Great Country Academician

Chapter 750: Unification of the Strong Nuclear Force and Electroweak Theory (2)

Hearing Witten's curious inquiry, Xu Chuan smiled and said lightly: "If I say that CRHPC will take the lead in improving the data on sterile neutrinos, do you believe it?"

Even if CERN completes the upgrade of the LHC first, he is not very worried that the discoveries of sterile neutrinos and warm dark matter will be taken away.

Even he had traded calculation methods for physical particles in the high-energy field through China's entry into CERN as a member state.

He is not worried that this result will be obtained by CERN first.

After all, the observation of dark matter requires not only a collider with sufficient performance, but also a tiny charge dark matter model, an effect field theory dark matter model, etc.

These things were made bit by bit by him based on the LH-LHC collision data in his previous life. If CERN wants to take this path, it will need a large number of Higgs cases to accurately measure the relevant data, and then further conduct it. analyze.

This step originally took him more than a year. Even if CERN researchers and engineers could work together to complete this work, it would still take at least half a year for them to complete the relevant theoretical models in a targeted manner.

On the phone, after hearing Xu Chuan's confident answer, Witten smiled and said, "It seems that you know more about sterile neutrinos and dark matter than you thought."

Xu Chuan said with a smile: "Some theoretical speculations still need to be verified after the construction of the CRHPC circular collider is completed."

Witten nodded and didn't ask any more questions.

Although he is also curious about what achievements this student has made in theoretical speculation about dark matter, the detection of sterile neutrinos and dark matter is currently the core of the competition between China's CPHPC and Europe's CERN, so it is better not to embarrass Xu Chuan. .

Since both parties have already launched exploration and research in this field, especially with his student among them, it is estimated that in a few years at most, the results of dark matter detection will be available.

Waiting for several years is not a big deal for scholars like them.

After chatting for a while, Witten subconsciously asked: "Are you still studying the Riemann Hypothesis?"

The proof paper of the Weak Riemann Hypothesis has been published in the "Annals of Mathematics". If anyone has the most hope of taking off the crown of analytic number theory from the Mount Everest of mathematics, it is probably Xu Chuan.

But since the Riemann Hypothesis came out in the second half of last year, almost half a year has passed. During this time, Xu Chuan went to the field of chemistry and wrote a quantum theory paper on electrochemical microscopic reactions.

It is hard not to wonder whether his energy and attention are still on the Riemann Hypothesis.

Xu Chuan shook his head and said, "No."

In fact, since the proof of the weak Riemann hypothesis was completed, or the Yang-Mills existence and mass gap problems were completed, his energy has not been focused on mathematics.

After all, his purpose in studying mathematics is to help him break the upper limit of physics.

Today's mathematical ability is enough for him, and his research on mathematics has slowed down a lot.

"Then what are you studying now? Chemistry?" Witten asked curiously.

Xu Chuan glanced at the manuscript paper on the table and said subconsciously: "The mathematical unity of strong and weak electric theory."

Upon hearing this goal, Witten was stunned for a moment on the other side of the phone, and his breathing became a little heavier.

"Are you studying the unification of strong electricity? Have you made any progress?" After coming back to his senses, Witten couldn't help but swallowed the air and asked quickly with a burning sensation in his throat.

Xu Chuan thought for a while and said: "Yes, there is indeed a point, but I don't know how many points there are ahead."

Taking a deep breath, Witten couldn't help but ask with a little trembling: "Can you tell me something?"

Since the Yang-Mills existence and mass gap problems were solved, he and Pierre Deligne jointly launched research on the unified theory of strong electricity.

He is responsible for physics + part of mathematics, and Deligne is responsible for part of mathematics calculations.

But so far neither of them has been able to complete the job.

From a competitor's perspective, he shouldn't ask this question.

But as a physicist, the unified theory of strong electricity has a fatal temptation for him.

The answer may be right in front of you, and I’m afraid no physicist can resist being tempted.

Xu Chuan didn't pay attention, nodded, and said: "Professor Higgs sent me a manuscript a few days ago, which contains some ideas on the unification of the strong nuclear force and the electroweak theory, integrating my previous ideas on the strong electric force Unified thinking, I am currently integrating it. ”

"It may help me expand some distance on the unification of the strong nuclear force and the electroweak theory."

