Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Institute of Condensed Matter Physics, Cambridge, Boston metropolitan area, Massachusetts, USA.

Wen Xiaogang sat at his desk, sipping coffee as he browsed the New York Times' latest reports on China's electromagnetic space launch system and aerospace aircraft program.

In recent years, the Sino-US trade friction has intensified, and the United States can still have the upper hand by virtue of its advantages in the field of science and technology, but in recent times, with the rapid rise of the young man in China, especially the emergence of Jinlong battery, the global political economy and even the technological pattern have been reversed.

Today, although the United States still dominates many high-tech fields, there is no strategic product like King Long battery that can compete with China.

In the previous Sino-US trade war, China was on the tactical defensive, strategic offensive, and the United States was on the strategic defensive, tactical offensive.

And now, the United States does not even have the capital to tactically confront China.

A Golden Dragon battery directly divided the Western society originally led by the United States.

Even those Chinese students who come to study in the United States now have a high sense of national pride, and in previous years, most of the international students who returned to China after graduation remained at 70 or 80 percent, but now the proportion of those who choose to return to China has exceeded 90 percent.

In a sense, at a time when the number of local science and engineering graduates in the United States is decreasing, American colleges and universities have become the cradle of China's top scientists and engineers.

And domestic colleges and universities are also making further efforts, last year Peking University also sent someone to contact him, if it were not for the fact that he had become an American citizen, and had taught at MIT for decades, and his children and grandchildren had long been accustomed to life in the United States, I am afraid Wen Xiaogang would have agreed a long time ago.

In recent days, however, there has been less media coverage of the Sino-US Golden Dragon battery talks, replaced by China's plans to launch an electromagnetic orbital launch system and an aerospace aircraft.

Of course, most of the media in the United States ridiculed the idea that this plan would never be realized.

At this point, the Americans are quite confident, as the leading space power on the earth, the United States has extremely strong accumulation in the field of space technology, the Apollo moon landing program, the space shuttle program......

Even the Soviet Union during the Cold War could only barely compete with the United States.

Therefore, when China's plan reached the United States, NASA experts openly stood up and said that Pang Xuelin was whimsical.

Mankind has not even tapped the potential of chemically powered rockets far away, but has invested resources in the so-called electromagnetic catapult space launch system. It's simply putting the cart before the horse.

Even Wen Xiaogang himself is not optimistic about Pang Xuelin's project, in his opinion, if nothing else, the production of superconductors needed for electromagnetic catapult orbits and low-temperature liquid nitrogen for maintaining superconductors requires an astronomical amount of money.

Even with China's economic prowess, this plan is not likely to be realized.

Of course, if Pang Xuelin can find a superconductor at room temperature in the true sense, it will be another story.

However, as a top condensed matter physicist in the world, Wen Xiaogang does not believe that with the current level of research on superconductors in the physics community, mankind can find a real superconductor at room temperature in a short time.

Just as Wen Xiaogang was drinking coffee, he was a little bored and looked through the webpage.

Bang bang bang –

There was a sudden knock on the door.

"Please come in."

Wen Xiaogang said.

There was a click, and the lock was opened.

An old man of Chinese descent in his sixties entered, dressed in a delicate casual suit with his hair meticulously combed back of his head.

"Patrick, why are you here?"

Wen Xiaogang was slightly stunned.

Patrick Lee, Chinese name Li Yada, William and Emma Rogers Professor of Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a leading figure in condensed matter physics, has made many outstanding contributions in the fields of disordered electronic systems, mesoscopic physics, condensed matter physics, and low-temperature tiny components.

Li Yada's ancestral home is Xiangjiang, and he became an American citizen a long time ago, and his seniority at MIT is older than Wen Xiaogang.

Both are top condensed matter physicists and are the principal and deputy director of the MIT Institute for Condensed Matter Physics.

Li Yada's expression was solemn and said, "Wen, hurry up and log on to arXiv pre-printed this website." ”

"What's wrong?"

Wen Xiaogang was slightly stunned.

