1900: A physics genius wandering around Europe

Chapter 614: The Hope of a Theory of Everything! The Borneo Circumpolar Particle Collider! Colliding the Future of Physics! Boom!

In the conference room.

To everyone's shock, Li Qiwei's voice rang out:

"The construction principle of the cyclotron is shown in the figure."

"First, a uniform magnetic field is placed. When charged particles enter it, they will move in a circular motion due to the Lorentz force."

"Then, every time the charged particle passes the same place in the circular plane, it will cross an acceleration gap."

"There is a uniform variable electric field in the gap, and its changing frequency matches the speed of the charged particles, ensuring that the particles are accelerated every time they pass through."

"The accelerated charged particles continue to move in a circular motion, and when they pass through the gap, they will be accelerated again."

"This process will continue to repeat until the particle's speed is large enough and its radius of motion exceeds the range of the annular shell."

"At this point, by leading the charged particle out of the instrument along a spiral track, you can get an accelerated particle."

“This is the cyclotron I designed.”

"It only needs a very small volume to achieve the same acceleration effect as a linear accelerator."

“And if you increase the radius of the cyclotron, you can increase the number of times the charged particles can be accelerated, and the final speed will be higher.”

"A cyclotron of the same size will produce an acceleration capability far exceeding that of a linear accelerator!"

hiss!
Everyone in the room gasped!
The idea of ​​a cyclotron is really ingenious!
It can simply be described as "exquisite and exquisite".

"My God!"

"The cyclotron is much better than the linear accelerator!"

"Why do I feel like it can accelerate infinitely?"

Cockcroft looked moved.

He had guessed Professor Bruce's thoughts correctly.

"Use magnetic fields to constrain steering and electric fields to continuously accelerate."

"The cyclotron is the most perfect and harmonious combination of electric and magnetic fields."

"In this way, charged particles will be accelerated to an incredible speed!"

Of course, Cockcroft knew that cyclotrons also had their limits.

That's because of the existence of special relativity!

He answered everyone’s questions:

"A cyclotron can't accelerate infinitely."

"Because according to special relativity, the higher the speed of a charged particle, the greater its mass will be."

"The particle's orbiting radius also increases, and it will exceed the range of the magnetic field, and it will not be able to be accelerated through the electric field gap."

"Of course, there is no doubt that no matter how limited the cyclotron is, its acceleration capability is definitely greater than that of the linear accelerator."

Everyone suddenly realized.

Cockcroft was indeed an expert in the field of accelerators and could see the problem with the cyclotron at a glance.

Li Qiwei looked at Cockcroft and nodded in appreciation.

However, he then laughed and said:

“This problem is easy to solve.”

"Just increase the strength of the magnetic field at the same time."

"This ensures that charged particles of different speeds have the same orbital radius."

“However, it all depends on the real demand.”

“Some things are unnecessary.”

"Based on the final velocity you want to achieve, you can work backwards to figure out the size of the cyclotron."

Cockcroft nodded excitedly.

Experimental physics pursues usefulness, not perfection.

Although there were many master's and doctoral students present, they were all outstanding among their peers and naturally understood Professor Bruce's explanation.

The principle of the cyclotron is very simple and there is no complicated structural design.

But the person who was the first to come up with this design is definitely a genius among geniuses.

In real history, the concept and theory of cyclotron were proposed by American physicist Lawrence in 1929.

Just two and a half years later, he and his students built the world's first cyclotron.

The accelerator is only 12 centimeters in diameter and can even be held in the hand.

However, the energy of its accelerated particles can reach 0.8MeV (mega electron volts).

This energy is already on par with the acceleration energy of a linear accelerator that is several meters in size.

This shows how significant the advantages of the cyclotron are.

Here we need to explain the unit [eV].

它表示1个电子经过1V的电位差加速后所获得的动能，换算成标准能量单位焦耳，大约是1eV=1.6×10^-19J。

1MeV=1000000eV.

So how big is this energy?

To put it in a figurative way, the kinetic energy of molecules in the air is about 0.03eV, and the kinetic energy of charged particles in a nuclear explosion is between 0.3 and 3MeV.

Therefore, a cyclotron accelerator of only 12 centimeters can produce a thrust equivalent to that of a nuclear explosion.

