1900: A physics genius wandering around Europe

Chapter 613: A small contribution to nuclear physics! Cyclotron! The most powerful instrument in history! Shocking debut!

Inside the Cavendish Laboratory.

Everyone sat casually, waiting for the speech to begin.

In the front row, Rutherford sat with several of his favorite student assistants, including Chadwick, Cockcroft, Blackett, Kapitsa and others.

Hahn sat quietly on the other side, concentrating intently, even taking out a pen and paper to take notes.

Li Qiwei walked to the stage, looked at everyone, smiled, and said slowly:

"Today I will not go into the details of the theory, but I want to talk about my understanding of the direction of nuclear physics."

Wow!
Everyone was excited.

Good understanding of the direction!

The thing that ordinary scholars fear most when doing research is going in the wrong direction, which leads to getting half the result with twice the effort and getting stuck in a dead end.

Professor Bruce’s understanding is definitely a guiding light on the road of scientific research!
"Nuclear physics, as the name suggests, is the physics that specializes in the study of atomic nuclei."

"As a new branch of physics, it has only been around for a short time."

"There is currently no strict definition of nuclear physics in the physics community."

"From the perspective of research content, I think the research scope of nuclear physics mainly includes three parts."

"First, study the structure and changing patterns of atomic nuclei."

"For example, various particle bombardment experiments, the discovery of protons, and the yet-to-be-discovered neutrons."

“Second, to study the generation, detection, and analysis of radiation.”

"For example, there are several types of radiation that are currently known: alpha rays, beta rays, gamma rays, and various other unknown rays."

“Therefore, radiochemistry should actually belong to nuclear physics, not chemistry.”

"That's why your Professor Rutherford always calls himself a physicist."

Everyone smiled knowingly.

"Third, research on nuclear energy and nuclear technology related to nuclear fusion and nuclear fission."

"For example, the particle accelerator invented by Dr. Cockcroft is a type of nuclear technology."

"And I think his particle accelerator has great potential!"

"Maybe he will be the first physicist to achieve artificial nuclear fission."

Wow!
Everyone was shocked when they heard this!

Many people immediately looked at Cockcroft, with undisguised envy in their eyes.

"With Professor Bruce's praise, Cockcroft is in a safe place."

"There has never been a mediocre person nominated by Professor Bruce."

Rutherford's eyes were also full of appreciation.

He knew that Cockcroft had been experimenting with various elements recently and was working very hard.

Fortunately, a new young man named Walton came to the laboratory. He shared similar interests with Cockcroft, and the two often did experiments together.

This is the bad thing about experimental physics. Any result needs to be tried one by one. There are no shortcuts.

There are currently 92 elements in the periodic table, and it will take us forever to try them all out.

Moreover, once the number of influencing factors increases, the number of experimental groups for each element will reach a terrifying level.

Therefore, a correct direction is very important for experimental physicists.

For example, after the neutron was discovered, Fermi was the first to use neutrons instead of traditional alpha rays in bombardment experiments, with very good results.

why?
Because neutrons have no charge, they can more easily come into contact with atomic nuclei and interact with them.

As a result, all physicists immediately abandoned rays and chose neutrons, which greatly accelerated the research progress of nuclear physics.

At this moment, given Li Qiwei's status and position, he said that he was extremely optimistic about the prospects of particle accelerators. How could Cockcroft not be excited?

All the confusion and loss caused by his previous failures were instantly swept away.

“I will succeed!”

Experimental physicists do have a hard time.

No wonder Rutherford looked down on theoretical physicists in the past.

"I worked day and night to do experiments, and only achieved a little success."

"You sit in your office, drink your coffee, and come up with a new theory in one afternoon."

"What's even sadder is that your theory is more important than my experimental results."

"It's not fair! It's so unfair!"

Among the crowd, Hahn was taking notes with a pen.

He felt deeply moved. Professor Bruce was indeed worthy of his name. With just a few words, he had established the main framework of nuclear physics.

This also gave Hahn a clear positioning of the content of his research.

This seemingly meaningless concept is actually more useful to ordinary physicists like him who want to make a breakthrough.

At this time, Li Qiwei continued:

"Based on the above definition of nuclear physics, its current development can be divided into the following stages."

