Scholar’s Advanced Technological System

The interview was scheduled for a week later.

All of Lu Zhou’s time was being spent on the miniaturization of controllable fusion.

In order to increase the maximum temperature peak of the bubble in the working fluid, several old professors at the Institute of Acoustics tried to help. They removed the acoustic suspension stabilizer on the ultrasonic generator, which increased the energy of the ultrasonic wave. The maximum sound pressure acting on the bubble was increased from 15 times atmospheric pressure to 30 times.

However, this all came at a cost.

Removing the acoustic suspension stabilizer meant that the bubbles couldn’t remain stable in the center of the fluid container.

However, sonoluminescence didn’t require the bubble to float in a certain position, so this didn’t matter too much.

After the experiment equipment was updated, Lu Zhou brought Sheng Xianfu and the team to repeat the experiment. They used a gas mixture of xenon and deuterium and observed the bubble temperature and neutron recovery rate.

When the completed experimental report was handed to Lu Zhou, Sheng Xianfu felt a mixture of emotions as he spoke, “The situation isn’t looking good, the peak temperature can only reach a maximum of 10 million kelvin, but the lowest is only about 500,000 kelvin.”

Lu Zhou stared at the experimental report and frowned.

“Is the difference that big?”

Sheng Xianfu nodded. “The temperature change observed by blackbody radiation is quite unstable. We don’t know if our observations are incorrect, or if it’s something else.”

If they could make the bubble peak collapse temperature reach 10 million kelvin every time, it would be possible to stabilize the fusion reaction by shrinking the volume and using fast ignition.

Unfortunately, this seemed to be an extremely difficult thing to do.

Lu Zhou asked, “What about the neutron fluence rate?”

Sheng Xianfu hesitated for a second before saying, “It has improved… But we’re still a long way from stable controllable fusion.”

Lu Zhou thought for a bit before asking, “How is the new experiment container going?”

Sheng Xianfu: “The China National Nuclear Corporation already finished building it. It should arrive tomorrow.”

Lu Zhou finally felt a little relieved.

He placed the experimental report on the table and said to everyone, “Today’s experiment is finished, we’ll check the equipment tomorrow, and use liquid lithium the day after that.”

Sheng Xianfu nodded seriously.

“Ok!”

Just like Lu Zhou’s calculations predicted, when the lighter liquid lithium was used as the working liquid, the sonoluminescence performance did exceed that of the concentrated sulfuric acid. Especially when the mixed gas was introduced, the sound pressure acting on the surface of the bubble was significantly improved and the maximum atmospheric pressure is 31.7 times atm[1].

However, the liquid lithium was at 700 degrees Celsius, making it extremely volatile. The experiment became several times more dangerous than using concentrated sulfuric acid.

During the third experiment, the experimenter accidentally mixed a small amount of oxygen when preparing the deuterium gas mixture electrolysis. This instantly caused the container to burst into flames.

Fortunately, the amount of oxygen was small. The researchers in the laboratory reacted quickly to the situation and rescued the laboratory. If the liquid lithium melted through the working container, the high-temperature liquid lithium would instantly be in direct contact with air. If that were to happen, they could forget about the laboratory; the entire building would be at stake.

After that, everyone in the Institute for Advanced Study viewed Sheng Xianfu’s research team in a different way…

The days quickly passed by, and it was soon the day of the interview.

Lu Zhou was inside his office at the mathematics department of Jin Ling University. He met the interview team from CTV.

Coincidentally, he had met the reporter a year ago.

“Hello, Professor Lu,” He Ying said. She was in a dark blue formal attire. She extended her hand and gently shook Lu Zhou’s hand as she said, “We meet again.”

Lu Zhou smiled and nodded.

“Long time no see, Ms. Ying… Should we start now?”

He Ying smiled and said, “Let’s start then.”

She knew Lu Zhou was busy with research, so she didn’t waste time on small talk.

After He Ying sat down on the sofa, she adjusted her posture and signaled the cameraman next to her. She put on a professional smile and said, “I am honored to have this opportunity to interview you. Before the interview begins, I want to ask you a few questions on behalf of the audience at home.”

Lu Zhou smiled and said, “Ask away, I’ll try my best to answer.”

He Ying smiled and said, “Don’t worry, they are easy questions.”

She said, “We all know that the Yang-Mills equations problem is solved and the unification of the strong interaction and the electromagnetic force will completely change the world of physics. However, most people are puzzled by these concepts, what do you think about the future of physics?”

Lu Zhou smiled and said, “You’re gonna start off with such a hard question?”

He Ying smirked and said, “It might be hard for most people, but it should be easy for you, right?”

“As a scholar, what do I think about the future of physics… This question isn’t easy to answer. After all, no one knows when a revolutionary set of theory is going to be discovered. ” Lu Zhou contemplated for a bit and said, “The long-term goal of theoretical physicists is the Grand Unified Theory. Now that the strong interaction and the electromagnetic force have been successfully unified, the only thing left is gravity. Of course, even though we have spent a century researching this theory, we haven’t even touched the tip of the iceberg.”

He Ying then asked seriously, “Is there a reason why gravitational force is so difficult to unify?”

Lu Zhou: “Of course! Gravity is the most mysterious field of physics, even though we are more intuitive regarding gravitational force than the other three fundamental forces. Actually, both string theory and the quantum gravitational theory explain gravity in two diametrically opposite ways. No one knows which is correct.”

He Ying said, “What’s a more realistic goal then?”

Lu Zhou leaned back against the sofa and said, “A more realistic, or short-term goal, is to verify and explore the standard model. Even though the standard model is magnificent, we can always find things that exist outside of the standard model. Whether through experiments or theoretical research.”

Lu Zhou paused for a second and jokingly said, “Like the m particle, even though I don’t know what it looks like, I can prove its existence using mathematical methods. If someone can find the particle, then another piece of the standard model puzzle would be solved.”

He Ying: “This sounds very exciting.”

Lu Zhou smiled and said, “Yeah, exploration of the unknown is exciting.”

He Ying: “However, theoretical physics is still a very distant concept for most of us. Can you explain how theoretical physics influences society?”

Lu Zhou thought for a long time.

He Ying began to wonder if Lu Zhou was allowed to answer this question. She was about to ask the cameraman to pause the interview when Lu Zhou suddenly spoke.

“This is a very abstract question. It is very difficult for me to tell you about a theoretical physics discovery that people can see with their own eyes. Just like the Higgs particle, gravitational waves, etc. The things we find in the universe are generally useless for most people.

“This includes the m particle that I talked about earlier. Even if we unify the electroweak interaction, electrostrong interaction, and gravitational force, and create a theory of everything, the universe will still remain the same. Perhaps we should use theoretical physics funding for charity work, it will make people’s lives better.”

Lu Zhou paused for a second before he added seriously, “However, if no one researches these seemingly ‘useless’ things, we won’t have a future.”

[1] Atmospheric pressure