Volume 1: Student Life Chapter 480: The Direction of a Desperate Bet
The flight from Yanjing Capital International Airport to San Francisco takes about 12 hours.
During these 12 hours, except for the turbulence at the beginning of takeoff, Chen Zhou put away his belongings as requested by the flight attendant.
The rest of the time, his mind was entirely focused on the rubber ball experiment.
To be precise, it was Friedman's idea that could be said to be a last-ditch effort.
The focus of this idea is oddball, which is the strange quantum number glue ball.
Friedman hopes that Chen Zhou can further conduct theoretical research in this direction and explore the feasibility of the strange quantum number glueball.
The final feedback comes from this last jelly ball experiment.
Originally, Chen Zhou's paper consisted of two major parts: conventional quantum number glueball and strange quantum number glueball.
Before encountering SLAC's current predicament, Friedman had planned to fully tackle both conventional quantum number glueballs and exotic quantum number glueballs.
However, given the current situation, they can only choose the most likely direction and go all out!
In this case, Friedman chose the most adventurous direction, the exotic quantum number glueball.
This is also the reason why Chen Zhou remained silent for such a long time after hearing Friedman’s idea.
Of course, this was a choice Friedman made after careful consideration.
The conventional quantum number glueball experiment is too common and too ordinary.
It is already difficult to achieve such a big leap in innovation and breakthrough in theoretical research content.
In experiments, glue balls have never been found.
Therefore, Friedman intended to abandon this conventional direction and abandon the research on conventional quantum number glueballs.
Admittedly, Friedman was taking a gamble.
But the situation has come to this. Instead of leaving with nothing, it is better to take a gamble and risk everything.
Moreover, judging from various research literatures, there are many reasons to indicate that the study of strange quantum number glueballs may be the key to opening the "door to the world of glueballs"!
At the same time, in Friedman's view, what is lacking in the research on strange quantum number glueballs is mostly theoretical, such as how to clearly study the mass, generation, and decay properties of strange quantum number glueballs.
Then, the final experimental plan will be formulated, the research direction will be indicated, and the search scope will be narrowed.
Therefore, the direction of the strange quantum number glue ball is likely to be a new winning point.
When Friedman thought of the person who could solve this problem, the person he thought of was Chen Zhou.
Whether it was the amazing paper that Chen Zhou gave him, or the paper that Chen Zhou had previously published as the first author.
All of this made Friedman believe that Chen Zhou could solve the theoretical problem of the strange quantum number glueball.
Then what remains is whether Chen Zhou is willing and able to give it his all.
This led to the call from Friedman before Chen Zhou boarded the plane.
To be honest, Chen Zhou really didn't expect Friedman to make such a choice.
In his opinion, Friedman would be more likely to choose conventional quantum number glueballs as his final experimental plan.
Because in Chen Zhou's cognition, Professor Friedman is a physicist of the older generation who has an old-fashioned appearance and an "old" personality.
They have that old-fashioned rigor.
But now it seems that perhaps, in addition to being rigorous, Professor Friedman hopes to find the only lighthouse in the darkness.
And this is also what Chen Zhou admires.
That's why he said that since Friedman was not afraid, he would naturally do his best.
As for the specific research in the direction of strange quantum number glue balls, Chen Zhou is not very sure.
However, his intuition told him that the true form of the new hadron state, the glue ball, was most likely here.
"He seems to be a young scholar?" The flight attendants on the plane gathered together and the subject of their discussion was Chen Zhou.
Because Chen Zhou is so different from ordinary people who take planes.
There were too many pieces of draft paper piled in front of Chen Zhou.
Moreover, this was the first person the flight attendants had ever seen use up all the refills of the fountain pen they carried on the plane.
Hearing what her colleague said, the beautiful flight attendant who had a brief conversation with Chen Zhou glanced at Chen Zhou and said softly, "If he is a scholar, he must have made some surprising discoveries, which is why he is so obsessed with the work in front of him."
My colleague asked curiously, “How do you know?”
The beautiful flight attendant smiled and replied: "Because his smile is so unforgettable. People with such a warm smile will definitely be able to create amazing things at work!"
Chen Zhou, who was frowning and thinking, obviously would not have thought that his unintentional smile would give people such a special feeling.
