Chapter 357: Deal with CERN

After preliminarily finalizing a set from different plans, Peng Hongxi and Gao Hongming left for the time being to make preparations.

As for Xu Chuan, he turned on the computer and clicked on the mailbox.

With his fingers tapping lightly on the keyboard, he wrote an email and sent it.

The recipient is Professor Tillmann Lundt of the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics.

Professor Tillmann Lunt is a German physicist who currently serves as the director of the Planck Institute of Plasma Physics. The two met several times at CERN and exchanged some academic views and contact information.

Through him, it should be possible to contact the Planck Institute of Plasma Physics and complete the purchase negotiations for the old ASDEX device.

Among the four controllable nuclear fusion reactors included in his purchase plan, he is more optimistic about the old ASDEX device of the Max Planck Institute of Plasma Physics and the Alcatel C-Mod compact fusion reactor of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. indivual.

The ASDEX equipment is very complete, and he is relatively familiar with the Planck Institute of Plasma Physics. He knows each other's situation and can negotiate terms.

As for the Alcatel C-Mod compact fusion reactor, the U.S. Energy Registry decided to stop its operation due to economic and budget pressures.

Starting in 2012, C-Mod has been discontinued for seven years. Coupled with the fact that the U.S. economy is now declining further, plans and arrangements for restarting it can be said to be far off.

So there is hope that it can be purchased, but in this regard, the state's help is needed.

As for which one to choose, it depends on which one can be negotiated and is more suitable.

And if neither the ASDEX device nor the C-Mod device can be negotiated, he will consider the other two.

Professor Tillman Lunt's reply was much faster than Xu Chuan expected.

In the afternoon, Xu Chuan received a notification in his mailbox. Professor Tillman Lunt responded to the email expressing curiosity and asking him why he purchased the ASDEX device.

Of course, Professor Tillman Lent is also very interested in high-temperature copper-carbon-silver composite superconducting materials. If possible, he hopes that the two of them will have a video call to chat.

After receiving the email, Xu Chuan quickly sent him an email back and made an appointment for a video call.

Today, Professor Tillman Lunt is interested in high-temperature copper-carbon-silver composite superconducting materials, so there is talk of purchasing the old ASDEX device.

After making an appointment for a video call, Xu Chuan returned to the laboratory. Just as he was about to enter the laboratory to speed up the optimization of high-temperature copper-carbon-silver composite superconducting materials, CERN called him.

The person who called him was Professor David Gross, the chairman of the Board of Governors of CERN.

"Xu, long time no see. Congratulations on your election as academician of both houses of Congress."

Gross smiled and congratulated him. In fact, he was also an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. In 2011, he was elected as a foreign academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Of course, foreign academicians are more of just a title and a lifetime honor. The biggest difference from local academicians is that they cannot mobilize the huge domestic resources like local academicians.

However, it is precisely because of the title of foreign academician that Gross knows how much energy and huge resources can be mobilized after being elected as an academician in China. This is far beyond the comparison of the title of national academician in the United States.

Xu Chuan smiled and said, "Thank you. How is CERN these days?"

Gross sighed and shook his head, saying: "Not very good. We have not made much progress in the exploration of dark matter and dark energy. What you said at the beginning was right. With the current performance of the LHC, we want to find dark matter and dark energy." Energy is probably an impossible thing.”

After a pause, he continued: "I heard from Witten that you have recently developed a new type of high-temperature superconducting material? Do you want to do a deal with CERN?"

Gross wasted no time and asked straight to the point.

Xu Chuan nodded and said, "Yes, high-temperature copper-carbon-silver composite superconducting material. Think about it?"

Gross: "Weiten has shown me the superconducting parameters and data related to this material. Judging from the data, it is undeniable that it is indeed excellent."

"But upgrading the LHC is not a trivial matter. Although the critical magnetic field superconducting performance of 20T is indeed very attractive, the board of directors may prefer more stable materials. Your research and development time is too short."

