Chapter 531

Southeast of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

On the evening of the 6th, a heavy snow covered this modern city, and even by the next day, the heavy snow hadn't stopped.

The young man wrapped in a black down jacket moved forward against the wind and snow. The snow didn't show any signs of stopping, and the cold wind mixed with snow grains fell on people one after another.

"Hoo~"

At the office door, Xu Qingzhou shook the snow grains off his clothes and stomped his feet twice before walking into the office.

Instantly, three pairs of eyes stared at him eagerly.

"Mr. Carson, I think it's necessary for us to add another fire to the heated superconducting thin film field."

Xu Qingzhou didn't play coy this time, handing the characterization test report to Carson.

"All four sets of samples are qualified!" Carson flipped through the report and grinned foolishly. All indicators reached commercial-grade standards; no, the core Jc even exceeded it by a large margin.

Sun Simin and Ma Ersi were also full of excitement.

Xu Qingzhou smiled faintly, understanding everyone's excitement. Counting it up, since he returned from the New Year, everyone had been working continuously for more than three weeks.

Doing experiments, there are always small accidents. For example, just after solving the roughness problem, the grain size had an accident, and the numerical value rose sharply—it belongs to the category of "pressing the gourd and the ladle floats up."

It was 5 days later than expected, but fortunately, hard work pays off. All values tended to be stable. Since the topological superconducting interface engineering was completed, they could enter the next stage and raise the Jc performance to 3.0×10^6 A/cm².

Of course, first, everyone had to be given a small break.

"Alright, everyone, I believe you can all have a good sleep tonight. Enjoy the 4-day holiday and relax."

"Long live the professor!"

"By the way, Carson, don't forget to synchronize our research progress... We've been chasing, and now it's time to put some pressure on others."

"Don't worry, boss. I was already conceiving the copy last night. This time, I must let those guys who have already opened champagne and are preparing to celebrate know what a miracle is!"

3:00 PM, Xu Qingzhou drove out of MIT, first to buy groceries, then back to the apartment. There was only the little useless Er Miao at home; Song Yao was still at school dealing with the project with Professor Morton.

"Lying down is still the most comfortable."

Xu Qingzhou leaned back on the sofa, hands behind his head. Returning to a familiar environment, his spirit immediately relaxed. He had been busy to the point of taking off during this period.

Seeing the bipedal beast lie down, Er Miao wagged its tail and came over, curling up on Xu Qingzhou's belly to sleep.

After a while, Song Yao sent a message saying she would be home at 5:30.

After replying to Song Yao, Xu Qingzhou had nothing to do and opened Weibo. Not having entered this platform for a while, he had gained another hundred thousand followers.

His topics were quite numerous.

He looked carefully and realized it was because the news of the partner particle had spread back to the country.

"Xu Shen is awesome!"

"I was wondering why Xu Shen had been silent for so long; it turns out he was holding back a big one."

"Higgs boson partner particle... Is this discovery by Xu Shen enough to win this year's Nobel Prize!"

"The Nobel Prize in Physics is usually awarded to scientists who have 'made the most significant discovery or invention in the field of physics.' The discovery of the partner particle is a breakthrough, but it wasn't proposed or discovered by Xu Shen alone. The physics community has had many achievements in recent years, such as physical cosmology, quantum information and quantum computing, neutrino mass ordering, atomic, molecular, and optical physics... It's blooming everywhere, giving people the feeling that the world is about to have another technological revolution."

"That's right, and the Nobel Prize usually has a delay. I feel that even if he could win, it might be a few years later, but I think nomination shouldn't be a problem."

"Then the question comes, I saw news a few days ago; isn't Xu Shen doing experiments in condensed matter?"

"Xu Qingzhou: Don't worry about the hacker's business."

"The more you know, the more you'll find that Xu Qingzhou is a bug in this world; he knows everything and is proficient in everything."

"Brother, new fan, right? Old fans all know that Xu Shen is multi-core running..."

The Weibo comment section was quite lively.

Xu Qingzhou browsed Weibo for a while, then glanced at the experimental progress Carson had synchronized. Seeing no problems, he got up to prepare the food.

That netizen was right; there was a possibility of winning the Nobel Prize in Physics, but the competition was huge. Currently, the most popular ones were still topological materials in condensed matter, quantum entanglement...

Although, if he remembered correctly, it was awarded to cosmology.

He wasn't in a rush; Nobel Prize, it's just a matter of time.

At the same time, in MIT's James Laboratory.

Pani Neck had just come out of the laboratory, scrolling through his phone waiting for a friend to go drinking together.

A few minutes later, young physicist Gott Barnes also came out.

Neck looked at the news on the forum and said to Barnes with some emotion, "Oh, I still didn't expect Xu Qingzhou to run off to do particle physics experiments."

"Higgs boson partner particle..."

Barnes showed a strange expression, changing into his down jacket. "Could it be... he discovered that superconducting thin films have no future and cut his losses in time? But why not do the math he's best at?"

It's no wonder Barnes thought this way; no matter how smart a person is, they have 24 hours just like them.

Calculating the interval of the partner particle isn't something that can be completed overnight.

To this day, he still couldn't understand why such a hot mathematician, having just won the Fields Medal and being world-famous, could be said to be at the peak of his career, yet he didn't study mathematics and instead ran into their physics field to stir up trouble.

Some big shots are indeed proficient in both mathematics and physics, but they usually have a focus.

Like Xu Qingzhou, hitting here and hitting there, is truly rare.

"Maybe."

Neck shrugged.

From the current point of view, Xu Qingzhou's team still has something; they were able to make industrial-grade superconducting thin films in a short time, but unfortunately, their entry time was wrong.

In recent years, superconducting thin films have been developing rapidly.

At some conferences, experts even proposed raising the commercial-grade standard from 1.5×10^6 A/cm² to 3×10^6 A/cm².

Because superconducting thin films with Jc(12T)≥1.5×10^6 A/cm² can no longer meet future compact fusion reactors and high-field accelerators, they can only be used for scientific research and prototypes.

Although it was rejected, it still shows to a certain extent that superconducting thin films are developing rapidly.

"Alright, Barnes, we need to hurry; we can't let the girls wait too long... I've already asked Emil to find out clearly that the hot beauty from the last party will also be there."

"Oh, hurry up!"

Barnes changed his clothes in a few seconds.

Just before the two went out, two figures rushed into the office. The leader was an old man with white hair, looking about fifty years old, not smiling, his wrinkles squeezed together as if to form two words: Serious.

He was the head of the research group, Professor James.

Barnes and Neck looked at each other, their expressions slightly stunned.

They were too familiar with Professor James's current expression; it proved that something big had happened, like 1 year ago, when the project they had studied for more than half a year was snatched by someone else.

The middle-aged man behind Professor James also had a somewhat solemn expression, saying in a deep voice to the two people who were about to get off work: "Gentlemen, I think your party will have to be canceled."

(End of chapter)