"Glueballs themselves are a special type of microscopic particle in the language of quantum chromodynamics (QCD), composed entirely of gluons..."
"Also because the quantum numbers of most glueballs are similar to those of ordinary mesons, the researchers were triggered by the QCD summation rule..."
"Although the strange quantum number glueball has completely different quantum numbers from ordinary mesons, the general method of its theoretical research is still to start from the QCD summation rule, comprehensively consider the perturbative and non-perturbative contributions, and systematically study the properties of the strange quantum number glueball..."
After Chen Zhou sorted out his research ideas, his writing speed increased again.
The draft paper in front of him was constantly being consumed at a very fast pace.
In fact, the search for glueballs is a direct test of the strong interaction.
It is of great significance for studying gluon fields and understanding color confinement.
The perturbation and non-perturbation that Chen Zhou was thinking about was because the strong interaction would become stronger as the energy scale decreases, causing the perturbation theory in the low-energy region to become invalid.
Therefore, it is necessary to establish a non-perturbative model to study the properties of the colloid.
The QCD summation rule used by Chen Zhou is an extremely effective non-perturbative theory.
It can equate the non-perturbative effects in quantum chromodynamics with vacuum condensation and study the properties of glue balls through analytical methods.
As for why it is very difficult to find and identify glueballs, it is because glueballs and regular mesons composed of quarks have the same quantum numbers.
In this case, the meson spectrum observed in the experiment may be the result of a mixture of glueballs and ordinary mesons.
In general, in order to determine the glueball, a systematic and precise study is required, both theoretically and experimentally.
On the one hand, additional resonance states are found beyond those expected from the quark model.
On the other hand, it is necessary to measure the properties such as the self-selected parity, mass, width and decay rate of each resonant state and discover anomalous properties that are difficult to explain with a simple quark model.
Here, the strange quantum number glue ball has great research value.
There are some quantum numbers that cannot be explained by traditional quark theory, which are called strange quantum numbers.
And glueballs are just the thing to have strange quantum numbers.
This type of glueball with strange quantum numbers will not mix with ordinary mesons, which is conducive to experimental observation.
Chen Zhou estimated that this was also the most important reason why Friedman finally chose this direction.
The plane was flying steadily along the route to San Francisco.
It was completely dark outside the window.
This flight is equivalent to moving in the opposite direction of the sun, from "day" to "night".
So, most of the time, this plane flies in the night sky.
Many people fell asleep on the plane.
Only the handsome young Chinese man kept the light on, concentrating on searching for the desperate answer on the draft paper.
San Francisco International Airport, also known as San Francisco International Airport, is located on Airport Boulevard in San Mateo County, California, United States.
It primarily serves San Francisco and surrounding cities and is the second largest airport in California.
The United Airlines direct flight that Chen Zhou was on had just landed at San Francisco International Airport.
Chen Zhou had also packed his luggage, most importantly the draft paper he had collected along the way.
Chen Zhou sorted and organized the pile of draft papers, and then stuffed them into the second layer of his backpack together with the collection of wrong questions.
After the plane stopped steadily outside the terminal, Chen Zhou stood up and queued up to get off the plane.
When passing by the cabin door, Chen Zhou met the beautiful stewardess again.
Chen Zhou smiled politely at the other party: "Good morning, I hope today is still a good day."
"Good morning, I believe today will be a great day!" After the stewardess finished speaking, she glanced at Chen Zhou and asked curiously, "Are you a graduate student at Stanford University? I saw you were writing something along the way..."
Chen Zhou heard this and explained, "No, I am a researcher at the SLAC laboratory. I have been thinking about our topic all along the way."
"I see..." Hearing this, the flight attendant nodded slightly, "I believe you will get the answer soon, come on!"
Chen Zhou smiled softly: "Thank you."
After Chen Zhou got off the plane, the flight attendant heard people on the plane talking about what Chen Zhou had just said.
"SLAC Laboratory? Isn't that the National Accelerator Laboratory?"
"Yes, I noticed that person on the plane. He seemed to be completely immersed in his own world. When I passed by him, I took a quick look at him..."
"What is he studying? What area of high-energy physics?"
"Strange quantum number glueball!"
"That Nobel Prize topic?"
"Yes……"
Not only was the flight attendant surprised at the conversation she heard, but everyone else was also looking at the two people who were talking.
