"Madam, could it be that after the eldest sister and brother-in-law returned to France from England,"

The sense of restraint on Chen Muwu's body gradually disappeared, and he naturally began to use this relatively close title with a cheeky face,

"Didn't they tell you what the current state of that ion accelerator in the Cavendish lab was?

"When the accelerator was first built, physics colleagues in the lab, the school, and other universities near Cambridge did show great interest in the particle accelerator, and the application documents for physics experiments using the accelerator were stacked almost a foot high on the Cavendish lab's desk.

But just a few months later, during the time my eldest sister and brother-in-law visited Cambridge University, the particle accelerator was put in the cold by the experimental physicists.

"They would rather choose to accelerate electrostatic fields with lower voltages than apply for electrostatic accelerators that can accelerate particles to millions of volts."

Marie Curie didn't have the same knowledge as Chen Muwu, and they were a family sooner or later, so there was no problem in calling her sister and brother-in-law.

She just nodded: "When Irena and the others came back, they did repeat to me what they saw at Cambridge University.

"I was also puzzled by this situation, and thought that the two young men had teamed up to deceive me.

"Since you're also here saying that particle accelerators aren't used very often, what is the reason for this?"

"I think it's because the particle accelerator isn't efficient enough. The principle of the electrostatic starter is to use an insulated conveyor belt to continuously transport the charge from the battery to the electrostatic electrode.

"Although this does allow a large amount of charge to accumulate on the electrodes, thus achieving a relatively high electrostatic potential difference.

"But the downside is also obvious: because the insulated conveyor belt is limited in its transport efficiency, it takes a lot of time to increase the potential of the electrodes from zero to one million volts.

However, this time is not proportional to the harvest, and after accelerating the ions several times, the charge that has accumulated on the electrode becomes seriously lost, resulting in a severe drop in potential, and it is likely that the experimental conditions will no longer be met.

"In order to be able to continue experimenting, we had to repeat the charging process of the electrodes again, so we wasted a lot of time staring boringly at the insulated conveyor belt running from bottom to top."

In order to convince Marie Curie, Chen Muwu bluntly explained the principle of his particle accelerator, and based on this principle, explained the disadvantages of particle accelerators.

It is precisely because of the extreme inefficiency of time that it counteracts the convenience of being able to provide high voltages.

As a result, experimental physicists will never apply to use this machine unless they are forced to do so.

It seems that what he said makes a lot of sense.

It's just that......

"But not long after we left Cambridge University, you found two new light nucleus isotopes on that particle accelerator, Chen!"

Irena had a slight accusation in her tone, and she still seemed to think that her prospective brother-in-law was not very honest.

Dare to deceive himself and his mother before he enters the house, if he and Eve get married in the future, won't he deceive the whole family?

Chen Muwu had just thought of this problem: while talking about the failure of the particle accelerator that he had worked so hard to build, no one cared about, he turned around and used the particle accelerator to make new research results, and there seemed to be a contradiction in the middle.

But at the same time, he thought about how to deal with the troubles caused by this problem.

That's because Professor Eddington pointed out that the sun, as a star, has to provide a steady stream of energy for the entire solar system, and no matter what kind of fossil fuels it burns in coal, oil or organic gases, it will never be able to radiate energy to such a large area and last that long.

"So the source of energy inside the sun must and can only be nuclear reactions.

"If we want to simulate the possible nuclear reactions in the sun, we must give the particles a huge amount of energy, and the particle accelerator in the Cavendish laboratory is the only way in the world to accelerate particles to millions of electron volts.

The explanation given by Chen Muwu is very reasonable and seamless.

Huashan has been a road since ancient times, and if you want to see the infinite scenery in the dangerous peak, you must endure the dangers and difficulties that may be encountered in the process of climbing the mountain.

It's the same here with particle accelerators, where you want to bombard other particles with the highest energy particles to complete experiments, and you have to endure the outrageous voltage boost time.

To describe how hard it was to do those experiments, he added: "During that time, Professor Eddington and I were almost every day in the laboratory, and even his astronomer, who had almost never done experiments, except occasionally went to the observatory to look around the telescope and look at the stars, had basically learned how to operate a particle accelerator.

"Everyone has paid hard work that is not commensurate with the harvest, and we have barely succeeded in these two experiments."

Although the use of particle accelerators is laborious, it is not like Chaplin in "Modern Times", who keeps turning screws on the assembly line every day.

Otherwise, Chen Muwu could also stretch out his hands and show Marie Curie and Irena the calluses on his hands due to the screws.

After listening to Chen Muwu's words, Marie Curie felt that Chen Muwu didn't seem to be lying to herself.

Because she's the one who came before, she knows how hard it can be to repetitive work over a period of time.

She didn't label Chen Muwu's behavior as a capitulationist who was afraid of hardship, after all, he complained and complained, but he never gave up from beginning to end, and made one result after another.

"Chen, so what do you mean is that this particle accelerator is not necessary in the vast majority of cases, and will only be effective in the rare cases where high-energy particles may be required?"

The accelerating voltage of this particle accelerator is only one million electron volts, what kind of high energy is this?

The particle energy of high-energy physics starts at least one billion electron volts (GeV).

For Chen Muwu, a person in the future, the acceleration potential difference that the accelerator can provide is indeed not high.

But for people in the twenties, one million electrovolts was already a big number.

