Chapter 436 Insurmountable Difficulties

This speculation has caused a stir in the human scientific community. Because this speculation implies a possibility: the transmission speed of dark force particles may be reduced to below the speed of light in vacuum!

In the previous theoretical deduction and research, "the transmission speed of dark force particles cannot be reduced to below the speed of light, just like the movement speed of conventional materials cannot exceed the speed of light" has almost become an unquestionable truth.

And now, this speculation has challenged this truth.

The specific content of the speculation is that the transmission speed of dark force particles in different media is not the same. The only thing that cannot be crossed is the speed of light in vacuum.

That is, the transmission speed of dark force particles in vacuum cannot be reduced to below the speed of light in vacuum. But in other media, it is not impossible to reduce it to below the speed of light in vacuum.

However, dark force particles are actually a general term, and there are many kinds of dark force particles. Among them, there is a particle called "dark force particle α", whose movement speed is considered to be the slowest, and there is no dark force particle slower than it in vacuum.

But in some media, the speed of other types of dark force particles may be slower than that of dark force particles α, just like in pure water, the speed of neutrinos may exceed the speed of photons in pure water!

The former will lead to a phenomenon called "Cherenkov radiation", and the latter, when the speed of other dark force particles is reduced to below that of dark force particles α, will also lead to a phenomenon similar to Cherenkov radiation.

If this radiation can be observed, it will undoubtedly prove the existence of dark force particles and prove that their speculations about the properties of dark force particles are correct.

For a time, this speculation triggered a lot of discussions in the human scientific community and led the trend of thought in the scientific community for a period of time.

The paper written by the team that proposed this speculation was subject to the most rigorous scrutiny. After years of discussion, research, and improvement, the scientific community basically reached a consensus.

Although it is impossible to determine whether this paper is correct, at least it is beautiful in terms of mathematical models and physical derivations.

This makes it worth further verification.

After finally reaching this conclusion, Han Yang sighed in his heart.

It seems to be just a simple guess, but in the scientific community, the so-called guess is not just a wild idea that comes up with a brainwave.

These guesses must be proven by rigorous and complete mathematical derivations, and must be self-consistent with other physical theories. If they are not self-consistent and contradict other theories, then the proposer must prove that the other theories are wrong or at least incomplete.

Otherwise, the proposed guess is just a guess and has no value for exploration.

The person or team who can complete these tasks and finally put forward the guess must have received extremely rigorous and complex scientific training and must have outstanding qualities.

Han Yang also saw that in the process of encountering difficulties in the early research and the human scientific community looking for new routes, many scientific teams put forward far more than this one guess.

In fact, at the same time, the total number of various guesses and models put forward was as high as more than 10,000. And behind each guess, there is one or more excellent research teams.

But all those guesses were rejected in the subsequent review and evaluation, and they could not enter the subsequent verification stage at all.

However, the team that can complete the preliminary work and finally put forward the guess is already one in ten thousand.

According to statistics, it takes an average of more than 8,000 research teams before one team finally puts forward a guess for subsequent review and examination.

So, what conditions do an ordinary human need to meet to enter such an ordinary research team, a research team that can't even put forward its own guess?

The answer is that in middle school, he must get the qualification to be recommended to the top 1000 universities in the whole civilization. After entering the top 1000 universities to study, he must be outstanding again and get the qualification to be recommended to the master's and doctoral programs.

After graduating with a doctorate, he studied with his supervisor for several years, and finally formed a team by himself, completed several small projects independently, and proved his research ability. Only then can he enter such an ordinary research team.

However, ordinary graduates from the top 1000 universities in the whole civilization can find quite good jobs in society and get relatively generous treatment.

"This is the scientific research foundation of a civilization.

Any genius idea or groundbreaking theory may seem to be proposed by one person or a team, but without many unknown colleagues, a real breakthrough cannot be achieved.

For a towering building, the most important thing is not the towering spire, but the silent and unnoticed foundation.

Now, human scientists have presented this brilliant achievement to Han Yang.

Under Han Yang's order, the team of front-line scientists around the neutron star immediately began to prepare for the second round of experiments.

Even if this guess and this set of theories are correct, there is a problem. That is, the intensity of this radiation is predicted to be extremely weak. And the radiation level of neutron stars is extremely strong.

So, how to accurately find this radiation under so many interferences?

The front-line team of scientists continuously sent back detailed data about neutron stars to the human main fleet. The research team in the main fleet, especially the experimental physicists, immediately began to design experimental equipment with corresponding capabilities.

During this process, the front-line team of scientists prepared a round of extremely large-scale neutron star collision tests.

Neutron stars have too much gravity and too strong radiation, making them almost impossible to approach. In order to design observation equipment that fits the actual neutron star, it is necessary to conduct extremely detailed observations of neutron stars, figure out its detailed internal structure and movement mode, and master every parameter of it as much as possible.

In this case, manipulating objects to directly hit neutron stars and obtaining detailed data about neutron stars by artificially creating neutron star quakes has become the only option.

Because in the collision, the entire neutron star will undergo corresponding changes. Although this change is subtle, it can reveal the deepest secrets hidden in neutron stars.

This process lasted for about three years. Three years later, experimental physicists split into two factions, each heading in two directions, and came up with experimental observation devices that follow two different ideas.

