As one of the seven millennial problems, the NS equation has received extraordinary attention both in terms of its popularity and its application in the fields of physics and engineering.

Especially when this issue is noticed by a scholar who has always been able to perform miracles, the event itself has a high degree of topicality.

Many PhDs from universities and research institutes, whether it is mathematics or physics, even if the research direction is in other fields, will more or less talk about this topic after dinner.

Many people are curious whether Lu Zhou is challenging the problem of the century of the NS equation.

If so, where has he been?

Is it just the paper that appeared in the Annals of Mathematics?

People seem to be more willing to believe that the genius's research results are far more than those published in the Annals of Mathematics.

The dining area on the first floor of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton is lunchtime.

"A bacon sandwich."

"Your sandwich...... Do you really not think about other tastes? Eating the same food all the time is not a particularly good diet. ”

Because he always orders the same food, the chef here already knows Lu Zhou.

"No, thank you."

After receiving the hot sandwich and coffee from the chef, Lu Zhou found a comfortable seat nearby.

On a normal day, he might be able to cook his own meals or go to an Ivy League eating club for a leisurely meal, but these days, he spends almost every lunch with a sandwich and reports to the plasma physics lab.

The design idea of the whole experimental setup seems simple to say, but it is extremely complicated in practice!

In addition to the obvious problems, there are many less obvious problems that need to be solved, which requires a combination of theory and engineering knowledge, which means that Lu Zhou must always communicate with the engineers in the laboratory, and at the same time exchange ideas and find feasible solutions for things that are difficult to achieve in engineering.

To be honest, it was at this moment that Lu Zhou felt that his engineering level came in handy. In discussions with these engineers, he found that he received knowledge about engineering design surprisingly quickly.

As for how fast......

It's about the same level as two years ago, when I was working on math problems on my own.

While munching on a sandwich slowly, Lu Zhou pondered those complex questions.

At that moment, however, a woman with long blond hair sat down across from him, and out of nowhere she conjured up a voice recorder for an interview.

"Hello, Mr. Lu Zhou, I'm sorry to bother you, I'm a BBC reporter."

Glancing at the blonde lady suspiciously, Lu Zhou, who was chewing on the sandwich, was slightly stunned, and asked in a slurred voice: "Is there something wrong?" ”

He couldn't remember what he had done lately that was noticeable enough.

If it was the Hoffman Medal, it was clear that she had come at the wrong time, because the incident had long since passed the news timeliness, and he didn't think people were still paying attention to it.

The reporter's young lady pursed her lips and smiled, and asked: "That's right, about your recent paper submitted in the Annals of Mathematics, which has caused extensive discussion in the academic community, may I ask you about the existence and smoothness of the solution of the NS equation in the challenge of the Seven Millennium Problems recently?" ”

If it's a math problem that's not worth the BBC's foreign correspondents, the millennium problem is different, whether it's a million-dollar problem or the name of the century, it deserves the headlines of the tech panel.

"No, you misunderstood, there is no such thing," slightly stunned, Lu Zhou immediately shook his head and denied, "I studied the NS equation just to facilitate my own research." While I did get an interesting result, it wasn't anything to be thankful about. ”

The reporter's sister looked at Lu Zhou in surprise: "Unbelievable...... May I ask, what exactly are you working on something amazing? ”

"Whatever it is, I don't want you to make the news in the scientific research section like a gossip board, chasing after the wind and reporting some unrealistic news," folded the sandwich wrapper into a square, and Lu Zhou casually threw it into the trash can next to him, "I can only tell you one thing before the research results come out." ”

He was worried, and today he said that he was designing experiments for the study of high-pressure plasma turbulence, and tomorrow the BBC would report that a Chinese scientist had solved the problem of controlled nuclear fusion, and then his phone would be blown up by some people who didn't know what was going on.

After all, this is a BBC reporter.

Because of the often exaggerated reporting techniques and the behavior of various headline parties, he was even "blocked" by Wikipedia for a time.

didn't care about Lu Zhou's sarcasm, the reporter's sister seemed to smell the news, her eyes lit up, she leaned forward and approached with the recorder: "What words?" ”

Lu Zhou grimaced: "No comment." ”

Miss Reporter: "......"

……

After driving away the reporters, Lu Zhou went to the PPPL.

By the time he arrived, the engineers were already at their posts.

Seeing Lu Zhou, Professor Lazersson's eyes lit up and he greeted him.

"The Spiral Stone 7-X lab accepted our request, and they agreed to install target material and an atomic gun into the first wall in the next experiment to help us collect data."

Lu Zhou immediately asked, "When is the next experiment?" ”

Although he persuaded the Spiral Stone 7-X Laboratory, Professor Lazersson did not look easy: "Mid-January...... But we must come up with valuable results by the end of December! Otherwise, they wouldn't have considered postponing the test program for us and scheduling our probes. You know, ITER projects are getting tighter and tighter, and all the labs are in a hurry. ”

"We're running out of time." Lu Zhou's expression was a little solemn.

"Yes, there's not much time left for us there. Of course, we can wait until June next year, but ......," said Professor Lazersson, whose expression was a little wistful.

"But?"

"But the PPPL can't support us to continue this research indefinitely, and if we don't do anything for half a year, the project may be axed." Professor Lazersson eventually spoke up.

The essence of this project is still attached to PPPL, the funds are provided by PPPL, and all resources such as talents and equipment are also used by PPPL.

There are many black technologies being incubated here, and controlled nuclear fusion is just one of them, and the "He3 atomic probe" technology is only a sub-project under the controlled nuclear fusion project.

If this sub-project occupies half a year's funds and scientific research resources, but does not produce any plausible results, any laboratory director with a little management experience will cut this "inferior" project, or at least postpone the priority.

Unless there are multiple Nobel Prize-level scholars endorsing such a project, or the project itself is being carried out by Nobel Prize bigwigs.

But Lu Zhou is obviously not, and Professor Lazersson is not......

Lu Zhou frowned slightly: "Can't you even afford to wait for half a year?" ”

"I can afford to wait in normal times, but the recent research tasks are very tight, and less important projects will naturally be postponed...... No matter how interesting it sounds. When he said this, Professor Lazersson was also entangled.

Of course, he wanted the project to continue.

After all, the current physics community can only "diagnose" plasma, not "observe".

The two concepts are not at the same level in terms of accuracy, and the image-only model based on the different data obtained by the two is not at the same level at all.

If Lu Zhou's mathematics was really as good as he boasted, and they did succeed in designing this experiment in the end, maybe the Nobel Prize Committee would really consider his own name.

This is also the only chance that he can touch the Nobel Prize, who is more like an engineer than a scholar.

After listening to Professor Lazersson's explanation, Lu Zhou immediately said, "We must speed up the progress!" Since the deadline left for us is only until the end of this year, we just need to do it before the end of this year. ”

Professor Lazersson hesitated, "Is this too late?" ”

"It's not a matter of not being in time," after a pause, Lu Zhou looked at Professor Lazersson and said in a serious tone, "It must be in time!" ”