Reborn and become a Great Scientist

Chapter 364 103 On Heroes Qian is a hero

"Madam, could it be that after my eldest sister and her brother-in-law returned to France from the UK,"

Chen Muwu's sense of restraint gradually disappeared, and he began to use this relatively close title shamelessly.
  "Didn't they tell you what was going on with the ion accelerator at Cavendish Laboratory?

"When this accelerator was first built, physics colleagues from the laboratory, the school, and other universities near Cambridge did show great interest in this particle accelerator and wanted to apply for the accelerator to conduct physical experiments. The stack is almost a foot high on a desk in the Cavendish Laboratory.

"But just a few months later, during the time when my eldest sister and her brother-in-law were visiting Cambridge University, the particle accelerator was relegated to the sidelines by the experimental physicists.

"They would rather choose an electrostatic field with a lower accelerating voltage than apply for an electrostatic accelerator that can accelerate particles to millions of volts."

Madame Curie was not as knowledgeable as Chen Muwu, and they were a family sooner or later, so there was no problem in calling them sister and brother-in-law.

She just nodded: "After Irena and the others came back, they did recount to me exactly what they saw at Cambridge University.

“I was puzzled by the situation at the time and thought it was two young men who worked together to deceive me.

"Now that you are saying here that particle accelerators are not used very frequently, what is the reason for this?"

"I think the efficiency of this particle accelerator is not high enough. The principle of the electrostatic generator to increase the voltage is to use an insulating conveyor belt to continuously transport charges from the battery to the electrostatic electrode.

"Although this approach does allow a large amount of charge to accumulate on the electrode, thereby achieving a relatively high electrostatic potential difference.

"But the disadvantages are also obvious. Because the transportation efficiency of the insulated conveyor belt is limited, it takes a lot of time to raise the electrode from zero to a million volt potential.

"However, this time cost is not directly proportional to the harvest. After accelerating ions several times, the charge accumulated on the electrode becomes seriously lost, resulting in a severe drop in potential, which may no longer meet the experimental conditions.

"In order to continue to conduct more experiments, the charging process of the electrodes must be repeated again, so a lot of time is wasted, staring at the boring movement of the insulating conveyor belt from bottom to top."

In order to convince Marie Curie, Chen Muwu bluntly explained the principle of his particle accelerator, and based on this principle, explained the shortcomings of particle accelerators.

It is precisely because of its extremely low time efficiency that it offsets the convenience of providing high voltage.

Therefore, experimental physicists will never apply to use this machine unless they have to.

It seems that what he said makes sense.

only……

"But not long after we left Cambridge University, you found two new light nuclear isotopes in that particle accelerator, Chen!"

Irena's tone contained a slight accusation. She still seemed to think that her would-be brother-in-law was not very honest.

He dared to deceive himself and his mother before he even entered the house. If he and Eve got married in the future, wouldn't he have to deceive the whole family?
  Chen Muwu just thought of this problem: while he was talking about the unnoticed failures of the particle accelerator he had worked so hard to build, he turned around and used the particle accelerator to make new research results. There seemed to be a contradiction in this. .

But at the same time, he also thought about how to deal with the trouble caused by this problem.

"That's because Professor Eddington proposed that the sun, as a star, must continuously provide energy for the entire solar system. No matter what kind of fossil fuel it burns is coal, oil, or organic gas, it can never do it. The energy radiates to such a large area and lasts for such a long time.

“So the source of energy inside the sun must and can only be nuclear reactions.

"If we want to simulate possible nuclear reactions in the sun, we must give the particles huge energy, and the particle accelerator in the Cavendish Laboratory is currently the only way in the world to accelerate particles to one million electron volts. , you have to use it if you use it, you have to use it if you don’t use it, there is no other second way.”

The explanation given by Chen Muwu was very reasonable and seamless.

Huashan Mountain has been a single road since ancient times. If you want to see the infinite scenery on the dangerous peak, you must endure the dangers and difficulties you may encounter during the climb.

The same goes for particle accelerators. If you want to use the highest energy particles to bombard other particles to complete the experiment, you have to endure the outrageous voltage increase time.

In order to describe how hard it was for him to do those experiments, he went on to add: "During that period, Professor Eddington and I basically immersed ourselves in the laboratory every day, and even he almost never did it. Astronomers who have gone through experiments and only occasionally go to the observatory to use the telescope and look at the stars have basically learned how to operate the particle accelerator.

"Everyone's hard work was not commensurate with the rewards, but we barely succeeded in these two experiments."

Although using a particle accelerator is laborious and laborious, it is not like Chaplin in "Modern Times" who kept tightening screws on the assembly line every day.

Otherwise, Chen Muwu could still stretch out his hands and show Madame Curie and Irena the calluses on his hands caused by tightening the screws.

After listening to Chen Muwu's words, Madame Curie felt that Chen Muwu was not lying to herself.

Because she has been there and knows how hard it is to do a lot of repetitive work over a period of time.

She did not mentally label Chen Muwu's behavior as a capitulationist who was afraid of hardship. After all, complaints were complaints, but he never gave up and achieved results one after another.

"Chen, so what you are saying is that this particle accelerator is not necessary in most cases. It will only be effective in a very small number of situations where high-energy particles may be needed?"

The accelerating voltage of this particle accelerator is only one million electron volts. What kind of high energy is this?
  Particle energy in high-energy physics starts with at least one billion electron volts (GeV).

For Chen Muwu, a future person, the acceleration potential difference that the accelerator can provide is indeed not high.

But to people in the [-]s, one million electron volts was already a very big number.

