1900: A physics genius wandering around Europe

Chapter 477 Extremely Shocking! The Fourth Force! Protons and Neutrons Have Even Finer Structures!

The third Bruce Conference was a passionate collision of physics geniuses from three generations.

As the first person to host a scientific conference, Lorenz accurately grasped the core of the conference spirit.

That is to get more young people involved in the discussion.

Although he is a big name in physics, he dare not underestimate the young people of today.

Pauli, Uhlenbeck, Irene
In the future, these people will definitely become the backbone of physics and even authorities in their respective fields.

He suddenly looked at Li Qiwei on the stage again, feeling deeply moved.

Twenty years ago, this man was more arrogant and domineering than anyone else present.

However, talented people emerge in every generation, and each of them leads the trend for hundreds of years.

Professor Bruce, who once looked down upon the world and broke the authority, now has to accept the challenge from the younger generation.

At this moment, Lorenz, like everyone else, began to think about Chadwick's problem.

The study of atomic nuclei is currently the most cutting-edge field in atomic science.

What is known is that there are protons in the nucleus.

But whether neutrons exist remains a conjecture.

It’s just that Ridgway’s proton-neutron model can explain various phenomena very well.

He was particularly successful in explaining the arrangement rules of the periodic table.

This is also the reason why many bigwigs accept the proton-neutron model.

Because it is very useful and can solve and even predict real-world problems.

Based on this model, Li Qiwei was the first to consider the stability of the model.

Thus, we found the existence of power.

It can be said that the logic of the entire research is very perfect and interconnected.

This makes strong conjectures very easy to accept.

Because it does not come out of thin air, but is derived naturally.

But now, it has encountered a fatal logical problem.

That is, beta decay cannot be explained.

Since the discovery of beta rays, physicists have spent a long time studying them before finally determining their nature.

That is a flow of electrons moving at high speed.

Although Rutherford first proposed the concept of "decay", he was unable to give the mechanism of decay.

It was not until the proton-neutron model emerged that Ridgway theoretically explained the decay process.

In an atomic nucleus, protons and neutrons are tightly bound together.

For unknown reasons, some of the neutrons were converted into protons and electrons.

Then the protons remain in the nucleus, but the electrons are emitted, forming an electron flow.

This is the nature of beta decay.

But now, with the concept of power, problems arise.

The protons that the neutrons become are still firmly bound due to the strong force.

But why can electrons escape the strong force?

With the strength of the strong force, even if the mass of the electron is very small, the binding force on the electron will be very large.

It must also be fixed in the nucleus.

There is nothing wrong with this logic.

So, either brute force is wrong, or there is another mechanism that has not yet been discovered.

Chadwick is famous anyway.

He is one of the few people who can find Professor Bruce's mistakes.

When Thomson saw this, he happily said to Rutherford:

"It's right to give Cavendish to you."

“You have trained many outstanding students.”

Faced with the teacher's recognition, Rutherford felt as happy as if he had eaten honey.

He was deeply indebted to Thomson and devoted all his efforts to the construction of the laboratory.

And today, he finally saw hope that Chadwick and others could stand on their own.

Rutherford himself could not answer this question.

He is a genius in experiments, but he is a bit at a loss when it comes to theoretical analysis.

From the proton-neutron model to the current strong force, they are all in the same line.

If one of them goes wrong, the entire theoretical system may have problems.

So, this problem must be solved.

"Bruce, how would you answer that?"

Under the gaze of everyone, Li Qiwei did not answer immediately, but smiled and said:

"Pauli, Irena, you two are from the Quantum Research Institute."

“I would like to hear your answer to this question first.”

“Don’t be afraid of being wrong, speak up about anything that’s on your mind.”

Wow!
Both of them looked confused.

They had just been exchanging sharp words, but now they were united in their hatred of the enemy.

The change happened too fast and I couldn't react for a while.

Bohr smiled slightly.

