As we all know, there is a theory of "boiling frogs in warm water": a frog will be boiled to death in a slowly heated pot, but if thrown into boiling water, it will have a strong stress response and may jump out of the pot with a sacrifice of its life. Thankfully, the "local cosmic collapse" faced by humanity is a pot of boiling water, which prompts humanity to react to the strongest stress. As a result, mankind has discovered the hole of the vacuum, thus stepping into the "era of light", and the "variable ratio impulse magnetic plasma rocket", which had been highly anticipated, was eliminated before it appeared.

——Excerpt from "A Hundred Years of Collecting Shellfish", written by Yu Leshui

1

After the "Chu's" spacecraft went into the sky, the desert island experimental site was sealed. Oviparous technology is a strange piece of technology, but it is fundamentally a "poor man's technology", which is matched with backward chemical-fueled spaceships. Now that the Action Committee's nuclear fusion technology has made a breakthrough, the second spacecraft will definitely be a nuclear-powered spacecraft, that is, the "variable ratio impulse magnetic plasma rocket" that Kang Buming called at the Laojieling Conference. Its maximum speed would be between one and a half percent of the speed of light, and the time it would take for the ship to escape from the cataclysmic zone would be greatly reduced, to the order of five thousand years. During such a period of time, it was already possible to adopt the more traditional and reliable method of controlling the ship by living people, with the crew taking turns hibernation and breeding in the ship to survive the 5,000-year voyage. The spacecraft is estimated to be able to carry only a thousand passengers, but it can carry the DNA of all earthlings, which is certainly more acceptable to humans, because this is the real human escape, the extension of the real human unity and human civilization into space. And when you reach your destination, you can rely on human ingenuity to deal with unpredictable circumstances, and you don't have to put your hopes in the so-called "God's technology."

Therefore, the wonder of oviparous human technology is actually an epiphany, which withers immediately after a bloom. Now, only George Jacoby, who still lives on the desert island, says he wants to calm down, put the technology in order, polish it, and then—"seal it up for posterity with an epiphile." He said desolately.

A medium-sized speedboat sped across the water, leaving a triangular wake behind the boat. There were nearly twenty passengers on board, all of different skin tones, most of them dressed casually. At this moment, the passengers are enjoying the scenery of the vast lake with great interest, watching the waterfowl flying with long legs in the air. Ge Qihong, vice president of the "Friends of Le" Foundation, sat at the stern of the boat and said to the captain with a smile:

"Sensei is driving too fast, pay special attention to safety today. You know? These eighteen people are astrophysicists, cosmologists, quantum mechanics experts, and relativity experts, and are top figures in various fields of physics. If the ship capsizes, physics will have to go back a hundred years. ”

The captain spat him, "Bah, you're a crow's mouth." I said, President Ge, you are an official, and you have to learn a little bit of what it means to be an official. ”

Ge Qihong was still grinning, "Then you still need to learn?" I think when I was the editor-in-chief of the newspaper, I was very official. However, in the past ten years, I have learned badly with the 'Friends of Music', and the people here love to talk nonsense, and they have never been afraid to put the word 'death' on their lips. ”

A passenger in front of him heard their conversation and turned around and said in Chinese, which was not very fluent: "Mr. Ge is exaggerating, you can't go back a hundred years." He thought about it seriously, "I think I can go back twenty years." ”

Ge Qihong did not expect that these foreign guests still knew Chinese, and shrugged his shoulders and stopped talking. He took out an electronic notepad and looked at the guest's information, and recognized the person as the famous British astrophysicist Rogge. This guy has just corrected Ge Qihong's "exaggeration", but his relatively modest estimate (physics has to go back twenty years) has made Ge Qihong see his true conceit. Rogge's co-seating was a tall, "white" man with obvious signs of albinism, with skin that was pink in a snow-white light, light blue eyes, and hair and hair that were extremely pale gold. At this moment he looked at Rogge suspiciously, apparently asking him what he was talking about with the Chinese. Rogge explained a few words, and the man smiled slightly, and said briefly:

"Minus five years. I'm good at water. ”

Ge Qihong translated to the captain in a low voice, and the captain was stunned for a moment before he understood what he meant, and couldn't help but stick out his tongue. These big noses, one is crazier than the other! Rogge knew what kind of dumb riddle they were playing, and explained with a smile: "Are you laughing at him for bragging?" However, this Mr. Pauli is indeed not simple, a famous quantum physicist, recognized by the scientific community as a smart brain, and a top member of the Mensa Society. ”

The captain quietly asks what the Mensa Association is, and Ge tells him that it is the Association of Western High IQs, which in the vernacular is the "Super Genius Club". The captain looked at the two men respectfully, quietly touched Ge's arm, and asked in a low voice:

"What are they doing here?"

Ge Qihong also whispered: "It was Chu Tianle and He Zizhou who invited them, saying that they would have an important vote. As for the specifics of the vote—" he deliberately betrayed, "I'm sorry for you, it's just as secret as mine." ”

The desert island has arrived. The captain fastened the cable and helped the guests to the shore. Mr. Ma stood at the pier to greet the guests, he was 77 years old, his face was covered with age spots, his physical condition was not good, he was dry and thin, and his skin was loose. Sixty-six-year-old Tianle's mother and seventeen-year-old Liu Ye were taking care of him by his side, and George was also by his side. Liu Ye has become a big girl, her skin is slightly dark, her eyes are clear, and her thick black hair is especially eye-catching. Mr. Ma apologized to the guest:

"I'm sorry, Chu Tianle and his wife, Dean Ji and He Zizhou can't come to greet you, because Old He, the first director of He Guoji's office, passed away yesterday, and they rushed to attend the funeral. But they have already returned, and the flight will arrive at Nanyang Airport immediately, and then they will arrive by helicopter, an hour at most. The guests disembarked and gathered around him. The speedboat returned, and Ge Qihong also followed the boat. "Before they come back," said Ma Shiqi, "let's ask George to show everyone around the island." This can be said to be the Garden of Oviparous Man, which is very historical. ”

George said blandly: "Actually, it is more appropriate to say that it is the burial ground of the oviparous. ”

He led a tour of 18 physicists, first looking at the two eggshells that hatched first. The cracked eggshell remained in its original state, lying casually on the ground, with a transparent hemispherical glass cover added to it. Some messy small footprints can still be seen on the sand inside the hood, the footprints are very clear, but they are interrupted only at the wall of the hood, and the footprints outside have been erased by three years of wind and rain. George said that a total of 10 hatches were carried out on this desert island, a total of 100 human eggs were put in, and 13 people eventually survived. Unfortunately, this is the only place where the footprints remain, as the other eleven eggs that have been successfully hatched are located on the grassy slope. The physicists watched silently for a long time, and these broken eggshells, especially these small footprints that were broken halfway, aroused the surging hearts of everyone.

Could these footprints appear on a planet? No one dared to pack tickets.

Further on, the same hemispherical transparent shroud covers the other broken eggshells, and a few human eggs are still intact and have not hatched. George said desolately:

"As you know, the 'Chu Family' has been on sail for three years, and the signal of the spaceship has been no longer available, and the thirteen oviparous young children on the ship, together with five million human fertilized eggs, and the old man Chu Guifu who volunteered to take care of them, can only be entrusted to an unknown fate." He sighed, "If I had thought in advance that I would have nothing to do after the 'Chu' left, I would definitely take the role of Mr. Chu." After a pause, he added, "Mr. Chu is a great man. I remember that I had spoken disrespectfully when I first met him, and I was so ashamed to be ashamed. ”

Rogge patted him on the shoulder and smiled comfortingly: "Mr. Jacoby, you are also a great man. Let me tell you, as a physicist, I'm very jealous of biologists because I think you're closer to God. Know what kind of feats you have made? You're actually repeating God's work, and you've done it so well that you've created eleven more finished products than He has—no, eleven and a half, because Eve was made out of Adam's rib, and it's only half of it. With such brilliant achievements, what are you not satisfied with? ”

Everyone laughed and snapped to take a picture with Jacoby by the eggshell. Only Pauli did not participate in the group photo, strolling alone by the water, enjoying the scenery of the water and sky, and his expression was quite intoxicated; Over there, Liu Ye shouted happily: "Look, helicopter, Brother Tianle, they're back!" ”

A helicopter has already jumped over the horizon. George said, "Let's all go to the basement and wait for them." Everyone has to hurry, after the vote, He Zizhou will immediately rush to the Fermi National Laboratory in the United States, where the experiment is ready - of course, I mean if the vote passes. ”

Everyone gathered in the basement. This is not a conference hall, there are not enough chairs, and there are twenty-five grass futons on the ground, which are improvised by Tianle Ma and Liu Ye from the wild grass of the island, and form a circle. Mr. Ma beckoned everyone to take their seats and brought tea, which was placed on the floor. The sound of the helicopter's rotors sounded outside the door, and soon, Yu Leshui pushed Chu Tianle in a wheelchair, followed by Ji Renrui, Alex, He Zizhou and Kang Buming, and the group hurriedly came in. Liu Ye waited at the door of the basement, and first greeted He Zizhou with a bear hug:

"Brother Yangyang, don't be too sad, my mother said that Grandpa He's death should be regarded as a happy funeral."