"Just two hours ago, the Chinese supergenius just uploaded a paper on condensed matter physics, in which he used mathematical methods to solve the problem of the correlation between superconducting states and quantum fluctuations, and built a mathematical model of superconductors. His theory can explain not only the conventional superconductors that follow the BSC theory, but even the heavy fermion compounds, copper oxide superconductors, iron-based high-temperature superconductors, and even graphene two-dimensional electronic system superconductors, all of which are perfectly consistent with his theory, in other words. He has found the ultimate secret of superconductivity. ”

"What?"

Wen Xiaogang was taken aback and looked at Li Yada incredulously.

Li Yada said: "This is what Professor Waldesa of Princeton University just called me to tell me, you should know Waldessa's temperament, he will not talk nonsense." ”

Wen Xiaogang nodded, no longer hesitated, and directly opened the arXiv website and found Pang Xuelin's paper.

He then downloaded and printed the paper, and read it carefully with Patrick.

Minutes and seconds passed.

One hour, two hours, three hours......

Before you know it, it's getting dark.

It wasn't until a piercing phone rang that Wen Xiaogang and Li Yada woke up from their contemplation.

Wen Xiaogang looked at his phone, and it turned out that his wife was calling and asked him why he hadn't come home for dinner.

Wen Xiaogang casually dealt with a few words, and then looked at Li Yada and said, "Patrick." What do you think of Pang Xuelin's theory? ”

Li Yada said: "It's hard to say now, but from the experimental data and theory, this set of theories is likely to solve the problem of the formation mechanism of superbodies in the past century, and it is of great significance to find new superconducting materials in the future." ”

Wen Xiaogang nodded, pondered for a moment, and said, "Patrick, I'm going to go back to China." ”

"You're going to China?"

Li Yada raised his head in surprise and looked at Wen Xiaogang.

Wen Xiaogang said: "You should have read the report that China proposed to establish an electromagnetic catapult space launch system and an aerospace aircraft project not long ago, right? ”

Li Yada nodded, frowned, and said, "You mean, Pang Xuelin suddenly uploaded this paper, not without purpose. ”

Wen Xiaogang nodded and said: "We can't treat Professor Pang Xuelin as an ordinary scientist, I suspect that he has found a technical route to realize superconductors at room temperature in the true sense." ”

"It's unlikely."

Li Yada said in disbelief.

Wen Xiaogang smiled and said, "Patrick, don't forget, one of the greatest mathematicians in history and the youngest Nobel laureate in chemistry, has he created fewer miracles?" If there is no big problem with this paper, it is not surprising that in ten or twenty years, Pang Xuelin will have another Nobel Prize in physics on his head. For such a young man, we can't overestimate it. ”

Wen Xiaogang paused, and continued: "But this is not the main purpose of my desire to find him. ”

"And why are you?"

Li Yada asked curiously.

Wen Xiaogang said: "I have been immersed in the field of condensed matter physics and superconductivity for most of my life, and I hope that I can see the real superconductor at room temperature appear in front of my eyes in my lifetime. I will not let go of such an opportunity. ”

……

At the same time, similar scenes and similar dialogues are happening in major superconductor research institutions around the world.

Pang Xuelin can guess that this paper will shake the condensed matter physics community.

In fact, not long after his paper was uploaded to the arXiv website, he received numerous calls asking questions.

There are from the top, there are from academia, and there are from the media.

Fortunately, he didn't know much from the condensed matter physics community.

Therefore, for a short time, his ears were relatively quiet.

Of course, the media coverage of this paper is also boiling, and there is even a variety of extremely exaggerated headlines.

"The era of superconductivity is coming, and the new energy revolution caused by King Long battery has ushered in a new boost......"

"CRRC said that in the future, it will build a vacuum superconducting maglev train on the Beijing-Shanghai line, which is expected to end the hegemony of civil airliners in long-distance transportation......

"China is about to usher in a revolution in power transmission and transformation, and the emergence of superconductors will save more than 20% of China's energy ......"

