In fact, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences is also having a headache over this year's Nobel Prize.
Of course, what troubles them is not the discovery of sterile neutrinos.
It is the technology of "Nuclear Energy Beta Radiation Energy Concentration and Conversion into Electric Energy Mechanism".
After all, sterile neutrinos have not yet been completely confirmed. Even if CERN infers that Xu Chuan's success has a 3sigma confidence level, it is just a discovery.
In the field of high-energy physics, the confirmation of a new particle or a new thing requires at least 5 sigma to confirm that it really exists.
Such strict requirements are because high-energy physics is one of the foundations of physics. Countless particles and phenomena are the basic materials that make up the current universe and are also the basis for building the edifice of physics.
If there is a problem with any particle, no matter what it is, it can cause great turmoil in physics. More seriously, it is not impossible for the entire physics to collapse directly.
Therefore, even if sterile neutrinos are discovered, it will take some time to verify them.
The technology of "Nuclear Energy Beta Radiation Energy Concentration and Conversion into Electric Energy Mechanism" is different. The scope of this technology is nuclear waste.
For countries around the world, almost all countries that have the ability to build nuclear power plants are troubled by nuclear waste.
Nuclear fuel can be used to generate electricity and benefit mankind, but nuclear waste is extremely difficult to dispose of. Careless disposal will cause major problems in the earth's ecological environment.
Although there are countless stars in the universe, the earth is still the only home for mankind.
Therefore, any country with a little foresight will not dispose of nuclear waste indiscriminately.
As for the technology of "Nuclear Energy Beta Radiation Energy Concentration and Conversion into Electric Energy Mechanism", even though it currently only exists in China, it still benefits all countries in the world and everyone.
For the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, whether a new technology or discovery meets the selection criteria for the Nobel Prize and whether it benefits mankind is undoubtedly one of the criteria, and it is also a very important criterion.
After all, Nobel established the Nobel Prize to reward scientists who have made significant contributions and progress to mankind in the previous year.
Is this technology eligible for nuclear waste reuse?
must have!
If technology of this level is not qualified to be selected for the Nobel Prize, other technologies will be even less qualified.
However, the owner of this technology, Professor Xu, is extremely young and even won the Nobel Prize in Physics in Stockholm last year.
Although the Nobel Prize has never been awarded to the same person twice, it has never been awarded to the same person for two consecutive years.
Even Marie Curie, who won the Nobel Prize twice, won it in 1903 and 1911 respectively, with a gap of nearly ten years.
For this reason, the Nobel Prize Selection Committee in Physics of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences is about to explode.
They had a falling out last year over this extremely young scholar. Is it possible that they will have to do it again this year?
big head.
On the other side, NTU.
In the office of the Institute of Physics, Xu Chuan and the NTU physics team are putting the finishing touches on the mathematical analysis of the second batch of sterile neutrinos.
"Finally done!" In front of the computer, Lin Feng crossed his fingers, stretched, turned and shouted to the other side: "Junior brother, the data for fabricating the Daliz diagram has been sent to your mailbox."
Xu Chuan glanced at it and replied: "I got it, thank you for your hard work, Senior Brother Lin."
Lin Feng complained: "You are a young man who doesn't respect martial arts. You rely on your physical fitness to defeat us comrades who are in their thirties."
Hearing this, other researchers and doctoral students or postdocs in the office also complained together.
"that is!"
"Sichuan God discovered the sterile neutrino this time, so he won another Nobel Prize?"
"Isn't this a treat?"
Xu Chuan smiled and said: "Okay, I'll treat you to a big dinner tonight. You can choose the location. You can order whatever you want. If the inert neutrino can be confirmed, I will give you a bonus. This period has been really hard. Everyone.”
"Ula!"
"The God of Sichuan is grand!"
"Thank you, boss! The boss is very generous!"
"."
There was cheering in the office, and Xu Chuan continued to sort out the data and draw the Dalitz chart with a smile.
These people have really worked hard during this period. The work that was originally expected to take twenty days to complete was completed in one week after he joined. It's appropriate to treat someone to a meal and give him a red envelope or something. After all, you're doing something for him.
After analyzing the second batch of sterile neutrino collision experiment data, Xu Chuan integrated the first and second batches of data together, checked them carefully again, and after confirming that there were no problems, sent them via email. CERN.
It didn't take long for a reply from CERN to arrive.
