Chapter 377 He3 Atom Probe Technology (1/4)

Chapter 377 He3 Atom Probe Technology (14)

In the cutting-edge research field of theoretical physics, for an unpredictable chaotic system, it is more common to throw a particle into it to explore the path.

By observing the particle, the system is observed indirectly.

In fact, Lu Zhou proposed this experimental idea largely because of his earlier work experience at CERN.

If the whole system where the plasma is located is regarded as a billiard table locked in a black box, and the plasma is regarded as a billiard ball on the table, then there is nothing more suitable for touch than "shooting a shot" in a fixed direction. The situation on the table is cleared.

As for the particle used as a "white ball", there is nothing more suitable than helium 3.

First of all, its atomic diameter is small enough, three is composed of two protons and one neutron, which is close to the atomic mass of tritium, and the atomic nucleus structure is more stable! Not only is it possible to avoid indistinguishable polyatomic collisions in a probabilistic sense, but it is also easier to pass through the plasma.

To reach the temperature at which helium-3 and deuterium undergo fusion reactions, at least the existing temperature and electromagnetic field must be increased by a hundred times to be satisfied, so even if it is finally used in a stellarator, the participation of helium-3 in fusion can basically be ignored react to the situation.

Therefore, using helium 3 to do this experiment is perfect!

Considering the number of particles in the entire plasma system, the perturbation of the entire system by a He-3 atom is almost negligible. After all, throwing an atom into it has much less impact on the entire system than inserting a probe into it!

The helium 3 atoms passing through the plasma will collide with the particles in the system, and the electromagnetic waves generated in the collision will be heard as "sound" by the observation equipment connected to the outside of the device. Based on these data, the macroscopic, Microscopic parameters.

After that, the helium 3 atoms passing through the plasma will collide with the target material, and at the same time the impact data will be fed back, and they will be detached from the entire system.

As long as he continuously emits helium 3 atoms as "detectors" to the plasma, and then collects the electromagnetic wave data generated by the collision, as well as the impact data collected on the target material, Lu Zhou is confident that helium can be analyzed indirectly through mathematical methods. 3. Disturbance received in the plasma system, thus indirect inversion of various attributes of the system itself.

If this is too abstract, a simple analogy can be made.

We measure the refractive index of water. If we directly take water itself as the research object, the whole experiment will undoubtedly be complicated. But if a beam of light is shot into water, and the refractive index is calculated by observing the change of the angle between the light and the interface, the whole experiment will become much simpler.

And Lu Zhou's experimental idea is to use helium-3 particles as the light that is injected into the plasma!

"...we only need to set a palm-sized target material on the first wall of the stellarator to capture the helium-3 particles emitted from the atomic gun, and the particles emitted by the collision of helium-3 and tritium atoms during the emission cycle can be recorded. The electromagnetic wave signal of the target, as well as the carried energy, impact angular momentum and other data when the helium 3 hits the target, indirectly analyze the data carried by the plasma under the high temperature and pressure state!"

"Let's not say whether this can be done," Professor Lazelson said seriously, staring at Lu Zhou, "Are you sure you have these data and processed them? If we launch N particles, the variables involved Not only will it exceed the Nth power of N! It also takes into account that the plasma itself is disturbed by the magnetic field..."

When the variables of a physical model are large enough, it will be a calculation that even supercomputers cannot complete.

However, Professor Lazelson's words did not intimidate Lu Zhou.

With an affirmative tone, Lu Zhou answered Professor Razelson's question: "I'm not sure if others know, but I'm more than 90% sure."

Establishing a mathematical model and solving the mathematical model are two concepts. Although this variable seems extremely large, in fact, those things require supercomputing to solve the headache.

If it is just to build a theoretical model, Lu Zhou is quite confident in his own ability.

A trace of hesitation flashed in his eyes, and Professor Lazersson still couldn't believe that he had made a decision.

Theoretically speaking, this line of thinking seems to be feasible, but the premise is that Lu Zhou can complete what he promised, and build a theoretical model for the entire system based on the electromagnetic wave excitation data of those helium 3 atoms.

If the data collected cannot be used effectively, even if they succeed in the end, it will be just a waste of effort.

Unusable data is no better than "noise" in experiments.

"...give me a reason to believe you can do it."

"Is Goldbach's conjecture enough?"

Professor Lazelson said decisively: "Not enough! That only shows that you are an expert in the field of number theory, and it doesn't make any sense to me!"