Unbelievable!

Later, before 2008, the world's largest cyclotron was the Tevatron accelerator at Fermilab in the United States.

It has a circumference of an astonishing 6.3 kilometers and is built in a tunnel about 7 meters underground.

The accelerator can accelerate protons to a terrifying energy of 0.98 TeV (teraelectronvolts).

1TeV=1000GeV=1000MeV.

A proton of 0.98 TeV is about 1 million times the energy of a nuclear explosion particle.

At this energy, the speed of a proton is infinitely close to the speed of light.

But the Tevatron accelerator is still not the limit of the cyclotron!
Until "it" was born!

At this point, Ridgway simply calculated the acceleration energy and size of the cyclotron and compared it with the linear accelerator.

The whole audience was boiling again!
"My God!"

"The cyclotron is only the size of a palm, but its acceleration capability is even greater than that of Cockcroft's giant machine!"

"This is too awesome!"

"If the diameter is further increased, wouldn't it be possible to make the particle's speed infinitely close to the speed of light?"

"This is definitely the most awesome bombardment experiment!"

"."

Rutherford looked shocked.

The shock Bruce brought to him this time was even greater than last year's Bruce meeting.

Because today we are talking about his professional field: nuclear physics!
The emergence of the cyclotron made Rutherford feel a sense of crisis.

It is conceivable that this instrument will inevitably cause a stir in the field of nuclear physics.

With stronger energy, more new results will inevitably emerge in the study of atomic nuclei.

In other words, the power of the instrument may narrow the IQ gap between scientific researchers.

It’s like in fantasy novels, the protagonist can kill enemies far more powerful than him with a magical weapon.

"It seems that we need to put the research on cyclotron accelerator on the agenda immediately."

After Cockcroft's excitement, a bitter smile appeared on his face.

Before his ambitions were realized, the instrument he invented had already become outdated.

“No wonder people say that ordinary people work hard all their lives just to save a genius an afternoon.”

"Professor Bruce's cyclotron may replace my linear accelerator."

At this moment, someone asked enthusiastically:

"Professor Bruce, why do you study accelerators? Are you planning to enter the field of experimental physics?"

Wow!
Everyone's eyes widened instantly.

This is amazing news!
As we all know, whatever field Professor Bruce enters, the development of that field will see a qualitative leap!

Astronomy provides the best example.

Now, with the successive perfection of relativity and quantum mechanics, there are fewer and fewer deserts in theoretical physics. "Perhaps Professor Bruce can't stand the loneliness and wants to challenge himself in a different field."

Li Qiwei heard this and smiled slightly, saying:

"Do not."

"I just paid close attention to developments in nuclear physics."

“I will not be personally involved in the research.”

"The concept of the cyclotron was proposed for other reasons."

“I established an atomic research institute in the city of science in Borneo.”

"Master Qian Wu, Yu Yin and others all work there."

"I have expressed my optimism about the future of nuclear physics at several conferences before."

"So I invested heavily in building this institute, hoping to contribute to nuclear physics."

"When Yu Yin was researching linear accelerators, he encountered the same limitations and wrote to me asking for my help in improving them."

“So, the concept of the cyclotron was born.”

"By the way, I haven't even told Yu Yin about this yet."

“Today is the first time I share this, and you are the first people to hear it.”

"How about this? I'm giving face to your mentor Rutherford."

Wow!
Everyone was shocked!

Today turned out to be the first time that Professor Bruce shared the concept of cyclotron.

What an honor!

Rutherford raised his head proudly and glanced around majestically, meaning:
"Boys, you all saw it."

"Follow Professor Lu and you'll get nine earthquakes in three days!"

Walton lamented:

"My God!"

"Professor Bruce and Professor Rutherford have such a good relationship."

“No wonder everyone wants to get into the Cavendish Laboratory.”

“The resources here are unmatched by other laboratories.”

Walton had only been in Cavendish for more than half a year.

But he has already experienced the difference between top laboratories and ordinary laboratories.

Physics experts often give speeches and lectures here.

He benefits a lot every time.

And today, Professor Bruce's speech opened his eyes even more.

