2023 Christmas was spent in peace.
The colonists in Guanghan City had successfully settled in their new homes. Except for a rare earth deposit with estimated reserves of more than 30 million tons, where the mining rights were sold to a large domestic mining company, news about Guanghan City seemed to have died down.
As this hot story faded from people’s attention, life seemed to have briefly returned to normal.
However, even though the world returned to normal, for the physics community, the situation was the opposite.
Like a gift from Santa Claus, a message from the ILHCRC attracted the attention of physicists from all over the world.
Professor Luo and the Secretary-General of the ILHCRC joined the Z particle gravitational anomaly research team.
Also, the gravitational wave formula for the Z particle was actually solved by Professor Wei Hong at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Professor Dobrik from the University of Brussels?
“This is incredible…”
ILHCRC cafe.
Professor Witten sat at the same place Lu Zhou and Luo Wenxuan were sitting last time. He looked at the paper in disbelief.
“From the perspective of a mathematician, this paper is quite exciting. His understanding of algebraic geometry and topology makes people wonder…”
Wilczek: “Wonder if Lu Zhou helped them?”
“Not quite…” Witten turned over the paper in his hand and said, “This is still below Lu Zhou’s standards, but for a scholar in particle physics research, his mathematics proficiency is quite impressive. After all, I have seen too many physics professors, who when doing operations on a mathematical model, would erase a certain letter in a line of formulas and pretend that nothing happened.”
Professor Wilczek, who was drinking black tea, almost choked on the tea. He coughed several times before he spoke.
“That analogy might offend some people…”
“Who cares?” Witten shrugged nonchalantly and said, “I’m old now.”
Over the years, more and more of his old friends had passed away. He would often send emails to his old friends, but there would be no reply.
Even he himself began to gradually feel that it had become increasingly difficult to adapt to the current pace of physics research.
Aging was inevitable.
Whether someone was the king or a peasant, it was impossible to escape this curse.
Since it was difficult to create new amazing achievements, the only thing that Witten cared about was seeing interesting things happen in his lifetime.
Professor Wilczek felt a little sad. He took a sip of the black tea and changed the topic smoothly.
“But anyway… I think this is what I expected. Since Lu Zhou likes this guy’s research, there is at least an 80% chance that there must be an amazing discovery behind this.”
Professor Wilczek felt that his statement was not accurate enough. He thought for a while and added, “Actually… 90% chance or more…”
“It’s not the Z particle gravitational wave formula that surprised me. Although its derivation process was ingenious and subtle, it was far from surprising. Forget about Lu Zhou, even I might be able to do it.”
Witten pushed his reading glasses up the bridge of his nose as he looked at the paper in his hand with an intrigued expression.
“What really surprised me was what Lu Zhou is doing…”
“Lu Zhou?” Wilczek looked at him strangely as he asked, “Isn’t he researching this?”
“Of course not. I can’t see traces of his calculations in this paper, and his name is not in the authors column. I bet that even if he doesn’t want to be named, his collaborators must really want to put his name on it, and they might even do so without authorization…”
Witten seemed to be thinking of something that had happened a long time ago, and a smile appeared on his wrinkled face.
“There is only one possibility for him to leave such an interesting research project alone…
“He must have discovered something more interesting.”
The moment he heard these words, Wilczek seemed to have thought of something. His pupils suddenly brightened as he muttered to himself, “And even he himself is not sure whether this theory is correct…”
Witten snapped his fingers and spoke with a smile.
“Yes.”
Wilczek smirked and said, “Well, I’m intrigued now! I want to visit him in Jinling and see what he is researching.”
Witten smiled and said, “You can’t see him.”
Wilczek: “Why?”
“From what I know about him, he will lock himself in his room when this happens.”
Witten put down the teacup, smiled nostalgically, and said, “He calls it a retreat.”
…
In fact, Professor Witten’s guess was correct.
Even though Lu Zhou had not started a retreat yet, he was already preparing for one.
Also, the topic he was researching, just like Professor Witten had guessed, was different from Professor Wei Hong and Professor Dobrik’s research.
The Z particle’s gravitational wave formula was a perfect result, but it could only be regarded as the first step for understanding the cause of gravity disturbance when Z particles fell from a high-dimensional to a low-dimensional space.
If he could succeed in this, it would undoubtedly be an amazing research result. But it was not easy to dig out all the clues in this field of research.
At least not in the short term.
In contrast, Lu Zhou discovered some other things in this area that interested him. Because of this, he temporarily turned his attention away from the research on the Z particle gravitational field disturbance.
However, this discovery might be even more ridiculous.
Even he himself wasn’t sure if his guess could be true.
However, this feeling of uncertainty ignited his thirst for knowledge, touching the soul of his science-hungry mind.
He should at least try.
Even if there was only a one percent probability, there was a chance!
“I might have to stay at home for a while… During this time, I won’t be able to contact you.”
During a video call.
Lu Zhou looked at Chen Yushan’s holographic image in front of him. He went silent for a while.
He hesitated for a long time before making this call.
Even he knew that no woman could bear her boyfriend not replying to her texts for a long period of time. Even if there was a valid reason, the girlfriend would think that this was “her fault”.
However, after hearing this, Chen Yushan’s reaction was beyond Lu Zhou’s expectations.
She smiled and said in a relaxed tone, “A retreat?”
“What? How do you know?”
“I’m your girlfriend, I know you well.” Chen Yushan couldn’t help but joke, “Also, you scared me, why were you so serious… I thought you were going to break up with me.”
“No way!”
“Who knows? What if there is a girl younger than me chasing after you? Also, I’m not always by your side. You have so many fans… Every time you post on Weibo, there are so many girls that want your babies…”
Although she had a joking look at the beginning, she couldn’t help but feel a little embarrassed at the end.
As for Lu Zhou, who was on the other end of the phone, he was stunned.
Want my babies?
Are my fans this perverted?
Emm…
Okay then.
Lu Zhou thought about how handsome he was.
“Fine, fine, I’ll stop joking around.”
Chen Yushan looked at Lu Zhou, who wanted to explain but didn’t know how to speak. Chen Yushan smirked at this dumbfounded guy.
She spoke in a gentle tone.
“Remember to take care of yourself. Even if the research is interesting, remember to eat and sleep on time.”
As Lu Zhou looked at his considerate and understanding girlfriend, he was so touched that he was almost speechless.
He gulped.
In the end, he finally said, “Yeah, you too!”
After hanging up the phone, Lu Zhou, who was still sitting at the desk, took a deep breath. To calm his mood, he focused all of his attention on the draft paper sitting on the desk.
“This should be the final stage…”
Lu Zhou gradually entered a flow state. He reached out and picked up the pen on the table.
“The final stage before mastering physics…”
Reaching level 10 in physics.
Just thinking about it made his heart jump out of his chest…