"Professor Bruce is going to increase your intensity."

Although Irena hadn't figured out how to explain it just now.

But she couldn't back down now.

This was clearly a test from Professor Bruce.

Being able to show up in front of so many bigwigs is an opportunity that countless people dream of.

So she forced herself to think deeply.

Of course Li Qiwei did it on purpose. He just wanted to improve Irena's thinking ability.

In real history, Irena and Joliot missed several important discoveries because they only knew how to do experiments and were not good at thinking.

For the first time, the two of them produced a completely new type of radiation when they bombarded beryllium nuclei with alpha rays.

At the time, the couple thought it might be a new particle, and then there was no follow-up.

Chadwick accidentally saw the experiment and he repeated it.

Since he studied under Rutherford, he had a very good understanding of atomic nuclei.

He boldly guessed that this new particle was actually the neutron predicted in theory, and published a paper.

Thus, the discovery of the neutron, an extremely important achievement in atomic physics, was attributed to Chadwick.

Chadwick won the 1935 Nobel Prize in Physics for his discovery of the neutron.

The second time, when the couple bombarded aluminum atoms with alpha particles, a radioactive phosphorus atom was generated first.

A few minutes later, the phosphorus atom emitted another positron.

But the two of them didn't take the positron seriously and just turned off the machine and went to rest.

Anderson won the 1936 Nobel Prize in Physics for his discovery of the positron.

The third time, the couple bombarded uranium with neutrons and obtained a new radioactive element.

However, they mistakenly believed that it was a transuranium element and did not continue to study it in depth, thus missing out on nuclear fission.

Hahn was awarded the 1944 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his discovery of nuclear fission of uranium.

It can be seen that Irena and her husband are extremely unlucky.

If they hadn't missed these three opportunities.

The couple is likely to become the only four Nobel Prize winners in history.

And they are all Nobel Prizes in natural sciences.

It is a feat that has never been done before and will never be repeated.

Even the current Li Qiwei can't compare to him.

Irena and her husband's insensitivity to the experimental results led to their regret.

The reason they won the Nobel Prize was because they discovered artificial radioactive elements.

If this phenomenon had not been so obvious, the two would probably have missed this achievement.

I really wanted to die.

Later, someone joked that the Curie family must have had an ancestor who saved the world.

So God gave their family four consecutive Nobel Prizes.

Unfortunately, she only seized one chance. At this moment, under the pressure of Li Qiwei, Irena began to transform.

She tried to answer:
"I think that at the moment when the neutron undergoes beta decay, it will first leave the nucleus for a certain distance for some reason."

"Then the strong force has no effect on this neutron."

"When the decay is complete, the proton returns to the nucleus and the electron is emitted."

Wow!
Irena's answer shocked everyone.

This process is a bit too deliberate.

It's as if neutrons had thoughts.

How does it know when to leave the nucleus?

Many bigwigs shook their heads slightly, the credibility of this statement was too low.

Sure enough, Chadwick immediately asked:
"Ms. Irena, according to what you said, what is the state of the neutron at the moment it leaves the nucleus?"

"If it had been detached, it would have flown out like an electron."

"If it hasn't broken away, then it can't decay either."

"Could it be that it is right on the boundary between decay and non-decay?"

"So is it decaying or not decaying?"

Chadwick's rebuttal was very tricky.

Now Irena was really at a loss.

It was already very rare for her to be able to give her own opinions on such an occasion for the first time.

Li Qiwei looked at Irena lovingly, his eyes full of encouragement and relief.

Obviously, Irena's statement is questionable.

At this time, Pauli spoke.

He is very powerful and still acts arrogantly even in the face of so many big guys.

"I think to solve this problem, we need to first understand the detailed process of β decay."

"Although based on the proton-neutron model, we can write an equation for the decay."

"But how do neutrons become protons and electrons?"

"Is it like cell division?"

"Or is it that a piece fell off from a big ball and became two parts."

