Great Country Academician

In the campus, Xu Chuan walked on the tree-lined path, passed through the teaching area and headed towards the back mountain.

Regarding the problem of improved superconductor production, he has consulted a lot of information in the past few days, but there has been little progress.

On the one hand, engineering problems are not the scope of his expertise. On the other hand, improved superconductor materials are at the forefront of the high-temperature superconducting field. It is really difficult to make breakthroughs in it.

Shaking his head, Xu Chuan breathed a long sigh of relief and walked towards the observatory on the back mountain.

Reading a lot of information in the past two days made his head feel dizzy. It was obvious that this research method was not quite right.

So after he couldn't find the direction, he felt it was necessary to go out for a walk, relax and then talk to experts and scholars in the field of materials or nuclear fusion.

Inspiration is something that is hard to come by alone in a room.

Sometimes, its arrival depends more on the collision of ideas with the outside world.

The old saying is true. Three cobblers form one Zhuge Liang. People are different. Sometimes, looking at the same thing from another perspective will produce two completely different feelings and thoughts.

The same goes for the path of scientific research. Sometimes, where an academician cannot see clearly, a doctoral student or even a graduate student may have the inspiration to solve the problem.

Just like Yang Zhenhuan and his student Mills.

When studying the Yang-Mills equation, Mr. Yang made many attempts to apply the gauge invariance process in electromagnetic force to isospins.

But these attempts always left him stuck in the same step in his calculations, which always happened when he wanted to define the relevant field strengths.

Later, when Yang was thinking about these again when he was at Brookhaven National Laboratory, Mills proposed a new mathematical method, which inspired Yang to discover the equation of the field related to the isospin gauge symmetry, and finally Only then did the Yang-Mills equation that amazes the world be formed.

Therefore, Xu Chuan still likes to teach students and visit the arxiv preprint website, because sometimes, the questions and ideas raised by these students and scholars on arxiv may bring him some inspiration.

Isn't the last step of the NS equation derived from this?

However, sometimes the ideas are good, but the rewards may not always be as per the ideas this time.

After finishing a class on mathematics and physics, Xu Chuan tidied up the desk and left the lecture theater with the teaching materials under his arm.

Obviously, in this class, he did not get answers to the questions he was thinking about, or he did not get ideas and inspiration.

But Xu Chuan didn't pay too much attention to it. It was too exaggerated to get inspiration every time he went to class. It was a normal thing to have a normal class and end normally.

With the textbook under his arm, Xu Chuan left the lecture theater and walked towards his office.

Halfway through the journey, he suddenly remembered something, paused, turned and walked towards the other side of the teaching building.

After a while, he came to another office at the end of the corridor.

After knocking on the door, the voice of "please come in" came soon. Xu Chuan opened the door and walked in. Academician Chen Zhengping, his mentor when he was studying at NTU, was busy working behind his desk.

Seeing Xu Chuan coming in with textbooks under his arm, Chen Zhengping's eyes flashed with surprise. He was stunned for a moment, then smiled and stopped the pen in his hand, and said, "Why do you have time to come to my place today?"

Although he, a student, works at Nanjing University with him, the time the two of them meet is really relatively small. They may not meet more than ten times throughout the year.

Especially when Xu Chuan was in charge of the Qixia Controlled Nuclear Fusion Project a few years ago, he never met more than once in the whole year.

Xu Chuan smiled and walked to the sofa, sat down, and said, "I encountered some problems in the research of materials, and I would like to talk to you, instructor."

Hearing this, Chen Zhengping's eyes showed some surprise and curiosity. He stood up with a smile and walked towards the teapot. While making tea, he smiled and joked: "Tell me, what problem can make you so troubled? I’m also curious.”

Although both of them are still academicians and Xu Chuan is still his student, in terms of academic ability, whether it is mathematics, physics, or even materials science, the student in front of him surpasses him by a lot.

To be honest, there is a high probability that he will not be able to solve the problems he encounters as a student.

But since they all came to the door, no matter what, he still had to listen and communicate.

What's more, he is also quite curious, wondering what world problems this student is studying.

Hearing the instructor's teasing, Xu Chuan smiled and didn't pay too much attention. He simply explained the problems he encountered.