He Zizhou calmly patted her on the back, "I'm not sad. My grandfather was sober and calm before he left. He also smiled and asked me to tell you that he was sorry that he broke his promise and couldn't make it to the synchronous orbit to see off the next spacecraft. But he said he would see off the voyagers in a higher place, in heaven. ”

Everyone smiled and hugged him, and then sat back down. Tianle's mother and Liu Ye went to the kitchen, and they had to prepare lunch for more than 20 people. The meeting then began, and Ji Renrui presided over the meeting. Chu Tianle gave a brief speech first, his synchronous voice machine was quite good, and it sounded no different from a real person:

"This meeting was given by He Zizhou, and the theory of 'dense vacuum energy' was first put forward by Xiao He. Tell me. ”

He Zizhou stood in front of the screen and explained a few words first: "Mr. Chu's words are completely modest. I did say more than a decade ago that compressed space may have stored energy, but it was just child's nonsense. The real theoretical foundation was established by Mr. Chu and Alex, and of course I did some work. The "Friends of Music" have always been very indifferent to the "right to invent", so he just brushed it off and then went to the main text:

"The original text of the theory has been passed on to you in advance, and I think everyone has a clear understanding of the concept of 'three-state vacuum' proposed by Mr. Chu, that is, standard vacuum, sparse vacuum and dense vacuum. Let me review some background information here. In 1972, before mankind's first particle collision experiment, the famous Soviet cosmologist Zelidovich conducted a week of crazy calculations to determine whether such a high-energy collision would trigger the collapse of space. Later, when the experiment went on and everything was safe, people forgot about the worries that Zelidovich had had, and even regarded them as unfounded absurdities. But people forget that there is an implicit premise of 'all peace', which is that the universe in which we live at that time is a moderately expanding universe, that is, a mild vacuum, which can be regarded as a standard vacuum because of the small rate of expansion. Years of particle collisions have proven that it's safe to do particle collisions in a standard vacuum, but what about in a 'shrinking' vacuum? Our three-year study has given the following results: when space shrinks, energy gradually accumulates in the deep structure of space, and its absolute value is small, but enough to destabilize the deep structure of space. When the shrinkage increases to a certain critical value, the high-energy states generated by the collision of particles will excite the annihilation of the local space, resulting in a vacuum void, or second-order vacuum. He paused, glancing at the crowd, "Please note that I am talking about the annihilation of space or vacuum, not the annihilation of matter. Spatial annihilation is a new concept, but it is really just an extension of Einstein's mass-energy method. For, as long as it is admitted that a vacuum has a deep structure, it is also material, and therefore has the properties of classical matter. Do you have any objections to this paragraph? ”

The attendee shook their heads slightly, motioning for him to continue.

"Okay, I'll go on. Just as matter is annihilated, the annihilation of space is transformed into energy. Precise calculations show that the energy released will be slightly greater than the excitation energy, that is, the stimulated annihilation of the dense vacuum is generally a process of external energy release. This is undoubtedly great news, because," he had been serious in his previous speech, and then burst into a childlike smile, "as I said when I was a teenager, the starship will sail on the sea of energy, and a scoop under the ship will be enough to burn for a month." Of course, this is an exaggeration, but in fact, the energy released by vacuum annihilation is very small. But as you know, in a vacuum, even a tiny force like the light pressure of a star, as long as it is persistent, can theoretically bring a spacecraft close to the speed of light. And the light pressure effect of vacuum annihilation is greater than that of the star, because it is always clinging to the stern of the ship! It can be said that if this theory is correct, then the lightspeed spaceship, the gift of God that mankind has dreamed of but never dared to hope for, is suddenly about to enter the annual plan of mankind! And the 'variable specific impulse magnetic plasma rocket', which we once had high hopes for, can already be eliminated! ”

He paused for a moment to calm his agitation, his eyes burning as he glanced at the equally excited attendees. Then go on:

"In summary, it is easy to test the hypothesis that a supercritical vacuum can be annihilated by excitement – all it takes is a conventional particle collision experiment. I'm going to explain a little bit here. It has been more than 40 years since the local universe in which we live has turned from a moderate expansion to a sharp contraction, and in the past 40 years, Europe and the United States have conducted a total of three particle collision experiments, and no anomalies have been found. However, all three of these were done in the previous decade, when the contraction of space had not yet reached the critical value predicted by the 'three-state vacuum theory'. For more than 30 years, particle collision experiments were halted as all the world's financial resources were focused on the human escape program. Now, according to our calculations, the spatial contraction has reached a critical point that can be excited. The Friends of Joy Foundation has also provided funding to Fermi National Laboratory in the United States, where all preparations are made to restart the experiment, just press the button. But...... There is a ghost that has been hovering over the physics community, and it is a hypothesis put forward half a century ago: if the annihilation of microspace is triggered, even if it is just a second-order vacuum smaller than the tip of a needle, it will sweep the entire universe at the speed of light like the broom of death, causing the entire universe to collapse in turn! What a terrible prospect it is. Could it be so? According to Mr. Chu's calculations, Alex and I, no. But no one can guarantee 100% of such a completely new theory. This is a dilemma - we need to do an experiment to verify the correctness of the new theory, but we are afraid that it will provoke the irreversible destruction of the universe; But without this experiment, we have no way of knowing whether a second-order vacuum will be triggered, let alone whether it will cause the destruction of the universe. What a dilemma. So, today I invite 18 world-class physicists, plus Mr. Chu, Alex, Mr. Ma, Mr. Ji, Mr. Kang and I from the 'Friends of Music', to have a frank discussion and then vote on whether to conduct this experiment. ”

The atmosphere in the venue became very solemn. Ji Renrui wanted to ease the atmosphere, and said with a smile: "Let me state first, I am a layman in physics, and I presided over the meeting today but did not participate in the voting, so the number of voters is a total of twenty-three, which is an odd number." ”

Rex from Canada calmly asked, "The voting results are binding, right?" ”

Chu Tianle said solemnly: "Of course." If the result of the vote is negative, we will abort the experiment. If we continue to think that the experiment should be carried out after a study thereafter, then a second and third similar votes will be held, and subsequent votes will still be binding. ”

Tomoo Nakamura from Japan said: "I carefully read the full text of the theory you sent and think that it is autonomous, but where does the energy accumulated when the universe shrinks come from? Or to put it another way, what caused the universe to shrink? Your theory does not provide an explanation for this. ”

Alex said bluntly: "You are very right, this is indeed the Alice heel of the theory. But I am not in favor of focusing on that today. Because, whatever the motivation, local contraction is already a fact anyway. Therefore, the motivation for the contraction can be calmly studied later, and the more pressing question now is: whether this shrinking universe can be used to achieve the speed of light. ”

Rogge immediately agreed: "Alex is right. In view of the current situation of mankind, pedantic research can be put on the back burner. ”

Nakamura was not displeased by the outspoken opposition of the two. He thought seriously for a moment and said calmly: "Your opinion is right, I will retract the doubts just now. ”

Rogge said, "Let me give you my opinion. I have carefully studied the theory of dense vacuum energy, and I think that the probability of a cosmic catastrophe caused by particle collision is not very high. Of course, in normal times, even if there was only a 1 in 100,000 chance of cataclysm, I would not agree to start the experiment, because we only have one universe! This is the real, unrepeatable Noah's Ark! But in these times of catastrophe, I think it's worth the risk. After all, as Mr. Ji once said, several great geographical expansions of mankind have relied on adventurous spirits, not cautious scientific attitudes. He paused, smiled and said, "I have a suggestion not to use a blank choice of either 'yes' or 'no' when voting for a while." For example, my attitude is that 90 percent are in favor of starting a trial, and 10 percent are against. ”

Ji Renrui immediately said: "This opinion is good, this can more accurately reflect the opinion of voters." So be it: when voting for a while, each vote is worth a hundred points. It can be 100 points for, or 100 points against, or 70 points in favor and 30 points against. The abstention was fifty to fifty. ”

Chen Guangdi from ** objected loudly: "Incredible! Since you think it is possible to cause the destruction of this universe, you can still approve of it 90% of the time?! It's not a video game, you just need to restart it once when you crash. I'm 200 percent against it. ”

His words were too intense, and Ji Ren defused them with a joke: "Ah, that's not good." You only have the right to vote one full no, not 200 percent. Otherwise, when I count the votes, I will have to remove the highest score. ”

Even at such a heavy moment, this joke still made everyone laugh. Later speeches were relatively peaceful, including Chen Guangdi, who also controlled his emotions. South Africa's Valdura calmly objected:

"Mr. Ji's example of the great geographical discovery is probably inappropriate, and it is not comparable with today's situation. It is true that several great geographical discoveries in the history of mankind were the result of adventurous spirit rather than the prudence of scientists; But let's not forget that every success can be preceded by a thousand failures. Nowadays people remember only the successes and the winners, but they forget more failures and forget the people who died in the expedition. Fortunately, it was only the death of a small group, and humanity as a whole can bear such a loss. But if today's experiments turn into a catastrophe, it will be the destruction of the entire human race, the entire universe! He shook his head and said bitterly, "Faced with such a prospect, at least I myself would never dare to press that button." ”

His fears were very reasonable, and his analysis was very convincing, and many people agreed with him, and his subsequent statements were mostly opposed. Rex offers his own insights:

