Great Country Academician

Chapter 120 Betelgeuse's Scientific Research Project

Xu Chuan did not expect that the Morning Star Mathematics Award was awarded more than two months earlier because of him. At first he thought that some observatory had applied for it or other good news, but he did not expect it to be this.

Although this is indeed good news from an honor point of view, it is the same for him if the Morning Star Mathematics Prize is awarded in May and in July or August.

It's just that if other people know about this idea, they will definitely say that he got a bargain and is a good boy.

It can make the Chinese Fields Awards change the awarding time, which can be boasted for a lifetime, okay?

But to him, it didn't seem like a big deal.

For him, achievements and academic breakthroughs are far more important than glory, and he doesn't mind too much even if he doesn't get any awards after proving the Weyl-Berry conjecture.

It may be pretentious to say so, but he really thinks so in his heart.

Sooner or later, or not, he was there.

"You don't seem to be very excited, why, do you think the grade of the Morning Star Mathematics Award is low?"

In the office, Zhang Zhengping asked with a smile after looking at Xu Chuan's state.

"That's not true. Winning the Chinese Fields Medal is worthwhile for any mathematician. It's just that I'm a little worried. It's suddenly awarded two months in advance, won't people gossip ?” Xu Chuan asked curiously.

"Don't worry about this, you can just wait for the award with peace of mind, no one will gossip."

Chen Zhengping smiled, and continued: "Oh, there is one more thing, the astronomical equipment and observatory you applied for before have been approved, and the use period is from March 10th to March 30th, for a period of Twenty days, during these twenty days you can freely use various professional equipment of the Department of Astronomy."

"Of course, because yours is a scientific research project, you need to pay a certain usage fee, but it's fine to pay for it from the scientific research project you applied for approval."

"Don't worry about money. A total of 2.4 million scientific research projects have been approved in the name of the follow-up expansion of the Xu-Weil-Berry Theorem."

Speaking of this, Chen Zhengping sighed: "A freshman student who presided over a scientific research project worth more than 2 million yuan, let alone in Nantah University, even in the entire Huaguo, and even the whole world, may be the first case. "

"The scientific research project I participated in when I was in college, the most funded was only 80,000 yuan."

"Without the contributions of great scholars like you, teacher, how could we have the prosperity we have today." Xu Chuan said with a smile.

"Okay, don't be poor."

Chen Zhengping gave Xu Chuan a blank look, and continued: "About scientific research projects, this should be the first time for you here. Tomorrow, you can go to your senior brother Fan Pengyue. He can help you with procedures, documents and other things. Including the use of scientific research project funds and reimbursement, you should follow along."

"After all, based on your development, it is estimated that there will be many follow-up scientific research projects, so you still need to be familiar with the familiar process."

Xu Chuan nodded and agreed. Although controlling scientific research funds and scientific research projects is very familiar to him, he is still not very clear about the domestic routine.

On the other side, Chen Zhengping added after thinking for a while: "Oh, by the way, if you need to use some complex and sophisticated astronomical equipment for your scientific research project this time, I suggest you hire some experts from the Department of Astronomy or Astrophysics. PhD students."

"On the one hand, it is to avoid damage to the equipment, and on the other hand, they have more experience in operating these equipment, and can observe the data you need more accurately."

"OK, all right."

Xu Chuan nodded, even if Chen Zhengping didn't mention these things, he would still consider them.

He has special skills in the field of science. Although astrophysics is also physics, it has nothing to do with his research in his previous life. He really doesn't know how to use those professional astronomical equipment to obtain the data he needs.

Coming out of the tutor's office, the news that the application for the right to use astronomical equipment was approved made Xu Chuan look up at the sky happily.

Although the light pollution in the city is serious, the weather is good today, and it will be night time, when the moon is shining, and the sparse stars hang clearly and brightly on the black curtain.

And in the east, there is a group of bright stars shining.

That is the constellation Orion, which is easily recognizable in the night sky. Its main body consists of seven stars, four of which form a huge quadrilateral, and the three stars in the middle of the quadrilateral are arranged diagonally in a straight line.

In this group of stars, there is a distinctive star on the left shoulder at the top. It emits an orange-red light visible to the naked eye, which is completely different from the cold white light emitted by other stars.

This star is called Betelgeuse, and it is also the object of his observation this time.

