"President Liu, I have just joined the Natural Science Foundation, and you know that I have only graduated not long ago, this is my first job, and I don't know anything about Chairman Yu's background, but it must be a big deal."

Fang Hong looked at Vice Principal Liu and said with a smile, paused for a moment and continued: "To tell you the truth, I was also surprised to be her assistant, I was promoted by her within two days of joining the company. ”

A mouth full of nonsense, lying without blinking.

But his words undoubtedly made Vice President Liu think more without thinking much, he couldn't help but secretly look at Fang Hong, and found that this young man was really handsome, even if Yu Qiu was in the position of the top leader of the Natural Science Foundation, he was also a woman, and she was also a young girl, so it was not ruled out that she would have some sparks with the handsome young man in front of her.

At the end, Fang Hong said, "Does Principal Liu have any other questions?" ”

Vice President Liu put away his thoughts when he heard this, and shook his head, he didn't plan to ask again, it is estimated that Fang Hong would not answer if he wanted to know, and forcing him to ask would make him embarrassed, and Vice President Liu would also accept it when he saw it.

"Fang Hong, let's go over too, please." Vice President Liu made a gesture of please, after all, Fang Hong is now coming to the school as a staff member of the Natural Science Foundation, so the two of them went in the direction of Li Kang and Yu Qiu.

……

After two or three minutes, Fang Hong and Vice Principal Liu entered a conference room, where Yu Qiu, Li Kang and the others were.

In the course of the conversation just now, Yu Qiu made it clear to Li Kang and others that she was not an expert in specific scientific research, but this did not affect the support of the Natural Science Foundation for basic scientific research, and expressed that professional things should be done by professional people.

Fang Hong entered this conference room and soon saw Yu Qiu, who also walked over slowly and sat down next to her.

And Vice Principal Liu sat down next to Li Kang, and talked to him privately, Fang Hong couldn't hear the whispers between them, but from Li Kang suddenly there was a look of surprise, although it disappeared quickly, but it was still captured by Fang Hong, and there was a high probability that he could guess what they were talking about.

At the same time, the person who was speaking in the conference room at the moment was Ning Xingqing, an astrophysics major at Xincheng University and an experimental physicist, who was talking about the laser interferometer.

"The laser interferometer device is quite sophisticated, but its principle is actually quite simple." Ning Xingqing immediately drew a horizontal line segment on a blackboard in the conference room, then drew a horizontal and vertical line segment at the end of the right side of the line segment, and then drew a small line segment at the end and intersection of the two line segments to represent the lens.

Ning Xingqing pointed to the drawn diagram and gestured: "First of all, this is a laser that emits a laser beam, which passes through a half-lens with a 45-degree angle, because it is not fully reflective, so half of the light will pass through directly, and the other part of the light will be reflected at a 45-degree angle, so a laser beam will be divided into two vertical beams." ”

At this time, Ning Xingqing pointed to the end of the two vertical line segments and said: "Put two mirrors at the end to reflect the lasers back, and the two reflected lasers will converge into one direction through this half-lens again, so the two lasers will produce interference fringes." ”

Speaking of this, Ning Xingqing looked back at Fang Hong and the others and said, "Because light itself is also a wave, just like water waves, if two waves are superimposed, the part where the two crests or troughs meet will be strengthened, and the part where the crest and trough meet will cancel each other out, thus forming light and dark stripes, which can be imagined as water ripples formed when two hands lap on the calm surface of a lake." ”

"The interference phenomenon is extremely sensitive, as long as there is a slight slight change in the position of the two laser beams, the relative position of the crest and trough will change, so that the interference fringes will also change significantly, so this phenomenon can be used for ultra-high-precision distance measurement."

Ning Xingqing turned back again and compared the lines drawn on the blackboard and said: "Specifically, if the distance between the reflector and the light source changes a little, then the position of the peaks and troughs of the reflected light will change. ”

Ning Xingqing continued: "And because the two beams of light are perpendicular to each other, if the gravitational wave passes, the vertical direction and the horizontal direction will be affected by the gravitational wave differently, then the distance change is different, and the different distance change will make the two re-converged lasers produce a change in the interference fringes, according to which it can be judged whether the gravitational wave is found." ”

Speaking of this, Ning Xingqing finished explaining the principle, and basically introduced the working principle of the laser gravitational wave interferometric observatory in a simple scientific explanation, which was very easy to understand.