Xu Chuan smiled and said: "Short time does not mean anything. Excellent materials can further improve the performance of the LHC. I believe the CERN Council will consider it."

Hearing this, Gross nodded and did not deny: "It is true that excellent materials are more attractive, but it can be said that the LHC carries the mission of most of the theoretical physics world. This upgrade is also related to the future research on dark matter and dark matter." Exploration of dark energy, so even if I personally prefer the better materials in your hands, they may not pass the council’s deliberations.”

Xu Chuan frowned slightly and said: "Compared with the superconducting materials provided by Sakura Country, the performance of the copper-carbon-silver composite material in my hand is obviously better. Can't you convince the council?"

Gross sighed and said, "If your material can be developed about half a year in advance, then this probably won't be a problem."

"The problem now is that the superconducting materials in your hands have appeared for too short a time, and the new materials have not been verified, which is very worrying. The BI materials in Sakura Country have been available for nearly a year, and currently there are Many manufacturers use this material.”

"So the Council should prefer more stable materials."

"What's more, the materials you have are only in the laboratory and have not yet been mass-produced."

"From the laboratory to mass production, it is also a very long time, and CERN cannot bet on this. After all, CERN is not mine. Although the supervisors of member countries do not manage things on a daily basis, our funds come from them."

"If the supervisors strongly oppose, the Council will also consider their opinions."

"Of course, I will try my best to fight for it at the Council."

Xu Chuan nodded and said, "I understand. This is normal. For large colliders like the LHC, stability must be considered when upgrading."

After a pause, he continued, "But I think that if we want to search for traces of dark matter and dark energy, it may not be enough to just upgrade the collision energy level."

Hearing this, David Gross raised his eyebrows and asked, "What do you think should be done?"

Although this person now makes this statement with the suspicion of cutting off orders for superconducting materials, he has to pay attention to matters involving traces of dark matter and dark energy.

After all, in the entire high-energy physics community, if we talk about the most in-depth research on sterile neutrinos, dark matter and dark energy, the young man on the other end of the phone is probably second to none.

He discovered and produced sterile neutrinos and related theoretical data. In the field of the connection between conventional matter and dark matter, his opinions and statements should be seriously considered by not only CERN but also the entire physics community.

In addition to his research in mathematical physics and his ability to use mathematical methods to explore physical particles, in today's high-energy physics field, his ability is at least in the top three, if not the first.

In the second half of last year, he and Witten and others went to China in person to invite him to participate in CERN's subsequent exploration work. Wasn't it because of his outstanding ability?

Xu Chuan: "Compared to the collision energy level, I think it might be more appropriate to optimize the detector."

"Blindly improving the collision energy level is not the solution to the problem, because sometimes it may not be that the collision energy level is not enough, but that our observation methods are relatively backward, resulting in us not being able to see it even if it appears."

Gross thought for a while and said, "If that's the case, then in which direction do you think our detectors should be upgraded?"

Xu Chuan smiled and said, "This is not within the scope of free consultation."

"In fact, compared to upgrading CERN, I think building a large particle collider in China might be more in line with my goal."

" Moreover, I have communicated with the national government before. China does have the idea of ​​building a large particle collider. Especially after the discovery of inert neutrinos, the top leaders have found me and asked whether it is necessary to build a collider. "

"It's just that I am busy with some other projects now, and there are not many physicists in China at present, so the plan to build a collider has been postponed."

"If our country builds a large particle collider, I believe that with China's infrastructure capabilities, the construction speed will be faster than upgrading the LHC, and with me, I believe that the discovery of dark matter and dark energy will be ahead of CERN."

David Gross was silent on the other end of the phone.

To be honest, this is indeed true.

With China's capabilities, if it is decided to build a large powerful collider now, it will probably complete the upgrade of LHC before CERN if it goes all out.

And the person on the phone, I am afraid that he wanted to leave the glory of discovering dark matter and dark energy in China from the beginning.