“It was Becquerel and the Curies who first discovered that certain elements are naturally radioactive.”

"This was the first time a nuclear phenomenon had been observed by humans."

"So, it is also seen as the beginning of nuclear physics."

"In the study of natural radioactivity, physicists have made two major breakthroughs."

"One is to study the three types of rays, alpha, beta, and gamma, and determine their nature."

"The second is the study of the nature of radioactive decay."

“Among them, Professor Rutherford’s contribution to these two major achievements is second to none.”

Rutherford smiled slightly and seemed very calm.

"During this period, people created many methods and invented many instruments to detect rays and measure their energy and properties."

"Like Geiger counters, ionization chambers, and so on."

"These accumulations have laid a solid foundation for the development of nuclear physics."

"Then, as physicists delved deeper into radioactivity, they suddenly discovered that these extremely energetic rays could in turn probe atoms."

“Thus, a variety of vigorous bombardment experiments began.”

"Everyone here should be an expert on this. You must be bombarding it every day."

Everyone burst out laughing.

Professor Bruce is still as humorous as ever.

But what he said was true. Currently, the most mainstream direction in the field of nuclear physics is to use alpha rays as a means of bombardment.

Among the three types of rays, although α rays have the lowest energy, they have the strongest ionization ability and are very suitable for various experiments.

Ridgeway continued:

"Then, with the powerful weapon of radiation, our ability to study atoms has advanced by leaps and bounds."

"I discovered the atomic nucleus, Rutherford discovered the proton in the atomic nucleus, and I predicted the existence of the neutron."

"At this point, the atomic nucleus replaced the atom and became the new research focus."

"Ray bombardment has also become the most important means of studying atomic nuclei."

"However, as the study of atomic nuclei deepened, people suddenly discovered that the radioactivity produced by natural radioactive elements was insufficient in energy."

"It's fine when studying atoms, but it's beyond our capabilities when studying atomic nuclei."

“So, particle accelerators were born.”

"Its emergence freed physicists from their reliance on natural radiation."

"We can artificially create powerful particle streams to bombard atomic nuclei."

"For example, the proton accelerator invented by Cockcroft can accelerate protons to very high energies, enough to get close to the nucleus."

"But protons don't belong to any of the three types of rays."

“That’s why I’m optimistic about the future of particle accelerators.”

Wow!
There was a sudden cry of surprise in the room!
Nuclear physics, which seems confusing to everyone, becomes clear at a glance as if one is reading a book in the palm of your hand under Professor Bruce's narration.

Even newcomers like Walton, who had just entered the laboratory, had a deep understanding of nuclear physics after listening to the lecture. If they had to figure it out on their own, it would probably take them a year or two to achieve nothing.

Because Professor Bruce provides a systematic framework understanding, connecting all knowledge points according to the logic of scientific development.

However, students can only study a single knowledge point, and their abilities and perspectives are not enough to see higher.

Rutherford said to Chadwick with emotion:
"In terms of teaching ability, Bruce is definitely one of the best in the entire scientific community."

Rutherford was naturally familiar with the development of nuclear physics.

But he couldn't do it so effortlessly and with such ease.

Chadwick couldn't help but nodded.

"Professor Bruce is the teacher's teacher!"

Hahn looked excited.

He finally understood why Meitner was so happy after the speech.

Although Professor Bruce's speech did not contain any new knowledge, the "height" embodied in it is not something that ordinary people can understand.

Even he gained new insights into nuclear physics after listening to these summaries, as if some inspiration had struck him.

“Is this the charm of the Ke Dao Grandmaster?”

At this time, Li Qiwei paused for a moment, then said:
"Originally, after summarizing the development history of nuclear physics, I should talk about my thoughts on the future development direction of nuclear physics."

"But your Professor Rutherford helped me a lot before, so I am very grateful to him."

"Therefore, before I talk about thinking, I am going to share with you an extra piece of information that may be very helpful to you in nuclear physics."

Wow!
Everyone was shocked!
The importance of the content that Professor Bruce calls "dry stuff" can be imagined.

Rutherford was also surprised.

He knew Bruce never did anything without a purpose.

So the doubts in my heart deepened.

"I haven't heard that he's studying nuclear physics recently."

