368 The Flint Library Is A Place Full Of Treasures (3/3)

Chapter 368 Flint Library is a place full of treasures (33)

Although some things are public information, those things have been sorted out by others after all.

What Lu Zhou wanted to see was Lyman Spitzer's original idea of ​​the stellarator when he designed the stellarator.

At the same time, it is also a theoretical model set up from the perspective of a pure physicist.

"Lyman Spitzer's manuscript?" Edward Witten touched his chin and thought for a moment, "I haven't really paid attention to research in this area, but I remember he donated the manuscript to the Institute for Advanced Study at the end , which were bequeathed to the Flint Library for preservation at the turn of the millennium. If you are interested, you should be able to find them in the Flint Library's library."

Lu Zhou: "Is it in the Flint Library? Thank you."

"You're welcome," Witten smiled, and continued, "Actually, if you're interested in stellarators, why don't you consider visiting relevant research institutions? Now no one in Princeton is researching this thing, on the contrary Stanford, MIT, and Caltech have done a lot of research on this stuff."

Lu Zhou: "I will consider it if necessary, but before that, I have to determine my research direction."

The concept of controllable nuclear fusion is too big. Although the general description is only five words, the research projects involved, the name of the project alone is not less than five pages.

In a sense, one of the reasons why Lu Zhou wanted to borrow Lyman Spitzer's manuscript was to gain inspiration from it.

After listening to Lu Zhou's words, Witten took a sip of coffee and said with a smile: "I hope you can find what you are looking for."

"I'll borrow your good words."

After leaving these words with a smile, Lu Zhou said goodbye to Witten and walked outside the Institute for Advanced Study without stopping.

...

In academia there is a class of scholars who, while engaging in rigorous research work, still maintain a wild imagination.

For things that seem incredible to ordinary people, their first thought is by no means inclined to prove the impossibility of the matter from a professional point of view, but to try to give realistic meaning to fantasy from a scientific point of view.

Lyman Spitzer, is such a person.

In addition to him, Freeman Dyson, who proposed the concept of Dyson spheres, and Tsiolkovsky, who proposed the concept of space elevators, can all be included in this column.

Compared with the latter two, Lyman Spitzer is obviously not well-known, but no one can ignore his influence in physics, especially astrophysics.

Because it was he who first proposed putting the telescope into space to eliminate the shadowing effect of the earth's atmosphere, which later led to the birth of the "Hubble" space telescope.

In his honor, the last space telescope of the large orbiting observatory program, the Spitzer Space Telescope (SST) telescope, is named after him.

After saying goodbye to Witten, Lu Zhou went to the collection area of ​​the Flint Library and found the librarian here.

The person in charge of managing the collection of books here is an old man who looks a bit rigid and weird.

Although you can often see all kinds of weirdos in Princeton, it is quite rare for mystics who wear nightgowns as work clothes in the library like this.

Especially the cloudy eyes, people can't help but wonder if he is suffering from Alzheimer's, and whether he can still hear what others say.

However, to Lu Zhou's surprise, after the old man heard his intention, not only did he not respond in any way, he even came to a two-person high bookshelf very quickly, and took the bookcase from it with the help of a ladder. A thick notebook covered in cowhide.

Back at the log counter, the old man put on a straight face and handed the notebook in his hand to Lu Zhou.

"Here's what you want."

"thanks."

Lu Zhou thanked him and reached out to pick up the manuscript.

However, the old man didn't make him what he wanted, as if he was fishing, the outstretched hand retracted at an exaggerated speed in an instant.

Lu Zhou:? ? ?

With an indifferent face on the floor, the old man stretched out his withered hand again.

"This is the wealth of civilization, please keep it safe."

It seemed that he was just planning to give himself a piece of advice.

However, at this time Lu Zhou noticed that the old man's hand holding the notebook was shaking all the time, as if he was waiting for an opportunity.

"I see... Can you give it to me now?" Lu Zhou looked at the old man in front of him with a strange face, but he didn't reach out to pick up the notebook.