Chen Zhou's behavior on the plane actually attracted a lot of attention.
But they don't know what Chen Zhou is doing specifically.
Now after hearing what these two people said, they really couldn’t believe that the young and handsome man who looked like a Chinese student was actually researching a Nobel Prize-level topic?
Moreover, the SLAC National Laboratory in the San Francisco Bay Area is not a place that ordinary people can enter, right?
You can tell from the name that this is a national laboratory!
Is there any country's national laboratory that ordinary people can enter and become researchers?
Just as people were speculating on Chen Zhou's identity, someone next to the beautiful stewardess who greeted Chen Zhou suddenly said, "I remember who he is. I thought I've seen him somewhere before..."
The beautiful stewardess asked in confusion: "Have you seen him?"
The man replied: "I haven't seen him in person, but I saw him in the newspaper..."
"newspaper?"
"The news about the Cole Number Theory Prize last year, the Chinese student who won the award was him!"
As soon as these words were spoken, they caused another sensation.
Others also remembered the news about the Cole Prize in Number Theory and immediately began to identify themselves with the winner, confirming Chen Zhou's identity.
Whether it is Chen Zhou's youthful face or the fact that he is a winner of the Cole Number Theory Prize, he is still researching physics topics.
This made them feel incredible once again.
The only different voice was probably that a young stewardess said in a fanciful way: "He is so handsome~"
Chen Zhou, who had already walked into the terminal, had no idea what was happening behind him.
At this moment, he was looking for Professor Cross who came to pick him up.
After a while, he saw Cross holding a sign to pick someone up.
Cross also saw Chen Zhou, and hurriedly held the cards in one hand and waved the other hand vigorously at Chen Zhou.
Seeing this, Chen Zhou waved at him to indicate that he saw it.
After the two met up, they went straight to the parking lot to pick up the car.
In the car, Cross said, "Do you want to take a nap? I guess you didn't get a good rest on the way, did you?"
Cross had heard a lot about the deeds of this research maniac.
Friedman also specifically told him that after picking up Chen Zhou, it would be best to arrange for Chen Zhou to rest in the car.
Otherwise, he was worried that Chen Zhou hadn't rested on the plane and would immediately start research work when he arrived at SLAC, and his body would not be able to bear it.
"I'm fine." Chen Zhou shook his head, and his thoughts once again returned to the strange quantum number glue ball.
Cross glanced at Chen Zhou and said, "Well, if you're sleepy, just take a nap. I'll try to drive more smoothly."
Chen Zhou nodded gently: "Thank you."
Cross immediately waved his hand: "We should say thank you to you..."
Chen Zhou turned his head and looked at Cross, but didn't say much.
After a pause, Cross continued, "Just like last time, Professor Friedman assigned me to you. For this desperate direction, this time, don't leave me aside the whole time..."
Chen Zhou raised his head slightly and said with a smile: "Professor Cross, don't worry, even if you don't tell me this time, I still need your help. Although I have already completed the systematic research on the rubber ball in my last paper."
"But now it is a more in-depth study of the strange quantum number glueball. I still need a lot of literature to analyze, so it is definitely not enough for me alone."
Upon hearing this, Cross immediately said, "Just tell me what you want me to do! If you need more help, just tell me and I'll find someone!"
Cross already has a clear understanding of Chen Zhou's abilities.
If time permits, Cross feels that Chen Zhou will definitely be able to easily pass repeated experiments and perfectly complete the colloid ball experiment project.
Instead of choosing a desperate direction for SLAC's final experimental plan, as is happening now.
In terms of time, squeeze yourself to the extreme.
And even if Chen Zhou rejected Friedman, Cross felt that Friedman would not and had no reason to blame Chen Zhou.
The same goes for these people. There is no reason to blame Chen Zhou.
However, when Chen Zhou chose to stand with them and give it his all.
Cross was deeply moved.
Although he didn't understand why Chen Zhou made such a choice.
Chen Zhou thought for a moment and said, "Professor Cross, I'd like you to collect and organize all the relevant research literature on oddball."
Hearing Chen Zhou's words, Cross subconsciously asked, "Is that all?"
Chen Zhou smiled and said, "That's a lot. It's all the documents!"
Cross was stunned for a moment, but quickly said, "Leave it to me!"