CERN was able to successfully obtain funding from various countries for upgrades because, on the one hand, the discovery and improvement of the Higgs particle provided value, and on the other hand, the discovery of the inert neutrino provided prospects.

Dark matter and dark energy are a new goal, a direction beyond the standard model.

Without this direction, CERN would not have been able to obtain upgrade funding so smoothly.

Currently, there is only one large particle collider in the world, the LHC, and countries have no choice but to concentrate their funds in the high-energy field on this area.

But if China spreads the news of building a large particle collider, it will definitely be a blow to CERN, and it will be more difficult to ask for funding in the future.

After thinking for a while, David Gross said, "If CERN purchases the high-temperature superconducting materials you have, will you provide directions and technologies for upgrading the detectors?"

Xu Chuan smiled and said, "It depends on how much CERN will purchase."

"In fact, for CERN, it is definitely not a losing business. Believe me, the performance of the high-temperature copper-carbon-silver composite superconducting material will satisfy you."

"And I can guarantee its performance and stability, which can be written into the contract at that time. If there are some problems caused by the superconducting material itself, I can be responsible and even compensate."

Gross was silent for a while, and said, "I will bring up the relevant matters at the next board meeting."

It must be said that this person's words did change his mind. He originally called this time to refuse politely.

As he said in the communication, from a practical point of view, for the upgrade of the LHC Large Intense Particle Collider, the CERN Council prefers the already stable BI high-temperature superconducting material. Even if its superconducting performance is not as good as that of copper-carbon-silver composite materials.

But for such a large project, the most important thing is to be able to complete the project stably and meet the predicted plan.

Xu Chuan smiled and said, "Then I'll trouble you, Master Gross."

After hanging up the phone, Xu Chuan smiled at the black screen of the phone.

To be honest, he was a little bit black-hearted this time.

Because he was very clear about the upgrade experience of CERN. In the future, the first upgrade of LHC did not allow him to find traces of dark matter and dark energy in his previous life. The reason was not that the collision energy level was not enough, but that the performance of the detector was not enough.

Later, LHC upgraded and optimized the detector again and adopted new technology, which found traces and data of the existence of dark matter and dark energy.

And he was very clear about the upgrade route and technology of the LHC detector.

In other words, he did not trade with his own technology, but traded with CERN's own technology in the future.

Of course, for CERN, this is not a loss.

On the one hand, it is time. He can bring the solution of optimizing the detector several years in advance. For science, every second counts.

A few years in advance, it is possible to discover more results.

On the other hand, the performance of the high-temperature copper-carbon-silver composite superconducting material in his hand is indeed better than the Bi superconducting material of the small island country.

Of course, he still left some other things on the large particle collider.

After all, after he completes the controlled nuclear fusion project, the large particle collider project will also be launched. He needs to retain some key technologies to make the domestic collider surpass CERN's LHC in performance.

Only in this way can he attract many physicists from all over the world to work for him and China.

As for the discovery of dark matter and dark energy, he did have the idea of ​​staying in China at the beginning.

However, there are some difficulties in the controlled nuclear fusion project now, and he needs more things to ensure that he can trade reactors from the Germanic country or the United States.

Among them, the high-temperature copper-carbon-silver composite superconducting material is the key. He needs to ensure the performance and status of high-temperature copper-carbon-silver composite superconducting materials in order to successfully complete the purchase.

And CERN's procurement is undoubtedly a guarantee of quality.

As for the discovery of dark matter and dark energy, it doesn't matter if it is given to CERN.

He has a more important graviton theory in the future.

Compared with dark matter and dark energy, if gravitons are discovered, this is what will truly change human development and allow humans to move from planetary civilization to space civilization.

PS: Today's blind date is probably declared a failure again. Woo woo woo woo ┭┮﹏┭┮, to be honest, I like the girl very much, at least her appearance is the type I like, but it's a pity that she doesn't seem to be very interested in me.

Is there any love expert who can give me some advice?