"Valdura's analysis is convincing, but it is based on the hypothesis that vacuum annihilation could lead to the destruction of the universe. I have carefully studied this hypothesis half a century ago, and frankly speaking, it is not a hypothesis, it can only be said to be conjecture, and there is no solid theoretical basis. I am not in favor of shackling the hands and feet of science because of a hasty conjecture. ”

Secardes, from Spain, said: "I agree with Rex. Of course, the 'three-state vacuum theory' proposed by Chu et al. is only a hypothesis or conjecture at present, but we can consider the problem from this perspective - if it is correct, that is, the vacuum annihilation it predicts can be realized, then we must also believe in the safety of its predictions; If it is wrong, and the vacuum annihilation it predicts cannot be realized, then there is no need to consider its safety. ”

The white-haired Kang Buming had been silent, and then raised his hand to ask to speak. He said: "I would like to make a hypothesis, what if Mr. Chu died of illness before that, thus delaying the establishment of the three-state vacuum theory for ten years? Suppose that the scientific community has just launched a particle collision experiment without a three-state vacuum theory and therefore without warning? ”

Valdura calmly retorted: "That's just a hypothesis. It makes no sense to base the discussion on pure assumptions. ”

"No, quite the opposite. Both of my assumptions are easy to implement in reality and belong to high-probability events. There is a hidden law of nature: the more powerful the disaster, the higher the threshold for it to be activated. Why is this happening? It doesn't make much sense, it's just a self-evident fact, otherwise our universe would have perished long ago! What's more, if it is a top-level disaster like the destruction of the universe, the threshold for its activation must be extremely high, and God will not bet on the health of an individual on a small planet, even if he is a super genius. So, it is ridiculous that we may be too arrogant to change the course of the universe with an inherently uncertain discussion. ”

Ji Renrui asked: "......What is your opinion?"

"Just experiment. If it does inspire the destruction of the universe - then it can't escape anyway. Even if we don't, you can't guarantee that other civilizations in the universe won't do it, but even if one civilization does, even if it's 100 million light-years away, we'll all have to burn it. Even the accidental collision of two high-energy cosmic rays can provoke the same result. Our discussion is like an ant king holding a royal council to seriously discuss how to change the orbit of the sun. ”

Ji Renrui and Kang are not nameless, although the age difference is twenty-five years, but because the birthday happens to be the same, they have always nicknamed each other "Tong Geng". Since it is the same Geng, you can joke casually, so the two will have a war of words as soon as they meet. At this time, Ji smiled and scolded: "You cynical old guy, you really shouldn't have let you attend the meeting today, you wasted a vote in vain." He pondered for a moment, "But, as a layman, I am not the man who is right. There is a saying: God laughs when human beings think, and it is essentially the same as Lao Kang's view. ”

Pauli, who was white-skinned, was always a pity, and then he said briefly: "I approve of Kang." There is no absolute impossibility in the quantum world, just the size of the odds. If there is no second-order vacuum bubble in the universe at all, that's a different matter; But if it can be artificially excited, then it can definitely arise spontaneously. He shrugged, "But 14 billion years later, the universe has not been destroyed." ”

Chu Tianle turned his head to look at Kang Buming and Pauli, and nodded to them quietly. He Zizhou also joked: "Thank you, Uncle Kang, and Mr. Pauli, you made me feel less guilty when I pressed the start button." ”

The crowd discussed until noon, and everyone fully expressed their opinions. Ji Renrui said: "The discussion is almost over, I think we can vote." ”

Yu Leshui and George listened for a while, then left the venue and went to the kitchen, today is a special performance by physicists, the two of them don't participate in the vote, it is better to go to Tianle's mother to help cook. Tianle's mother was very busy, because the helper's Liu Ye couldn't work quietly, and she had to run to the door to listen for a while after a while. Seeing Yu Leshui coming in, Liu Ye immediately fussed and said:

"Hey, sister-in-law, Brother Yangyang has changed, I don't even recognize it! Look at the style of his speech just now, he is definitely at the level of a big name! But in my eyes, he's just a kid a few years older than me. ”

This childish sentence suddenly touched Yu Leshui - when he remembered that he listened to Chu Tianle's speech at the Old Jieling Conference, he felt the same way in his heart. It is not surprising that a person's state of mind is positively correlated with responsibility, and if he is placed in a position to control the destiny of mankind, he will not be able to mature quickly. How could it not be the case with you? Back then, she was much less lively and reckless, and she was more plain and steady - not that she wanted to be like this, but the environment forced people to do this. What's more, Yangyang is already twenty-six years old, four years older than Tianle back then. She laughed and teased Willow Leaf:

"Did you fall in love with him and want to turn your brother into a lover? - Don't be embarrassed, your sister-in-law also fell in love with your brother Tianle at first sight at a similar meeting, and then I took the initiative to attack. ”

Liu Ye said with a smile: "Thank you sister-in-law for selflessly imparting experience, but for now, let him be a brother." Even if I want to change my position, I have to find a way to let him chase me, so as not to be difficult to discipline in the future. ”

Yu Leshui smiled and praised her for being "far-sighted and calculating". Although Tianle's mother was busy preparing meals, her actual ears were always listening to the discussion outside. She whispered to Yu Leshui:

"Shui'er, if Tianle's theory is correct, he can really build a light-speed spaceship?"

"That's right. Strictly speaking, it is a near-light speed spaceship, which can reach more than 90 percent of the speed of light. According to the theory of relativity, it is impossible for any object with mass to reach the speed of light, because the closer it gets to the speed of light, the heavier it becomes; If the speed of light can be reached, the mass is infinite, which is unattainable. ”

"Then people will be able to escape?"

"That's right. If it's a near-light speed ship, it's definitely going to be able to escape. ”

"Shui'er, why don't I believe it, such a dream has suddenly become true?"

George next to him interjected: "I'm the same, like a person who has been buried in the mine for a long time, and his eyes are dazzled when he sees the dazzling sunlight at first glance." But throughout history, technological breakthroughs have been so abrupt. Before the Wright brothers' plane went into the sky, the people did not believe that wings made of wood could go to the sky; Before cloning, people didn't believe that a single cell could be turned into a living baby. And the oviparous technique that I have researched is also incredible to the public. So, aunt, believe it. ”

Tianle's mother subconsciously stopped the work in her hand, looked up and meditated for a while, and said longingly: "Mr. Ma and I will definitely not be able to catch up, Shui'er and Tianle may be able to catch up, not to mention Liu Ye." That's fine, as long as you can escape, your father and I will be happy to fall into some black hole. ”

Yu Leshui was a little gloomy, Tianle's mother was right, the two old men might not be able to catch this bus. Looking at Willow Leaf, her eyes were red. Yu Leshui smiled and comforted her mother-in-law: "Mom, let Tianle and them speed up, you and Dad work hard to live for a few more years, and it is still possible to catch up with the light-speed spaceship!" ”

Tianle's mother smiled, didn't speak, buried her head and continued to work. At this time, there was a commotion outside. Yu Leshui, Liu Ye and George hurriedly ran out to see, it turned out that the voting had ended, and the voting results were displayed on the screen, and the score was quite different: 1,700 to 600, agreeing to conduct the experiment. Judging from this score, there must have been some opponents in the discussion who voted in favor instead. But the three founders of the new theory did not look happy, and He Zizhou, who was about to rush to the United States, was hugging Chu Tianle and Alex at this time, and the expressions of the three were quite desolate. Yu Leshui knows what's going on. It's a matter of the survival of the universe and the life and death of an individual, because no one dares to say what will happen in the experiment. According to the three-state vacuum theory established by the trio, particle collision will only trigger the annihilation of microspace, but how big is this "microspace"? Maybe it's the size of the Fermi National Experimental Field, and it's just enough to cover all the people on the scene. The three of them had a long argument about who would go to the United States to guide and observe this experiment, and He Zizhou resolutely asked for help, on the grounds that the most important commanders should be kept away from the battlefield and away from the enemy's artillery fire, and finally won the approval of the two companions. Therefore, at this moment, their farewell actually contains the element of farewell. In fact, there is another equally resolute petitioner - Ji Jichang, who said that according to his character, he is most suitable to serve as a pioneer who goes shirtless and charges. However, the time he came to the "Friends of Music" Academy of Sciences was relatively short, and he was still immature in terms of knowledge and cultivation, and Chu Tianle and the others did not agree.

After He Zizhou said goodbye over there, he came to the kitchen to say goodbye to these people. Tianle's mother asked him to finish eating before leaving, and he said it was too late, so he went to the plane for lunch. Willow Leaf came to the bear hug again, and then kissed him on tiptoe, and whispered something in his ear. He Zizhou was obviously stunned, smiled, and patted her on the back affectionately.

He Zizhou hurried out and boarded the helicopter. Waiting for the helicopter to melt into the depths of the blue sky, Yu Leshui asked the sister-in-law with a smile, what did she say in Brother Yangyang's ear just now. Liu Ye said briskly:

"I said Brother Yangyang, you have to come back alive, there are people waiting for you here."

Yu Leshui teased her: "Didn't you say that you would try to get him to chase you?" Why can't you wait? ”

"There is a light and a heavy weight in everything. In case of...... I have to let him hear me before he dies. She hurriedly added, "Still, he'll be back safely, right?" ”

"Of course, I'll definitely come back safely."

