On campus, Xu Chuan walked on the tree-lined path and walked through the teaching area towards the back mountain.

In view of the problem of the production of improved superconductors, he has consulted a lot of information in the past few days, but the progress has not been great.

On the one hand, engineering problems are not in the scope of his expertise, and on the other hand, the improved superconductor material itself is at the forefront of the field of high-temperature superconductivity, and it is really too difficult to make a breakthrough on it.

Shaking his head, Xu Chuan breathed a long sigh of relief and walked towards the observatory on the back mountain.

In the past two days, his head has been a little groggy from a lot of materials, and it is clear that this research method is not quite right.

So after he couldn't find his way, he felt the need to go out and relax, and then talk to experts and scholars in the field of materials or nuclear fusion.

Inspiration is something that is hard to come by alone in a room.

Sometimes, its arrival depends more on the collision of ideas with the outside world.

As the old saying goes, three stinkers are combined into one Zhuge Liang, people are different from each other, and sometimes, looking at the same thing from another perspective will produce two completely different feelings and thoughts.

The same is true for the path of scientific research, sometimes an academician can't see through the place, and a doctoral student or even a graduate student may be born with the inspiration to solve it.

It's like Yang Zhenhuan and his student Mills.

When studying the Yang-Mills equation, Mr. Yang tried many times to apply the canonical invariance process in electromagnetic force to the isotope spin.

But these attempts always put him in a "rut", stuck in the same step in the calculation, which always happens when he wants to define the relevant field strength.

Later, when Yang was thinking about this again when he was at Brookhaven National Laboratory, Mills proposed a new mathematical method, which inspired Yang to discover the equation of the field related to the symmetry of the isospin gauge, and finally formed the stunning Yang-Mills equation.

That's why Xu Chuan still likes to give lectures to students and visit Arxiv's pre-printed website, because sometimes the questions and ideas raised by these students and scholars on Arxiv may bring him some kind of inspiration.

Isn't that how the last step of the NS equation comes about?

However, sometimes the idea is good, but the harvest may not always be according to the idea this time.

After a class on mathematics and physics, Xu Chuan cleaned up the lectern, took the textbooks and left the lecture hall.

Obviously, in this class, he didn't get the answers to the questions he was thinking about, or the ideas and inspirations.

But Xu Chuan didn't care too much, it was too exaggerated to be able to get inspiration every time he went to class, normal classes, normal endings, this is a normal thing.

With his textbook under his arm, Xu Chuan left the lecture hall and walked towards his office.

Halfway through the road, he suddenly remembered something, paused, and walked towards the other side of the teaching building.

After a while, he was in another office at the end of the hallway.

Knocking on the door, the sound of 'please come in' soon came from inside, Xu Chuan pushed the door open and walked in, his mentor during his study at NTU, Academician Chen Zhengping, was busy working behind his desk.

Seeing Xu Chuan come in with a textbook, a trace of surprise flashed in Chen Zhengping's eyes, and after being stunned for a moment, he stopped the signature pen in his hand with a smile and said, "Why do you have time to come to my side today?" ”

Although he, a student, works at NTU with him, the time the two meet is really relatively rare, and the number of times they meet may not exceed ten times a year.

Especially when Xu Chuan presided over the Qixia controllable nuclear fusion project a few years ago, the number of meetings throughout the year did not exceed a slap.

Xu Chuan walked to the sofa with a smile and sat down, and said, "I have encountered some problems in the research of materials, and I want to talk to your mentor." ”

Hearing this, Chen Zhengping's eyes were filled with some surprise and curiosity, he stood up with a smile, walked to the teapot, and teased with a smile while making tea: "Let's talk about it, what problems can make you so troubled, let me be curious and curious." ”

Although both of them are academicians, Xu Chuan is still his student, but in terms of academic ability, whether it is mathematics, physics, or even materials science, the student in front of him surpasses him by much.

To be honest, the problems encountered by his students are most likely incapable of solving them.

But they're all on the door, and he's going to have to listen to it anyway.

What's more, he was also quite curious, curious about what kind of world problems this student was studying.

Hearing the tutor's ridicule, Xu Chuan smiled, didn't care too much, and simply said the problems he encountered.