However, when Walton saw the expression on his good brother Cockcroft's face, he felt uncomfortable.

So he summoned up his courage and asked boldly:

"Professor Bruce, since you proposed the concept of cyclotron accelerator, does it mean that linear accelerator will be eliminated?"

Cockcroft's heart moved. He was embarrassed to ask this question, as it seemed a bit conceited and pretentious.

Li Qiwei heard this and said with a smile:
"Do not."

"Absolutely not."

"Leaving aside the difficulty of manufacturing a cyclotron, it is certainly many times more complicated than a linear accelerator."

“It’s still unknown whether we can create a stable instrument.”

"Linear accelerators also have their own advantages in certain special occasions."

"For example, it can accelerate a large number of particles at the same time without affecting each other."

"And at least at this stage, it seems that existing linear accelerators should be sufficient for studying atomic nuclei as long as they are increased in size."

“There is no essential difference in effect between the two.”

"So, Dr. Cockcroft, you don't need to worry about your efforts going to waste."

Cockcroft was almost moved to tears.

Professor Bruce is too gentle.

The other person is like a loving senior who cares about the younger generation and prevents them from being easily hit by reality.

Cockcroft nodded heavily and gave a grateful look.

Ridgeway continued:
"No matter what others do."

"What I want to do with the cyclotron is more than just colliding atomic nuclei."

"I said at the second Bruce Conference that there might be a new branch called particle physics in the future."

"What does that mean?"

"I think there are far more basic particles in the world than just protons, neutrons, and electrons."

"There must be some unknown particles, such as antiparticles."

"They are also the basic units that make up the material world."

"Since we can't find it on Earth, let's just make it ourselves!"

“Using the powerful energy generated by the cyclotron, we can collide two particles to see if new particles can be produced.”

“This may be the greatest function of the cyclotron!”

boom!
The whole audience was shocked!

Everyone was impressed by Professor Bruce's overwhelming arrogance!

"Oh, God!"

“Is this the greatest thing in the world?”

"We are still studying the nucleus, but Professor Bruce has already started thinking about other particles."

"He even wants to create new particles artificially!"

"This is a method only gods can use!"

"So scary!"

Even Rutherford, Hahn and others were stunned with shock!
What a great ambition, great means, and great courage!

Li Qiwei looked at everyone's shocked expressions and felt very proud.

He wants to use the cyclotron to build the famous particle collider!
The core foundation of the particle collider, which is said to cost hundreds of billions of dollars, is the cyclotron accelerator.

As mentioned before, before 08, the largest accelerator in the world was the Tevatron accelerator.

But after 08, the Large Hadron Collider, or LHC for short, came into being!

It directly replaced the Tevatron accelerator as the number one accelerator.

The total length of the LHC is an even more astonishing 27 kilometers, spanning the border between Switzerland and France, with the tunnel buried 100 meters underground.

It can accelerate the kinetic energy of protons to 7TeV, which is 7 times that of the Tevatron accelerator!
Horror!
The LHC is still the largest cyclotron in the world!

Tens of thousands of scientists from more than 100 countries are involved in the research.

But in this life, Li Qiwei has greater ambitions!

He wants to build a super collider that will far surpass the LHC!
"The Borneo Collider!"

As the name suggests, its tunnel will circle the coast of Borneo, the world's third largest island.

Even if calculated based on a radius of 500 kilometers, the circumference of the Borneo Particle Collider will reach an unprecedented 3000 kilometers.

This is an unimaginable length!

Even the LHC can blast out hundreds of new particles, completing the basic model of particle physics.

Li Qiwei had no idea what terrible things the Borneo Circumpolar Particle Collider could produce.

After all, even in his previous life, he couldn't do this.

Maybe it will directly blast out a black hole and swallow the earth in an instant. That would be a lot of fun.

But Li Qiwei had to do it!
Because his theory of everything encountered a bottleneck, he had to find a very strange elementary particle!

But this particle has never appeared in later generations, not even a conjecture.

It was through studying the theory of everything that Li Qiwei discovered the mysterious traces of this particle!
Therefore, he must knock out this key particle!

This is Li Qiwei’s ultimate dream of building a collider!
He wants to create the future of physics!

boom!
(End of this chapter)