Currently, the world's largest particle collider is the European Large Hadron Collider, also known as the LHC. The LHC was built by 40 countries, took 10 years, and cost tens of billions of dollars.

And this tens of billions of dollars is the tens of billions of dollars in the 1990s, which is roughly equivalent to 100 billion yuan today.

As you can imagine, the cost of LHC is very high.

With the rapid development of China's economy and the continuous improvement of its comprehensive national strength, the Beijing Electron Positron Collider (BEPC), which was completed in 1988, gradually became unable to satisfy the appetite of China's high-energy physics researchers who wanted to build a Large Hadron Collider.

My heart is ready to move.

After all, fiscal revenue is rising every year, scientific research funding reaches new highs, infrastructure construction has been achieved one after another, and we already have the financial resources to build the Large Hadron Collider.

It is precisely for this reason that Academician Wang submitted a report to his superiors, which was to apply for the construction of China's Large Hadron Collider.

Academician Wang, this is a Chinese experimental high-energy physicist, not an ordinary person.

As early as 1984, after graduating from Jinling University, Academician Wang went to the European Nuclear Center in Geneva, Switzerland, to participate in the L3 experiment led by physicist Ding Zhaozhong, specializing in the study of high-energy particles; in 1991, he received a doctorate from the University of Florence, Italy, and in 1992 from Massachusetts

He worked as a researcher in the Nuclear Physics Laboratory of the Institute of Technology. In 1996, he entered the Department of Physics of Stanford University as an assistant researcher. In 2000, he was selected into the Hundred Talents Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. In 2001, he returned to China and served as a high-energy physics researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. In 2002, he received the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars.

In 2013, Academician Wang's team experimentally measured a new neutrino oscillation mode. The experiment was selected as one of the "Top Ten Scientific Advances in 2012" by Science. He was also selected into the National Ten Thousand Talents Program and was elected as an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences last year.

, and won the Breakthrough Award in Basic Physics, becoming the first Chinese scientist to win this award.

Academician Wang has been engaged in high-energy physics experimental research for a long time. In terms of neutrinos, he is the main proposer of the Daya Bay experimental plan, leading the completion of its design, construction and research, and proposing and leading the Jiangmen neutrino experiment. In terms of electron-positron collision

, led the design, construction and preliminary research of the new Jingcheng spectrometer at the Jingcheng Electron Positron Collider.

It can be said that Academician Wang is a big figure in experimental high-energy physics in China, with extraordinary status and influence.

Liu Yichen glanced at Professor Gao next to him and said indifferently: "It is not easy to build a large hadron collider. This matter has not yet been revealed."

Liu Yichen shook his head.

He can also understand what Professor Gao and others are thinking. As a high-energy physicist, if China has its own Large Hadron Collider, it will be good news for China's high-energy physics. You can do whatever experiments you want.

, if a research result is born in an experiment, it will be no problem to produce at least dozens of papers a year.

Although there is already a European Large Hadron Collider in the world, the right to speak about the European Large Hadron Collider is in the hands of European physicists. As for China, it is a dispensable existence and can only participate.

There is no issue of the right to speak in some leftover research.

As for the Beijing Electron Positron Collider, although it is pretty good, compared to the European Large Hadron Collider, it is just a small toy and cannot be put on the table at all.

"Principal, now that the country has sufficient financial resources, instead of investing so much money in building bridges and roads, it is better to build a large hadron collider." Professor Zhao said solemnly: "Those are just a pair of reinforced concrete.

Those businessmen sending money are not helpful at all to human science and technology."

Liu Yichen smiled bitterly in his heart. These words were really a typical scholar's thinking, too far from the world.

You must know that although the investment in those infrastructures is huge, they play a huge role in social and economic construction and stimulating regional economy.

The Large Hadron Collider is too far away from ordinary people's lives to have any experience at all. But infrastructure construction such as roads, bridges and reservoirs is different. The changes are visible to the naked eye and can be experienced by oneself.

In the past, during holidays, you might not be able to buy tickets even if you queued up in long queues, but now, whether it’s high-speed trains or flights, it’s very convenient.

It is precisely because of such social benefits that even if railways are built, it is difficult to cover the cost of most lines based on fares alone and are in a state of loss. However, the country continues to build high-speed rail and continue to speed up trains.

"The cost of building the Large Hadron Collider is probably as high as 200 billion yuan, which is a huge amount of money. Now the country is spending money everywhere. It wants to spend 200 billion yuan on building the Large Hadron Collider, but it can't be done."