Under everyone's expectation, Li Qiwei continued:
"Just now I said that the particle accelerator invented by Dr. Cockcroft has expanded the means by which physicists can study atomic nuclei."

"But there's a problem with the accelerator he designed."

"That is because the acceleration ability is too low."

"His particle accelerator is a linear accelerator, which means the entire acceleration process is a straight line."

"On this straight line, place several electric fields according to the intensity gradient."

"Protons are accelerated one level at a time, and their speed gradually increases."

"Obviously, the length of the accelerator determines how many electric field gradients can be placed, and thus how fast the protons can be accelerated in the end."

"The longer the accelerator, the higher the speed of the protons."

"But at the same time, the cost, stability, maintenance and other issues are also more complicated."

"Therefore, a linear accelerator cannot be extended indefinitely; its acceleration capability has a limit."

"Dr. Cockcroft, am I right?"

Upon hearing this, Cockcroft said quickly:
"Yes, Professor Bruce."

"You have hit the nail on the head on the proton accelerator's shortcomings."

“When I was doing experiments, I was also troubled by the size of the accelerator.”

"To achieve higher speeds, you have to extend the acceleration distance."

"But in this case, the entire experimental plan and structure would have to be redesigned, which is extremely troublesome."

“And the longer the accelerator, the more problems there are.”

Suddenly, Cockcroft looked excited, his eyes widened, and he said tremblingly:

"Professor Bubrus, have you found a solution to this problem?"

Wow!
Now everyone understood what the so-called dry goods were.

If the problem of particle accelerators can be solved, it will definitely be good news for all nuclear physics scholars.

It is a consensus in the academic community that the greater the energy of the particle beam, the better the effect of the impact experiment.

From natural radiation to particle accelerators, it is a qualitative change.

Is there going to be a second qualitative change now?

Everyone held their breath, their faces full of anticipation.

Li Qiwei smiled slightly and said:

"This problem is a defect in the principle of the linear accelerator itself, and I can't solve it."

"However, I came up with a new accelerator design that can perfectly circumvent this problem."

"It can be regarded as my small contribution to nuclear physics."

Wow!
The whole audience gasped!
When the first sentence came out, everyone was a little disappointed that even Professor Bruce couldn't solve it.

But the next sentence made everyone stunned!

"My God!"

"Is Professor Bruce planning to design another accelerator himself?"

“If you can’t solve the problem, solve the machine that created it.”

"The boss's methods are indeed simple and crude!"

Everyone was amazed.

As for the last sentence, it was automatically ignored.

If this is considered a small contribution, then everyone present can go home and farm immediately.

The particle accelerator invented by Cockcroft, although its structure is extremely sophisticated, its principle is very simple.

Any middle school student with some basic knowledge of physics can understand it.

It's nothing more than the electric field accelerating vertically.

But everyone knows how to step on the accelerator in a straight line. Going fast in a curve is the real fast!

However, in the field of accelerators, no one has yet found a way to go faster around corners.

Perhaps it is because the principle is too simple that there is little room for design.

Rutherford once brainstormed with his student assistants, but failed to come up with any new acceleration methods.

Cockcroft looked horrified!

He never imagined that Professor Bruce's solution was to invent a new accelerator!

This is too exaggerated!
He had never heard that Professor Bruce had been studying nuclear physics in recent years.

"Could it be that Professor Bruce took notice of it when I demonstrated the instrument at the 50th anniversary celebration of Cavendish?"

However, this is not important anymore.

Cockcroft's mind was now filled with questions about what the new accelerator would be like.
How can it be better than his linear accelerator?

Li Qiwei looked at everyone's shocked expressions with a calm expression.

This was information he revealed deliberately in order to leave a strong impression of the Borneo Atomic Research Institute on everyone and to facilitate layout.

He smiled softly and said:

"I invented the accelerator, and I named it the cyclotron."

"It uses both magnetic and electric fields as a means of acceleration."

The voice just fell.

boom!
The whole audience was shocked!

When Rutherford, Cockcroft and others heard the word "revolution", it was as if thunder was exploding in their minds!

"My God!"

"I think I know what kind of accelerator this is."

"Professor Bruce is amazing!"

The most powerful instrument in history, the cyclotron, makes a stunning debut!
(End of this chapter)