……

Of course, while discussing superconducting materials, more people are turning their attention to the electromagnetic catapult space launch system project.

On Pang Xuelin's birthday two days ago, he posted a Weibo on the Internet, claiming that he was the promoter of this project.

Then the Weibo post set off another wave of controversy online.

Even if Pang Xuelin took the initiative to stand up and endorse, supporters and opponents were almost evenly matched.

Among the many objections, the most important was the technical difficulties of the project.

Everyone agrees that one of the prerequisites for the electromagnetic catapult space launch system is to find a room-temperature superconductor, and that without a room-temperature superconductor, the cost of the project would be astronomical, and whether it will be technically successful is another question, whether China's economic strength can support such a mega-project.

Because of this, after Pang Xuelin posted that Weibo, many opponents stood up and scolded Pang Xuelin with this question.

They think that Pang Xuelin is aiming too far and promoting technology, which is not beneficial to the country.

Who would have thought that after only a few days, Pang Xuelin shook his hand and fell on the face of many opponents.

After this paper came out, almost all major media around the world reported the significance of this paper one after another.

Top scholars in the field of condensed matter physics also spoke out one after another, affirming Pang Xuelin's significant contributions in this field.

And the supporters of Pang Xuelin, who were suppressed by those opposing voices a few days ago, also launched counterattacks.

"Don't you think Professor Pang can't do it? Look, that's Professor Pang's answer! ”

"Do you think the higher-ups are stupid? If you don't have a certain degree of certainty, how can you easily decide to set up such a heavyweight project? ”

"My supervisor spoke highly of Professor Pang's paper, believing that he had unified the superconductivity theories of many schools and fundamentally solved the problem of the formation of superconductivity mechanisms. As long as a team finds a new generation of superconducting materials based on this paper, the Nobel Prize in Physics will definitely be in Professor Pang Xuelin's pocket. ”

……

"I admit that Professor Pang is awesome, but theory is theory, and reality is reality. A complete set of theories, if you want to really generalize in reality and achieve productivity, it will take decades. From the first half of the 19th century, Faraday discovered the law of electromagnetic induction, to mankind set off the electrical revolution, more than half a century passed. From the breakthrough of the theory of electron tube transistor management to the information revolution, nearly half a century has passed. Even if someone does find a room temperature superconductor through Professor Pang's paper, can it be industrially produced? Can it be applied at scale? What about the price of such superconductors? There are all kinds of problems involved that will not be solved in a short period of time......"

"Hehe, although I think what you said has some truth, I still support Professor Pang. Professor Pang has let us down since he became famous? Please don't apply the standards of ordinary people to our Professor Pang, okay? ”

Pang Xuelin naturally will not be disturbed in the unexpected world.

At this time, he was strolling with Li Changqing and Cao Yuan on the artificial lake of the Qiantang Laboratory.

The core area of Qiantang Laboratory is mostly dominated by Chinese-style buildings, supplemented by traditional Chinese-style gardens, with a beautiful environment, quiet and elegant.

"Professor Li, Professor Cao, the synthesis of new superconducting materials will be handed over to you, and I will be the shopkeeper."

Pang Xuelin said with a smile.

Li Changqing on the side said with a smile: "Professor Pang, don't worry, you have helped us do this, and even the atomic structure of superconducting materials has been pointed out to us, if we can't do it again, it will really be in vain for so many years." ”

"Professor Li is right."

Cao Yuan nodded and said with a smile: "That's right, Professor Pang." Where are you going to send that paper on arXiv? ”

arXiv is only a preprint of this website and has not been formally peer-reviewed, so such papers are not of academic value in a short period of time.

It is because Pang Xuelin is too famous that his paper will attract so much attention after it is uploaded to arXiv.

Pang Xuelin smiled slightly and said, "I am going to set up a new comprehensive academic journal in the name of Jiangcheng Institute for Advanced Study, and I will use this paper to fire the first shot for this journal." =”。

"Founding a new comprehensive journal?"

Cao Yuan and Li Li Changqing glanced at each other and were both taken aback.