After hearing the problems Xu Chuan encountered, Chen Zhengping looked up curiously and asked, "Come to think of it, I haven't even heard that you have made new breakthroughs in the field of superconducting materials? There is no sign of this news spreading to the outside world.”

He knew that the things he studied as a student must be the most cutting-edge things in the field of materials science, but he really didn't expect that he would make a new breakthrough in the field of high-temperature superconducting materials, and he had never heard of this breakthrough.

Xu Chuan smiled and said: "This result was made last year, because it involves miniaturized controllable nuclear fusion technology and some relatively sensitive military fields, and it has not been made public."

Chen Zhengping nodded, not surprised by this statement. After all, he is also an academician-level scholar and has been exposed to and experienced this kind of thing to some extent.

After thinking for a while, he said: "To be honest, your ability has long surpassed mine in the field of materials. If you can't solve the problem, I will most likely not be able to solve it either."

"Especially in this situation, I don't know the relevant papers and materials, let alone give suggestions."

Hearing this, Xu Chuan slapped his thigh in annoyance and said quickly: "I'll have someone send over the papers and materials."

He had forgotten about this matter. Chen Zhengping indeed had not read the research papers and related data on improved superconductor materials.

Chen Zhengping waved his hand, interrupted Xu Chuan's movements and said: "There is no need to rush. As for your research paper, even if you show it to me now, it will be difficult for me to understand the results of this cutting-edge field in a short time. Not small, and that’s not what I’m talking about.”

Hearing this, Xu Chuan raised his head curiously and looked at his mentor.

After a pause, Chen Zhengping continued: "You should also be very clear about the achievements in the field of materials. Breakthroughs are not so easy. If you are stuck in this area, in addition to relying on time and experience to constantly polish it, the rest You can only rely on luck or inspiration to try.”

"But for you now, the most troublesome part is that you haven't even found a way to try."

"After all, if there is no direction and theoretical basis, blindly conducting experiments can only be said to be meaningless."

"Perhaps you should change your approach and consider this issue from the other side."

Hearing this, Xu Chuan quickly said: "What should I do?"

After pondering for a while, Chen Zhengping said: "In the past two years, I participated in a hydraulic structure engineering project. In that project, I encountered a problem similar to yours now."

"In some special construction environments and structural environments, some materials often face the problem of brittle materials transforming into plastic under high pressure conditions. Brittle materials such as concrete, rock, cast iron, and metal plastic materials will have this destructive effect, which will The service life of materials is drastically shortened, which has a great impact on engineering projects."

"At that time, several other professors and I were thinking about how to improve the resistance of materials. We wanted to solve this problem from the field of materials like you, but we couldn't find a way after discussing and researching for a long time."

“In one of the meetings, a doctoral student who was working on the project came up with a new idea.”

"He said, since it can't be solved from the perspective of materials, why not find a breakthrough from the theory of engineering strength?"

"This sentence woke me up. Indeed, our exploration and research on strength theory has a history of nearly three hundred years. Currently, various phenomenological strength theories describe the phenomena and laws of material destruction, but very few We have to consider it from the needs and theory of engineering strength itself, and I think you should be very clear about the reason."

Hearing this, Xu Chuan nodded and replied: "Because the engineering strength is generally predetermined in theory."

"Just like a dam in a reservoir, what standards of strength, resistance, toughness, etc. it needs to meet to support the water pressure and impact of the reservoir, so it is basically impossible to modify the engineering strength."

After a pause, he looked at his mentor Chen Zhengping curiously and asked, "Have you modified the engineering strength?"

Chen Zhengping smiled and shook his head and said: "No, not really. Engineering strength cannot be modified. The solution we proposed based on this idea is to design a set of theoretical models for engineering strength loss ratio and damage ratio strength. , the project plan was re-planned through models, and the problem was finally solved using existing materials.”

"Perhaps you can try to study the structure of miniaturized controllable nuclear fusion?"

"I remember that when you were studying the Dawn Fusion Device, you drastically changed the structure of the tokamak device. Maybe you can try it on the stellarator?"

Xu Chuan clasped his hands together, nodded thoughtfully, and said: "Whether it is feasible or not needs to be studied to know. On the road to miniaturized and controllable nuclear fusion, there is currently no direction to guide, and there is no one in the world. Countries and research institutions or scholars can say that their theories are correct."