After having a working meal, the participants all walked out of the basement and began to visit the island. Ji Renrui asked them to wait, and the ferry that picked them up would arrive soon. The island is very quiet, only the sound of crashing waves can be heard. The water is clear, revealing a white lake bottom and tender aquatic plants. Many people took off their shoes and socks and went into the water to play. Pauli walked up to Ji Renrui and said very simply:

"Ji, I want to join the 'Friends of Music'."

Of course, Ji Renrui was happy, he was very aware of Pauli's fame in the world's scientific community, "That's great, welcome, welcome." "At the end of this year, the Executive Committee of the Academy of Friends of Music will be re-elected, and I think Mr. Pauli should be eligible for the ......."

Pauli interrupted him with a shake of his index finger, "Not interested." He smiled and drew a circle around the island, "But I'm going to live here." ”

Ji Renrui paused for a moment, looked at George next to him, and immediately said, "No problem, I'll arrange it later." ”

Pauli nodded in gratitude, and then walked around the water on his own. When the ferry came, everyone got on board, and Rog called Pauli in the distance to get on the boat, and waved at him. Rogge turned his head and asked Ji Renrui with his gaze. Ji smiled and said:

"Mr. Pauli has just said that he wants to join the Academy of 'Friends of Music' and live on this island, and I promised to make arrangements for him later, but I did not expect him to be so impatient. Okay, that's okay, let's go first, I'll send someone right away to make some living arrangements for him. ”

The ferry left shore, and when I looked back, Pauli had already stripped naked and gone into the water, playing in the wake of the ferry. His skin was snow-white, and he was free from a white stripe. Rogge shook his head and said with a smile:

"This guy has always been isolated, well, this time I have a satisfactory place to live." Behind him, the white figure in the clear water gradually shrank, and then the desert island was also blocked by the water.

2

Aaron Dyche, the liaison at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, turned his head in front of the helicopter and said:

"Mr. He, there is an evacuation area ahead."

This is Weston, thirty miles west of Chicago, Illinois, USA. He Zizhou looked down, and the countryside and towns below were completely still lifes, with no moving cars, no pedestrians, no roaming livestock, only the treetops swaying in the breeze. It's so quiet, it's like a super grave—it's a sunny day, but it's a place with the gloom of death. Dyche Says:

"According to the requirements of the Academy of Friends of Music, the scope of the evacuation zone is one hundred kilometers in diameter. I wonder if this is safe enough now? ”

He Zizhou said frankly: "According to our three-state vacuum theory, it is enough, but I can't guarantee what it is." It is for that reason that we held yesterday's vote. ”

Dyche was curious: "Can the voting results be revealed?" Of course it must have passed, but I would like to know the exact number of votes," he said with a smile, "if not to keep it a secret." ”

"There's nothing to keep secret, the vote was 1,700 to 600."

Dyche and the driver looked at each other, "The score is quite different, and with this scoreline, we immediately feel safe." He joked, "Is there anything else you can reveal?" I wonder why you chose this place instead of the more advanced European CERN. Is it because Americans are braver? By the way, in order to ensure the normal operation of the accelerator, there are twenty-five people left here, and they all know the danger they are facing. He added, "With the addition of the three of us, it's twenty-eight." ”

If the three-state vacuum theory is correct, this experiment will cause serious damage to the accelerator, and the "Friends of Joy" have clearly informed each other of this from the beginning. Therefore, He Zizhou is very grateful to the US personnel for agreeing to do this, and he did not hesitate to agree. Of course, the "Friends of Joy" chose this place instead of CERN, not because of the bravery of the American cowboys, but because the equipment here is relatively old, and it was originally intended to be closed and renovated and upgraded, and the loss of destroying it was slightly smaller. But he replied with a joke:

"Of course! I've always admired the courage of American cowboys. ”

There's the Fermi accelerator in front of you. Viewed from the helicopter, there are two perfect circles embedded in the farmland, one large and one small, spelled together into a giant "8". The "8" has some small bulges in the middle waist. This giant "8" has a strong sense of mystery, like a code for human beings to communicate with gods or aliens. Of course, in the eyes of scientists, its function is not mysterious at all, according to the working procedure:

The accelerator working procedure first starts with the pre-injector in the middle of the "8" figure. From here, the beam of negative hydrogen ions drawn from the ion source accelerates to an energy of 750,000 electron volts; Subsequently introduced to 500 feet[1]

The long linear accelerator (which is also located in the middle of the figure 8) accelerates to 400 million electron volts, at which point the particle velocity is about 70 percent of the speed of light; The negative hydrogen ion beam passes through the medium-energy transport section and enters the intensifier (the latter is a small circle in the middle of the "8"). The ions entering the intensifier are passed through the carbon foil in order to remove electrons from the hydrogen ions and become a positively charged proton beam. The proton has to run 20,000 times in the annular orbit of the intensifier, accelerating to the energy of eight billion electron volts.

The proton beam is then drawn out and into the main injector. This is the main body of the "8", which is the slightly smaller circle in the upper part. The function of the main injector is more complex, and in general, it produces protons and antiprotons of 150 billion electron volts.

Then it's the turn of the great circle in the lower part of the figure 8, the trillion-electron volt accelerator (Tevat).

o

)。 It accepts the high-energy positive and negative protons that precede them and accelerates them to more than one trillion electron volts. Protons and antiprotons orbit in opposite directions in a circular vacuum tunnel, only 320 kilometers per hour slower than the speed of light. They then collide in the center of the CDF detector and the DO detector in the tunnel, producing new particles explosively.

CDF and DO are two detectors as large as a three-story building, each with a number of detection subsystems, used to identify and analyze different particles produced after a collision. Today's particle collisions will still happen here, but without the need for identification systems. Because the verification of the new theory is very intuitive: if there is a bang, the CDF and DO blow up, then the theory is correct; If they remain unharmed, it is a theoretical failure.

In normal experiments, particles collide more than two million times per second at the center of the two detectors, but today – if the second-order vacuum is successfully excited – there will only be one time, and then the Fermi accelerator will be scrapped, at least two detectors will be scrapped completely.

The helicopter smoothly hovered at an altitude of about five hundred meters above the CDF. Below, the accelerator has completed its warm-up, and the twenty-five remaining staff members have entered a state of readiness. But you can't see any of this on a helicopter, all you see is a quiet "8". Dai Qi asked He Zizhou to fasten the safety rope, opened the cabin door, handed over a high-powered telescope, and asked:

"Mr. He, do you want to start now?"

"Let's get started. Start with one trillion electron volts, then increase one billion electron volts every ten seconds, and work your way up without asking me for instructions until you ......"

He was going to say "until the accelerator can reach the highest energy of the particles," but Dyche preemptively stated: "Until there is a bang." He drew a circle with his hand, including the equipment on the ground and the helicopter. He Zizhou smiled:

"Yes, your statement is more vivid. But you're drawing a bit bigger, and it shouldn't include the three of us. His gaze shot into the distance and he said solemnly, "I absolutely believe that annihilation should be local, and will not extend to the entire ......."

He didn't say the word "universe". Aaron Dyche stared at him deeply, and even the driver turned his head and glanced at him quickly. After a long time, Dai Qi coughed lightly and said:

"Okay, I believe that too. I'll let them know and start experimenting. ”

He Zizhou whispered three words as heavy as a thousand pounds: "Let's start." ”

The helicopter hovered, and the three men on board stared down. According to prior calculations, the annihilation of the dense vacuum is likely to occur in the energy range of 1.3 to 1.4 trillion electron volts, that is, it will be visible within 60 minutes of the start of the experiment. These sixty minutes are certainly the longest sixty minutes ever. The scenery was as quiet as ever, but billions of particle monsters were quietly speeding through a four-mile-long vacuum tunnel. A thousand powerful toroidal superconducting magnets accelerate them one after another, making them run faster and faster. Superconducting magnets work at minus 232 degrees Celsius, and at this low temperature, there is no resistance in the circuit, and a torrent of electrons is pouring in, providing powerful power to the superconducting magnets, thus giving divine power to those particle monsters. Since March 1972, when the Fermi accelerator produced the first 200 billion electron volts of particle beams, it has conducted countless safe experiments in the decades. But what today's particle monsters don't know is that the space they are in is no longer the gently expanding space of the past, but a dense vacuum that has reached a critical state. Now, the particle monster's knock on the door should be answered in the depths of space. And then—

What happens then? No one can tell. The creation and annihilation of particles of matter have been carried out countless times in Earth's laboratories, but the annihilation of space is the first for humanity – no, the first for the universe. Because as far as human knowledge goes, the universe with a lifespan of 13.7 billion years has always been moderately expanding (except for a very brief explosion at the moment of creation), and now, this is the first time that this local space has become a space that has "contracted violently" and reached the critical state predicted by theory. Therefore, no one can predict what the scene of spatial annihilation will be, and perhaps not even a "bang......

Sure enough, there was no "bang". There was a soft white light under the wings that flashed quietly, and He Zizhou felt a wave of shaking in his body, this shaking was very peculiar, not an ordinary vibration, but like the body suddenly expanded and then recovered—no, it was not accurate to say this, the expansion of the body did not occur in three-dimensional space, but more like it happened inside the particle, and it was the expansion and contraction of the three-dimensional particle in the fourth dimension. His brain seemed to flash with a white light, and his normal thinking was briefly interrupted, and after the white light flashed, his sanity immediately returned. He leaned down to look under the plane and was immediately stunned. The other two people on the plane were equally dumbfounded.