"Only by understanding this process can we study how the strong force acts on beta decay."

Pauli's answer made many people nod slightly.

The existing proton-neutron model can only explain the result of β decay, but cannot describe the process.

But this still couldn't convince Chadwick.

He then asked:

"Dr. Pauli, I think your answer is essentially the same as Miss Irena's."

"Whatever the details of beta decay are, it is always within the realm of the strong force."

"That doesn't change because of the neutron splitting."

"Since the strong force is a force like gravity and Coulomb force, it has no requirements on shape and state."

"It's like whether the Earth is liquid or solid, whether it's rotating or stationary."

"There is always gravity between it and the sun."

"Even if the earth is split into two small balls now, these two small balls will still satisfy the law of universal gravitation."

Chadwick seemed to have exploded today.

His rebuttal was well-reasoned and there was nothing wrong with it.

Even someone as strong as Pauli frowned slightly.

These geniuses from the previous session are indeed not ordinary people.

Obviously, both his answer and Chadwick's counterattack were very reasonable and neither could convince the other.

At this moment, everyone realized the thorny nature of this problem.

It's almost a question that tests your imagination.

At this moment, Chadwick turned his eyes to Li Qiwei.

He was eager to know what answer the world's top physicist would give.

Soon, everyone's attention returned to Li Qiwei again.

Li Qiwei smiled slightly and said:

"The strong force is based on the proton-neutron model."

"So it's a guess on top of a guess."

“That’s why neither Irena nor Pauli could explain it correctly.”

"I'm sorry, but even I'm not sure what the answer is."

"I can only offer my own guesses."

Wow!
Li Qiwei's answer was very unexpected.

He actually admitted that he didn't know the answer either.

However, no one belittled Professor Bruce because of this.

Are you kidding? They are discussing the most cutting-edge directions in physics today.

The concept of strength has only just been proposed today.

If only Professor Bruce could see the essence of the matter immediately.

Then it is not a human being, but a god.

Everyone probably really suspected that Professor Bruce was an alien.

At this moment, everyone was waiting for Professor Bruce's guess.

Maybe it will be the next indicator of the Nobel Prize.

However, Li Qiwei's guess shocked everyone.

"I think the mechanism of action of beta decay is independent of the strong force."

"In other words, there is a fourth force governing beta decay."

"So, it can break free from the constraints of the third force."

“But there is still a problem.”

"That is, if the fourth force is weaker than the strong force, then why can the electron still escape?"

"I think that to explain this problem, we may need to understand the nature of the strong force and the fourth force."

"I guess that protons and neutrons may not be elementary particles, but are made up of even smaller particles."

"Just like a magnet has magnetism because of the existence of electron spin in the atoms that make it up."

"The third force and the fourth force both act on these more fundamental particles."

"As long as the composition of protons and neutrons is different, then the mechanisms by which they experience forces will be different."

"In this way, these two forces can coexist in the nucleus without conflicting with each other, and each performs its own function."

"That's just my humble opinion."

boom!
quiet!
Deathly silence!

Everyone was so shocked that they were speechless and their eyes were frozen.

This is truly horrifying.

If Irena's answer is a bold idea.

So Li Qiwei's answer at this moment was so imaginative that it was out of this world.

At this moment, everyone deeply felt what it meant to be truly imaginative.

Compared with Professor Bruce, they seem like scholars from ancient Greece more than 2000 years ago.

Not in the same dimension at all!
"Oh my God! Is this the gold content of the Bruce Conference?"

"I thought the emergence of a third force would be shocking enough."

"I didn't expect that Professor Bruce would predict the existence of the fourth force."

"It's just like the Arabian Nights!"

"And protons and neutrons have even finer structures?"

"Oh my god, are these nesting dolls?"

"This answer is obviously outrageous, but I can't help but believe it."

"Is this Professor Bruce's strength?"

At this moment, the whole audience was shocked!

(End of this chapter)