"Including the stellarator I chose, this path may not be the right one. But for now, the stellarator has the greatest advantage in miniaturization."

"As for modifying its structure, I need to do some research to know this."

Chen Zhengping picked up the tea cup and took a sip of hot tea, and said softly: "This is just a suggestion. You are far more familiar with the field of controllable nuclear fusion than I am. My opinion can only be that you can selectively refer to it. Is it feasible? It depends on you."

Xu Chuan smiled, stretched out on the sofa, and then continued: "Anyway, there is no hope for breakthroughs in improved superconductors. Trying to adjust the structure of the stellarator may be a feasible way. Woolen cloth?"

When one road is temporarily unavailable, it is also feasible to try another road.

After chatting with Chen Zhengping in the office for a while, Xu Chuan stood up to say goodbye and returned to his office, where he began to search for information related to the stellarator.

If there is no way to improve the improved superconducting material, modifying the external field coil or structure of the stellarator may indeed be a feasible way.

While downloading a large amount of paper information, Xu Chuan was also thinking about the solution to the project that Chen Zhengping told him.

This matter is indeed somewhat similar to the problem he encountered, but it is still somewhat different in nature.

The problem he encountered was that the material was strong enough, but there were production problems, and he needed to solve the production problems rather than modify the engineering plan.

However, this idea turns engineering materials problems into theoretical problems.

The pen in his hand was turning unconsciously, and Xu Chuan was thinking about the feasibility of transforming the engineering problems of improved superconducting materials into theoretical problems.

The possibility of optimizing improved superconductors in a short time is very low, and adding an optimized production line will take at least half a year.

If he wants to solve this problem as soon as possible, he may have to start from theory.

But maybe the starting point he chose was wrong?

In his mind, the inspiration flashed away, and the vague track seemed to remind him.

But, what should we do if we don’t start from the material itself?

Thinking about it, Xu Chuan rubbed his temples with a headache.

For some reason, he always had a feeling that his current knowledge might not be enough.

But to be honest, if his knowledge in the fields of superconducting materials and controllable nuclear fusion is not enough, there is probably no one in the world who can surpass him.

Shaking his head, Xu Chuan leaned on the back of the office chair, reached for the thermos cup, stood up and walked out of his small room to refill some water under the water dispenser.

His office is very large and is divided into several parts. There is a place for him to work, a place for students to study, a place for assistants to work, and a place to store materials and other things.

Taking this time, he glanced at his office. Several students had gone out to attend classes or do other things. In the office, only an assistant, Lu Ling, was busy with her work.

Seeing him coming out to fetch water, Lu Ling smiled and shouted: "Professor, you just need to shout for refilling the water."

Xu Chuan smiled and said, "It's not like I can't walk, it's just a matter of two steps."

Shaking his head, he picked up the teacup and was about to go back when he caught sight of something out of the corner of his eye.

Looking at the square and familiar thing, Xu Chuan walked over, picked it up and took a look at it, then asked Lu Ling with a smile: "Are you still playing Rubik's Cube?"

When he was in high school, some classmates played with this thing, and he also borrowed it to play, but this thing was too simple for him, and he soon lost interest.

When he saw the Rubik's Cube on Lu Ling's desk, he felt a little nostalgic for his days in high school, and he didn't know what happened to the classmates who participated in the competition together.

Lu Ling raised her head and glanced at the Rubik's Cube in Xu Chuan's hand, smiled sheepishly, and said, "You can play with it when you have nothing to do, but I'm a bit stupid and I can't even twist the puzzle piece back together."

Hearing this, Xu Chuan couldn't help but smile.

It’s too bad that you can’t unscrew it despite the puzzle tutorial, isn’t it?

Holding the Rubik's Cube in one hand, he fiddled with it a few times, and the third-order Rubik's Cube in his hand returned to its original state.

He smiled and handed the restored Rubik's Cube back and put it on the table. Just when he was about to leave, he suddenly froze for a moment.

His eyes fell back on the square Rubik's Cube. A sudden inspiration flashed through his mind, and his eyes suddenly brightened.

"Rubik's cube? Puzzle?"

Maybe he knows what to do!