It's not a simple matter." Liu Yichen said: "And to build the Large Hadron Collider, many technologies are not available in China, but are mastered in Europe. Even if they are a little stuck, 200 billion yuan may not be enough."

Different from the current construction of many key projects, these large projects are basically technologies that China has already mastered, such as cross-sea bridge technology and tunnel technology. Through step-by-step exploration, China has already mastered these technologies in its own hands. For example, high-speed rail construction technology

, whether it is railways or trains, China has mastered the corresponding technology. Even large aircraft, China has mastered them after so many years of exploration and training of scientific researchers and engineers. Only then did the C919 and C929 enter the test flight stage.

But the Large Hadron Collider is an exception. Most of the technologies in it are in the hands of Europe, not even the United States.

Taking the automatic system of the European Large Hadron Collider as an example, the software of the control subsystem uses pvss, and the hardware uses Siemens' s7 plc. There are also large-scale sensors and actuators distributed at the end of the control network. Although

Automatic system software has basically been domestically produced, but the localization rate of hardware is still relatively low. There are no domestic substitutes for high-end PLCs such as the Siemens S7 series, especially the sensors and actuators at the bottom of the system, which are even domestically produced.

The hardest-hit area.

The automatic system is just the tip of the iceberg of the European Large Hadron Collider. The construction of the large collider also involves everything from accelerators and detectors to low temperature, superconducting, microwave, high frequency, vacuum, power supply, precision machinery, computers and networks.

and many other fields and their related equipment.

It can be said that if China wants to build a large hadron collider, the only way China can save some money is in engineering construction. As for equipment and software, almost most of it has to be provided by Europe.

In the future, China and Europe are hard to describe. No one knows whether Europe will still be willing to provide equipment and software. Even if it is willing to provide it, given Europe's temperament, the price will probably be significantly increased.

"First Evolution"

And if the worst happens and people are unwilling to provide it, then the losses will be huge, because these things cannot be researched in a short time, and it is normal for even the money invested to be wasted.

.

In Liu Yichen's view, the Large Hadron Collider requires huge investment, slow returns, slow results, and high risks. It is simply difficult to decide to build it.

Only pure scholars like Professor Gao and Professor Zhao are extremely idealistic and do not consider input-output and various risks.

And this is only one aspect. The most fatal thing is that Chinese high-energy physicists are actually quite good. There are two hands that have reached the world's top level. As for the most top-level aspect, except for Liu Yichen, there is no one.

This means that researchers mostly have to rely on overseas physicists, especially those in Europe.

To put it another way, this is equivalent to China investing heavily and taking huge risks. Even if the Large Hadron Collider is built, the control of the Large Hadron Collider is not in the hands of China, but in the hands of Europe. China has no

What right to speak.

This is simply like, you worked hard to give a sky-high betrothal gift to get a daughter-in-law, but the daughter-in-law gave birth to a child, and you found out that the child was not yours...

Liu Yichen felt that no one with any sense would agree to this project. Even if the Large Hadron Collider was to be built, the first step would be to train a large number of physicists, and excellent physicists.

Excellent engineers, when the personnel are available, the second step is to support the corresponding manufacturers to research the corresponding technology. When the technology is available, the final step is to build the Large Hadron Collider.

Unfortunately, at this time, Professor Gao and Professor Zhao were excitedly thinking about how to conduct experiments and what ideas to implement once their superiors really decided to build a Large Hadron Collider.

Liu Yichen shook his head and didn't say much. Sometimes he did feel that these pure scholars were really innocent and cute, and they were very idealistic in their minds.

When the flight attendant came over and asked if he needed something to drink, Liu Yichen asked the flight attendant to give him some juice, and then picked up the magazine and read it.

magazine, there is an article about the proof of the ‘standard conjecture’, with a total of 5 pages, mostly focusing on the development process of Liu Yichen and the four people.

Flipping through the magazine, Liu Yichen saw an article about introducing domestically produced large aircraft. During this year's National Day, a big news broke, that is, domestically produced large aircraft had reached a milestone and entered the test flight certification process.

The past few years have been the happiest years for China's large aircraft, and they have ushered in milestones one after another. After the successful first flight of the Y-20 on January 26, 2013, this year it was officially replaced with domestically produced aviation engines, getting rid of the dilemma of lack of confidence.

The ag-600 amphibious aircraft also rolled off the assembly line in Zhuhai this year and will be ready for its first flight next year at the latest.

As for the commercial large aircraft that attract the most attention, China has made great efforts on the C919 and C929, and the progress is quite gratifying. Moreover, the localization rate of domestic commercial large aircraft is very high, and almost all of them can be made domestically. Whether it is aviation engines or Beidou global
Chapter completed!