One of them takes the route of improving observation accuracy. No matter how weak the radiation is, as long as my observation accuracy is high enough and my ability to eliminate interference is strong enough, I will definitely be able to find it.

The second route is to take the indirect influence route again. This group of experimental physicists believes that the intensity of the radiation is too low, and it is unlikely to separate it from the interference radiation with the current technical level. In this case, it is better to change the idea.

Some theoretical physicists and research teams believe that the particles released by this so-called "dark force radiation" will have a certain impact on neutrinos, causing neutrinos to show some changes.

Then, we will not observe this radiation directly, but observe neutrinos instead. If neutrinos do have this change, it can prove that this radiation does exist.

After thinking about it, Han Yang finally decided to start both plans at the same time.

So, around this neutron star, huge construction began again.

The first to be built was the array neutron telescope.

Han Yang built a total of 106 large telescopes, which were used in a flat posture to detect the neutron star at a distance of about 8 million kilometers.

The observation effect of these telescopes in a planar layout can be compared to that of a single telescope with a diameter of 1 million kilometers.

It is like a huge magnifying glass, aimed at this small neutron star, trying to detect the most subtle changes in it.

As for another idea, Han Yang built a huge neutrino telescope.

To observe neutrinos, the human scientific community has always had a very mature observation idea, which is nothing more than collecting enough pure water, building a large enough pure water tank, and installing enough photomultipliers.

Unlike in the past, this neutrino telescope is particularly huge at this moment.

If it is released on the planet, this water can cover a huge lake with a depth of two meters and a width and length of 60 kilometers each.

And the total mass of all the impurities in so much water is only no more than one kilogram.

The front-line scientists were also divided into two teams, operating the observation equipment built according to the two ideas, and once again observed the neutron star.

The observation lasted a total of ten years. During this period, thousands of observations were made, generating up to 100 trillion GB of data.

Scientists from all professions throughout human civilization have devoted themselves to analyzing these data.

Han Yang also allocated a large amount of computing power to analyze these data in person.

But the final result once again disappointed everyone.

These two observation devices, which have almost reached the limit of human observation accuracy, still failed to find evidence of the existence of dark force radiation.

At this time, doubts about the dark force radiation speculation gradually emerged in the scientific community. After all, our observation accuracy is so high that it has reached the requirements of theoretical predictions, but we still cannot find evidence. This is obviously an error in the theoretical system.

In response to this, more research teams have also invested in further research. Some people have tried to revise this theoretical system, and some have tried to propose new theories.

In the end, the plan to revise the dark force radiation theory attracted Han Yang's attention.

The revised theory believes that the original theory did not take into account the influence of subtle changes in density caused by micro-convection inside neutron stars, so there was an error in the estimation of the intensity of dark force radiation.

Now, with this effect added in, the final estimate of the intensity of dark force radiation should be about 80% to 90% lower than the original estimate.

This correction has shown certain value in both mathematical calculations and physical deductions, and seems worth trying.

But this means one crucial thing: if the intensity of dark force radiation is really that low, then the two previously designed observation schemes, the dark force radiation telescope and the neutrino telescope, cannot achieve the accuracy.

Humans must develop observation equipment with higher observation accuracy to hope to truly see evidence of the existence of dark force radiation.

With multiple routes being jointly promoted, another scientific research team proposed an observation plan that can be called a bit crazy.

At this stage, the main obstacle restricting the accuracy of human observation is the overly strong radiation and gravity of neutron stars, which makes it impossible for humans to get close to observe.

Human observation equipment cannot get too close to neutron stars. Because once they get too close, they will be destroyed by the neutron star.

In this case... can we build disposable observation equipment? For example, build an observation satellite and throw it directly onto the neutron star, and use the extremely short time before it hits the neutron star and is destroyed to observe?

The observation time of a detector may be only a few microseconds or even a few nanoseconds. But if we can build thousands of such detectors and throw them onto neutron stars continuously, will the observation time be long enough?

Han Yang began to think carefully about the feasibility of this detection method. Many scientific teams in the human scientific community have also begun to explore this plan.

Among the several obstacles to this plan, the huge gravity of the neutron star can be ignored.

Because the detector is in a free fall state, it will be in a state of weightlessness and gravity does not need to be considered.

Tidal gravity does not need to be considered either. Compared with natural stars, the detector can be regarded as a rigid body, and will not be torn apart by tidal gravity in free fall.

Radiation and heat need to be carefully considered. Whether it is possible to produce materials that can resist the radiation and heat of neutron stars and protect the normal operation of observation instruments is the key to whether this plan can be implemented.

Secondly, the problem of observation accuracy needs to be considered. Because this detector cannot be too large. If it is too large, any defects will be magnified by the harsh environment of the neutron star, and ultimately make it unfeasible in engineering.

But humans must also ensure sufficient observation accuracy. Otherwise, it will be useless even if it is thrown onto a neutron star.

How to achieve sufficiently high defense capabilities and sufficiently high observation accuracy within a limited volume and mass?

This is a difficult problem.

Under Han Yang's unified arrangement, the scientific research power of human civilization was once again fully mobilized to charge at this difficult problem. (End of this chapter)