Building a Sci-Fi Empire: Starting with Cold Nuclear Fusion

"Um?"

"What?!"

"You're not mistaken, are you?"

Upon hearing Chen Yuan's bombshell announcement, a group of academicians in the nuclear field were instantly thrown into an uproar.

They never expected that Chen Yuan would say that the function of the device was to "artificially, stably, and controllably bend a small piece of four-dimensional spacetime to confine fusion plasma without creating a black hole or using extreme mass."

It's important to know that four-dimensional spacetime is currently just a conceptual hypothesis and has not been proven at all.

Now Chen Yuan says he wants to use a device to bend a small piece of the unproven four-dimensional spacetime. How can this not cause an uproar?

The group of academicians in the nuclear field wanted to say that Chen Yuan was talking nonsense and wished they could leave immediately. But then they thought about it again. The super stellarator gravitational confinement nuclear fusion device itself is very sci-fi. If the space warping device is not sci-fi, it will seem unreliable.

Thus, Fan Zhen, Yuan Wanhua, Chu Hong, and others all had an unrealistic idea deep in their hearts—could he really demonstrate the detailed theory supporting the creation of such a device?

With this thought in mind, the group of expert judges suppressed their speechlessness and prepared to hear what Chen Yuan had to say.

It wasn't just these expert reviewers who were speechless.

The team members on the defense were also drenched in cold sweat.

Shen Yun, Zhang Qian, Yu Xu, and others originally thought that Chen Yuan's theory would be more in line with reality, but they did not expect him to throw out the words "four-dimensional space" right away.

They were all terrified, thinking Chen Yuan was going to spout nonsense.

The fact that this in-person defense can be held today is entirely thanks to the support of a certain important figure.

Shen Yun, Zhang Qian, Yu Xu, and others had good reason to believe that if Chen Yuan was really talking nonsense, then they and their Institute of Plasma Physics would be in serious trouble.

Therefore, how could they not be terrified?

Jin Dongyang, acting as the mouthpiece for the group of expert judges, asked, "Bending a small piece of four-dimensional space?"

"Yes, I know you find it hard to believe, so I will explain the theory in detail from several aspects so that you can fully understand the principle."

Chen Yuan spoke with great arrogance, not giving Jin Dongyang a chance to speak at all. He continued to state the theoretical knowledge: "The underlying physics: Why can humans 'bend space'? To answer this, we need to start with the physics starting point, general relativity. The expression of general relativity is Gab = 8πTab, which I believe everyone here knows. Let's go straight to the core theory."

He bent down and clicked on the computer.

The large screen quickly switched to two images.

Chen Yuan straightened up and gestured, saying, "Please look at the big screen."

Jin Dongyang looked up.

Fan Zhen, Yuan Wanhua, Li Jian, and others are all like this.

Everyone on the defense team looked at the big screen.

Chen Yuan pointed upwards and said, "On the left is spacetime geometry; on the right is the energy-momentum tensor, which is the distribution of matter, field, and energy. I believe that once you see this, you will understand that as long as you can precisely control the energy distribution, you can control the curvature of space."

According to general relativity, the distribution of matter and energy determines the curvature of spacetime.

This core idea is precisely described by Einstein's field equations.

This equation establishes a mathematical relationship between spacetime geometry and the distribution of matter and energy within it.

Therefore, theoretically, if the distribution of energy and mass in spacetime can be precisely controlled, the curvature of spacetime in that region can be controlled.

This is not simply "manipulation," but rather means shaping a specific spacetime geometry by precisely arranging physical quantities such as energy density and momentum flow.

Everyone present, except for the two financial experts, understood these principles; they were very basic physics concepts.

However, even with such "basic" physics knowledge, everyone present still exclaimed "Eh!" after hearing Chen Yuan's explanation.

Why do people exclaim "Huh?" in surprise?

Because according to general relativity, Chen Yuan's claim of curved space is indeed supported!

In other words, Chen Yuan's theory of bending a small piece of four-dimensional space is valid from the perspective of underlying physical logic.

