Xu Chuan thought that Mr. Yang was trying to persuade him to delay the construction of the large power collider, but after hearing his question, the old gentleman fell silent.

In the living room, the quiet atmosphere was half loud, and Mr. Yang breathed a long sigh of relief and said, "If you asked me this question a few months ago, I would probably still have an opinion against construction." ”

"But today, to be honest, I'm a little confused."

"Previously, the research on the Large Collider has been going on for nearly 100 years, and after countless experiments and research, it is nearing completion, and the Standard Model has been built."

At that time, the rest of the task was to validate the Standard Model and a few conjectures. And the risk that such research will not yield results is high. ”

"So I think there are still other directions in high-energy physics that are worth exploring without building a mega collider. If the money is invested in other, more practical research, the benefits may be more substantial and more feasible. ”

As he spoke, he looked at Xu Chuan, took a deep breath, and continued: "And at that time, I thought that I would only be able to see some things within the Standard Model in my life. ”

"I didn't expect you to bring a new dawn."

"I thought CERN could do it, but it turned out they couldn't do it either."

"Now it seems that if you want to completely break the standard model in this era and find an existence beyond it, you probably have hope."

"Maybe you haven't reached the top of theoretical physics yet, but your method of using mathematics to establish is undoubtedly the most promising."

After a pause, he continued: "But now I still think that spending 200 billion yuan to build a large collider is a matter of labor and money. ”

"Although controlled nuclear fusion has been achieved under your leadership, there is still a lot of infrastructure that needs to be built in the country, and many places are still poor."

"No one knows how long it will take for breakthroughs in basic science, especially in high-energy physics and particle physics, to be transformed into applied technology."

"In this regard, even if you reach the top, you may not be able to surpass other countries by much."

Hearing Mr. Yang's words, Xu Chuan understood the complicated thoughts in this old gentleman's heart.

In the past, he did resist the construction of a large strong particle collider, on the one hand, out of patriotism and did not want to waste money and money.

After all, 200 billion yuan is a huge amount for China, which has just entered the new century. Even in the past nine years, the country's total GDP was only a few trillion yuan a year.

It is undoubtedly not worth spending a lot of money to build a basic science facility, but in a short period of time, it cannot be converted into the strength or harvest of the country itself.

On the other hand, it is the road of high-energy physics, which can be said to have reached the end of this century before the emergence of inert neutrinos.

What is within the Standard Model has been largely perfected, and what is outside the Standard Model has not been observable in the past.

In this case, if you build a large strong particle collider, you can say that you can gain very little.

But now the situation has changed, and the emergence of inert neutrinos, particles beyond the Standard Model, has shocked the entire physical community.

Something beyond the Standard Model is a hope that the entire physics community has been pursuing.

It can help the scientific community to understand the whole world, the whole universe at a deeper level.

Dark matter, dark energy, and how to incorporate gravity into the framework of quantum mechanics and physics all require a breakthrough in the Standard Model.

If this discovery is further confirmed, then it means that fundamental physics, which has almost halted humanity, has taken another big step forward, and it also heralds the opening of a new window for humanity in the universe.

Through this window, there will be a whole new physical world.

So this will make Mr. Yang feel conflicted and confused.

On the one hand, he has come from the 90s of the last century to know how difficult the country's economic development is, and 200 billion yuan is not a small number.

On the other hand, it is the inner desire for a new physical world.

After all, there is nothing more appealing to a physicist than a large strong particle collider.

After thinking about these things clearly, Xu Chuan smiled and said, "The construction of a large strong particle collider is in itself a suggestion I made to the above. ”

"If you want to ask me what I think, I'm going to spare no effort to support it."

"I believe you know very well how important the Large Strong Particle Collider is to the development of high-energy physics and particle physics."

"As for the funding, although 200 billion yuan is a lot, if this money is used to open up a new world in physics, it will definitely be worth it."

"What's more, controlled nuclear fusion technology has been realized, and the annual savings in energy alone are at least trillions, and 200 billion is just a fraction."

Old Mr. Yang glanced at him and said softly, "But it is undeniable that this is not a small amount. With 200 billion funds, this kind of project is also a super project in the world, can you control it? ”

Xu Chuan coughed lightly and said with a smile: "If you follow the previous exchange rate, 200 billion RMB is actually only 30 billion meters of gold. ”

"For me, the investment in the controllable nuclear fusion project alone adds up to almost 80 billion meters of gold, which is almost 550 billion yuan."

