The rise of a great power: starting with military industry

Chapter 578 Large Collider?
The topic of today's meeting is about high-energy accelerator - the Large Electron Collider!
Not long ago, China's first high-energy accelerator, the Beijing Electron-Positron Collider, successfully achieved a collision.

The Beijing Electron-Positron Collider (BEPC) is one of the world's eight high-energy accelerator centers. It is my country's first high-energy accelerator and a major scientific and technological infrastructure for high-energy physics research. It consists of a 202-meter-long linear accelerator, a transport line, a 240-meter-long circular accelerator (also called a storage ring), a 6-meter-high and 500-ton Beijing spectrometer, and a synchrotron radiation experimental device surrounding the storage ring. It looks like a huge badminton racket.

This high-energy accelerator, which cost 2.4 million yuan to build, was built by the Institute of High Energy Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Construction began in October 1984 and was completed after three years. It successfully achieved positron-electron collisions.

Renren Daily reported this achievement, saying that "this is another major breakthrough in the high-tech field after the successful explosion of the atomic bomb and hydrogen bomb and the launch of the artificial satellite." "Its construction and successful collision have opened up broad prospects for the application of particle physics and synchrotron radiation in my country, and opened a new chapter for my country's high-energy physics research institutes."

The total construction area of ​​the project is 57500 square meters. It is shaped like a huge "badminton racket" and consists of five parts: electron injector, storage ring, detector, nuclear synchrotron radiation area, and computing center. Positrons and electrons are accelerated to near the speed of light in the high vacuum pipes and collide at designated locations. The characteristics of the particles produced by the collision are recorded by a large detector - the Beijing Spectrometer.

By processing and analyzing these data, scientists further understand the properties of particles and thus reveal the mysteries of the microscopic world.

The reason for this meeting is that the Institute of High Energy Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences is not satisfied with the Beijing Electron-Positron Collider and hopes to build a larger high-energy accelerator.

When Liu Tao first received the topic of this conference, he had only one thought: those people at the Institute of High Energy Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences were crazy.

This is also something they can think of, how dare they think of it?

Do you really think that money comes from the wind?

After going to the United States and Europe for exchanges a few times and getting a few words of flattery from people, I lost my way.

Sure enough, after the meeting started, people from the Institute of High Energy Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences talked about the benefits of building a large collider.

"Building a super collider is of great significance, because it can discover particles in more energy ranges, which means progress in particle physics, which in turn means progress in basic science. Basic science is the basis of all applied sciences, so it is something that must develop and is of extraordinary significance. It is better to build it than not to build it, and it is better to build it early than late," said a high-energy physicist passionately.

"Building a super collider has another great significance. Once the super collider is built, at least five to six thousand of the world's top scientists will move to China for a long time, and it will automatically improve the strength of China's top science. Moreover, the benefits generated by this cost will far exceed the effect of building a world-class university alone."

High-energy physicists continued to explain the significance of building a super collider. Other participants also spoke up and expressed their opinions, some in favor and some against.

"Mr. Yang Zhenning, you are a master of physics and have extremely high attainments in high-energy physics. What is your opinion?" The leader looked at Yang Zhenning.

Yang Zhenning took the microphone handed over by the staff and said, "I am absolutely not opposed to the continued development of high-energy physics. What I am opposed to is that China starts building a super collider today."

As soon as Yang Zhenning opened his mouth, his attitude was very clear, that is, he opposed the construction of a super collider.

"First of all, building a super collider is very expensive. As far as I know, the United States is planning to build the world's largest collider, with a budget of about 30 billion US dollars. I think 30 billion US dollars is not enough. It will probably cost 80 billion US dollars to build the collider. In addition, CERN in Europe is planning to build a large proton collider, which is expected to cost at least 100 billion US dollars. The super collider proposed by the Institute of High Energy Physics will probably cost no less than 200 billion US dollars to build." Yang Zhenning said: "The Institute of High Energy Physics advocates the construction of a super collider in China. The cost will be shared by many countries, but China's share will be very considerable. Today, the world is amazed at the rapid growth of China's GDP, but China is still a developing country with a very small per capita GDP. There are still various problems that need to be solved. Now the country is centered on economic construction. Building a super collider will cost a lot and will not help economic development. I think it is not appropriate to consider it at present."

"How many qualified physicists are there in China now? By then, foreign scientists will be the main force, and even the technology and equipment used in the construction will be foreign. After the construction is completed, foreigners will lead the experiments and provide a wedding dress for foreign experiments." Yang Zhenning's attitude is very clear, that is, he is against the construction of a large collider at this time. "Spending so much money to build a super collider will greatly squeeze the funding for other basic sciences, including life medicine, materials science, etc."

"I am not against it now, nor have I been against it in the past one or two years. I have been against it since 1980. The Large Hadron Collider is now in decline. When I was a graduate student in the United States, this field was just beginning to flourish. In fact, it can be said that in the past few decades, this field has been the most important and most important field of development in physics. However, this field has been on the road to extinction since today, not just since today, but since ten years ago. But most people don't know this. I have said it again and again. I didn't say it today or two years ago. I said it in 1980. At that time, I said one sentence: the party is over."

"The party is over, which means the feast is over. What does this mean? Before 1980, particle physics was at its peak in the 50s and 60s. But after 1980, the important concepts were already there, and we could still do it later. But without the most important and new concepts, especially for theoretical physicists, we couldn't do anything. So I said this at that time." Yang Zhenning said, "I opposed the construction of high-energy accelerators before, but your Institute of High Energy Physics didn't listen."

Yang Zhenning shook his head.

In the field of physics, it is often the existing theoretical physicists who put forward conjectures, that is, theoretical physics, and these theories are guiding thoughts. Once there are theories and concepts, experiments are conducted to prove them.

Because of this, there is a strange phenomenon in the field of physics, that is, the status of theoretical physicists is higher than that of experimental physicists!
Without the most important and new ideas, building a collider is just following the trend. It is directionless and purposeless!
Liu Tao nodded slightly, agreeing with Yang Zhenning's opinion. There are many teachers and students studying high-energy physics in China, and they all want to discover some new particles and become famous. These people are crazy about becoming famous.

Yang Zhenning's remarks will inevitably offend a large number of people, but from the perspective of patriotism, he should tell the truth.

(End of this chapter)