It always feels like the old man is deliberately teasing him.

Seeing that Lu Zhou wasn't fooled, the old man's eyes flashed a hint of disappointment that he didn't succeed, coughed lightly, and continued to speak with a straight face.

"Of course...but before that, you have to swear that what it was when you borrowed it, and what it will be when you return it."

Lu Zhou raised three fingers.

"I swear……"

"Don't swear to me," the old man took out a Bible he bought from someone who didn't know where, and looked at Lu Zhou seriously, "You have to swear to it."

Looking at the Bible, Lu Zhou was full of helplessness.

What's the use of getting an atheist to swear on this thing?

It would be better to give him a copy of Newton's "Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy" or Einstein's "Unified Field Theory", which can still look a little more solemn.

However, in order to save time, Lu Zhou didn't talk so much nonsense. He put his hand on the cross of the Bible as he said, and said in an honest tone.

"I promise, what it looked like when you borrowed it, it will still look like it when you come back."

Although he was a little dissatisfied with Lu Zhou's lack of solemnity, after he completed this weird ceremony, the old man nodded reluctantly and handed over the manuscript to him.

"I hope you remember your promise."

"I will."

Without stopping for a moment, after receiving the manuscript, Lu Zhou immediately walked to the next reading room...

...

Since time has given it the property of a cultural relic, even if Lu Zhou borrowed the book from the Flint Library, Lu Zhou could not really take the manuscript out of the library, and could only read it in the reading room of the book collection area.

For some documents with a history of hundreds of years, you even have to pass the relevant qualification examination and wear special gloves before borrowing.

However, this note is relatively "new", with a history of only sixty years.

Spreading it out on the table, Lu Zhou began to study it carefully from the first page.

It is not easy to fully understand the content. Lyman Spitzer's notes are just like his unrestrained imagination. While the handwriting is scribbled, it is also mixed with some stick figures of unknown meaning.

I don't know what kind of mood he wrote that will and donated all his manuscripts to the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton.

Lu Zhou felt that if it was him, he would definitely not allow such "unclear" things to stay in the world...

After spending an afternoon, Lu Zhou saw it from beginning to end.

Although many places are difficult to understand, after reading it, he still feels that he has benefited a lot.

Especially for the pre-technology to complete the final vision of the stellarator, Lyman Spitzer's judgment is basically consistent with his own conclusions.

"...It's unimaginable that this is something from 60 years ago." After closing the old manuscript, Lu Zhou couldn't help feeling softly, and gave his own evaluation.

Even now, if you extract the thoughts in this note and the design concept of the stellarator, you can still get a paper with great academic value.

Of course, it's been sixty years, and this job must have been done.

Putting the manuscript aside and looking at the contents in the notebook, Lu Zhou fell into thought.

Controllable nuclear fusion is a huge project, whether it is its own significance or the broad prospects behind it, it is enough to arouse his interest.

The problem, however, is that he needs to choose a suitable entry point.

Is it a superconducting material closer to room temperature?

Or, from a mathematical point of view, try to study "the law of motion of plasma in stellarator"?

The former two are at the application level, while the latter is at the theoretical level, no matter which one is difficult.

The latter, in particular, involves the study of quite complex plasma turbulence phenomena, which can be said to be the most difficult and complicated part of the many research directions on the Navier-Stokes equation.

Because so far, the measures that people can take about plasma are only "diagnosis", not "measurement".

However, once this problem is effectively solved, not only will the progress of nuclear fusion engineering be promoted, but also the research on the Navier-Stokes equation will be very inspiring...

Just like that, about ten minutes passed in silence.

A smile suddenly appeared on the corner of his mouth. Lu Zhou raised his pen and drew a circle on the line "the law of motion of plasma in stellarator".

After closing the notebook in his hand, he took the manuscript and his own things and stood up from the chair.

Sure enough, it is still a more challenging problem, which is more suitable for me.

Ever since he solved Goldbach's conjecture, there has never been an unanswerable question that made him feel so excited...

It broke out, ask for a ticket~~~