Below, the probes vanished out of thin air, and where the two probes had been, a huge hemispherical body suddenly appeared, about seven stories high, with a very chaotic color on the outer surface, like a crazy abstract painting. There is a gap in the middle of the hemisphere, and the direction of the gap is roughly perpendicular to the ground, like the trough-shaped observation window on the hemispherical roof of the observatory, but the perimeter of the gap is uneven and intertwined. The walls of this huge sphere are so thin that it gives a thrilling sensation, as if it will collapse in an uproar with a finger poke.

Looking through the gap, you can see that the inner ball wall is not a hemisphere, but a perfect sphere, but the lower hemisphere is sunk under the ground and cannot be seen from the outside. The sphere as a whole is more than 14 stories tall and has a diameter of more than 40 meters. The colors of the inner walls are similarly cluttered, but the walls are very smooth and reflect the surrounding scenery like a mirror.

These two hemispheres are undoubtedly the original detectors and vacuum tubes, but how did it complete this transformation "silently"? Such a big change should be accompanied by the sound of shaking mountains and thunder, but the three intently watching observers did not notice it in the slightest. He Zizhou calmed down and said to the stunned driver:

"Can you fly in through the gap?"

The driver came back to his senses, visually measured the width of the gap, and said, "No problem." ”

"Then let's fly in and have a look, be careful."

The helicopter carefully flew through the jagged gap, staying in the sphere, and now they felt the enormity of the sphere even more intensely. Looking up, the gap between the two spheres is a zigzag blue sky, and the sunlight penetrates and illuminates the inner sphere wall; Looking down, beyond the jagged notch is brown soil and rock, but when the notch is lower than the ground, the notch is gone, and the lower hemisphere is a whole. One gets the impression that this was originally a perfect cosmic egg, but the upper half was unfortunately left with a gap due to the lack of materials. If you look at the hemispherical mirror, you can see the image of the helicopter in any direction, either upright or upside down, or zoomed in or out. The above scenes reflect each other on the spherical mirror, extending layer by layer, as if extending all the way to the depths of time and space. The roar of the helicopter is reflected several times on the inner wall of the sphere, creating a special reverberation.

The pilot hovered the helicopter in the center of the sphere, and the image of the body on the sphere was reduced to a dot. The fuselage rotates slowly, and the dot image is stretched into horizontal strips that flow rapidly over the mirror. The three of them were shocked to admire the strange sight around them, and they were all deeply mesmerized. But when the helicopter is in the center of the sphere, the roar is reflected from the entire sphere, increasing the decibels of noise by a hundredfold, which is unbearable. He Zizhou's strongest consciousness at the moment is - fear. Their three-state vacuum theory does not anticipate this large hollow sphere at all, and by logical extrapolation, the theory is equally unreliable for predicting that vacuum annihilation will be confined to a local area. Although their prediction was correct, it was just a fluke. Of course, the objections at yesterday's meeting were not to the point, and they did not expect such an outcome. It is only true that the "hidden laws of the universe" mentioned by Uncle Comber are correct - the more powerful the disaster, the higher the threshold for its activation, so the universe is "naturally safe".

As soon as man thinks, God laughs. Yesterday, when twenty-three first-class scientists were seriously thinking, God may have covered his mouth and laughed and his stomach hurt.

Amidst the thunderous roar, Dai Qi asked in a loud voice: "Mr. He, did you estimate the scene in front of you beforehand?" ”

He Zizhou said frankly: "No—there is." We only expected that the annihilation would be local space, but we didn't expect it to be such a scene. ”

The noise was too loud, and He Zizhou motioned for the driver to fly away from the center, and the sound was significantly reduced. Dyche turned around and said, "He, your theory has triumphed—space is indeed inspired to annihilate and confined to a localized area; But your theory is also wrong - you say that there will only be a trace amount of energy, but looking at the scene in front of you, will it be a trace amount of energy? Think about it, how much strength is required to complete such material transportation; How high is the instantaneous temperature required to melt the substance into such a mirror? ”

Dai Qi's question was very powerful, but He Zizhou quickly sorted out an explanation from the new phenomenon, shook his head and said: "No, this spherical mirror should have nothing to do with temperature and energy, but just a natural accumulation after the 'ebb tide' of space. You can imagine if ......," he struggled to gather his thoughts and deliberate on his words, "if a lake was full of ping-pong balls...... No, this analogy is not accurate, but a more accurate analogy is that if there are many hollow iron balls in the lake water, their specific gravity is the same as that of water, and thus they can stay at any depth of water, the small balls will gradually connect with each other to form some kind of random three-dimensional structure due to the attraction of weak magnetism. On the surface, this structure is only related to magnetic force, but in fact, it is also affected by the dual effects of gravity and buoyancy, but the two cancel each other out and have no external expression. Now, assuming that the lake disappears instantly, and the buoyancy disappears at the same time, then all the iron balls will sink to the bottom of the lake, and the collection of iron balls will change from the original three-dimensional shape to two-dimensional, and its shape will naturally fit with the lake bottom. Yes, that's how it works. Mr. Dyche," he said, gesturing around, "this spherical inner wall is the bottom of the lake after the annihilation of space, it is only the natural subsidence and natural fitting after the 'low tide', and there is no high energy and high temperature. Because the shape of everything in nature, in addition to being related to electromagnetic force, strong force, weak force and gravitational force, also relies on the support of the deep structure of space, but we were not aware of it in the past. But here, at that moment of spatial annihilation—it must be on the order of Planck's time—this invisible supporting effect suddenly disappears. ”

Dai Qi thought for a moment and nodded, "I think you're right." Since there is not a trace of heat left here, it should be a 'cold deformation'. But you say that the process of spatial annihilation is Planck time? I'm afraid not, otherwise these substances would have traveled much faster than the speed of light in that time, flying from their original position to their current position. ”

He Zizhou smiled, "Wrong! This is the disappearance of space itself rather than the movement of matter in space, and it does not require time. ”

Dyche was also a quick-witted man, and he woke up immediately, but he was also shocked even more. Because at this very moment, the space-time of Newton and Einstein, that is, the lifelong belief of all physicists, has been shattered. He looked around, his gaze confused. At this moment, at the lower part of the middle of the jagged void, that is, at the original height of the ground, some figures appeared, poking their heads into the hollow ball through the gap. It was Dai Qi who said that the officers on duty came out and came to watch the magic of nature. As the crowd gathered, the crowd erupted in exclamations, apparently trying to get into the ball, but couldn't, because from that point of view, there was a spherical hole that was as smooth as a mirror and seven stories deep. Someone was anxiously waving to the helicopter to take them into the hole. At this point, a daring fellow came up with a solution, he jumped diagonally from the gap to the inner sphere, drew a distorted conic curve on the smooth inner sphere, and slid towards the bottom of the hole. But this reckless guy miscalculated how smooth the ball wall was - it had almost no friction! So instead of a slide, he fell from the air, and when he reached the bottom of the cave, he was as fast as a racing car, swinging over the bottom of the cave and then quickly rising up the wall of the cave, along another deformed conic curve. When he reaches ground level, the height at which he jumps, his speed drops to zero. After that, he went down and up again, up and down, forming an unattenuated oscillation, like an acrobat playing a speeding car and walking on a wall. His face turned pale with fright, and he shouted into the gap:

"I can't stop! Can't stop! Hurry up and get me! ”

The spectators at the gap were all unsympathetic fellows, knowing that although the current scene was thrilling, it was actually thrilling, so no one helped him, but burst into cheers and laughter. The guy quickly got out of the initial panic and simply relaxed and enjoyed the cordless bungee jumping for the rest of his life, screaming when he reached the lowest point and waving his hand at the people when he reached the highest point. As he swings around in the lower hemisphere, there is a giant image flowing on the opposite mirror, like a dome movie. The people on the ground were greedy and wanted to do the same, but they were smart enough to realize the danger: it was safe for a person to drive around the wall inside, and it was easy to collide with each other if there were too many people. If the collision occurs at the high point of the curve, there is no problem, when the velocity of both parties is close to zero; But if the collision happens at the bottom, the two heads will definitely not be saved.

Eventually someone threw down a rope and pulled the guy up. Then the people on the ground lined up, jumped down one by one, enjoyed a short period of excitement, and then reluctantly left under the urging of the ground.

Dai Qi answered a phone call at this moment, hung up the phone, and said to He with a sad expression: "Four of the twenty-five officers on duty are missing, and the four who are on duty at the probe. ”

Then, they have died in this spatial annihilation, and their bones are gone—in fact, it should be said that the bones are eternal, and the particles that make up their bodies are now mixed in this ball wall, and this ball wall will be preserved forever. It is an important milestone in the development of human science. The three people on board were silent and mourned the deceased. The group of people on the ground didn't know if they already knew the bad news, but it didn't affect their excitement, and the cheers came and went. Now they played a new trick, and seven or eight men joined each other's arms, formed a human chain, and slid down the huge spherical slide, arousing even more exuberant cheers.