After a slight pause, he looked at the manuscript paper on the desk, reached out and turned it to the first page, and continued.

"In the standard model, although the strong force is theoretically unified with the other two forces, it is not actually unified like the weak electric force. It is just pieced together."

"Because we can't find the spontaneous symmetry breaking energy level for hadrons, nor can we find a coupling constant that allows the particles corresponding to these fields to interact and unify under a mathematical system."

"For the strong nuclear force, how to invalidate the quark confinement effect between atomic nuclei is the key to unifying the strong nuclear force and electroweak theory. This is also the calculation of the spontaneous symmetry breaking energy level."

"."

In the study, Xu Chuan explained his thoughts about unified strong electricity in an orderly manner.

For Edward Witten, he was not worried about his ideas being copied.

Not only because Witten is his mentor, but also because such theoretical things, even if they are stolen, still need to face questions from scholars around the world.

If you cannot explain the problems in a logical and self-consistent manner, you will inevitably encounter doubts from others.

"What you mean is that in a universe composed of bright matter, the mass created by the symmetry breaking of the Higgs mechanism may account for more than 80% of the total mass. The remaining 20% ​​of the mass is composed of quark chiral symmetry Caused by breakage?”

On the phone, Witten asked with a frown.

This idea can be said to be almost contrary to the current mainstream view in the physics community.

What is the origin of mass? This question is a difficult problem that physicists have been thinking about since the emergence of physics.

If you want to explain this problem, you need to simply understand the three major theories of the Higgs mechanism, strong interaction and quantum chromodynamics.

According to current observations, matter in the universe can be divided into two categories: ordinary matter and dark matter.

Let’s not mention dark matter for the moment. At present, humans have almost no observations of it.

What is the main source of the mass of ordinary matter is a direction that physicists have been exploring.

In the current world of physics, the mainstream theory of the origin of mass is produced by the Higgs mechanism and the strong interaction.

As we all know, the mass of visible matter in the universe is mainly concentrated in its nuclei. Nucleons include protons and neutrons. The atomic nucleus is composed of protons and neutrons. Protons have a positive charge and neutrons have no charge.

According to the quark model, protons are made of two u quarks and one d quark, while neutrons are made of one u quark (up quark) and two d quarks (down quark).

After the collider was built, physicists analyzed experimental phenomena and found that the masses of u quarks and d quarks were 3 MeV and 5 MeV respectively.

This is contrary to the standard model that requires fermions to have no mass.

In order to explain the discrepancy between theory and experiment, Professor Higgs proposed the famous Higgs mechanism and introduced the Higgs particle, the 'God particle'.

In theory, the interaction of the Higgs particle with the fermions gives the fermions extra mass.

In 2012, the Higgs particle was discovered at the particle collider, which proved the correctness of the Higgs mechanism.

But calculations based on experimental data show that the interaction between the Higgs particle and fermions gives the fermions extra mass, which accounts for only five percent of the protons.

The remaining 95% comes from the interaction and respective motion of quarks and gluons.

In other words, energy and mass can be converted into each other. This is the basic idea of ​​the special theory of relativity proposed by Einstein in 1905.

This is quantum chromodynamics and the strong interaction.

Knowing these three points, it is clear that 5% of the mass comes from the Higgs mechanism, and the remaining 95% comes from the strong interaction.

(Simple explanation, the real source of quality is more complicated than this.)

However, judging from Xu Chuan's explanations and speculations on the phone, the source of quality is not completely opposite to this theory, but it is not far away.

He actually believed that the mass created by the symmetry breaking of the Higgs mechanism may account for more than 80% of the total mass. The remaining 20% ​​of the mass comes from strong interactions.

Xu Chuan shook his head and said: "No, it is not a big problem to use the current mainstream mechanism for observable mass sources."

"But to fully explain the origin of mass, another concept needs to be introduced."

Witten: "What concept?"

Xu Chuan smiled and said lightly: "Void!"

"Void?" Witten frowned and asked in surprise.

"Yes, void."

Xu Chuan nodded and continued: "Mass originates from the void, and the Higgs field also originates from the void. When the void is broken, through symmetry evolution, part of it breaks into the Higgs field, and the other part breaks into the Higgs field." Lack of another unknown field.”

"I personally tend to believe that the field disruption at this location will form the dark matter and dark energy that we are currently familiar with. Of course, this is speculation and will not be mentioned for the time being."

