The Science Fiction World of Xueba

Institute for Theoretical Condensed Matter Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, MA, USA.

Wen Xiaogang sat at his desk, sipping coffee, and browsing the latest reports of the New York Times on China's electromagnetic space launch system and aerospace aircraft projects.

In the past few years, Sino-US trade frictions have intensified. Previously, the United States could still gain the upper hand by relying on its advantages in the field of science and technology. However, recently, with the rapid rise of young people in China, especially the emergence of Jinlong batteries, the global political and economic Even the technological landscape has been reversed.

Today, although the United States still dominates many high-tech fields, there is no strategic product like Jinlong battery that can compete with China.

In the previous Sino-US trade war, China was on the tactical defensive and strategic offensive, while the United States was on the strategic defensive and tactical offensive.

But now, the United States does not even have the capital to compete with China tactically.

A golden dragon battery directly divided the Western society originally led by the United States.

Even those Chinese students who come to the United States to study have a high sense of national pride. In previous years, most of the overseas students returned to their home countries after graduation. The rate has remained at 70 to 80%. Up to now, the proportion of choosing to return to China has exceeded 90% .

In a sense, American universities have become the cradle for training top Chinese scientists and engineers at a time when the number of graduates of science and engineering in the United States is decreasing day by day.

Moreover, domestic colleges and universities are also making further efforts. Last year, Peking University sent someone to contact me. If I hadn’t become an American citizen and taught at MIT for decades, my children and grandchildren would have already gotten used to life in the United States. I'm afraid Wen Xiaogang agreed a long time ago.

However, in recent days, there have been fewer reports in the media about the Sino-US Jinlong battery project negotiations. Instead, China is preparing to launch the electromagnetic orbital launch system and aerospace aircraft projects.

Of course, most of the American media are ridiculed, thinking that this plan is impossible to realize.

At this point, the Americans have considerable confidence. As the leading aerospace power on earth, the United States has a very strong accumulation in the field of aerospace technology, such as the Apollo moon landing program, the space shuttle program...

Even the Soviet Union during the Cold War could barely compete with the United States.

Therefore, when China's plan spread to the United States, NASA experts publicly said that Pang Xuelin was fanciful.

Human beings have not even tapped out the potential of chemically powered rockets, but they are investing resources in the so-called electromagnetic ejection space launch system. It is simply putting the cart before the horse.

Even Wen Xiaogang himself is not optimistic about Pang Xuelin's project. In his opinion, among other things, just producing the superconductors needed for the electromagnetic ejection orbit and the low-temperature liquid nitrogen used to maintain the superconductors requires an astronomical sum of money. number.

Even with China's economic strength, this plan is not possible to realize.

Of course, if Pang Xuelin can find a real room-temperature superconductor, that's another story.

However, as a top condensed matter physicist in the world, Wen Xiaogang does not think that with the current level of research on superconductors in the physics world, humans can find a real room temperature superconductor in a short period of time.

Just as Wen Xiaogang was drinking his coffee, he was flipping through the webpage in a bored way.

bang bang bang—

Suddenly there was a knock on the door.

"Please come in."

Wen Xiaogang said.

With a click, the door lock was unlocked.

An elderly Chinese man in his sixties came in. He was wearing an exquisite casual suit and his hair was meticulously combed behind his head.

"Patrick,

How did you come? "

Wen Xiaogang was slightly taken aback.

Patrick Li, Chinese name Li Yada, William and Emma Rogers Professor of Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a leading figure in the field of condensed matter physics, in the fields of disordered electronic systems, mesoscopic physics, condensed matter physics, and low-temperature micro components There are many outstanding contributions.

Li Yada's ancestral home is Xiangjiang, he became an American citizen a long time ago, and his qualifications in MIT are even older than Wen Xiaogang's.

Both are top condensed matter physicists and are the deputy directors of the Institute of Condensed Matter Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Li Yada said with a solemn expression, "Wen, hurry up and log on to the arXiv preprint website."

"What's the matter?"