The driver suddenly turned his head and pointed to a certain place on the cave wall and exclaimed: "Look! ”

He Zizhou followed his direction and saw an astonishing picture: there was obviously a person, or rather a person, flattened, magnified several times, pasted against a smooth ball wall, the edges of which were blurred, blending with other substances. This is undoubtedly one of the four missing. The three people on board searched the entire ball wall and found no remains of the other three. If you look closely, the surface layer of the inner wall of the ball is transparent, only a few millimeters thick, and then gradually transitions to opacity, forming a reflective layer of mirrors. This human body is located at the junction of the transparent layer and the reflective layer, so it can be seen from the outside. The other three are supposed to be located in the opaque inner layer of the ball wall, so they can't be seen from the outside; Or it is in the transparent layer, the body is completely transparent, and it is not visible. He Zizhou asked the pilot to point the nose of the plane at the flat portrait, and the three of them mourned for a long time.

They ended their silence and enjoyed the revelry of those below. Then He Zizhou said: "You can't waste time on carnivals. Convene a meeting of experts. Also, don't forget to inform the state and county** that evacuated people can go home. ”

The expert meeting was also pre-arranged, so the personnel arrived at 4 p.m. The participants were all experts in particle accelerators, including two men in their eighties and nineties who were participants in the construction of the Fermi particle accelerator. The attendees all watched the scene in advance, and when they entered the conference room, they were all beaming, shaking hands with Dai Qi and He Zizhou, who were waiting at the door, and hugged them tightly. While the destruction of the Fermi accelerator is distressing and the sacrifice of the four is sad, the technological progress it has brought is even more exciting. At the beginning of the meeting, everyone first observed a moment of silence for the four deceased, and then He Zizhou began to speak. He said excitedly:

"The first step has been successfully taken, and now it's time to start the second step. As we have seen, the space excitation experiment on the ground can only be a one-time one-time, and it will cause irreversible damage to the accelerator vacuum pipeline, unless the vacuum pipe is greatly expanded so that it can accommodate the entire annihilation area, such a modification is more expensive and unnecessary, because the closed experiment cannot verify whether the vacuum annihilation can form a thrust. We might as well simply go to space to do it, because in three important ways, the working conditions in space are far better than on the ground: first, there is no need for bulky vacuum pipes to maintain the vacuum, only there is an accelerating magnetic ring, and high-speed particles can directly run freely along the magnetic orbit in space. Second, instead of cumbersome cryogenic generation systems, superconducting magnetic rings can work directly at space temperatures. Third, without gravity, all parts can be made lighter, and there is no need to adjust the motion of particles by gravity - of course, if the accelerator is installed on a spacecraft with uniform acceleration in the future, the trajectory of the particles will also need to be adjusted for acceleration, but this is a matter for the future, and there is no need to consider it at the moment. So I think the next urgent task is to move the high-energy particle accelerator on the ground to the sky and build a relatively simple spacecraft for experimenting with the principle. From the perspective of principle, this is not too difficult task, the only difficulty is that the scale of the spacecraft should be relatively large, and it should be able to fit the Fermi accelerator. Of course, the original shape of the accelerator must also be changed, and the '8' must be superimposed to save space. Think about it, how much time will it take to complete the amount of work I mentioned above? After a pause, he smiled and said, "The 'Friends of Joy' are accustomed to working under the whip of God. According to the work efficiency of the 'Friends of Joy', I think it should be completed within half a year. Oh, by the way, the head of the spacecraft development is Alex, he's on his way to the United States, and he'll be there soon. ”

There was a moment of silence in the conference room, and a middle-aged man stood up, with a smile hidden in his beard: "In my opinion, your first and most urgent task is to describe to us the driving principle of the 'Space Annihilation Spacecraft', which is the basis for the following discussion. ”

He Zizhou was stunned for a moment, and said suddenly: "Ah, it was my negligence. No wonder there is a Chinese proverb that says that if you have no hair on your mouth, you can't do things well; I thought you all knew. Now I'm ......"

The bearded man interrupted him, "We do have our own understanding, but does it match your thoughts?" Well, let me talk about the driving principle, and you will be the referee. ”

He Zizhou was very happy, "Good! Please speak. ”

"The driving principle and structure of the spacecraft are roughly as follows: the particle accelerator is 'installed in the open air' on the spacecraft, and the particles are accelerated by a thousand magnetic rings in a vacuum, and then collide behind the spacecraft, which excites the annihilation of local space and converts it into a trace amount of energy, that is, into light. A paraboloid-shaped reflector is installed behind the spacecraft to reflect and convert the scattered light from the spherical light source into a parallel beam, which converts the light pressure into a driving force. According to theoretical calculations, the duration of each light pulse is very short, one ten-millionth of a second, but the particle impact can reach tens of millions of times per second, which makes the intermittent light pulse accumulate into a continuous drive. ”

"Yes."

"Of course, the vacuum bubble created by annihilation should be far enough away from the reflector not to damage it."

"Yes."

"This light energy can also be harvested and used as energy for the ship's in-board installations, including particle accelerators. If the energy is insufficient, fusion energy can also be used as a supplement. ”

"Exactly."

"The principle I mentioned above is relatively simple, but the following principle is more winding, I don't know if I understand it correctly."

"Please speak boldly, I believe your understanding is correct." He Zizhou said with a smile.

"After the annihilation of the local space, it is like forming an 'ocean navel', and the surrounding elastic space will instantly flow towards the navel and become a sparse space. However, according to Mr. Chu's 'theory of steady-state accretion of spatial elements', the evacuated vacuum will be restored to a standard vacuum in Planck time, and then reduced to a dense vacuum under the pressure of the surrounding dense vacuum, so as to prepare for the next excitation. This elastic deformation of space creates tidal forces on the spaceship. However, this force is too small to overcome the electromagnetic force, so the ship will only have a brief slight elastic deformation without damage. This is a strong proof that all equipment outside the scope of the annihilation space remains intact from the test site. ”

"That's right, keep talking."

"Here's the most detouring part of the drive principle, I really don't dare to say that my understanding is correct, but I'll go ahead and talk about it. In the case of local space annihilation, the flow of space cells towards the 'vacuum navel' will not damage the spacecraft, but the result of its synthesis will be the backward drag effect of the spacecraft. He stared at He with blazing eyes, "When you calculate the forward driving force of the light pulse, I wonder if you have taken into account this reverse dragging?" ”

He Zizhou praised sincerely: "This bearded gentleman is so powerful - may I ask the honorable name?" ”

"My name is John Barrow, and I'm majoring in theoretical physics."

"Mr. Barrow, your understanding is completely correct, you have already planed to the very heart of the three-state vacuum theory. So," he said jokingly, "I didn't talk about the driving principle because I didn't talk about it, but because I knew that everyone in this room is an expert." He continued, "We have taken this drag into account. Since the time of spatial hyperplasia is Planck time, i.e. the sparse space is between 10-43

It returns to normal in seconds, so the drag force will not last longer than this level. It is with 10-8

Compared with the light pulse in the second level, it is only 1035 of the former

One in one, it's really insignificant. Therefore, it can be completely ignored when doing engineering calculations. ”

Barrow nodded, "Oh, that's right. I don't have a problem anymore. Before sitting down, he added, "I'm glad that my understanding of the three-state vacuum theory is basically correct." ”

He Zizhou said with a smile: "You can also paraphrase a Chinese proverb, and the heroes see the same thing." ”

The participants began to discuss. He Zizhou's mobile phone rang, and after listening to it, he said, "I'm sorry, I'm going to leave for a while." Alex came, and the helicopter immediately landed on the scene. He wanted me to show him around and then come to the conference room together. He smiled and said, "Let's continue the discussion, and hopefully you'll have a clear conclusion when we come back." ”

He hurried to the hollow orb. A helicopter landed nearby, and Alex and Ji Jichang jumped down and hugged him excitedly. The third one to come down is - willow leaves. He Zizhou wanted to hug her, but Liu Ye broke free, and his two small fists slammed him hard, scolding him angrily: "Villain, it's been so long, why haven't you kept telling me about safety?!" She was so angry, with a look full of anger and tears in her eyes. He Zizhou could only admit his mistake, saying that he was negligent, negligent, he only cared about being happy, he only cared about rushing forward to work, and forgot about the top important little sister of Liu Ye. However, at such a happy moment, Liu Ye's anger could not last long, she quickly turned her anger into laughter, and rushed over to hug Yang Yang.

They re-boarded the plane, flew through the gap into the sphere, hovered around the center of the ball, and admired the wonders of nature with awe; It is also with pathos and tragedy that I look at the flattened human body embedded in the cave wall. The sunset has already half set, and at this time it happens to be embedded in the gap of the sphere, and thousands of sunsets, thousands of helicopters, and thousands of portraits are reflected in the mirror, forming a fantastic golden world, a super kaleidoscope. Willow Ye's eyes were shining, and he murmured:

"It's beautiful, it's amazing, it's incredible. Brother Yangyang, it is as if we have entered the pupil of God and are looking at a deified world. ”

Compared with her intoxication, Ji Jichang was more in awe, he looked at the strange scene in front of him with almost dizzy eyes, and also looked at He Zizhou in the front row with reverence, and muttered: "Brother Yangyang, you are so lucky that you are the first to witness this miracle...... A new era begins with you! I'm so sorry I didn't get this mission over at the time! ”

Alex smiled and said to Liu Ye, "It's a pity that your brother Tianle didn't come. I heard that he has been obsessed with blowing bubbles since he was a child, and you see, what a strange big bubble here! ”

He Zizhou said: "This 'bubble' will not burst! Someone has already done a preliminary test, and the transparent layer of the bubble wall is a completely new material. It has the hardness, transparency and strength of carbon fiber of diamond, and it has nothing to do with the variety of the original material, but directly depends on the rearrangement of protons, neutrons and electrons, and is a special degenerate substance. ”

He looked at Alex meaningfully, who said sharply, "You mean, it can be used to develop a completely new processing method?" ”

"That's right! The new method, which is very energy-efficient, has a wide range of materials and is inexpensive, especially for the construction of thin-walled hollow parts, such as spaceships. ”

The two were overjoyed. This harvest is something that has not been predicted by the three-state vacuum theory. It seems that Ji Renrui's proposition is right: set off first and then find the way. Their quest for the Vacuum is similar to Magellan's, beginning with a half-blind plan and stumbling into a strait leading to the New World, followed by a land of great treasures and countless new and unexpected opportunities.

