I Just Want to Be a Quiet Top Student

The Michelson interferometer uses the sub-amplitude method to generate two beams to achieve interference, which has a certain status in modern physics.

Shen Qi is doing this experiment, which is one of several fundamental physics experiments.

Move the beam expander out of the Michelson optical path, adjust the helium-neon laser bracket, cooperate with the light target to make the beam parallel to the table of the instrument, and control the distance from the incident and exit points of each optical mirror to the table to about 70mm...Shen Qi is strict According to the experimental operation process, this optical basic experiment of modern physics is not difficult, but it tests patience and care.

After recording the original data, Shen Qi quickly calculated the laser wavelength and air refractive index, and handed over the recording paper manuscript to an experimental teaching assistant in the Institute of Physics and Technology.

The young experimental teaching assistant checked Shen Qi's recording paper and nodded: "OK, there is no problem."

"Brother, you are also responsible for the comprehensive design experiment?" Shen Qi asked.

"That's right, Teacher Ren has already explained it." The experimental teaching assistant seemed to respect Professor Ren very much. He is a graduate student with excellent character and academics in the School of Physics.

"What about researching innovative experiments?" Shen Qi asked again.

The experimental teaching assistant smiled and said, "I'm still in charge. All in all, you can find me for undergraduate experiments."

"Thank you, brother. By the way, what's your name?" Shen Qixin said that Mr. Ren is quite energetic, and he settled my physics experiment arrangement in minutes.

"My name is Qin Hao, and I'm in the second year of graduate school." The experimental teaching assistant said, and then asked humbly, "Shen Qi, let me ask you something. How does the Princeton interview work?"

"It's very simple, just talk to the foreigner interviewer. The interview time is usually about 1 hour, with 45 minutes to speak English and 15 minutes to speak Chinese."

"These foreigners are very good now, and they can speak Chinese very fluently." Shen Qi said, imparting experience.

"Just blowing water? The interviewer doesn't investigate academic questions?" Qin Hao asked again.

"Brother Hao, I don't know how other people interview. I can only talk about my own interview experience."

"The American interviewer praised me at the beginning, saying that my paper data was excellent, and then asked me, Hey, Shen, do you have any wonderful and special experiences?"

"I didn't have any wonderful and special experiences, so I just recalled my past, from high school to my sophomore year, and then a few days later, I received an offer from Princeton."

Shen Qi patiently told Qin Hao as many details as possible about the interview, and to help each other, Qin Hao had to coordinate the next two physics experiments: "So, Brother Hao also wants to go to Princeton?"

"I have this idea and want to go to the Ivy League to study for a doctorate."

"But Princeton is too difficult to apply for. Maybe my goal should be Penn or Cornell."

Qin Hao said enviously: "Shen Qi is awesome, you got an offer from Princeton in your sophomore year, an offer from Princeton's Department of Mathematics."

Shen Qi said: "The interview procedures of Ivy League schools are probably similar, mainly to examine the applicant's oral expression ability."

"When communicating with the interviewer, you should avoid incoherent speech, incoherent words, and confusing logic. The topic of the exchange is not the point, but the confidence and calmness in the exchange. Personal opinion is for reference only." At this time, Shen Qi was more like Is an experienced brother.

"Thank you for sharing!" Qin Hao said gratefully. He knew the written process of applying to a prestigious Ivy League school, and he didn't know the truth of the information on the Internet about things like interviews.

The most reliable channel for consultation is of course Shen Qi, who just participated in the Princeton interview and passed it successfully.

Under the arrangement of Professor Ren and the specific coordination of Qin Hao, Shen Qi participated in the comprehensive design experiment of the Academy of Sciences the next day.

It was also an optical experiment, Shen Qi gave the experiment a nice name "Telepathy between Photons", and made a list of the required experimental instruments.

Different from the basic experiment with the patterned fixed program operation, the comprehensive design experiment requires the experimenter to design the plan by himself.

The experimental equipment Shen Qi applied for is very simple, one light source emitter, two detectors, several ordinary lenses, and one half mirror.

Under Qin Hao's supervision, Shen Qi started the experiment of "telepathy between photons".

Shen Qi carefully adjusted the light source emitter, continuously reducing the power of the incident light until it finally emitted an extremely weak light, and let it pass through the half mirror.

A half mirror is a special mirror that allows half of the light to pass through and the other half to be reflected.

The incident light is divided into two sections by the semi-mirror, and then the ordinary lens is used to change their travel routes respectively, and finally reaches the photon detector.

At this stage of the experiment, we have actually entered the field of quantum mechanics. The problem to be solved is, what is light?

Newton believed that the essence of light is a tiny particle invisible to the human eye, while Huygens at the same time believed that the essence of light is a kind of wave.

The two bigwigs and their followers have quarreled for more than a hundred years and still have no winner.

Conclusive evidence that light is a wave was not obtained until Thomas Young performed the famous double-slit experiment.

However, the debate continued. Not long after, Einstein stood up. He stood up to Newton, advocating that light has particle properties, and the theory of light quantum was born, and a new era of physics opened.

Now everyone knows that light has wave-particle duality.

Volatility and particle are two extremely opposite characteristics, just like the front and back of a coin, we can only see one side of it forever, but cannot deny the existence of the other side.

When the volatility and particle nature of photons appear is like flipping a coin, 50/50, completely random. The term in physics is called quantum correlation, which is the theoretical basis of quantum cryptography.

Quantum cryptography is higher-end than the Virginia cipher used to seduce girls. The elective course "Cryptography" in the Department of Mathematics only briefly describes a few sentences. Shen Qi's research is relatively shallow, which is a very applied field.

Shen Qi operated the experimental equipment to receive photons through two different detectors.

The photon received by the wave detector is wave-like, and the photon received by the particle detector is particle-like.

In fact, these photons come from the same weak light source. After being split by the half-mirror, the characteristics of the wave-particles depend on the properties of the detector.

Now that the experiment is done, Shen Qi can call it a day. He copied the contemporary physicist Wheeler's "delayed selection experiment" and thoroughly proved the wave-particle duality of light.

Be it Einstein or Bohr, the bigwigs in quantum physics at the beginning of the 20th century put forward directions and insights in theory, but due to the experimental conditions at that time, they could not be perfectly proved by experimental data. Even the most basic quantum physics experimental instruments in the 21st century existed like artifacts in Einstein's time.

Shen Qi prefers to think that photons have the property of twins. His experiment is not over yet, and he continues the experiment with twin photons.

Twin photons are two photons that vibrate in the same direction, as if the photon is exchanging instantaneous information with other photons at a distance through "telepathy".

"Brother Hao, my comprehensive design experiment is over. I can only do this step. The research on high-speed quantum computers is beyond my ability." Shen Qi turned off the experimental equipment, signed the recording paper, and handed it to Qin Hao.

"It's beyond my ability." Qin Hao took Shen Qi's experiment recording paper and signed it. After that, he will report it to the teachers of the Institute of Physics and write preliminary comments to Shen Qi as an experimental teaching assistant.

Shen Qi completed two physics experiments in two days, and there is one last research innovation experiment left, which requires some preparation time.