Sheng Xianfu was stunned.

When he handed over the paper, he was even ready to be ridiculed.

However, he didn't expect that his whimsical idea would be recognized by Lu Zhou.

"Cold fusion is not a proposition to make fun of, and in fact many things that cannot be done are not because it is wrong, but because we do not know enough about the universe."

Standing up from his desk, Lu Zhou walked over to the map of the solar system hanging in a corner of the office wall, and his eyes fell on the flame that had been burning for billions of years.

"Just as we still can't fully understand the source of the stellar power."

In a sense, the fusion reaction that takes place inside the star is also a form of cold nuclear fusion, but it does not look as "cold" as one might understand.

For nuclear fusion to occur, the two protons must have enough energy to overcome the Coulomb barrier, so that the distance between the nuclei is less than 10^-14 meters. To achieve this distance, the thermokinetic energy of a single nucleus must be at least at the level of MeV.

However, in fact, the average thermokinetic energy of the nuclei inside the star only hits the energy level of KeV.

A straightforward order of magnitude comparison shows that thermokinetic energy alone cannot overcome the Coulomb barrier to lead to nuclear fusion. Even considering gravity, fusion reactions inside stars are not strictly scientific.

From the point of view of classical mechanics, it is difficult to explain this "unscientific" phenomenon.

Therefore, a concept in quantum mechanics had to be introduced.

Namely, the quantum tunneling effect.

While this concept may sound a bit obscure, it is not difficult to understand the implications of wave-particle duality and uncertainty principles if you understand them.

In quantum mechanics, all objects of study are in an uncertain state, and their definite range satisfies a relation.

Take a small ball that is common in classical mechanics as an example, there is a small ball in front of a high mountain, according to the concept of classical mechanics, only when the speed of the small ball is large enough, can it cross this high mountain. If its speed is not enough, it may run out of kinetic energy when it rushes halfway up the mountain, and eventually rolls where it came from.

However, in quantum mechanics, even though the velocity of the ball may not be very large, there is still a certain chance that it will be able to pass through it when rolling towards the mountain.

If you replace the mountain with a barrier and the ball with an atom, that's why fusion reactions can occur in stars.

Although the energy of the nucleus is much smaller than that of the Coulomb barrier, due to the quantum tunneling effect, the proton can still pass through the Coulomb potential barrier and throw itself into the arms of another proton. It is precisely because of this probabilistic combustion that stars can burn steadily for billions of years, instead of exploding in an instant, running out all the fuel.

"Cold fusion is actually possible, or to put it more academically, it is theoretically possible to make fusion reactions occur before the macroscopic conditions for fusion are reached, but we have not yet found a suitable method and have not advanced the theory to the point where the mystery is fully revealed."

"If we want to solve the problem of miniaturization of controlled fusion, we must start from the essence, understand what strong interaction is, and use a definite model to unify it with electromagnetic interaction," Lu Zhou said, returning the paper in his hand to Sheng Xianfu, pausing for a moment and continuing, "If we can use a definite model to unify strong interaction and electromagnetic interaction, our project will be much smoother." ”

"In fact, I haven't given up on the miniaturization of controlled fusion."

"It's just because, at present, it seems that only I can do the theoretical work."

……

Lu Zhou has made some progress in the general solution of the Yang Mills equation, but several key difficulties are still unsolvable. However, he is not in a hurry, there is still a report meeting to be held, and he will have enough time to think about this issue slowly after the report meeting.

And so the days passed, and soon it was May.

With the completion of the two courses of computational materials science and number theory, Lu Zhou is now only waiting for the papers sent by a few students to be published, and he can receive the system task reward.

What's more interesting is that he found that this reward task is more Buddhist than the previous mission, and there is not even a specified time to receive the reward. Theoretically, if he doesn't want to complete it, he can even pull a few students to brush up the total number of impact factors to the sky before handing in the task.

However, it doesn't seem interesting to just drag it on.

Compared to a little impact factor of only 1000 free experience and 10 points, even if it is a thousand, it is only 100,000.

However, this is clearly not possible.

Lu Zhou has already made up his mind that he will send as many papers as he can before June. If you really can't catch up, forget it, he has almost rested in the past six months, so it's better to start the next task early.

Three days before the start of the lecture, Professor Klaus von Kleezing from Germany arrived in Jinling ahead of schedule, and met Lu Zhou, who was returning from the last class of computing materials, under the laboratory building of the School of Mathematics on the new campus of Jinling University.

"Long time no see," gave Lu Zhou a warm hug, Professor Kleezing looked at him and smiled and said, "I didn't expect that it has only been less than two years, and your name will have to give the old guys of the Nobel Prize selection committee a headache." ”

Lu Zhou smiled: "Maybe." ”

"No, maybe, in short, whether they will consider a scholar who has just won the Nobel Prize, I will nominate you," Speaking of this, Professor Kreqing suddenly smiled and continued, "Speaking of which, before coming to China this time, Professor Kreber asked me to bring you a sentence. ”

"Uh, what's that?"

"He said you're a terrible opponent," said Professor Clizzing with a smile, shrugging his shoulders, "and he said that the thing he regretted most in his life was to show off his lab to you." Thanks to you, he is now being overwhelmed by the Ministry of Economy and Technology. When the bureaucrats in the technical department saw that you had solved this problem at your fingertips, they thought that controlled fusion was actually a very simple thing...... It is said that the last time they met, the engineers of the Spiral Stone 7-X Lab almost got into a fight with the secretary of the technical department. ”

Hearing this, Lu Zhou coughed lightly in embarrassment.

"This ...... I'm sorry. If he thinks it's unfair, I'll take him to visit the Jinling Institute for Advanced Study in the future. ”

"Haha, I'm just kidding," Clezing smiled and patted him on the shoulder, "He doesn't hate you, not even ...... Thank you very much. After all, without your plasma turbulence model, the current research on stellarators would probably still be in a marginal state. What's more, if his lab had been the first to complete controlled fusion, I think he would probably have made the same choice. ”

Lu Zhou made a helpless expression, "I hope my research won't cause him trouble." ”

"How so? And maybe we will have the opportunity to work together in the future," Klitzing smiled and continued, "Several of the major ITER members have reached an agreement with China to exchange many controversial issues and technologies in the industrial field. It will take about five years, and the content of the agreement will be implemented gradually. ”

After hearing Clixing's words, Lu Zhou nodded.

Five years is a good buffer period.

Because it is uncertain whether this problem can be solved in the short term, other countries are naturally unwilling to exchange their chips too early, and China also does not want the controlled fusion technology to be mastered by others too early and lose its dominant position in this field.

Of course, there is one thing that everyone agrees on, and everyone knows very well that permanent secrecy is impossible.

In particular, a civilian technology such as controlled fusion, which is destined to be used on a large scale, unless it is not used in the palm of your hand, or completely closed to the country, there are too many possibilities that will lead to the loss of technology when controllable fusion power stations and cross-regional power grid projects are rolled out.

With the three-year popularization of controllable fusion power stations and the strategic plan of supplying more than 80% of the country's electricity, it is the choice to maximize the benefits by using controllable fusion technology to exchange political, technical and other benefits with other countries for a five-year period.

And these five years are enough time for a lot to happen......