Chapter 153 Heading to LHC

By the next day, Xu Chuan finally received Witten's reply.

"A very beautiful proof method and paper, and the mathematical problems in the proof process are quite essential."

"If you haven't decided which journal to submit this paper to, then I recommend Physical Review to you. Its Series D is very suitable for this paper, and it is a half-monthly journal with a faster review speed. If you want to I’d like to see your paper published in the journal as soon as possible.”

"In addition, I have applied for the LHC proton accelerator for you to solve this problem. The time is on the 25th of this month. Remember to prepare your visa and passport."

The reply email was very simple, only three sentences in total, but it made Xu Chuan instantly excited.

The old professor's three sentences each praised the paper, one sentence recommended him for submission, and the third sentence informed him of the application for the use of the proton accelerator.

Of course, the last sentence that attracted his most attention was the application for the use of a proton accelerator.

This is the most critical thing.

As for the person to whom the old professor recommended him to submit his paper, it was the same as his choice.

"Physical Review" is an American academic journal founded in 1893.

The magazine publishes the latest research results and scientific reviews in all aspects of physics. It is published by the American Physical Society and is divided into ABCDE and other branches.

Area A is atomic, molecular and light physics, Area B is condensed matter physics, material physics, Area C is nuclear physics, Area D is particles, fields, gravity, cosmological physics, etc.

In addition, there are various aspects of physics such as statistical physics and nonlinear physics.

It can be said that "Physical Review" covers all branches of physics, regardless of the popular ones.

But its requirements for papers are not very high. As long as the article is creative enough and the argument is clear, it can be submitted for review or even published.

This is a good thing for academic research, but it also results in its low impact factor and the phenomenon that some papers are waterlogged.

However, the overall quality of its articles is still higher than that of other academic journals.

Because articles published in "Physical Reviews" are required to be sufficiently creative or to solve some of the more important physical problems.

Many major discoveries in physics have also been published in Physical Review, such as the quantum Hall effect, gravitational waves, etc.

Of course, in the past two years, Physical Review has also begun to limit the number of articles published in order to seek to increase the impact factor within a certain range.

But overall, this is quite suitable for the problem of the proton radius puzzle.

After submitting the paper to Physical Review, all that was left was to wait.

Although "Physical Reviews" has many review editors, it still takes a lot of time to complete the review of a paper that can be said to be 'significant'.

This is not a problem of one journal, but a common reaction of all top journals when facing top papers.

They need a long time to ensure that the paper submitted to them has no problems and can be listed in the journal.

Just like the 'A paper on methods for accurately calculating parameter information of distant celestial bodies using the Xu-Weyl-Berry theorem' that Xu Chuan submitted to the "Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics", it has been two or three months now and it has not been officially published yet. Journal.

This shows how long it takes for a top SCI paper to be published in a journal.

The previous opportunity for a paper proving the weak Weyl-Berry conjecture to be published in a journal in just over a month is simply irreproducible.

There is nothing Xu Chuan can do about this. This is a rule in the academic world and a necessary process to ensure scientific accuracy.

Even if Einstein traveled through time and wrote a paper, I believe it would still need to be reviewed.

So after submitting the paper, Xu Chuan returned to his normal life at Princeton University.

On the one hand, I followed Professor Deligne to learn number theory and differential equations, and on the other hand, I listened to lectures from other professors.

As for his time for leisure and entertainment, it is far less than other Princeton students, or almost none.

He had never been to almost all the business cards and invitations from various clubs he had received before.

The second time I studied at Princeton after my rebirth was even more exciting than the first time before my rebirth.

Who told him to be a double cultivator in name this time?

Compared with domestic universities, Princeton's doctoral program has many more classes.

Although a doctorate is not learned, and you cannot get a doctorate by just "learning" existing knowledge, it is definitely not possible without learning.

Especially the two courses of mathematics and physics are different from other subjects.

If you want to achieve considerable achievements in the two fields of mathematics and physics, you have to follow the path taken by your predecessors step by step.

Start with the simplest set or category and work your way up to the problem that needs to be solved.

You need to use "definition theorem" to prove that a long logical chain can be formed between these, and many concepts need to be added to form a concept network.

To complete a result, such as proving a theorem, you need to master all the concepts in this network, otherwise you will not be able to understand what you write.

This is the minimum required knowledge, but often it spans several areas of mathematics.

No one is exempt, that's fair enough.

Geniuses may find shortcuts faster to skip some details, but the most primitive accumulation cannot be skipped anyway.

Days passed one by one, and time soon came to mid-July.

After confirming with Chen Zhengping that his experiment would start on the 18th, Xu Chuan asked Professor Deligne for leave again, and then bought a ticket to fly to Europe.

It is much easier to go to Europe from Princeton than to return to China.

Just a few hours is enough, and there is no need to adjust to the jet lag.

When he arrived in Switzerland, Xu Chuan called his mentor and found a hotel smoothly by taxi according to the geographical location.

Chen Zhengping lives in Geneva, and the hotel he chose is a five-star international hotel. Anyway, accommodation and other things can be reimbursed, so there is no need to save too much.

By the way, his trip to Europe this time, whether it is air tickets or accommodation, is also reimbursed with Chen Zhengping.

Of course, he can also choose to reimburse Princeton. I believe that both Deligne and Witten are happy to apply for this business trip fund for him.

Arriving at the hotel smoothly, in the lobby, just as Xu Chuan was about to go to the front desk to check in, a young man who looked like a Chinese came over.

"Junior Brother Xu Chuan?"

The familiar Chinese made Xu Chuan look over curiously. The figure he saw made him feel a little familiar, but he couldn't remember who it was for a while.

