eggplant beaten by frost.

However, the hope in his heart has not been completely extinguished. Now Eddington only hopes that the people from the British Air Company can quickly send the liquid deuterium they prepared to the Cavendish Laboratory as soon as possible. Then they can conduct experiments to see whether their idea is successful and whether the energy source in the sun is the nuclear fusion reaction they predicted.

Eddington no longer thought about his earlier theory, about how four protons and two electrons came together to form a helium nucleus.

He now feels that Chen Muwu's idea is more reasonable. Two deuterium nuclei with a relative atomic mass of 2 and a charge of 1 will fuse into a helium-4 nucleus with a relative atomic mass of 2 and a charge of 4. The entire nuclear reaction is unnecessary. Wouldn’t it make more sense to have additional electronic participation?
——Obviously Eddington still doesn’t know that the product of this experiment is not as reasonable as he imagined.

As one of the loyal followers of Quakerism, Eddington had already begun to pray silently in his heart. He extremely hoped that Chen Muwu's next experiment on the particle accelerator would be successful without any detours or mistakes.

A few years ago, he and Chen Muwu worked together very well and successfully discovered the ninth planet in the solar system at the Cambridge University Observatory.

I hope that this time, the two of them can recreate the glory of the last time and work together to explore the mystery of the sun, or stars, which continuously radiates light and heat.

By presenting evidence and reasoning, Chen Muwu finally managed to calm Eddington, who had been extremely excited since entering the Cavendish Laboratory, back to a calm state.

And he also promised the latter that as long as the British Air Company sent the liquid deuterium they prepared to the laboratory, he would go to the observatory to notify Eddington and let him go to the particle accelerator laboratory with him to do experiments. .

Eddington left the Cavendish Laboratory with some regret and longing. Chen Muwu could finally complain about what a mess this was!
Whether reporters from "The Times" came to interview, or whether Eddington ended his vacation early and rushed back to Cambridge University from Cornwall in a hurry, these somewhat nonsensical but real things have their roots in Wisconsin, USA. That astronomer named Hervey from the Yerkes Observatory, you said you have nothing to do, why do you have to think so hard and say such nonsense that the sun may explode at any time?

It is true that the unscrupulous media in the United States and the British media will do anything to sell sales. The more they spread the news, the more people will panic. The more people panic, the more they will spread the news. They have really made money from this wave of traffic.

Of course, the most profitable person is Chen Muwu, who obviously wants to take a good rest without doing anything else during the rest of the summer vacation, while helping Kapitsa with his upcoming wedding.

But the new physics results were delivered to Hervey's doorstep, and he would be a fool not to accept them.Moreover, there is another benefit to conducting these nuclear physics experiments.

That is, at the Solvay Conference held in October, German physicists who have returned to the international family of physicists, including Einstein, who has always been opposed to quantum mechanics and has reservations, are likely to take the opportunity to He, the proposer of quantum mechanics, took issue.

In Chen Muwu's heart, everyone in the Cavendish Laboratory, including Eddington of Cambridge University, must support him without hesitation.

As for Bohr in Copenhagen, if nothing unexpected happens, he will also be on his side.

There are also the younger brothers Heisenberg and von Neumann whom he recruited last year, as well as Pauli, who speaks out about his integrity...

To be on the safe side, Chen Muwu also brought Wittgenstein from Cambridge University, who had always held a negative attitude towards causality and had recently been working hard to study quantum mechanics.

Having prepared so many measures, Chen Muwu felt that it was even more impossible for Einstein to take advantage of him this time.

Chen Muwu felt that if Einstein still attacked quantum mechanics as he did in history, they would be able to stand up and fight him first without even having to take action himself.

By that time, all the physicists in the entire Solvay Palace were still discussing quantum mechanics. Only Dr. Chen came up with something new. Not only did he use particle accelerators in the laboratory In addition to deuterium, the second isotope of hydrogen, tritium, was found, and the first nuclear fusion under artificial intervention was completed.

Chen Muwu decided not to submit the paper he planned to present at the conference in advance, but to give them a big surprise.

It is estimated that when the answer was revealed at the Solvay Conference, the most surprised and happy among the physicists was probably his teacher Rutherford, who had just returned to Europe from distant New Zealand.

His good student Dr. Chen has made new achievements in experimental physics. It is natural for Rutherford to be proud and happy for this.

But it's not just that, what makes him even more happy should be another thing.

Because invisibly, Chen Muwu was able to use his own new experimental results to make an advertisement for the Cavendish Laboratory's particle accelerator.

Maybe after a wave of sales at the Como Conference at the beginning of the year, after the fifth Solvay Conference, a few more particle accelerators will be sold.

……

In a rare display of efficiency, British Airways delivered liquefied deuterium gas in metal cans within a few days of the call.

As promised, after the experimental drugs were delivered, Chen Muwu went to the observatory to call for Eddington, who had been neglecting food and drink for the past few days and was entirely thinking about his experiment.

Even the observation data of the total solar eclipse that had just occurred in the UK not long ago, he had no motivation to process.

Hearing the good news from Chen Muwu who came to his door, he finally jumped up from his chair as if his soul had returned to his body, pulled Chen Muwu and ran to the particle accelerator laboratory, even Forgot to ride his beloved bicycle.

However, after arriving at the laboratory, Eddington was restricted to the preparation room.

Chen Muwu repeatedly emphasized to Eddington that he would never be allowed to take even a step into the room containing the particle accelerator. He could only watch Chen Muwu operate it alone from behind the glass window.

Eddington said that it was up to the guests to do whatever they wanted, and he agreed happily, but the real thoughts in his heart were still a little unhappy.

He felt that Chen Muwu was not cautious, but too stingy, fearing that he would damage his precious particle accelerator.

He just wanted to know the results of the experiment at close range and immediately, and that big thing was all made of hard metal parts. He just touched it and didn't go in. How could he possibly damage the accelerator?

It can only be said that Eddington once again wrongly blamed Chen Muwu. For the latter, the particle accelerator was just an exaggerated external asking price, but in fact it was not valuable.

Just like Eddington thought, it's just a pile of junk.

He did this entirely for the safety of Eddington and himself.

Chen Muwu was very afraid that Eddington, a man who had not been exposed to physics experiments for a long time, would bring safety risks if he rashly entered the experiment.

It is possible that because of an improper operation, his body became a conductor and received an electric shock.

Or he accidentally caused the hydrogen gas to leak, and then because of a spark that came out of nowhere, Chen Muwu spiraled into the sky with him.

Anyway, the experimental results can only be seen in the photos taken of the trajectory of the cloud chamber.

Even if Chen Muwu went in by himself, he would only be operating the machine and taking photos.

He agreed with Eddington that after taking enough photos, he would let him follow him to search for helium nuclei that might appear in them.

Chen Muwu spent a long time talking, and finally calmed Eddington down, allowing him to sit quietly in the preparation room and wait for him, waiting for the exciting moment to arrive.

(End of this chapter)