After listening to Xu Chuan's problem, Chen Zhengping looked up curiously and asked, "Speaking of which, it seems that I haven't heard of you making a new breakthrough in the field of superconducting materials?" The outside world did not seem to have spread the news. ”

He knew that what he was studying as a student must be the most cutting-edge in the field of materials science, but he really didn't expect that he would have a new breakthrough in the field of high-temperature superconducting materials, and he had never heard of this breakthrough.

Xu Chuan said with a smile: "This achievement was made last year, because it involves miniaturized and controllable nuclear fusion technology and some more sensitive military fields, and it is indeed not disclosed. ”

Chen Zhengping nodded, there was no surprise about this statement, after all, he was also an academician-level scholar, and he had more or less come into contact with and experienced this kind of thing.

After thinking for a while, he spoke: "To be honest, in the field of materials, your ability has long surpassed mine, and I probably can't solve the trouble you can't solve." ”

"And especially in this case, I don't even know about the relevant papers and material data, let alone give advice."

Hearing this, Xu Chuan patted his thigh in annoyance, and said quickly: "I'll have someone send the paper and material data over." ”

He forgot about it, Chen Zhengping really did not read the research papers and related data of improved superconductor materials.

Chen Zhengping waved his hand, interrupted Xu Chuan's movements and said: "Don't worry, for your research paper, even if you show it to me now, it will be difficult for me to figure out the results of this frontier field in a short time, and what I want to say is not this." ”

Hearing this, Xu Chuan raised his head curiously and looked at his mentor.

After a pause, Chen Zhengping continued: "You should also know very well the achievements in the field of materials, it is not so easy to break through, if you are stuck in this aspect, in addition to relying on time and experience to grind, the rest can only rely on luck or inspiration to try." ”

"But for you now, you haven't even found a way to try to make it, and that's the most troublesome place."

"After all, if you don't even have a direction and a theoretical basis, blindly conducting experiments can only be said to be meaningless."

"Maybe you should think differently and look at it the other way."

Hearing this, Xu Chuan quickly spoke: "What should I do?" ”

After a deep sigh, Chen Zhengping spoke: "In the first two years, I participated in a project in hydraulic structural engineering, and in that project, I encountered a similar problem as you now. ”

"In some special construction environments and structural environments, some materials often face the problem of brittle materials to plastic under high pressure conditions. Brittle materials such as concrete, rock, cast iron and metal plastic materials will have this kind of destructiveness, which will sharply shorten the service life of materials and have a great impact on engineering projects. ”

"At that time, I and several other professors were thinking about how to improve the resistance of materials, thinking of solving this problem from the field of materials like you, but we discussed and studied for a long time and did not find a way."

"At one of the meetings, a PhD student who was working on the project at the time came up with a new idea."

"If we can't solve it from the material, why not find a breakthrough from the theory of engineering strength?"

"This sentence woke me up, indeed, we have been exploring and researching the strength theory for nearly 300 years, and the current existing various phenomenal strength theories describe the phenomenon and law of material failure, but few of them are considered from the needs and theories of the engineering strength itself, and the reason, I think you should be very clear."

Hearing this, Xu Chuan nodded and replied: "Because the engineering strength is generally predetermined in theory. ”

"Just like a dam of a reservoir, it needs to meet what standards of strength, resistance, toughness and so on to support the water pressure and impact of the reservoir, so it is basically impossible to modify the strength of the project."

After a pause, he looked at his mentor Chen Zhengping curiously and asked, "Have you modified the strength of the project?" ”

Chen Zhengping shook his head with a smile, and said: "No, no, the engineering strength is impossible to modify, the scheme we put forward on this idea is to design a set of theoretical models for the strength loss ratio and damage ratio of the engineering strength, and re-plan the engineering scheme through the model, and finally solve this problem with the existing materials." ”

"Perhaps, you can try to study the structure of miniaturized and controllable nuclear fusion?"

"I remember when you were working on the Daybreak Fusion Device, you drastically changed the structure of the Tokamak Device, and you might be able to try it on the stellarator as well?"

Xu Chuan clasped his hands together, nodded thoughtfully, and said: "Whether it is feasible or not needs to be studied to know, on the road to miniaturized and controllable nuclear fusion, there is no direction to guide at present, and no country, research institution or scholar in the world can say that his theory is correct." ”

"Including my choice of stellarators, this path is not necessarily the right one. However, at present, the stellarite simulator does have the greatest advantage in miniaturization. ”

"As for modifying its structure, I'll need to look into it to find out."