After confirming that he had not found the wrong person, the young man grinned and said, "Hello, my name is Qi Xishao, and I studied physics with Professor Chen Zhengping in the early years."

"Hello, Senior Brother Qi." Xu Chuan hurriedly greeted him.

With this introduction, he quickly remembered who this person was.

Qi Xishao, a researcher in condensed matter physics and high-energy physics.

In 2015, the LHC's Large Hadron Collider bottom quark experiment discovered two new pentaquark particles, confirming the prediction for half a century: 'There are actually many types of pentaquark particles'.

In this discovery, Senior Brother Qi, who was still an intern at the time, was responsible for part of the data analysis work.

However, physics and mathematics are not quite the same.

Mathematicians can calculate until the end of time with just a piece of paper and a pen.

But in physics experiments, personal strength, especially this kind of large-scale scientific research experiment project involving cooperation from dozens of countries, one person's calculation is too insignificant for the entire project.

However, the results of this research also successfully allowed Brother Qi to become a formal researcher of the LHC collaboration of the European Organization for Nuclear Research.

Don't underestimate the title of a formal researcher. With Brother Qi's age of just over 30, he can be said to be one of the leading personnel among the young generation of high-energy physics in the domestic physics community.

Although science has no borders, the European Organization for Nuclear Research LHC collaboration basically does not recruit Chinese people as their researchers.

They don't even recruit interns, let alone formal ones.

Those who are qualified to do experiments at the European Organization for Nuclear Research are basically academicians in China, and are also well-known top physics experts.

Brother Qi's ability is still very impressive to be able to become a formal researcher of the LHC collaboration at the age of just over 30.

"Junior brother, this is your first time here, right?"

Downstairs in the hotel, after checking in, Qi Xishao smiled and took Xu Chuan upstairs.

Xu Chuan nodded. If it was only in this life, it was indeed his first time here.

Geneva is known as the "City of Peace".

In history, John Calvin and other Protestants who were persecuted in their own countries were sheltered here. Rousseau, Voltaire, Byron and others began to fight for human rights in Geneva; and Lenin, the great proletarian revolutionary mentor, also worked hard for the realization of his ideals in the "City of Peace".

Today, this city is home to more than 200 specialized agencies of the United Nations and various international organizations.

Such as the International Labor Organization, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the International Red Cross Headquarters, the World Health Organization, the Women's League for Peace and Freedom, the International Telecommunication Union, the World Intellectual Property Organization, the International Meteorological Organization, the International Organization for Standardization... and so on.

It can be said to be quite legendary.

Of course, this is also related to Switzerland, a country of permanent neutrality.

It is a pity that in the future, this country of permanent neutrality will eventually break its reputation of permanent neutrality.

Hearing this, Qi Xishao smiled and said, "Then you should take a good walk when you have time. There are many famous classics here, especially the St. Pierre Cathedral in the old city. You can go there to pray when you have time."

"Pray? Brother Qi, are you religious?" Xu Chuan asked curiously.

"No, I am non-denominational." Qi Xishao shrugged.

Hearing this, Xu Chuan immediately understood.

This is probably the characteristic of Chinese people. They have to bow to everyone they meet.

The two chatted all the way and took the elevator, and soon arrived at the seventh floor.

Their mentor Chen Zhengping and some other physics experts and professors from China basically live on this floor.

Knocked on the door, and soon there was movement from inside.

"Teacher, I brought the person here."

"Teacher."

Xu Chuan and Qi Xishao greeted at the same time, Chen Zhengping smiled and let the person into the room.

"Sit down, come in and have some tea."

Chen Zhengping smiled and boiled a pot of water and made two cups of hot tea: "You two should have known each other just now, right? I don't need to introduce more."

"This is my former student, Qi Xishao, who is now a formal researcher of the LHC collaboration."

"Xu Chuan, my current student, is currently studying in Princeton."

Without further introduction, Chen Zhengping still introduced the two to each other with a smile.

After the greetings, Chen Zhengping looked at Xu Chuan and asked, "Do you want to apply for an internship in the ATLAS Chinese research group this time? Or do you want to follow Witten?"

Xu Chuan thought for a while and said, "Sorry, teacher, I'm afraid I won't join our country's research group. On the 25th of this month, Professor Witten applied for a proton accelerator for me to study the mystery of the proton radius."

Chen Zhengping smiled and said, "It doesn't matter, it doesn't matter. Others can't even ask for such an opportunity. But then again, how confident are you that you can solve this problem this time?"

Xu Chuan: "It's probably impossible to solve the mystery of the proton radius for the time being, unless I can calculate the proton radius from the first principles without any experimental data."

"But obviously this is not something I can do. What I can do this time is to use the proton accelerator to verify the data used in my paper many times."

Aside, Qi Xishao suddenly smiled and said, "Junior brother Xu, you did a big thing this time."

Hearing this, Xu Chuan looked over in confusion.

Qi Xishao smiled and said, "Whether the proton radius is 0.87 femtometers or 0.84 femtometers is a controversial issue in the physics community. Your paper can at least bring hundreds of millions of dollars in new research funds for particle physics."

"But~"

After a pause, Senior Brother Qi smiled narrowly and continued, "But I'm afraid there will be a lot of stubborn old guys who will trouble you. They firmly believe that a large proton radius is the truth. Be prepared. When your experiment is completed, you will probably have a lot of trouble."

"At least, that old man Rich Frick will not let you go."

Xu Chuan's mouth twitched. What does this have to do with him?

He has no say on the proton radius. The actual measured value is the value.

He just "slightly" pushed the real value forward.