Voyage of the Stars

Back then, humans once built a space multi-point particle collider. This space multi-point particle collider is still in use by humans, and has greatly promoted the development of basic science in the past.

A particle collider of this size was already considered a huge project in space at that time, but for the new generation of particle collider that humans are going to build now, the difference is more than a tiny bit different.

Its overall shape is that of a large ring, with a circumference of approximately 12,000 kilometers. It is a large ring slightly larger than the moon. The reason why it was built so big at that time was mainly because the maximum energy level it could reach was too small to meet human needs for scientific research.

The situation is the same today. The space multi-point particle collider can no longer meet the needs of basic human scientific research. The energy levels it can reach are ultimately limited, and it cannot reach the environment where the symmetry of the strong interaction force is not broken in theory.

The so-called grand unified theory is to truly unify the strong interaction force into the electroweak force, making these three forces into one force. As for gravity, in today's human theory, if gravity is also unified, it is no longer called a grand unified theory, but is called a theory of everything or a theory of everything.

Facts have proved that mankind's theoretical line is generally correct. Although a power like the Theory of Everything and the Theory of Everything is still just a concept, at least we have a concept, right?

When we first met the Awakener, the Awakener did not tell humans about the Grand Unified Theory and the Theory of Everything. Perhaps it was also because humans did not mention it at the beginning, so human civilization did not know about the technology it proposed. Is the concept of development correct?

Fortunately, not long ago, mankind encountered another 'drift bottle' from an older civilization, which was the bottle left in the Milky Way by the pioneer of quantum macrotunneling technology before the Great Voyage.

The drift bottle knows everything.

It not only tells mankind the technology tree that is the symbol of the sixth-level civilization, but also mentions the fifth-level civilization and the fourth-level civilization. Needless to say, the fourth-level civilization is the grand unified theory that humans are currently trying to master.

This is the theoretical basis of the fourth-level civilization. Only by mastering the grand unified theory can it be possible to master a series of related application technologies of the fourth-level civilization. Therefore, the grand unified theory is also the symbolic theory of the fourth-level civilization.

As for the fifth-level civilization, there is also a set of symbolic theories, that is, the theory of everything, also called the theory of everything, a descriptive theory that relates all four basic forces to each other. The Theory of Everything is as fundamental to the fifth-level civilization as the Grand Unified Theory is to the fourth-level civilization.

The basic theory of all technologies and derivative technologies mastered by level five civilizations is the theory of universality.

Of course, humans only know so much, and the specific derivative technology is unknown. But this is not bad. At least human civilization knows how to go in the future and in which direction it should work hard.

Just like the current Millennium Project, everyone knows that it is built to study the Grand Unified Theory, but if you don't know that the Grand Unified Theory is the symbolic theory of the fourth-level civilization, it is estimated that there will definitely be a lot of resistance to the construction of this thing.

Because uncertainty is amplified.

If the Grand Unified Theory is the hallmark theory of a fifth-level civilization, then it is impossible for humans to master it at the third-level civilization stage. It is futile to spend all the effort to build such a particle collider. This is the reason.

This is like the difference between 'crossing the river by feeling for the eagle sauce' and 'crossing the river by feeling for the stones'.

Having said that, in the construction of the new particle collider, mankind has already put all its efforts into the construction of the new particle collider, investing the maximum power of the entire civilization into it, and also organized the Red Flame Civilization with a population of more than 100 billion.

With the passage of time, the collider acceleration modules that were originally floating in a predetermined space position one by one were gradually spliced ​​together under the construction of the construction spacecraft.

Looking around, the starry sky is brightly lit.

There are countless engineering spacecrafts going back and forth in space every moment, densely packed, all engineering spacecrafts, like swarms of bees circling a column, flying around the gradually formed corridor.

Transportation, splicing, and verification. Each time a batch of engineering spacecraft completes a set of processes, this new generation particle collider will be 10 kilometers long. The straightforward laser measurement makes the whole particle collider look like it is coated with a layer of technological glory.

This particle collider is so long that even if humans use the most advanced laser calibrator, they cannot irradiate it from the beginning to the end. They can only install laser calibrators at the beginning and end of each acceleration module, and then use They correct each other with their respective adjacent laser collimators to ensure the straightness of the collider.

The effects of force are mutual. This is especially true in space without gravity. Even if a force is applied in a certain direction due to fine-tuning, it will deviate greatly over a long period of time. This makes straightness adjustment a technical problem.

What is the average distance from the sun to the earth? The answer is one astronomical unit.

That is such a long distance. Even in space, with humanity's current technology, it is particularly difficult to ensure that the acceleration module of a particle collider with a length of astronomical units remains straight. Engineers estimate that this new generation particle collider will have an accumulated error of 1 to 2 kilometers every 15 million kilometers or so.

Errors are inevitable. In order to eliminate the impact of this error, humans can only find ways to work on the magnetic field of the accelerator. Engineers added parameters for changing the intensity of the accelerating magnetic field at each node where the error accumulation reaches almost 100 meters, correcting the flight trajectory of the particle beam at once.

It's not difficult, because it's the technology of a circular particle accelerator.

The inevitable errors have greatly increased the difficulty of building a new generation of particle collider, but this does not weaken human determination.

Engineers estimate that after this new generation particle collider is built, its straightness calibration will take at least several years before the experiment can officially begin.

This is not only a problem of instrument accuracy and operating technology, but also a communication delay problem that cannot be avoided no matter how bad it is. This particle collider is too long, with a length of 6,674 astronomical units. If placed in the solar system, it would be 223 times the average distance from the sun to Neptune.

It is so long that even eight planetary orbits cannot fit it.

Only civilizations that have the ability to fly out of their own star system can build it. Otherwise, the gravity of the star alone is enough to distort and destroy such a collider.