Wen Xiaogang was slightly taken aback.

Li Yada said: "Just two hours ago, that super genius in China just uploaded a paper on condensed matter physics. He developed a mathematical model of superconductors. His theory can not only explain conventional superconductors such as simple metals that follow the BSC theory, but also heavy fermion compounds, copper oxide superconductors, iron-based high-temperature superconductors, and even graphene two-dimensional electronic systems Superconductors are perfectly consistent with his theory, in other words. He has found the ultimate secret of superconductivity."

"What?"

Wen Xiaogang was taken aback, and looked at Li Yada in disbelief.

Li Yada said: "Professor Wadesa from Princeton University just called me and told me. You should know about Wadesa's temperament, he won't talk nonsense."

Wen Xiaogang nodded, no longer hesitated, directly opened the arXiv website, and found Pang Xuelin's paper.

Afterwards, he downloaded and printed the paper, and each of him and Patrick read it carefully.

Time passed by every minute and every second.

One hour, two hours, three hours...

Before I knew it, the sky darkened.

It was not until a piercing ringing of the phone that Wen Xiaogang and Li Yada woke up from their contemplation.

Wen Xiaogang looked at his phone, and it turned out that his wife had called, asking him why he didn't go home for dinner.

Wen Xiaogang responded casually, then looked at Li Yada and said, "Patrick, what do you think of Pang Xuelin's theory?"

Li Yada said: "It's hard to say now, but from the experimental data and the theory, this theory is likely to solve the problem of the formation mechanism of the superbody in the past century, and it is of great significance to the search for new superconducting materials in the future."

Wen Xiaogang nodded, pondered for a moment, and said, "Patrick, I'm going back to China."

"Are you going to China?"

Li Yada raised his head in surprise and looked at Wen Xiaogang.

Wen Xiaogang said: "You should have read the report that China proposed to establish an electromagnetic catapult space launch system and an aerospace aircraft project not long ago?"

Li Yada nodded, frowned and said, "You mean that Pang Xuelin's sudden upload of this paper was not aimless."

Wen Xiaogang nodded and said: "We can't treat Professor Pang Xuelin as an ordinary scientist. I suspect that he has found a technical route to realize room-temperature superconductors in the true sense."

"That's unlikely."

Li Yada couldn't believe it.

Wen Xiaogang smiled and said: "Patrick, don't forget, this one of the greatest mathematicians in history and the youngest Nobel Prize winner in chemistry, has he created many miracles? If this paper is nothing If it’s a big problem, it’s no surprise that after ten or twenty years, there will be another Nobel Prize in Physics on Pang Xuelin’s head. We can’t overestimate such a young man.”

Wen Xiaogang paused, and continued: "But this is not my main purpose of finding him."

"Then why are you?"

Li Yada asked curiously.

Wen Xiaogang said: "I have been immersed in the field of condensed matter physics and superconductivity for most of my life. I hope that in my lifetime I can see a real room temperature superconductor appear in front of my eyes. I will not let this Chance."

...

At the same time, similar scenes and similar conversations happened in major superconductor research institutions all over the world.

Pang Xuelin could guess that this paper brought shock to the condensed matter physics community.

In fact, not long after his paper was uploaded to the arXiv website, he received many inquiries.

Some from the top, some from academia, and some from the media.

Fortunately, he didn't know many people in the condensed matter physics community.

Therefore, his ears were still quiet in a short time.

Of course, the reports on this paper in the media are equally uproarious, and there are even various extremely exaggerated headlines.

"The era of superconductivity is approaching, and the new energy revolution triggered by Jinlong battery will usher in a new boost..."

"CRRC stated that it will build a vacuum superconducting maglev train on the Beijing-Shanghai line in the future. This project is expected to end the dominance of civil aviation passenger aircraft in long-distance transportation..."

"China is about to usher in a revolution in power transmission and transformation. The emergence of superconductors will save our country more than 20% of energy..."

...