"As for the origin of mass, in my speculation, the Higgs field formed by void breaking will give mass to the particles that interact with it when it undergoes spontaneous symmetry breaking."

“Some of these particles will couple with the Higgs field and feel the resistance or drag generated by the Higgs field, thereby gaining mass, while some particles will not couple with the Higgs field and remain massless.”

"This is the current mainstream view, but we still don't have any reasonable explanation for the energy source of the strong interaction."

"So here I introduce the concept of void field. When the strong quarks and gluons form protons and neutrons, their gluons will break the void field when they interact and obtain energy from the void field. , or simply produce new gluons, and then continue to maintain and generate strong interactions.”

"And this part of the energy source will not be included in our regular mass calculations, because the essence of the void field is zero."

"But theoretically, this part of the energy cannot be ignored."

(I just made it up, everyone has fun watching it (ov)ノ)

Listening to Xu Chuan's explanation, Witten frowned and continued to ask: "You mean, the excited states of baryons and mesons come from the breaking effect of gluons and the void field?"

Xu Chuan nodded and said: "Theoretically, this is the case."

Witten: "But how do you verify it?"

Xu Chuan smiled confidently and said: "After the construction of the CRHPC collider is completed, and after the exploration of sterile neutrinos and dark matter is completed, special detection tools will be launched."

"At that time, I will verify the quark confinement effect in protons and the chiral symmetry breaking of front and back quarks through higher-power single proton collision work."

"If my theory is correct, then in high-energy-level collisions, we should be able to observe the energy response caused by the disruption effect of the gluons produced during the quark pairing process and the void field."

"Being able to observe this is enough to verify my theory."

Witten breathed a long sigh of relief and said, "I will definitely pass by then."

After saying this, he suddenly froze for a moment, as if he remembered something.

The pair of dark green pupils under the black-framed glasses suddenly shrank. Witten's eyes were focused, and he quickly said after reacting: "This is not the unified theory of strong electricity!"

Xu Chuan smiled and said: "Yes, it is not a unified theory of strong electricity. The unified theory of strong electricity is only a part of it and is included in the void field theory."

"However, I think I still have a long way to go to perfect the void field theory. For now, completing the mathematical unification of the strong nuclear force and the electroweak theory is what I am doing."

"This is also a very difficult thing. At present, I have just started to have some ideas about this work."

"Thanks to the manuscript left to me by Professor Higgs, I was able to tentatively solve this problem from the perspective of the Higgs mechanism and quark free asymptotics, but how to find the coupling constant and the spontaneous breaking energy of the strong force? level, it’s still hard to do.”

Hearing this, Witten was in a daze and was silent on the phone for a long time. He didn't react until Xu Chuan asked.

"Mentor? Are you still there?"

Hearing Xu Chuan's voice, Witten suddenly shuddered, came to his senses, took a deep breath and said: "As for the unified theory of strong electricity, in fact, three years ago you solved the problem of the existence and quality of Yang-Mills Professor Deligne and I have already begun to delve into this issue."

"Before making this call to you today, although we have not solved it, we have found some solutions to this problem. I will send these things to you via email. At least when completing the unification of strong electricity, it should It will be of some help to you”

Before Wei Teng finished speaking, Xu Chuan hurriedly said: "Wait a minute, mentor, this is your research result, I can't have it!"

Listening to what Professor Witten meant, it was obvious that the idea and theory of the unification of strong electricity was completely different from what he had explained before. Witten wanted to give him the research of the two of them, completely, to help him complete the remaining tasks. next job.

Witten smiled and said: "There is no need to refuse in a hurry. I believe Deligne will definitely agree with my idea."

"Besides, I also have requirements."

After a slight pause, he continued: "I hope you can complete the void field theory within ten years, and..."

"Confirm it!"

Smiling, Witten added over the phone: "In ten years, I think I can still wait. If it is further away, I probably won't be able to see it."

"So I hope to be able to see it happen while I'm still alive."

"I admit that it will be difficult to complete this job in ten years, and it will put a lot of pressure on you. But if you can, please let me be selfish, I hope to be able to see it happen before I leave this world. "

PS: The unified theory of strong and weak electricity involves a very important new technology, plus some inheritance plots between the older generation and the new generation, so there are a little more scenes, but the next chapter should be completed.