Before leaving, Alex muttered to the figure in the cave wall, "Rest in peace." As you can see, the light-speed age of humanity has begun. ”

The helicopter began to fly outward, but Ji Jichang, a mischievous ghost, was unwilling to let this "historical moment" end so dullly. When the helicopter was about to fly out of the gap, he suddenly opened the cabin door and shouted with a smile to the pilot:

"Hold on, I'm going to jump!"

In the exclamation of the willow leaves, he really jumped down, and when he jumped, his head rushed forward, and his arms stretched forward, like a swimmer entering the water. Several people on the plane leaned out in shock, looked down anxiously, and then were relieved. This daring guy is actually not reckless at all, he has already taken the angle when he jumped off the helicopter, basically jumping down in the tangential direction of the ball wall, and his hands touched the wall first, which played a cushioning role, so he slid smoothly. He jumped a little higher than the American cowboys, so he slid to the bottom faster, reaching 80 kilometers per hour. Then he swung up, and the highest point was three or four meters above the ground, level with the helicopter. He enjoyed the flying car and the cordless bungee jump, shouting happily and swinging in the sphere, and the giant-like image flowing rapidly on the opposite ball wall.

The people on the plane were relieved and watched with a smile. Liu Ye was very red-eyed and wanted to do the same, but in the end he still lacked enough courage. He Zizhou shouted:

"Changchang, stop playing, the people in the venue are still waiting."

Everyone struggled to pull this guy up. The helicopter is equipped with ropes, but for safety, the helicopter must not be too close to the ball wall. However, if he stops near the center of the ball and hangs down the rope, Ji Jichang can only correspond vertically to the helicopter when he is at a low point, at this time his horizontal speed is too high to grasp the rope, and even if he pulls it, such a large horizontal speed will threaten the safety of the helicopter. They decided to fly out of the sphere first, let the helicopter land, and then use human hands to hang the rope through the gap. But without waiting for them to implement it, Ji Jichang solved the problem by himself. He pushed the ball wall with his hand to steer when swinging up and down, and although the friction on the wall was small, the direction of the swing still changed slightly, visibly to the naked eye, and the swing trajectory slowly approached the direction of the gap. After a moment, he suddenly realized that he stopped pushing with his hand, but the swing trajectory was still slowly approaching the gap. He was shouting something, drowned out by the reverberation of the roar of helicopters. When he ascended to the top, he made a large clockwise circle with his hand, signaling something to this side. He Zizhou suddenly understood his dumb riddle:

"Foucault pendulum!"

Due to the zero friction of the ball wall, his up and down motion at this time actually constitutes a cordless Foucault pendulum, and the Coriolis force formed by the rotation of the earth causes the swing plane to rotate slowly clockwise. He Zizhou nodded to him, and also made a large clockwise circle with his hand, knowing that he understood, the two laughed at each other from a distance.

The direction that Ji Jichang jumped into just now happened to be on the left side of the gap, so this Foucault pendulum only needs to rotate at a small angle to align with the gap. The helicopter drove out of the sphere and landed, waiting patiently. Half an hour later, Ji Jichang flew up from the gap, with a chic and graceful posture; Then he fell heavily to the ground, and the chic turned into embarrassment. Although he fell into a crisp butt squat, he was generally safe and sound, and everyone on the plane was relieved. He scrambled to his feet and ran happily in this direction, and the helicopter picked him up and flew in the direction of the venue. Liu Ye smiled and said:

"Brother Changchang, look, there's a female fan of yours there."

Near the gap on the other side of the sphere was a blonde girl, about sixteen or seventeen years old, who was now waving her hands feverishly to greet the helicopter in the distance, apparently she had been watching. Liu Ye laughed and teased:

"Brother Changchang, do you need to stop the helicopter for a moment, you go and ask for a call?"

Ji Jichang laughed at himself: "It's a pity that the last ass squatted and ruined my image, so I won't be embarrassed." He poked his upper body out of the hatch and beckoned to the girl. The girl's figure quickly became smaller, and then the huge sphere disappeared into the vast twilight.

3

The construction of a near-lightspeed starship is in full swing. Alex was in charge of the design and manufacture of the principle-based experimental spacecraft, and according to his words, he picked an easy job and left the hardest bone - the practical starship - to the young He Zizhou.

Indeed, if the spacecraft approaches the speed of light infinitely to the point where the relativistic time effect becomes apparent, the spacecraft design will face a completely new situation. First of all, some of the problems that people had suffered in the past, such as the 100,000-year-level spacecraft's life support system and the crew hibernation system, have been solved at this time, because once the spacecraft reaches nearly the speed of light, the rate of the passage of inherent time inside the ship is close to zero. The crew can travel around the universe in their lifetime and then return to Earth, not to mention escaping from the cataclysmic area of tens of light-years, even considering the time consumed by the acceleration stage, it will only take more than ten years (spaceship time) at most. Some experts have said that for the starship, the leakage of the spacecraft's sealed door alone is extremely difficult to solve, because in a long time, even the smallest leakage will cause a huge loss of oxygen, and the spacecraft cannot stop to replenish (the spacecraft needs too much energy to brake and start again). But for near-lightspeed ships, leaks are no longer a problem.

There are two difficult problems. One is radiation protection, because for near-lightspeed spacecraft, stationary free particles in space will also be converted into lethal radiation. However, this problem is relatively easy to solve, as it is possible to set up sufficient radiation shielding for a ship with unlimited fuel. The second is the reaction speed of the ship's control system. During the voyage, it is inevitable to make some emergency adjustments, such as the spacecraft deviates from the scheduled course, encounters a large meteorite, and so on. There aren't many of these surprises, and ordinary ships are generally able to react. But for a near-light-speed ship, the speed is extremely high and the rate of passage of time inherent on board is close to zero! The result is a situation in which people (and machines and computers) live and work at normal speeds inside near-lightspeed ships; But if a stationary observer outside the ship could see inside the ship (which is impossible according to the theory of relativity), he would be anxious to find that it would take a hundred years for the word "warning" to pop up on the computer screen inside the ship, and 10,000 years for the pilot to recognize it. In other words, light-speed ships simply cannot react quickly to the "normal universe", and neither can they be automatically controlled by computers - and the computers run slower.

This seemingly simple problem is actually completely unsolvable - you can't reserve a special space in the spaceship's time system for the pilot (and the ship's computer) where time passes at a normal rate, and this is absolutely impossible unless the theory of relativity is completely overturned. Moreover, once there is a light-speed spaceship, of course, human beings will not be satisfied with just fleeing, but will definitely set their sights on the farther universe, then, the spacecraft may not only hit a small meteorite, but one day it will crash right in front of a star. For a ship that is unable to react in time, this means, of course, destruction.

Of course, there is a way to do this - to limit the speed of the ship. For example, limit the speed of a ship to half the speed of light, at which the rate of time lapse is 0.861 of the normal rate. At this rate, the driver still has plenty of reaction time. But – is this possible? Humans can travel at the speed of light they dream of, but humans actively harm themselves? Moreover, limiting the speed of the ship means giving up all the benefits of the time delay, such as the increased life of the crew, and even the leakage of the sealed door has to be faced again.

This is a dilemma. It cannot be solved by minor repairs and minor changes, and if we want to solve it, we must break through the current theoretical framework. Therefore, "this problem, which may take a lifetime, will be handed over to the young He Zizhou." Alex said with a smile, but in a very serious tone.

The drawings of the principle experimental spacecraft were completed in three months. The ship on the drawing was pre-named: "Goldfish" because of its resemblance to a goldfish. In front of it is a spherical cabin with a diameter of about two thousand meters, which is the body of a goldfish. Behind it is a concave parabolic mirror that resembles a goldfish's tail, which is responsible for converting the light energy generated by the annihilation of space into a driving force. On the outer surface of the spherical cabin, along the longitudinal circumference of the sphere, that is, through the front and tail of the sphere, there are two dense "necklaces", which are the main injector and the trillion electron volt accelerator, which are the "eight" of the Fermi accelerator folded together. The beads on the necklace are rings of superconducting magnets exposed to a vacuum, which constrain particles from traveling in circular orbits and accelerate them. The final leg of the trillion-electron volt accelerator passes through the tail of the goldfish and enters the interior of the concave parabolic mirror, where it meets at its focal point, where protons and antiprotons collide at near-luminal speeds. Of course, in order to protect the spacecraft from damage, the distance of the collision point from the reflective surface is greater than the spherical radius of the annihilation space.

