Voyage of the Stars

"Everything you said makes sense, but I still say that with our current technology, we simply cannot build such a particle collider. Of course, I also hope that we can have such a collider, and that we can achieve great success. unified theory, but”

Yu Nanfeng spread his hands and looked helpless: "I went to the Academy of Materials Science before I came here. They said that our research in the micro and nano fields has hit a bottleneck. The same is true for the scientists from the Red Flame Civilization in the United Academy of Sciences. I think we can no longer make stronger materials from smaller structures."

Yu Nanfeng came earlier than Liu Miyan. He had told Yue Yuan these words before, but now he was just repeating them. Apparently he had already considered the matter of a more powerful particle collider before Liu Miyan came to tell Yue Yuan about it.

It's not a leak. After all, this matter is no longer a secret among scientists. As early as hundreds of years ago, everyone knew that the space multi-point particle collider could not satisfy the appetite of experimental physicists.

"Oh? What does this mean? Do they think there should be further progress in materials technology, or do they think they have reached the end before realizing a grand unified theory?" Liu Miyan touched his chin, as if thinking about what Yu Nanfeng said. look like.

"It's both." Yu Nanfeng gave a surprising answer. He didn't have the habit of showing off, and went on to explain directly: "At the third-level civilization level, we have reached the microscopic end of what we can do. Certainly, from this perspective, our nanotechnology is already the pinnacle of the third-level civilization. Unless the grand unified theory is realized, there is no possibility of progress.

It can be said that there is no way to improve the basics, but there are other possibilities in terms of structure, such as our No. 1 alloy and No. 2 alloy, which should be familiar to you. "

"Of course." Liu Miyan said cooperatively.

Yu Nanfeng nodded, glanced at the faces of Yue Yuan and Liu Miyan, and then said: "I learned about it from the Academy of Materials Science. In fact, judging from our current technical level, we were able to produce these two alloys back then. , shit luck accounts for most of it.

Although it seems to be researched from the wreckage of the unknown civilization spacecraft, Academician Xu actually told me that when they were researching it, they were actually a little confused. Let’s put it this way, the emergence of No. 1 Alloy was actually their result in 100 million points. In the face of a probability of 1/1, he successfully mistook various parameters, which is simply unbelievable. As you later learned, they successfully replicated the manufacturing process of Alloy No. 1 based on that parameter.

In fact, before truly grasping the core of true nanotechnology, No. 1 and No. 2 alloys have always been a black technology for us humans. We know how to make it but don’t know why it is so powerful. Of course, later we went deeper into microscopic Later I learned that it was because the two alloys themselves were quantum materials. "

Liu Miyan is very clear about quantum materials, and even Yue Yuan knows it.

We are not talking about quantum effect materials, but that the manufacturing process of No. 1 and No. 2 alloys uses quantum technologies, such as condensed matter dialysis, quantum state coherence technology used in single defect impurity doping, trapped ion technology, and quantum simulation. Atomic array technology and so on.

Seeing that both of them seemed to understand, Yu Nanfeng continued: "So we still hope to create some magical materials by changing the composition and structure of matter at the level of existing nanotechnology."

As soon as these words came out, Liu Miyan heard something was wrong, and he immediately interrupted: "Wait a minute, what magical material? Don't think that because you are engaged in particle physics, you don't know anything about material technology. As far as I know, If we want to build a more powerful collider, our existing materials will be enough, right?

To build a collider with a length of 6684.6 astronomical units, we only need to splice the modularly produced structures in space. What magical materials should we use? "

Yu Nanfeng: "."

Do you really want to build a collider with such a length? If you want to study the theory of everything in the future, wouldn’t you have to build a circular ion collider with a diameter of 100 billion light-years?

This is simply not realistic.

Yu Nanfeng felt that these particle physicists and experimental physicists were really going to be crazier than himself. Although he also pursued bigger, stronger, and powerful miracles in engineering design, he at least considered whether it was feasible in engineering. , these guys said while patting their heads.

I don’t even think about how many star systems would have to be hollowed out to build a 6684.6 AU collider. In terms of engineering difficulty, both it and the Dyson sphere have their own difficulties.

One is to consider the gravitational factor of the star, and the other is to consider various parameter issues caused by being too far away.

In fact, with current human technology, it is possible to create a Dyson sphere, but it will take a long, long time. Taking a star that is too far away and so large as an example, the materials required to create a Dyson sphere with a thickness of about one hundred meters to wrap it would not be enough for all the planets in the entire solar system combined. Not including the sun itself.

A rough calculation shows that mining all the planets and asteroids in the entire solar system except the sun would only be enough to provide about 17% of the material required for the Dyson sphere. Therefore, if we want to build a Dyson sphere, humans have to go to other star systems to mine. Based on a rough estimate of this ratio, it is probably enough to hollow out six star systems.

Why build a Dyson ball if you have this ability?

In comparison, building a 6674.6 astronomical unit particle collider with a radius of fifty meters will probably consume less material. However, such a long collider is not just made of materials. It involves a series of issues such as various instruments and equipment for each accelerator node, the energy supply system of each node accelerator, time delay allocation, etc.

Capturing and observing high-energy level collisions is also a big problem. Humans have only calculated them theoretically and have not created corresponding creations. No one is sure whether they can be observed using the original method. There are so many technical details and problems that need to be overcome. .

With all the scientists in human civilization currently working hard, no one knows when and how long it will take to conquer them all, and then allow such a huge project to enter the so-called feasibility simulation verification stage.

All in all, this is an extremely huge project.

If we really want to do it, humans must be mentally prepared to hollow out all the planets in six star systems, and success may not be possible.

The most embarrassing thing is that like other small projects, this thing cannot first make a sample to verify the feasibility of construction. It can only demonstrate the feasibility in simulation, and once the construction starts, it cannot be stopped, and there is no guarantee of success. kind.

Another point is that given the current wandering nature of human civilization, it is estimated that this collider will have to be mobile. After all, if you really want to build it, it would be a pity if you can’t take it away after using it, and this requirement will inevitably increase the difficulty of the project.

"Old Liu, do you really want to build this thing?" Yu Nanfeng smacked his lips after struggling for a long time.

"Apart from this, do we have any other choice?" Liu Miyan blinked and asked.

Creating this kind of thing doesn't have much to do with him, so he looks like he doesn't think it's a big deal. Anyway, if he proposes it first, he might actually do it, even if he can't develop a grand unified theory after it is finally created. , that would also rule out a wrong path for mankind to explore a grand unified theory, wouldn’t it?