As soon as he said this, the living room suddenly fell silent.

Only then did everyone remember that although the person in front of him looked young, the projects and funds that he had walked in his hands were no longer comparable to them.

A controlled nuclear fusion project alone could withstand two and a half large strong particle collider projects.

In their eyes, big projects, big numbers, for this one, are just to be taken for granted.

With a slightly embarrassed expression, Mr. Qiu forcibly broke the awkward atmosphere, and laughed twice before he spoke: "I forgot about this, for you, two hundred billion is indeed not much." ”

On the side, Mr. Yang didn't care too much, he nodded and said, "Since you have that self-confidence and that ability, this matter will be handed over to you." ”

After a pause, he continued: "To be honest, for someone like me who has already stepped into the dirt with one foot, no one knows if they will be able to open their eyes and see the sun tomorrow. Maybe I won't be able to see the new world emerge. ”

Mr. Yang's words immediately resonated with the other two old people in the living room.

Even the youngest Mr. Qiu is already over the age of old.

Not to mention Mr. Yang, after the last few days of this year, he will enter the 100-year-old mark.

And although Xu Chuan fully understands it, he can feel it a little more.

On the side, Pan Deming, who had never spoken much, said: "It doesn't matter if you don't see it, there are successors, and science is always moving forward, which is enough." ”

After a slight pause, he changed the topic and said, "Speaking of which, it's just right that you came, I was still talking to Xu Chuan about his research before." ”

"He has encountered a very troublesome problem in the strongly correlated electronic system, Lao Yang, you are engaged in condensed matter physics, do you want to understand it?"

Hearing this, Mr. Yang raised his head curiously, with some interest in his cloudy eyes, and asked, "Strong correlation electronic system?" What's the problem? ”

Xu Chuan coughed lightly and said, "If you made an unexpected discovery when you studied KL-66 before, you won't bother you, Mr. Yang." ”

"What? Look down on me, a bad old man who is about to go to the ground? Mr. Yang's tone was excited, stared at Xu Chuan and said, "I still have a little bit of research in condensed matter physics. ”

Xu Chuan couldn't laugh or cry, the older this person is, the more strange and competitive his personality becomes, but what he said is not wrong at all.

But then again, there are not many scholars in China who can communicate with him about condensed matter physics.

Since he happened to meet him, Mr. Pan also took the initiative to bring up this matter, and it was good to communicate.

After thinking about it for a while, he briefly described his research these days.

On the side, Mr. Qiu also came over to observe, although it is a physics problem, he is a mathematician, but mathematics and physics are often connected, not to mention that his physics ability is not low.

He is the only person at Harvard University who has ever held both a professor of mathematics and a professor of physics, and although condensed matter physics is not in his field of study, he knows a little bit about it.

After listening to Xu Chuan's question, Mr. Yang frowned and thought for a while before speaking: "Strongly correlated electrons generally refer to substances in which the interaction between electrons is much greater than their kinetic energy. These systems have a very rich physical phenomenon, such as high-temperature superconductivity, giant magnetoresistance, metal-insulator transition, etc. ”

"Although I have paid attention to the KL-66 materials developed in South Korea, I have not done experiments and detailed understanding when I am old."

"In the absence of specific experimental data, judging from what you said, if you want to use this system to calculate the critical magnetic field strength of enhanced superconducting materials, it should be theoretically possible, but I am afraid it is very difficult."

"If the Green's function method, density functional theory, kinetic mean field theory and other methods are not applicable normally, I can think that the first problem you are studying has gone beyond the ordinary strongly correlated electronic system and entered the non-equilibrium strongly correlated system."

"Maybe you can try that."

Hearing this, Xu Chuan thought for a while and asked, "Study the electrodynamic behavior of strongly correlated systems in non-equilibrium states?" ”

It was indeed a path he hadn't studied.

Mr. Yang nodded and said, "I don't know if you have studied this, if not, you can try it." ”

After a slight pause, he continued: "In addition, maybe you can consider the direction of the strongly correlated electronic system and the strong interaction force, it may not have anything to do with this, but it may give you a better understanding of the electronic properties and interaction properties in the strongly correlated system." ”

PS: There is another chapter in the evening, asking for a monthly pass.