The vertical projection surface of the mirror surface is about 1,000 meters in diameter and covers an area of 790,000 square meters, which can generate a light pressure driving force of 3,800 N. The spacecraft is designed to weigh 1,600 tons, then the light pressure will produce an acceleration of 0.0002g. This is already a very rare achievement for a light pressure drive.

At the front of the spherical pod is a horizontal pilot's viewing window, which is the eye of the ship, but looks more like a goldfish's mouth. But how can a goldfish be missing a pair of eyes? So, the childlike Alex slightly violated his principle of "design should be simple and practical" and drew two big eyes on the head of the fish. He laughs and says that this kind of beauty is a luxury that can only be enjoyed by a principle experimental spacecraft, because in a practical spacecraft, the hull has to rotate around the central axis to create a simulated gravity (the accelerator and the mirror surface also rotate together, which does not affect the collision of particles), and the bow has to be equipped with a very thick heavy water shield, so it is impossible to maintain the shape of a goldfish.

Sixteen variable vector vents are also equipped at the bow and tail of the spacecraft for attitude adjustment. They are powered by ordinary plasma drives. The most important function of the attitude adjustment device is that once the spacecraft is about to reach its destination, it relies on them to make a 180-degree turn of the spacecraft, turn it into a tail front and back, and turn the spacecraft's drive into a brake.

Under the merciless whip of God's whip, design and manufacturing are interspersed. After the overall design is completed, some parts that can be determined and have a long manufacturing period are designed in advance and put into production immediately; Other components were then designed and manufactured. There will inevitably be some mistakes and some rework, but – in wartime, time is more important than cost.

That new processing method, the "implosion molding method", will not be used on the first experimental spacecraft, but it may be used on the second. At that time, the cost of building a spacecraft will be drastically reduced, and the strength of the spacecraft will be greatly increased, and the improvement of the two can even reach two orders of magnitude.

Factories all over the world with the appropriate level of craftsmanship have invested in the construction of this spaceship, and they are listed at the top of the factory plan. Ten months later, spacecraft components began to be put into space-synchronous orbit, positioned above the Halmahera launch site, where they were assembled. During that time, the Long March rockets, Saturn rockets, proton rockets and Ariane rockets from China, the United States, Russia and Europe were frequently lifted into space, almost once a week, and the splendid rocket tail flames in space were already a common scenery on earth. A year later, the spacecraft was assembled and successfully commissioned, and then it was time to begin the all-important, uncertain ignition experiment.

Before Alex went to the synchronous orbit, he deliberately returned to the mountains to visit Ma Lao and Chu Tianle. The seventy-eight-year-old Ma Lao is nearing the end of his life, and there is no specific problem with his body, but a comprehensive decline in function caused by aging. He was extremely thin, his skin was yellow and flabby, only his mind remained clear, his eyes were bright, and the flames in his eyes seemed to be fueled by his body. Sixty-seven-year-old Tianle's mother pushed him in a wheelchair, and he leaned over in the wheelchair to shake Alex's hand, congratulate him on his successful first step, and wish him a smooth ignition experiment. Alex smiled wryly:

"There is a very good Chinese idiom: fear when things happen. I'm just scared now, just like George was back then. There is so much hope on this future lightspeed spaceship that the whole world is working for it, and more than a billion children have donated their candy money to it alone! But whether it will succeed or not, I really don't know in my heart. After all, the ground experiment was only carried out once, and it was actually only half a time, because it only confirmed that local space can indeed be annihilated and converted into light energy, but whether it can be used for space propulsion is still very unknown. If I fail, I'm afraid I won't have the shame to go back to Earth. ”

The weakened Ma Lao smiled and comforted him slowly: "You are just a pre-exam nervous syndrome, there is no need to be like this, at least the stimulation and annihilation of the local space has been verified, with this new breakthrough, we can always drum up something." He made a joke, "I'm sure that even if you fail this time, you'll come back cheeky, and the rest of the work is still waiting for you." ”

Alex also smiled, "Okay, I promise you, I'll come back cheeky." He turned his head and asked Tianle's mother, "What about Chu Tianle, didn't he say that he lived in seclusion in the mountains?" I've been so busy that I haven't been in touch with him in a while. ”

Tianle's mother looked at her husband and said with a smile: "He didn't think it was quiet enough here, so he hid on the desert island where the eggs were hatched, and stayed with Pauli, not letting anyone else accompany him, only letting the service staff bring them cooked food every week." ”

Alex keenly noticed that there seemed to be bitterness hidden in Tianle's smile, which seemed to be a bad omen. After all, the test flight of the "Goldfish" was an extremely important experiment, and as the chief "violinist" of the three-person team of the "Three-State Vacuum Theory", Chu had not shown up before the experiment, which was certainly abnormal. Alex didn't want to express his worries, thus adding to the psychological burden of a mother, so he smiled and said:

"According to my understanding of Chu Tianle, such a death and living alone often means that he is about to have a major breakthrough in theory. Let's be patient. Okay, I'm leaving. ”

He said goodbye to the second elder and took a helicopter to the headquarters of the "Friends of Music", and all the personnel of the "Friends of Music" came out to see him off. After saying goodbye to everyone, he called Ji Renrui and Yu Leshui aside and asked simply:

"Chu Tianle has been living in seclusion on Human Egg Island?"

The two of them keenly heard what he didn't say, and Yu Leshui smiled and said, "Well, even I won't let me accompany you." But don't worry, I'm going to be there tomorrow. ”

"He's with Pauli?"

"Yes, Pauli has always lived there."

Pauli's seclusion was very devoted, and in accordance with his orders, even Xiao Zhu, who was given to him, only unloaded the supplies to the stop point, and returned immediately, without meeting him. But Mr. Zhu said he often saw Pauli in the air, and that Pauli was an astrologist who often swam bare-bottomed or sunbathed on the grass — "sunset baths," or "sunbaths," to be precise, always when the sun was about to set, perhaps because his snow-white skin could not tolerate the intense sun. Pauli sometimes went to the headquarters of the "Friends of Joy" for meetings, but even when they did, he seemed withdrawn and reticent, and often hurried to return to his little nest after the meeting.

However, although he and Chu Tianle did not have much contact, the two respected each other. Chu Tianle has said many times that Pauli's profound knowledge, especially mathematical literacy, as well as his extraordinary insight and amazing intuition, are something he admires very much. Due to the arrangement of fate (the teenager dropped out of school), at least he could not compare with Pauli in mathematical literacy, if Pauli was Maxwell, Chu Tianle could only do Lady.

Alex thinks that the two smartest brains in the world have come together for more than just seclusion. But instead of going on, he said, "Okay." Then I'm gone. ”

"Let's go. Again, I wish the experiment a success. ”

After Alex left, Ji and Yu looked at each other. After more than ten years of getting along, the two have known each other very well and can see what is deep in each other's hearts. Ji Renrui asked:

"You're a little worried about him?"

Yu Leshui nodded, "Well, Tianle's mental state has been bad recently, and he seems to have regained his autism when he was a teenager. I don't know what the reason is, maybe it's ......"

She didn't finish her words, Ji Renrui already understood, and nodded heavily, "I don't feel good either." I always had a feeling that maybe he had discovered a catastrophe again, an even greater catastrophe. ”

Yu Leshui denied it, and said with a smile: "Alarmist." This catastrophe has reached the sky, how can there be a greater disaster! ”

"That is, he discovered the dead hole of the three-state vacuum theory, and he has already predetermined that the test flight of the 'Goldfish' will not be successful."

Yu Leshui thought about it and felt that although this possibility could not be ruled out, it was not big, otherwise, he would decisively ask the "Goldfish" to suspend the experiment. She was silent for a moment, and said self-deprecatingly:

"Renrui, you say, is it a kind of suffering to have a genius husband? As a wife, I can't grasp the psychological pulse of my husband, and I think it's very embarrassing. ”

Ji Renrui smiled, "Don't feel sorry for yourself, your wife is already very good." ”

They chatted a little. Yu Leshui said that she would go to Rendan Island tomorrow, first, to appease her husband, and secondly, to tell him that she had decided to have a child and use Tianle's sperm to carry out artificial insemination, even if it had disease-causing genes. Uncle Chu is right, if this pathogenic gene is accompanied by genius, then it is worth keeping. She was forty-three years old, and it would be too late for her to have children.

Speaking of Chu Guifu, both of them were a little gloomy. I don't know where the "Chu's" spacecraft is now? Did the flight go well? The vigorous guy in hibernation, and the thirteen hibernating toddlers, will be able to recover smoothly in the future? But now it's in vain to think about this, and the two tacitly agree not to talk about it. Ji Renrui nodded and said:

"Yes, give birth as soon as possible, this is exactly what Miao Qi and I have been persuading you, and I heard that Lao Kang has also persuaded you several times."

Yes, that's right, Uncle Comber was the most zealous of all, even rising to philosophical heights, saying that refusing to have children was unnatural and selfish. If I don't make this decision again, I won't dare to see him. ”

"That's right, my old Tonggeng is a hot-gutten person."

The two said goodbye and Yu Leshui took a helicopter home.

[1]

1 foot = 0.3048 meters