"What about the theoretical model of the electrochemical interface structure?" Seeing that Professor Lazelsson was subconsciously planning to refute, Lu Zhou immediately rushed ahead of him and said, "I know what you want to say, this at most proves my knowledge in computational chemistry and theoretical chemistry. Strength does not mean that it is also suitable for plasma research, right?"

Professor Lazelson didn't speak, but his eyes already showed his thoughts.

Lu Zhou was not discouraged and continued.

"But what I want to tell you is that the things I have studied are ultimately about the processing of data, and the scale of data I have processed is not much smaller than the amount of data we are about to face!"

This time, Professor Lazelson did not speak, but fell into silence, as if he was thinking.

Seeing that he didn't speak, Lu Zhou continued beside him.

"Believe me, it sounds hard, but it's not so hard that it can't be solved! All we did was insert a probe called helium-3 into the plasma. The only thing that sounds incredible is that it The volume is only as small as an atom."

"If we succeed..."

After a pause, Lu Zhou stared into his eyes and said seriously, "This is undoubtedly a Nobel Prize-winning invention."

The Nobel Prize not only rewards great theoretical discoveries, but also rewards those major inventions that change human civilization.

For example, just this year, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry announced in October 2017 was awarded to the three scholars who invented the cryo-electron microscope, because biologists have really written a lot of papers with their inventions.

Just like Mr. Qiu’s ridicule, if a certain observation method can be established to directly observe various macroscopic and microscopic parameters of the plasma system under high temperature and pressure, it will have a huge role in promoting the entire plasma physics.

Moreover, this technology will undoubtedly promote the development of the entire controllable nuclear fusion project!

"It sounds like..."

Taking off the glasses on the bridge of the nose, Professor Lazersson took out the glasses cloth from his pocket with trembling fingers, and kept rubbing against the lenses.

The lenses are getting brighter and brighter, and the pupils reflected in the lenses are getting more and more excited.

However, he has been unable to make up his mind about this.

After waiting for nearly ten minutes, Lu Zhou glanced at his watch.

Just when Lu Zhou loosened his shoulders and was about to give up persuasion and find other people to cooperate with, Professor Lazelson suddenly put on his glasses again.

When he looked at Lu Zhou again, there was no look of contempt in his cloudy eyes.

replaced by……

excited!

"...It sounds like it's very interesting!"

Hearing this sentence, Lu Zhou was finally relieved, a smile appeared on his face, and he stretched out his right hand.

"Glad to hear that answer."

In short, the answer he got was not "this sounds unrealistic".

...

Convinced Professor Lazersson and saved Lu Zhou a lot of trouble.

Princeton's plasma physics laboratory has a world-class standard, and has related research agreements with controllable nuclear fusion research units in many countries around the world. Both resources and talents occupy considerable advantages.

And this is not available in other research institutions.

If Professor Lazersson is still unwilling in the end, Lu Zhou can only send a letter to the Max Planck Society in the end, trying to go to the Institute of Plasma Physics of the Max Planck Society as a visiting scholar.

As for building a laboratory with R&D capabilities comparable to PPPL at your own expense...

Regardless of those scientific research resources that are difficult to buy with money, in short, a few hundred million dollars is definitely not enough.

After reaching a cooperative research agreement with Professor Lazersson, for the convenience of discussion, Lu Zhou referred to the suggestions of other experts in the institute and named this technology, which was still in its infancy, "He3 atom probe".

And the name of the project team is more concise and clear with only three characters——

"He-3"

In the next few days, Lu Zhou basically went back and forth between the Institute for Advanced Study and the Plasma Physics Laboratory, either reading literature related to plasma research, or talking to Professor Lazersson and "He-3 "The plasma physics experts and engineers of the project team sat together for a meeting and exchanged opinions on the specific experimental design.

Obviously, the end of the theoretical research did not make Lu Zhou much more relaxed, but the new work that followed made him even busier.

While Lu Zhou was busy with the "He-3" project, before he knew it, it was time for the new edition of "Annual of Mathematics" to be published.

The paper he submitted to the "Annual Journal of Mathematics" also officially met with colleagues in the field of partial differential equations.

For the publication of the results at this stage, Lu Zhou did not pay too much attention to the reaction of the mathematics community.

At least in his opinion, this is not a particularly outstanding research result, at most it is just a brick on the basis of previous research.

However, sometimes fate is so wonderful.

To Lu Zhou's surprise, the development of things was exactly the opposite of what he expected.

The stone that he threw into the lake did not just sink, but floated on the calm surface of the lake...