As Xiao Yu issued the command, the 200,000-plus nuclear fusion reactors installed along the large particle collider around Tianyuan IV roared to life at full capacity. Instrunts at the starting point launched two protons in opposite directions. These protons, once released, entered the first stage of the accelerator, where their speed increased, then the second stage, where they accelerated further, and so on.
Stage by stage, the protons were accelerated to velocities infinitesimally close to the speed of light.
According to relativity, accelerating even a single proton to the speed of light would require infinite energy—an unbreakable limit proven by countless experints. Xiao Yu was no exception to this universal law.
However, the energy generated by more than 200,000 nuclear fusion reactors was colossal. All of this energy was directed at accelerating the two protons, driving their energy levels to unimaginable heights.
The protons were now moving at speeds so close to light that the difference was negligible.
This is why larger particle colliders have greater scientific value: the larger the collider, the higher the acceleration achievable for particles. At the mont of collision, higher energy levels yield more aningful scientific insights.
The particle collider built by Xiao Yu around Tianyuan IV was capable of accelerating the particles to energy levels equivalent to those one femtosecond after the Big Bang. At such energy levels, the colliding particles would shatter completely, revealing the secrets hidden within their structures.
Fueled by the full power of the nuclear fusion reactors, the protons accelerated continuously until they collided violently at a precise point within the collider.
At the collision site, the temperature exceeded hundreds of billions of degrees. In that mont, the energy levels far surpassed those of two neutron stars colliding.
Yet, paradoxically, the total energy involved in this collision was smaller than the kinetic energy of a single high-velocity machine gun bullet. This seeming contradiction arose from the particles’ minuscule size. Much like how a woman’s high-heeled shoe exerts greater pressure on the ground than an elephant’s foot, size does not equate to mass.
Xiao Yu observed as a microscopic black hole briefly ford at the collision site. However, it evaporated almost instantly, disappearing before it could consu any material. Its minuscule size rendered its lifespan vanishingly short.
At the mont the black hole vanished, Xiao Yu’s ultra-precise observational instrunts detected nurous indescribable phenona. The sheer volu of data overwheld him, leaving no ti for imdiate analysis. He instead recorded everything ticulously for later study.
The first collision experint lasted 30 minutes. Xiao Yu gathered several terabytes of observational data.
This raw data would serve as the foundation for Xiao Yu’s research into the microscopic world.
“I hope the completion of the large particle collider around Tianyuan IV will bring breakthroughs in the microscopic realm, help overco the barriers of superluminal communication technology, validate the Higgs chanism, or even unify the four fundantal forces,” Xiao Yu murmured to himself as he turned to the sea of data, beginning intensive calculations.
Xiao Yu understood that even if he derived definitive physical formulas now, their practical applications would take ti to manifest. Just as Einstein’s mass-energy equivalence formula took decades to lead to the atomic bomb and further decades to the nuclear power plant, the lag between theoretical physics and technological application was inevitable.
Yet, the importance of physical theory lies in this very aspect. Without foundational physics to guide developnt, technological progress would be directionless.
As foundational physics advances, civilizations inevitably encounter technological stagnation, where technological growth outpaces theoretical innovation. This happens because physical theories grow increasingly complex, requiring the collective efforts of generations of scientists to advance even increntally. Such progress might take thousands of years, tens of thousands, or even eternity.
Xiao Yu possessed a unique advantage in this regard. With sufficient computational power, Xiao Yu’s ability to drive technological advancent singlehandedly rivaled, or even surpassed, that of entire civilizations combined. He saw no need to regret the millennia spent in transit—on a cosmic scale, thousands of years pass in the blink of an eye.
Furthermore, Xiao Yu had another edge. He once calculated that if humanity reached a population of 100 billion and possessed his current level of technology, building the large particle collider around Tianyuan IV would still take several centuries. This is because a civilization’s resources are spread across countless developnt fronts, unlike Xiao Yu’s focused execution.
Analyzing the data from the first collision experint took Xiao Yu three months. Afterward, he initiated the particle collider again for a second collision test, carefully comparing the new data with the previous set to eliminate potential experintal errors.
During these two experints, Xiao Yu observed a remarkable new particle. It had no spin, no charge, and was extrely unstable, decaying almost imdiately after its creation. While Xiao Yu was certain it was a novel boson, he could not yet confirm whether it was the Higgs boson. Further verification would require additional experints.
Over the ten years following the completion of the large particle collider around Tianyuan IV, Xiao Yu conducted hundreds of collision experints, gathering vast amounts of data. After comprehensive analysis, Xiao Yu finally arrived at a conclusion: the new boson he had discovered was indeed the legendary “God Particle,” the Higgs boson.
At that mont, Xiao Yu felt an imnse sense of relief. The significance of the Higgs boson was monuntal.
Earth’s scientists had once developed the “Standard Model,” a frawork predicting the existence of 61 fundantal particles in the microscopic world. Sixty of these particles had been experintally verified, but the Higgs boson had remained elusive.
If the Higgs boson were proven not to exist, the Standard Model would be invalidated, forcing humanity to reconstruct its understanding of microphysics. Conversely, verifying its existence would solidify human physics theories and provide a critical explanation for one of the universe’s most fundantal questions: where does mass co from?
The Higgs chanism posits that the universe is perated by a field called the Higgs field. Particles interact with this field to acquire energy, and since energy equates to mass, everything in the universe possesses mass as a result. The Higgs boson, predicted by the Standard Model, is an inevitable byproduct of this energy acquisition process.
By confirming the existence of the Higgs boson, Xiao Yu also validated the Higgs chanism and the Higgs field. This opened the door for Xiao Yu to explore the chanism further and, potentially, to unlock the secret of extracting energy from the void.
While researching the Higgs boson, Xiao Yu encountered another strange phenonon during the hundreds of collision experints.
He observed that the total mass—or energy—of the system inexplicably increased. For instance, if the combined mass of the two colliding particles was 10,000, the mass of the collision debris would asure 10,001.
The sheer number of experints ruled out asurent errors. Xiao Yu’s repeated increases in experintal precision eliminated the possibility of external material contaminating the collisions.
So, where did this additional mass co from? Puzzled, Xiao Yu embarked on an extensive research effort, but he could not find an answer.
Unable to resolve the mystery, Xiao Yu decided to temporarily set aside the issue, storing all experintal data for future investigation.
After verifying the Higgs boson’s existence, Xiao Yu shifted his focus to researching superluminal communication. Perhaps buoyed by the recent success, Xiao Yu made rapid progress. By the 20th year following the completion of the large particle collider, Xiao Yu successfully constructed the first superluminal communication device.
Two devices were built. One was installed on Tianyuan A, and the other at the particle collider. Xiao Yu planned to send a signal from the device on Tianyuan A to the one at the collider, which would then relay the ssage back using conventional communication thods.
The devices were 21 million kiloters apart. Using traditional signal transmission, a round trip would take 140 seconds. However, with superluminal communication for the outbound journey and conventional transmission for the return, Xiao Yu expected a response in just 70 seconds.
Including signal processing ti, the total delay was calculated to be no more than 70.3 seconds.
Stationed in geosynchronous orbit above Tianyuan A, Xiao Yu steadied his thoughts, activated the device, and sent the first signal:
“Hello, Universe. My na is Xiao Yu, and I co from Earth.”
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