Sender - David Gross: "The email has been received. Thank you Professor Xu for supporting CERN's work. We will arrange for researchers to check the calculations first. If there are any problems, we will communicate with you in time. If it is confirmed that it is inert The confidence level of neutrinos reaches above 5sigma, and CERN will make this news public as soon as possible."
Since Xu Chuan is not at CERN and cannot go to CERN to hold a report meeting, the data processing method of sterile neutrinos can only be confirmed in this situation.
Of course, this doesn't take long.
CERN is a holy place in the physics world. More than 70% of the results in high-energy physics come from here. There are countless well-known theoretical physicists who can confirm the Dalitz diagram created by Xu Chuan.
The process took five days.
After receiving a reply from CERN Director Professor David Gross, Xu Chuan’s supervisor’s supervisor called him on the morning of the sixth day.
"Hey, Xu, I didn't disturb your research." David Gross greeted Xu Chuan on the phone with a joyful voice.
"I'm glad to receive your call, Mr. Gross." Xu Chuan responded with a smile.
"Haha, of course, this is definitely something to be happy about."
Gross said with a smile: "After verification by CERN, we have determined that there is a new particle in the collision data of 120um (rφ direction) of the antihelium-3 nucleus of the inner tracking system."
"And it is the sterile neutrino you discovered!"
"Congratulations, Xu, you have found the legendary particle that is beyond the standard model and created a new glorious and great epic! The entire world of physics will change with you!"
Hearing this, Xu Chuan also had a bright smile on his face and responded: "That's great."
For the physics community, physicists are constantly exploring things beyond the standard model. Any phenomenon beyond the standard model will receive the most attention.
In high-energy physics and particle physics, neutrino physics is one of the most important research frontiers.
Because neutrinos have the only experimental evidence that exceeds the standard model of particle physics - neutrino oscillations!
Neutrino oscillation: 'That is, one type of neutrino spontaneously changes into another type of neutrino during flight, such as an electron neutrino transforming into a muon neutrino or a tau neutrino. '
(This explanation is relatively simple. In fact, neutrino oscillation does not cause neutrino conversion. I have put the detailed explanation in my own words. If you are interested, you can read it.)
Neutrino oscillation shows that neutrinos have a tiny mass. It is currently, no, it should be said to be the only phenomenon that human scientists can observe that exceeds the standard model.
It once almost caused the collapse of the building of physics, but fortunately, physicists finally solved this big trouble.
Neutrino oscillation is the only physical phenomenon that cannot be explained by the standard model so far. It has fascinated countless physicists. However, it is just a phenomenon. The physics community has still not found any neutrino that exceeds the standard model. external ions.
Finding a particle beyond the standard model is still the dream of all physicists.
And now, it appears!
Sterile neutrinos!
This hypothetical particle that may constitute warm dark matter appeared in the human world for the first time, and its real existence was confirmed!
Although the data currently observed by the physics community may be imperfect and limited by the backwardness of observation equipment, only part of the information of sterile neutrinos can be observed, but this is enough.
Even if it is a incomplete particle, it will still change the entire world of physics and change people's understanding of the world!
This is the most brilliant glory of physics and an epic that opens up new horizons!
PS: There will be another update later. Please give me a monthly pass. The monthly pass of 2,000 is still 500 short!
Neutrino oscillation: In 1958, Italian physicist Pontikov proposed that if the mass of neutrinos is not zero, neutrinos of different flavors can transform into each other and oscillate.
The so-called neutrino oscillation does not mean that neutrinos change from one flavor to another during the propagation process.
Rather, when a neutrino is observed after propagating for a period of time (distance), there is a certain probability that it will show a different flavor than the initial state. A neutrino whose initial state is a certain flavor eigenstate will not change into another flavor eigenstate during its motion.
. This is easy to understand. In the neutrino mixing theory, the flavor transition of neutrinos occurs because the flavor eigenstate is the superposition of mass eigenstates. Different mass eigenstates will behave in different ways during the motion of neutrinos. The velocity accumulation phase will make the state of the neutrino not always orthogonal to other flavor eigenstates, so when it is observed, there will be a non-zero probability of appearing in a flavor eigenstate different from the initial state.
This is the correct theory of neutrino oscillation.
It does not mean that neutrinos become another type as they fly.
(Is it a bit similar to Schrödinger’s cat? It’s not sure whether it’s alive or dead before the observation. You can only know after the observation.)
(End of chapter)
