From black technology to super engineering

Massachusetts, MIT.

Although it was already 8 o'clock in the evening, Professor Dennis White's "Nuclear Workshop" was still brightly lit and even full of voices.

As Director of the MIT Center for Plasma Science and Fusion, Professor Dennis White is a recognized leader in fusion research.

In addition to his academic attainments and reputation, what Professor Dennis likes most about his students is that he abandoned the traditional standard teaching very early—no longer giving lectures and playing PPT, but actively encouraging his students to find more More solutions, and solve more practical problems.

So as early as ten years ago, he assigned students a task of using the second-generation high-temperature superconducting magnet REBCO to complete the task of improving the clumsy and huge tokamak device of ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor Project) at that time.

Facts have proved that Professor Dennis' teaching method is feasible, at least among a group of students with high IQ and strong scientific interest.

After some efforts, his students came up with a steady-state tokamak called "Vulcan".

Then, Professor Dennis assigned the task to the students again, asking his students to complete a new, miniaturized, replaceable magnet tokamak device based on the previous design.

In a constant process of “asking questions,” his students have also been working on solving them, and finally, two years ago, they completed a small fusion device called SPARC.

Among them, the D-shaped magnet used to confine high-temperature ions is only 2 meters high and 1 meter wide-about 1/8 of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor Project Cooperation Organization ITER.

And half a year ago, Professor Dennis proposed a task for his students again.

——Understanding the idea of ​​the constraint trap proposed by that eastern genius at an academic conference, and cooperating with the article in the "Physical Yearbook" to complete a bold attempt.

Only this time... His student was a little bit crazy.

At first, the students made no progress at all, and even had difficulty understanding Yeming's thinking.

Until September, YE-equation was officially announced.

Like a dawn that dispelled the darkness, Professor Dennis' team took the lead in finding a set of spatial solutions under high field strength.

They then actively worked on the design.

...

"Professor, although there is no problem with the field strength, the silicon carbide substrate can't stand it."

Standing in front of this small fusion reactor with a height of one person and a diameter of about four meters that has been disassembled, Mengjiade was excited but also worried. He was a professor's Ph.D. more than ten years ago. After graduation, he was recommended by Professor Dennis to go to Harvard. He was just hired as an associate professor this year.

Because of his familiarity, Mengjiade also became the best leader of the Harvard-MIT joint team.

"What's the problem?" Professor Dennis looked at his "protégé", persuading him as always.

Meng Jiade laughed: "Maybe it's a breakdown problem, maybe it's an electron migration or loss problem, and it still needs to be dismantled and analyzed."

"Then wait for the analysis. By the way, look here." Professor Dennis pointed to the reactor in the middle: "The escaped neutrons did a good job."

"But it's also well restrained."

"Yes, otherwise why is it called a miracle?"

As Professor Dennis said, he looked up, telepathically, and looked at Professor Huo Laien, who was walking over like flying.

"George." Dennis opened his arms.

"No time." Professor Huo Laien refused to hug, just took the other's hand and shook it, and then stood in front of the reactor.

"Is it because the YE field attenuates at 30KeV?" Professor Horian looked at the core of the reactor and asked after a few seconds of silence.

Professor Dennis and Mengjiade looked at each other, the latter frowned slightly, nodded after a few seconds of hesitation: "Yes, but the restraint can be stabilized by pressurizing the restraint device."

Professor Huo Laien was silent, and after a while, he exhaled softly.

"Is there a problem?" Professor Dennis looked at his old friend, keenly aware of something wrong with Professor Hollyn.

"There is a little problem. I contacted Ye, and he said that if you use silicon carbide or gallium nitride, the problem of electron loss is difficult to solve."

Professor Dennis was slightly taken aback, and then frowned: "They did it?"

"No?"

"If not..." After a few seconds of silence, Professor Dennis laughed: "Then let's talk about it after we try it—I don't believe in mathematics, but I think it's better to do it directly than to predict without a formula." , it is more effective to face the problem and then solve it.”

"..."

*

*

Provincial Jiaotong University Auditorium.

Ye Ming didn't tell everyone why he "can't go far".

He just gave a speech step by step according to the content of the PPT.

Finally, after fully unfolding and describing the equation, Ye Ming started to open a new page of PPT.

"...Back to our restraint field."

As soon as he finished speaking, he saw that many scholars in the field visibly lifted their spirits!

He smiled slightly.

"In the confinement field, there is an escape solution, or escape function. In the confinement field model, the solution is related to the breakdown field strength and electron mobility of the substrate."

While talking, Ye Ming picked up the pen and walked towards the whiteboard.

"Please vote for the content on the whiteboard."

"For example here."

Ye Ming quickly built a constraint field model: "Let's substitute a few values ​​at random... Well, let's bring in the model of the MIT reactor that announced it had been in operation for fifteen minutes."

"They claim to have continued to react at a high temperature of 20KeV for 15 minutes, and terminated at 30KeV-if they are not short of money, they can continue to respond to higher records and conditions. Then we have reason to believe that they are at 30KeV There's a problem."

"What's the problem? Obviously constraint decay."

"Then according to the information I have inquired, the equivalent field strength of their confinement is 30 tesla, so according to calculations, their electrode base material should be silicon carbide, because the gallium nitride base will be higher... the energy is... ..."

Ye Ming kept talking while writing down various data.

"Now expand the equation and let's do the math."

Ye Ming stopped writing and looked at the whole whiteboard seriously.

Under the stage, several mathematicians have already started to pick up their pens. But immediately they gave up...

Because Ye's equation is a very complex equation system after expansion, if you want to use a pen to calculate, you can't think about it without half a draft.

"Well, the values ​​are as follows."

Ye Ming didn't care about shocking the world as he spoke, and directly wrote down the data on a new whiteboard.

"These solutions are actually useless, we only need to look at this solution."

Ye Ming circled a relational expression while speaking.

"It's a relation for escaped electrons, and I haven't found the right tools to describe it exactly, but it's clear that the function will have a threshold for several variables."

"The threshold is their end point."