At the end, Yu Qiu looked at Ning Xingqing and asked, "Professor Ning, I want to know whether the construction of a laser gravitational wave interferometric observatory can be technically independent in China?" ”

Ning Xingqing nodded affirmatively: "There is no problem technically." ”

Obviously, the main problem is that no one is investing in it, and spending so much money just to prove a prediction made by Einstein a hundred years ago doesn't make sense, so no one is interested at all.

On the one hand, this kind of scientific research project is far away from the general public, and it is difficult to get attention and understanding, at most they will watch when the project plan is announced, and on the other hand, some leaders may not fully understand the importance and significance of it.

To put it bluntly, basic research is often not recognized.

At this time, President Li Kang, who attended the meeting, said: "Ms. Yu, the scale of this scientific research project is extremely large, and it will only be possible to realize it with the cooperation of hundreds of scientists and multiple parties, and the team of hundreds of scientists may still be conservatively estimated. ”

The implication is that the scientific research strength of Xincheng University is not enough, and it will definitely not be able to do it, which Li Kang did not entrust.

Yu Qiu nodded and said: "The plan of the Natural Science Foundation for the project, in the technical part, we hope to let NSU take the lead in cooperation, and in the scientific research part, you professionals will do it, we are mainly responsible for providing financial support, and you are responsible for realizing it." ”

These words greatly lifted the spirits of Li Kang, Ning Xingqing and others present, even if people from Qingbei Fudan came to this project, they had to listen to Xinda.

In the face of Li Kang and others who were older than her, Yu Qiu's speech and demeanor always showed confidence and calmness, which also made everyone look at her with admiration, and the stereotypes in her heart disappeared a lot.

Come to think of it, being able to become the leader of the Natural Science Foundation is certainly not a vase role.

"I will talk about the requirements of the Natural Science Foundation for this project, and you may understand that there are some deviations." Yu Qiu looked around at the audience and said in an orderly manner: "Our idea is not to build a ground-based laser interferometry detection observatory like LIGO of the magnesium country, but a space gravitational wave detection observatory. ”

As soon as these words came out, everyone was stunned for a moment, and Ning Xingqing couldn't help but hurriedly said: "Ms. Yu, are you referring to a project similar to the LISA system?" ”

The so-called LISA system was a space laser interferometric gravitational wave detection project carried out by the cooperation of European Space and NASA of the United States in the nineties of the 20th century, but the progress was extremely slow.

Yu Qiu combed through the content that Fang Hong explained to her in the car when he came, and then unfolded it in a clear manner: "This project is named the 'Sky Mirror' project, which deploys three identical satellites at an altitude of about 100,000 kilometers above the Earth's orbit, and these three satellites will form an equilateral triangular array with a side length of about 170,000 kilometers, so as to form a space gravitational wave observatory to carry out space detection of gravitational waves, and conduct cutting-edge research in astrophysics, cosmology and fundamental physics." ”

Ning Xingqing and everyone present were shocked, this is definitely a big deal.

Before they could react, Yu Qiu's request made them stunned, and she said in an orderly manner: "The Natural Science Foundation has spent a lot of money to carry out the 'Sky Mirror' project, and I want to know one thing clearly, and it is also our request, that is, whether it can be put into full operation in early 2015." ”

Ning Xingqing was stunned and said: "At the beginning of 2015? Ms. Yu, this is probably an impossible task, the Western LISA system was launched in the 90s of the last century, and now there has been almost no progress in the past 20 years, and it will be fully operational by the beginning of 2015, and it will be completed in just four years from scratch, which is almost impossible to do. ”

Yu Qiu immediately asked: "Is it technically impossible to do it?" Or is it theoretically impossible? ”

……

(End of chapter)