"Ma'am, I didn't mean that,"

Chen Muwu shook his head,

"The particle accelerator is a necessary experimental instrument for future nuclear research, but the one we made is still a kind of experimental model, and the efficiency is too low.

"To be honest, the price of this particle accelerator is so high, and so many units have been sold around the world, which makes me very unhappy."

The expression on Chen Muwu's face seemed to show his innocence.

But the large sum of money from the sale of the particle accelerator made Chadwick and him laugh in one of his offices in the Cavendish laboratory.

Chen Muwu forcibly looked expressionless and continued: "For a period of time, I have been thinking about a question, that is, did I choose the wrong direction of accelerator research?

"Electrostatic acceleration is indeed the easiest, cheapest and cheapest idea, but it's also cumbersome.

"Isn't it time to find a new way to accelerate particles?"

The trick he deliberately sold was not very successful, and was seen through by the well-informed Marie Curie at a glance.

"Chen, the Chinese proverb you just said is very good, if the family doesn't speak two words, then you don't hide it anymore. I can already see that you have a new idea about this matter for a long time, otherwise a character like yours would not have rashly told it about it. ”

Chen Muwu hurriedly laughed and said, "I really can't escape your eyes." After this Solvay conference, I don't plan to go back to Cambridge with the big group.

"Sir Rutherford has returned to Europe from New Zealand, and he is more familiar and competent than I am in the management of the laboratory.

"Do you remember the schools and research institutes in Sweden that I talked about a few years ago? The buildings there are almost all completed and ready for use immediately.

"I'm going to leave Belgium and continue north, to build a new particle accelerator at my school in Stockholm."

"Then why don't you go to Cambridge University to build? Is Rutherford really willing to let you go and build what you think is a much more high-end particle accelerator than the one at the Cavendish lab in a foreign land? ”

Marie Curie asked this question very tactfully, if Rutherford could really let Chen Muwu leave, then why did the world's most high-end particle accelerator that Chen Muwu said have to be built in Stockholm, Sweden, but not in Paris, France?

What's on the Swedish side? There's his family here in France!

If Chen Muwu can really leave Cambridge and come to the University of Paris, it will not only give him a strong right-hand man in academic research, but also solve Eve's concern that he will leave his side to live.

Some flames of hope just burned in Marie Curie's heart, and then they were ruthlessly extinguished by Chen Muwu's next answer.

"Because this new particle accelerator is going to be very expensive and expensive, whether it is the Cavendish laboratory or the entire University of Cambridge, it will not be able to be built without donations from outsiders, relying only on the funds of the laboratory and the university.

"And only Sweden has a big financier who will successfully commit to all the investment required to build this ion accelerator, with the only requirement that it be built in Stockholm."

People in the world open their eyes and look at it, and they are heroes and heroes.

The words of Zhu Zaiyu, the little prince of the Ming Dynasty, who resigned from the title of seven resignations, are not rough, the society is so realistic, whether it is the East or the West, it is difficult to move an inch without money.

I heard Chen Muwu say that the Cavendish Laboratory and the entire University of Cambridge together could not afford the full cost of this new particle accelerator.

This is the top university in the world, and it is the top physics laboratory in the world.

The money they can't afford is even more unbearable for the University of Paris, which is very picky, and the Radium Institute, which is desperately poor to spend his life in half.

However, is Chen Muwu joking?

Could it be that the ion accelerator in his mouth is made of gold?

Besides, even if you build a spherical electrode out of pure gold, it shouldn't cost as much money as he said, right?

"Chen, what's going on with your new particle accelerator? Since it is completely different from the one at Cambridge University, what is its acceleration principle? ”

"There is a physicist named Ising in Sweden, who proposed a method of accelerating particles in 1924, which is to use a drift tube and high-frequency voltage to create a particle accelerator that accelerates particles in a straight line.

"This scheme is supposed to be the first method of accelerating particles in human history, but it has always been only on paper because it will be very difficult to implement and will cost a lot of money.

Soon after Ising proposed this acceleration, the Cavendish laboratory began building electrostatic accelerators, which were inexpensive and quickly successful.

"So when you say you're going to Sweden to build an accelerator, are you going to find that Ishin? Could it be that he has recently made a windfall? ”

"No, no, no, I just think his graded acceleration is good, but it needs to be improved a little bit.

"Especially such a long straight vacuum tube, which belongs to the ideal very plump, realistic and skinny things, it is very difficult to make, so ......"

Chen Muwu briefly explained the basic principle of cyclotron to Marie Curie.

He was not afraid that Marie Curie and Irenne would return to France and build their own Radium Institute when they heard about it.

The accelerator was indeed cheaper than the linear particle accelerator that Ising had originally envisioned, but it was still very complicated to make, and it was still expensive.

After listening to Chen Muwu's description, Marie Curie looked at the young man who was about to become his son-in-law next year with some complicated feelings.

Eve's vision is really good, and he can actually find such a fast son-in-law for himself.

It's a pity that when she was young, the way of education for this little daughter was to let her develop, and she was not able to take her to the road of physics research.

Otherwise, the two of them can become a good story in the physics world.

"Chen, this is really a great idea, adding a magnetic field and letting the particles move in a circular motion in the magnetic field, you can reduce a series of electrodes on a linear accelerator to two."

Then the light that had just appeared in her eyes suddenly dimmed again: "Tell me, how much does this machine cost?" Give me an accurate number and let me die completely. ”

(End of chapter)