Chen Zhengping took a sip of hot tea from the teacup, and said softly: "This is just a suggestion, in the field of controlled nuclear fusion, you are far more familiar than me, my opinion can only say that you can refer to it selectively, whether it will work or not depends on your own." ”

Xu Chuan smiled, leaned back on the sofa and stretched his posture for a while, and then continued: "Anyway, there is no hope for a breakthrough in improved superconductors now, and it may be a feasible way to try to adjust the structure of the stellarator?" ”

If one path is temporarily impassable, it is also feasible to try another path.

After chatting with Chen Zhengping in the office for a while, Xu Chuan got up and said goodbye to his office and began to search for information related to the stellar.

In the case of not being able to improve the direction of the improved superconducting material, it may indeed be a feasible way to modify the external field coil or structure of the stellarator.

When a large number of papers were being downloaded, Xu Chuan was also thinking about the solution to the project that Chen Zhengping told him.

This incident is indeed somewhat similar to the problem he encountered, but there are some differences in nature.

The problem he had was that the strength of the material was sufficient, but there was a problem with the production side, and he needed to solve the production problem instead of modifying the engineering scheme.

However, the idea of turning the engineering material problem into a theoretical problem

The pen in his hand turned unconsciously, and Xu Chuan pondered the feasibility of turning the engineering problems of improved superconducting materials into theoretical problems.

It is unlikely that an improved superconductor will be optimized in a short period of time, and it will take at least half a year to add an optimized production line.

If he wants to solve this problem as soon as possible, he may have to start theoretically.

It's just that the starting point he chose may be wrong?

In his mind, the inspiration in the dark flashed away, and the vague trajectory seemed to remind him.

However, what if you don't start from the material itself?

Thinking about it, Xu Chuan rubbed his temples with a headache.

For some reason, he always had a feeling that his current knowledge might be a little insufficient.

But let's be honest, if even his knowledge in the field of superconducting materials and controlled nuclear fusion is not enough, I am afraid that there is really no one in this world who can surpass him.

Shaking his head, Xu Chuan leaned back on the back of the office chair, reached out and picked up the thermos cup, got up and walked out of his small room to refill some water under the water dispenser.

His office is large and divided into several parts, including his office, a place for students to study on their own, a place for assistants, and a place to store materials and items.

Taking advantage of this time, he glanced at his office, several students had gone out to class or other things, and in the office, only Lu Ling's assistant was busy with his work.

Seeing him come out to fetch water, Lu Ling shouted with a smile: "Professor, you can just shout about renewing water." ”

Xu Chuan smiled and said, "It's not that I can't walk, it's just a matter of two steps." ”

Shaking his head, he picked up his teacup and was about to go back when he caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of his eye.

Looking at the square familiar thing, Xu Chuan walked over, reached out and picked it up and looked at it twice, then smiled at Lu Ling and asked, "You still play Rubik's Cube?" ”

When he was in high school, a classmate played with it, and he borrowed it, but it was too easy for him, and he soon lost interest.

This will see the Rubik's Cube on Lu Ling's desk, he is a little nostalgic for the days of high school, and he doesn't know what happened to the classmates who participated in the competition together now.

Lu Ling looked up at the Rubik's Cube in Xu Chuan's hand, smiled a little embarrassedly, and said, "You can play when you're fine, but I'm a little stupid, and I can't twist it back according to the restored puzzle." ”

Hearing this, Xu Chuan smiled a little uncontrollably.

I can't screw it back to the puzzle tutorial, which is a bit too miserable, right?

Holding the Rubik's Cube in one hand, he fiddled with it a few times, and the third-order Rubik's Cube in his hand directly returned to its original state.

He smiled and handed back the restored Rubik's Cube and put it on the table, and when he wanted to leave, the whole person was suddenly stunned for a moment.

His gaze fell back on the square Rubik's Cube, the dark inspiration in his mind flashed quickly, and his eyes suddenly brightened.

"Rubik's Cube? Jigsaw puzzle? ”

Perhaps, he knows what to do!