Volume 1: Student Life Chapter 413: An Intern Who Is Not an Intern
As one of the Department of Energy's major national laboratories, SLAC has very strict security.
Chen Zhou felt that if he didn't have a work permit or someone to lead him.
Even if you are a student from Stanford University, it would be difficult to get in.
After going through a series of security checks, Chen Zhou followed Friedman and others and finally stepped into SLAC's territory.
Compared with China's Yenching National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, SLAC is obviously more legendary.
As early as 1962, construction of the Linear High Energy Electron Accelerator began in the hills west of Stanford University.
This project is called "M Project", M stands for "Monster".
Later, this monster continued to demonstrate its "power".
Quarks, charm quarks and anti-charm quarks were all discovered here.
Therefore, many Nobel Prize winners were born here.
In addition, there are more experimental devices here.
In addition to the linear high-energy electron accelerator, there are also positron-electron acceleration rings, synchrotron radiation sources, positron-electron colliders, linear colliders, etc.
Most importantly, it has the first international network in North America.
SLAC was also the first to demonstrate the potential of the Internet to physicists through its website.
People in particle physics will have easier access to very busy databases of scientific literature.
However, SLAC also went through a mid-life crisis.
In 2008, the collider's large detector, the SLD, was shut down and put into storage.
Rising land prices and construction costs in the San Francisco Bay Area have made it impossible to build the next generation of linear colliders.
At the same time, the world's high-energy particle research center was also moved from the United States to the European Organization for Nuclear Research near Geneva, Switzerland.
That is CERN, which owns the world's largest particle physics laboratory.
At that time, many people doubted whether SLAC could survive without a large collider.
But the result is that SLAC is still alive and well today.
However, SLAC has gradually transformed from high-energy particle physics to a high-intensity X-ray research center.
This can also be considered a transformation for survival.
The destination of Chen Zhou and his team's trip is the PEP Laboratory.
That is the electron-positron collider laboratory.
This is the collider that began construction in 1980.
The reason for its construction is that the energy of the positron-electron accelerator ring is too small.
The diameter of SLAC's electron-positron accelerator ring is only 73 meters, the energy it can reach is limited, and the number of particles produced by collisions is limited.
The PEP storage ring is 10 times larger than the positron-electron acceleration ring!
The number of electron-positron collisions is several times that of the electron-positron acceleration ring!
However, the achievements of PEP are not as brilliant as those of the positron -electron accelerator ring.
The positron-electron accelerator ring is the accelerator that discovered charm quarks, which are composed of quarks and antiquarks.
As a result, Burton Richter, who discovered the charm quark, won the Nobel Prize in Physics.
After that, Martin Lewis Pell also used the positron accelerator ring to conduct physics experiments and discovered a new particle called tau lepton produced after the collision of positrons and electrons.
He also won the Nobel Prize in Physics.
Therefore, as the successor of the positron-electron accelerator ring, or in other words, the one with more hope.
PEP has indeed not yet achieved results comparable to those of its big brother.
However, SLAC staff did not give up.
This is also the significance of the project that Friedman and Chen Zhou are participating in.
Once the "glue ball" is discovered, it will surely be another Nobel Prize-level achievement!
After entering the laboratory, Chen Zhou followed Friedman obediently.
It's not that I'm afraid of anything, but before Friedman assigns me a job.
Chen Zhou felt that all he needed to do was watch and listen more, do less and talk less, and everything would be OK.
As for Matheson and Coyle, Friedman arranged for them to leave as soon as they entered the laboratory.
These two people are old acquaintances in the laboratory and are quite familiar with the process.
Listening to the conversation between Friedman and the researcher in front, Chen Zhou also had a general idea.
Friedman is one of the leaders of this project.
There is another one that Chen Zhou has not met yet.
At this time, Friedman turned around and pointed at Chen Zhou, and said to the researcher: "This is my new graduate student. I plan to hand him over to you."
The researcher was stunned for a moment, then nodded: "Okay, Professor Friedman."
Friedman then said to Chen Zhou, "This is Professor Cross. From now on, you will follow him to familiarize yourself with the laboratory."
"Okay, Professor Friedman." Chen Zhou's answer was the same as Professor Cross's.
Friedman gave his instructions and walked away.
He still has a lot to confirm about the upcoming experiment.
Therefore, it is most appropriate to let someone else take care of Chen Zhou.
Chen Zhou glanced at Professor Cross, who had a big beard, and the other smiled at him.
Chen Zhou asked: "Professor Cross, where do we start?"
Professor Cross said, "Let me show you around the PEP lab first."
After saying that, Cross took Chen Zhou for a stroll in the PEP laboratory.
Simply put, PEP is an experimental device with a ring on one end and a rod on the other end.
But the area occupied by this thing is quite large.
After all, in order to accelerate various particles to extremely high energies, their orbits must be long enough.
Compared to taking Chen Zhou to visit PEP's experimental equipment, Cross was more interested in Chen Zhou as a person.
This was the first time he met Professor Friedman, who brought a Chinese graduate student with him.
Not to mention, Friedman also brought this Chinese student here.
After Cross introduced some of the experimental equipment in front of him, he asked Chen Zhou curiously: "By the way, are you a new graduate student this year?"
Chen Zhou nodded: "Yes, I just came to MIT to enroll."
Cross asked again, "How long have you been in contact with Professor Friedman?"
Chen Zhou replied: "About a week, if you count from the first time we met."
Cross looked at Chen Zhou in surprise.
He thought this was a student who had already had contact with Friedman, but he didn't expect that this was a pure freshman who had just enrolled.
Then why did Friedman bring him here?
While Cross was in a daze, Chen Zhou said, "Professor Cross, let's go to the next location."
"Oh, okay." Cross came back to his senses and wanted to ask something else, but he always felt that it was not appropriate to ask like this.
While introducing the experimental equipment to Chen Zhou, he also tried to find out more about Chen Zhou's background through casual chatting.
Through Cross's questions, Chen Zhou roughly understood what the other party was thinking.
But Chen Zhou did not hide it from the other party and told Cross the truth.
Cross can get this information by simply asking Matheson, Coyle, or even Friedman.
But the information that Chen Zhou thought was insignificant sounded incredible to Cross.
He couldn't understand such a Chinese, a student who graduated from Yenching University in China.
Even outstanding graduates with double degrees in mathematics and physics have achieved such remarkable results in mathematics.
But this is physics, this is the field of high-energy physics, and this is the laboratory of the electron-positron collider.
He didn't understand what Friedman meant.
At least in his opinion, Chen Zhou should go through the school laboratory to lay a solid foundation before he is qualified to come here, right?
Otherwise, who would dare to let him participate in the project?
After following Cross to get familiar with the PEP experimental device, Chen Zhou asked, "Professor Cross, what should I do next?"
Cross was stunned when he heard this question.
As for Chen Zhou, he felt that no matter how many speculations there were.
After all, this is just a newly enrolled graduate student.
Unless Friedman makes any special arrangements, this guy can probably only be used as an intern who is not really an intern.
"An intern who is not considered an intern?" Chen Zhou was a little puzzled when he heard the term that Cross did not shy away from.
