However, Lu Zhou found himself purely thinking too much.

When he asked the system about this, the system didn't give him a reply, not even a response. So much so that he couldn't help but wonder if the "integral function" of this broken system was broken?

After trying all kinds of questions, on the tenth attempt, the system finally gave a reluctant answer.

Although, it's only a short line of words.

[The preconditions are not met.] 】

Looking at the words that appeared in front of him, Lu Zhou stopped asking about the system, and instead fell into deep thought.

"The precondition is not met...... Does this refer to the level, or is the pre-tech required to unlock fusion not up to the mark? ”

For this further part of the problem, the system said nothing and refused to give a hint, completely ignoring him.

However, Lu Zhou did not feel any discouraged by the coldness of the system.

Because for him, there are enough hints......

At the end of the experiment, in the lounge area of the Spiral Stone 7-X lab, Professor Kreber asked for a cup of coffee for each of them.

Sitting on the sofa in the lounge area, a Nobel Prize official, a prospective Fields Prize scholar, and a senior engineer of controlled nuclear fusion engineering, the three of them rested and chatted about the Spiral Stone 7-X stellarator and ITER cooperation project.

The so-called ITER project is the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) program, and it is also one of their main sources of funding.

However, when it comes to his views on the ITER project, Professor Kreber's face is not as optimistic as he had been in the lab, but rather deeply worried.

"The prospects for a controlled fusion project are undoubtedly promising, and anyone who asks me this question will answer him with that. However, the ITER project has not been optimistic so far, and the annual budget is exceeding the standard in hundreds of millions, but the results are not gratifying, and governments including the United States have gradually lost patience. In order to free up funding for the Spiral Stone 7-X, we have shut down the EGA experimental group. ”

Professor Cléching lowered his head and drank his coffee, shielding the expression from his face with his cup.

It's not crying, it's laughing.

Although he knew that schadenfreude was not good, he couldn't help but feel dark in his heart when he saw that these "local tyrants" who were not bad for money were finally short of money.

With a sigh, Professor Kreber continued.

"Controlled nuclear fusion is a systematic project, whether it is inertial confinement or magnetic confinement, or tokamaks and stellarators, and it is only possible to finally solve this puzzle when a series of questions are answered. But now, none of the problems we are facing have been fundamentally solved. ”

Lu Zhou: "What problems do you think needs to be solved?" ”

Professor Kreber thought for a moment and said, "From an engineering point of view alone, we need a larger electromagnetic field to complete the magnetic confinement of the plasma. However, this is not easy to solve, because a large magnetic field means a large current, and the current releases heat when it passes through the conductor. The wire must be soaked in liquid helium to reach the superconducting temperature on the one hand and to prevent the wire from heating up due to the thermal effect of the galvan on the other. ”

"It's not enough to have a magnetic field, we have to find a way to control it...... Of course, fortunately, the advantages of the design concept of the stellar simulator device make it unnecessary for us to start the plasma current through an ohmic transformer like the Tokmak device, nor do we need to consider problems such as twisted film, magnetic surface tearing, resistance wall film, etc., which is equivalent to transferring the technical difficulty to the engineering difficulty. ”

Speaking of this, Professor Kreber smiled helplessly and said in a joking tone.

"In fact, after talking about so many engineering problems, in the final analysis, we have to return to the materials."

"If we had a material that could achieve superconductivity at room temperature, or at least under less extreme conditions, we could create a much larger artificial electromagnetic field to confine the plasma, and a lot of the problems would not be a problem at all."

Superconducting materials are a must.

Lu Zhou made a general summary, and at the same time wrote down this sentence in the notebook he carried with him.

"If you want to solve a difficult problem, you must first solve more difficult problems, does that mean?" Professor Kleezing, who had been drinking coffee, interjected with a smile, "I think that if there really is a room temperature superconducting material, let alone a controlled nuclear fusion project, even if there is no controlled nuclear fusion, many energy problems can be solved." ”

"So it's just a hypothesis," Professor Kreber said, shrugging his shoulders and reluctantly, "if we can't solve it from a materials science point of view, we have to improve the coil design and increase the strength of the artificial electromagnetic field from an engineering point of view." In addition, in addition to the practical problems, we are basically at a loss in the theoretical field. ”

Lu Zhou asked, "Does controlled nuclear fusion need to involve complex theoretical issues?" ”

"There's a famous saying in physics that more-is-different," Professor Kleezing smiled and answered the question for his old friend, Professor Kreber, "although the motion of plasma can be summarized by Maxwell's equations, not even quantum mechanics, the number of particles in the whole system is astronomical." You should be able to understand the difficulties involved. ”

Lu Zhou nodded, indicating understanding.

When he studied the theory of electrochemical interface structure, the variables involved were almost three times the number of particles in the system. Faced with the theoretical model he devoured, even Anton had to think for a while before he could come up with an answer.

However, the ion motion in the stellarator is a more complex system than the electrochemical interface structure.

Just like fluid mechanics, although we know that the basic equation is the Navier-Stokes equation, the turbulence phenomenon produced by it is a mountain that the physics community has not been able to conquer for 200 years.

Turbulence is not exclusive to ordinary fluids, and plasma can also produce turbulence. Moreover, due to the presence of an external magnetic field, the turbulence of plasma will be more complex and difficult to predict than the turbulence of ordinary fluids.

Since there is no theoretical explanation, there is no way to find a concise model to predict plasma behavior from "first principles".

So many times, when researchers are "diagnosing" plasma, they can only build some image-only models to help them study, just as they do when studying fluid turbulence.

Seeing that Lu Zhou was so interested, Professor Kreber couldn't help but send out an invitation.

"If you're interested in a fusion project, why not join the ITER program? We are very happy to welcome a mathematician to be part of our cause. ”

Regarding the olive branch thrown by Professor Kreber, Lu Zhou thought for a moment and gave an answer.

"I'm sorry I can't accept your invitation, I'll have to go back to Princeton in a while, and I'll have to prepare for next year's mathematicians' conference starting next month."

Closing the notebook in his hand, he smiled a little embarrassedly and continued.

"Still, I'll write them down and study them as a hobby. There's no guarantee that you'll be able to research something, but maybe one day it will come in handy. ”

Although he was rejected, Professor Kreber was not discouraged and just said with a smile.

"Really? Then I can only look forward to your new results. ”

Although when he said this, he didn't have an expectant expression on his face, and even just took Lu Zhou's words as a joke.

Because it is clear that none of the previously mentioned problems can be studied as a hobby.

Having worked in this institute for so many years, no one knows better than Professor Kreber how difficult it really is......