When people first heard this science fiction, they thought it would require very complicated physical logic to explain, or that Chen Yuan simply couldn't explain the real physical principles. But they didn't expect that he would use general relativity as the core theoretical knowledge.

This is why everyone was so surprised, even though they were certain that the theory was sound.

Fan Zhen and Yuan Wanhua exchanged a glance, both seeing excitement in each other's eyes.

Li Jian, Chu Hong, Xin Long, and the others gradually regained their composure, clearly realizing what the self-consistency of physical logic meant.

This means that Chen Yuan's theory on this device has been established.

Once some key issues are resolved, the academic viewpoint will be fully valid.

Jin Dongyang posed the question: "According to general relativity, to significantly bend spacetime in reality, a planetary mass is required, which our current technology simply cannot achieve. How does your device solve this problem?"

Shen Yun couldn't help but listen intently.

Yu Xu, Ma Weixing, and others were also thinking about this issue.

Only Chu Yingying's gaze towards Chen Yuan remained filled with admiration and confidence from beginning to end.

She seemed to believe that Chen Yuan could prove the feasibility of the space bending device.

"Good question."

Without even a hint of hesitation, Chen Yuan answered the question directly: "This device does not need to rely on planetary mass to warp space, because the 'equivalent mass amplification effect' of the high-level gauge field will solve this problem."

He bent down and clicked on the computer, changing the image on the big screen.

Immediately, Chen Yuan turned to face the large screen, pointed, and said, "You can see that my theoretical knowledge consists of these."

Everyone looked up and saw four dots written on it.

First, the field propagates in the "extra dimension (compacted dimension)".

Second, its projection in three-dimensional space results in an extremely high effective energy density.

Third, it does not require actual mass, only field energy.

Fourth, the equivalent gravitational mass can reach: (Pgauge·V)/C²; Pgauge can be raised to 10⁹ to 10¹² times that of ordinary matter.

The second half of the fourth point roughly means that, based on this theoretical knowledge, the value of gauge pressure can be amplified to 10⁹ to 10¹² times that of normal atmospheric pressure.

This is an extremely high pressure range, far exceeding the pressure at the Earth's core, and approaching or reaching the extreme high-pressure levels achievable in laboratories through laser compression or pulsed power technology, such as in environments used to study planetary internal structures or nuclear fusion.

This level of pressure is typically only found in fields such as inertial confinement fusion, planetary science, and materials science.

What Chen Yuan proposed here is clearly for application in planetary science, simulating the extreme pressure conditions at the core of giant planets.

As is well known, the pressure at the core of the sun is about 2.65 billion atmospheres, or 2.65 × 10¹¹ Pa, while the temperature at the core of the sun is about 15 million degrees Celsius.

According to Chen Yuan's theory, the space bending device can reach up to 10¹² times the pressure of a normal atmosphere, which is far beyond the pressure in the core of the sun.

Under such extreme pressure, matter would be compressed to densities far exceeding those of white dwarfs or neutron stars, and temperatures would soar to hundreds of millions, billions, or even higher due to adiabatic compression.

One thing is certain: in this environment, the fusion reaction of hydrogen will not only occur, but will be extremely intense.

Therefore, pressures 10⁹ to 10¹² times that of Earth can not only cause fusion reactions in matter, but also trigger runaway nuclear fusion processes far exceeding the energy of the Sun, enough to instantly ignite a planet into a star.

In short, the theoretical knowledge proposed by Chen Yuan can completely enable the device to simulate the gravitational environment of a black hole, thereby achieving the effect of locking in nuclear fusion reactions!

"what?"

"this……"

"What!?"

Everyone present was a top expert in the nuclear field; how could they not understand these principles?

When they saw Chen Yuan's theoretical knowledge, they all widened their eyes in surprise!

Although the device technology Chen Yuan described was just as futuristic as everyone initially thought, so futuristic that it seemed impossible to build in reality, everyone was shocked to discover, after reading the core theoretical knowledge, that the theory behind the device technology was actually completely feasible.

This means that, theoretically, it is possible to realize this seemingly futuristic controlled nuclear fusion device.

Everyone looked incredulous. Could science fiction have really become reality?