"Ma'am, that's not what I meant,"

Chen Muwu shook his head,
  "The particle accelerator is a very necessary experimental instrument for future atomic nuclear research, but the one we made is still an experimental model, and the efficiency is really too low.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   " , the price of this particle accelerator was so high, and so many units were sold around the world, which made me very sad. "

The expression on Chen Muwu's face seemed to express his innocence.

But the large sum of money obtained from selling the particle accelerator made Chadwick and he laugh happily in an office in the Cavendish Laboratory.

Chen Muwu forced his face to remain expressionless and continued: "For some time, I have been thinking about a question, that is, did I choose the wrong accelerator research direction?
  "Using electrostatic acceleration is indeed the simplest, trickiest and cheapest idea, but it is also extremely troublesome.

"Should we find a new way to accelerate particles?"

The trick he deliberately tried to sell was not very successful, and the well-informed Madame Curie saw through it at a glance.

"Chen, the Chinese proverb you just said is very good. If one family does not speak two languages, then you should stop hiding it. I can already see that you have new ideas on this matter. Otherwise, with your personality, you would definitely not tell it rashly."

Chen Muwu quickly smiled and said: "Nothing can escape your eyes. After this Solvay Conference, I do not plan to return to Cambridge University with the large army.

"Sir Rutherford has returned to Europe from New Zealand. He is more familiar and capable than me in the management of the laboratory.

"Do you remember the schools and research institutions in Sweden that I talked about a few years ago? The buildings there have basically been completed and can be put into use immediately.

"After I leave Belgium, I plan to continue going north to the school in Stockholm to build a new particle accelerator."

"Then why don't you go to Cambridge University to build it? Is Rutherford really willing to let you go for nothing and build a particle accelerator that you think is much more advanced than the one in Cavendish Laboratory in a foreign country? "

Marie Curie asked this question very tactfully. If Rutherford could really let Chen Muwu leave, then why should this most high-end particle accelerator in the world, which Chen Muwu said, have to be built in Stockholm, Sweden? What about Paris, which cannot be built in France?

What's there in Sweden? He has his family here in France!

If Chen Muwu can really leave Cambridge and come to the University of Paris, not only will he have a powerful right-hand man in academic research, but he will also be able to solve the worry that Eve will live away from him.

Madame Curie had just started to have some sparks of hope in her heart, but then they were ruthlessly extinguished by Chen Muwu's next answer.

“Because this new particle accelerator will be very expensive, whether it is the Cavendish Laboratory or the entire University of Cambridge, if there are no donations from outsiders and only rely on the funds of the laboratory and the school, it will definitely not be possible. able to build it.

"Only there is a big sponsor in Sweden who will successfully promise to bear all the investment required for the construction of this ion accelerator. The only requirement is that it must be built in Stockholm."

People in the world open their eyes and see that Qian is a hero.

The words of Zhu Zaiyu, the young prince with seven titles in the Ming Dynasty, were rude but not rude. Society is such a reality. Whether it is the East or the West, it is difficult to move without money.

I heard Chen Muwu say that neither the Cavendish Laboratory nor the entire University of Cambridge could afford the full cost of this new particle accelerator.

This is the world's top university and the world's top physics laboratory.

They couldn't afford the money, and the University of Paris, which was very stingy, and the Institute of Radium Science, which was so poor that they wished they could break their lives in half, couldn't afford it.

However, is Chen Muwu joking?

Could it be that the ion accelerator he mentioned was made of gold?
  Besides, even if you use pure gold to make a spherical electrode, it shouldn't cost as much as he said, right?
  "Chen, what exactly is your new particle accelerator? Since it is completely different from the one at Cambridge University, what is its acceleration principle?"

"There was a Swedish physicist named Ising. In 1924, he proposed a method of accelerating particles. He used a drift tube and high-frequency voltage to create a device that makes particles move along a straight line. Accelerating particle accelerator.

“This plan should be the first method of accelerating particles proposed in human history, but this method has only remained on paper from beginning to end, because it will be very difficult to implement and cost a lot of money.

"Shortly after Ising proposed this acceleration plan, the Cavendish Laboratory began to build an electrostatic accelerator, which was high-quality and low-cost, and soon achieved success."

"So when you said you were going to Sweden to build an accelerator, were you going to find Ising? Could it be that he made a fortune recently?"

"No, no, no, I just think his graded acceleration method is very good, but it needs to be improved a little bit.

"Especially such a long linear vacuum tube. It is something that is very full in ideality but very skinny in reality. It is very difficult to make, so..."

Chen Muwu briefly explained the basic principles of the cyclotron to Madame Curie.

He was not afraid at all that after Madame Curie and Irena heard about it, they would build it themselves at the Radium Institute when they returned to France.

The cost of this accelerator is indeed cheaper than the linear particle accelerator originally envisioned by Ising, but the actual production is still extremely complicated and the cost is still considerable.

After listening to Chen Muwu's description, Madame Curie looked at the young man who would become his son-in-law next year with some confusion.

Eve's vision is really great, and she was able to find such a happy son-in-law for herself.

It is a pity that when she was young, the education method implemented for this little daughter was to allow her to develop, and she was not able to lead her to the path of physics research.

Otherwise, the two of them can also become a legend in the world of physics.

"Chen, you have such an amazing idea. By adding a magnetic field and allowing the particles to move in a circular motion in the magnetic field, you can reduce the series of electrodes on the linear accelerator to two."

Then the light that just appeared in her eyes suddenly dimmed again: "Tell me, how much does this machine cost? Give me an accurate number and I will give up completely."

(End of this chapter)