Of course, while discussing superconducting materials, more people turned their focus to the electromagnetic ejection space launch system project.

On Pang Xuelin's birthday two days ago, he posted a Weibo on the Internet, claiming that he is the promoter of this project.

Then this Weibo set off another upsurge of controversy on the Internet.

Even if Pang Xuelin took the initiative to stand up and endorse, the supporters and opponents were almost evenly matched.

Among the many objections, the most important is the technical difficulty of this project.

Everyone agrees that a prerequisite for the electromagnetic catapult space launch system is to find a room-temperature superconductor. If there is no room-temperature superconductor, the cost of this project will be astronomical. Whether it can be technically successful is another matter. China's economic Whether the strength can support such a super project is a question.

Because of this, after Pang Xuelin posted that microblog, many opponents stood up and attacked Pang Xuelin with this question.

They think that Pang Xuelin is aiming too high and promoting technology DYJ, which is not beneficial to the country.

Who would have thought that after only a few days, Pang Xuelin threw a paper on the faces of many opponents.

After this paper came out, almost all the major media in the world reported the great significance of this paper.

Top scholars in the field of condensed matter physics have also spoken out one after another, affirming Pang Xuelin's significant contributions in this field.

The supporters of Pang Xuelin, who were suppressed by those opposing voices a few days ago, also launched counterattacks one after another.

"Don't you think Professor Pang is not good? Look, this is Professor Pang's answer!"

"Do you think the top management are all stupid? If they are not certain, how could they easily decide to approve such a heavyweight project?"

"My supervisor spoke highly of Professor Pang's paper, and believed that he unified the current superconducting theories and fundamentally solved the problem of the formation of the superconducting mechanism. As long as there is a team based on this paper to find a new generation Superconducting materials, then the Nobel Prize in Physics will definitely be in the pocket of Professor Pang Xuelin.”

...

"I admit that Professor Pang is awesome, but theory is theory, and reality is reality. It will take decades for a complete set of theories to be promoted in reality and achieve the highest productivity. From ten In the first half of the ninth century, Faraday discovered the law of electromagnetic induction, and it took more than half a century for mankind to set off the electrical revolution. It also took nearly half a century from the breakthrough in the theory of electron tubes and transistors to the information revolution. Even if someone really Through Professor Pang's paper, we found a room-temperature superconductor, but can it be industrialized? Can it be applied on a large scale? What will be the price of this superconductor? It's simply impossible to solve..."

"Hey, although I think what you said has some truth, I still support Professor Pang. Has Professor Pang let us down since he became famous? Please don't use ordinary people's standards to apply to our Professor Pang. okay?"

Naturally, Pang Xuelin wouldn't care about the disturbance in the unexpected world.

At this time, he was strolling along the artificial lake of Qiantang Laboratory with Li Changqing and Cao Yuan.

The core area of ​​Qiantang Laboratory is mostly dominated by Chinese-style buildings, surrounded by traditional Chinese-style gardens, with a beautiful, quiet and elegant environment.

"Professor Li, Professor Cao, the synthesis of new superconducting materials will be handed over to you, and I will be the shopkeeper."

Pang Xuelin said with a smile.

Li Changqing on the side smiled and said: "Professor Pang, don't worry, you have helped us do this, and even pointed out the atomic structure of superconducting materials to us. If we can't do it again, it's really I have lived in vain for so many years."

"Professor Li is right."

Cao Yuan nodded and said with a smile, "By the way, Professor Pang. Where are you going to send the paper on arXiv?"

arXiv is just a preprint website without formal peer review. Such papers do not have academic value in a short period of time.

It is because of Pang Xuelin's great reputation that his paper attracted so much attention after it was uploaded to arXiv.

Pang Xuelin smiled slightly, and said, "I'm going to set up a brand new comprehensive academic journal in the name of Jiangcheng Institute for Advanced Study. Let's use this paper as the first shot for this journal. ="

"Establish a new comprehensive journal?"

Cao Yuan and Li Li Changqing looked at each other in surprise.