Betelgeuse can be seen all year round in the northern hemisphere.

But winter is the best observational reality, especially in December at the end of the year. It rises from the east at dusk and is located on the shoulder of Orion.

Seen with the naked eye from Earth, it might be about the size of a fingernail.

But 640 light-years away, it is a star much larger than the sun.

Physically speaking, Betelgeuse's current expansion radius is about 8 astronomical units (AU).

If you put it in the center of the solar system, Betelgeuse would probably extend well beyond the orbit of Jupiter.

That is to say, if it is located in the center of the solar system, its surface will go beyond the asteroid belt, reach and surpass the orbit of Jupiter, completely sweep away Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars, and some people even think that it is enough to swallow Asteroid belt and Jupiter.

The reason for this cognitive bias is that the distance is too far away, making it impossible for people to estimate the accurate diameter.

In addition, Betelgeuse itself is also periodically changing its shape, coupled with the theory of variable star pulsation of luminosity, and angular diameter changes with wavelength, and Betelgeuse has some complex, asymmetric envelopes Wait, it makes it impossible to judge the precise diameter.

Xu Chuan is very interested in this massive star whose life has reached its twilight years.

There are many puzzles on it, and if part of it can be solved, it will be a historical record.

Now that the astronomical observation equipment has been applied for, it means that it will be able to study it in another week.

Returning to the dormitory from his tutor's office, Xu Chuan temporarily put aside his research on the 'Proton Radius Mystery' and turned his attention to Betelgeuse.

Before that, he has collected a lot of information on Betelgeuse, from basic star parameters to photos, to complex dynamics of Betelgeuse's extended atmosphere and plume gas ejection, etc.

He has seen these things once, but he still feels miraculous so far.

Just like in 2009, an infrared interferometry study conducted by the Australian Institute of Infrared Research stated that since 1993, Betelgeuse has shrunk by 15% at an increasing rate, but its apparent magnitude has not been significantly reduced. darken.

In other words, its volume has shrunk by 15%, but its brightness has not changed, neither brightened nor dimmed.

It's like a fat man who lost 200 catties lost 30 catties and became 170 catties, but still looks the same as before.

This unscientific.

Although scientists later gave some explanations, for example, this obvious contraction may be caused by the shell activity in the star's extended atmosphere, or the loss of a large amount of star material.

But these explanations have their own flaws.

For example, if shell activity in the star's extended atmosphere caused the shrinking size, then Betelgeuse's brightness should be significantly improved, rather than almost unchanged.

Because if the shell activity in Betelgeuse’s atmosphere shrinks, the density of the star will increase with the shrinkage, and materials such as hydrogen and helium in the shell will participate in nuclear fusion reactions, and the brightness will increase. Significantly improved rather than virtually unchanged.

It's like forging iron. When a piece of red-hot iron shrinks under the impact of a forging hammer, the red color on the surface will gradually turn into a fiery white.

Although this description is a bit inappropriate, it is very vivid.

In addition, Betelgeuse is already a massive star in its later years and about to undergo a supernova explosion, so Xu Chuan is very interested in its changes.

It would be even more exciting to see it go supernova in my lifetime.

In the dormitory, Xu Chuan sorted out the information in his hands and took out a stack of white paper.

The black signature pen in his hand hovered over the white manuscript paper, pondered for a moment, and he wrote down the data equations one by one.

".δu/δt=Δu, t\u003e0, x∈Ω; u=0, t≥0, x∈Ω;

".Δ=∑πj=1δ/δxj"

Δ is the Laplacian operator, and δΩ is the boundary of Ω.

In order to find the standing wave solution of the problem, use the method of separation of variables, set u(t, x) = ψ(t) φ(x), substitute this into equation (1) and consider the boundary conditions, then for λ\u003e0, have:

Δφ/φ=ψtt/ψ=-λ

It is not that simple to calculate the shape and diameter of a star through the Xu-Weyl-Berry theorem, and it is not enough to directly bring the observed data into the formula and calculate it.

The first thing to do is to deform the Xu-Weyl-Berry theorem to a certain extent, so that it can be transformed from isospectral fluctuations into Sobolev space fluctuations, and then calculate through the amplitude function that presents periodic oscillations.

This is a very cumbersome task, but fortunately, one kind of common object, such as a common star, or a common black hole, only needs to be deformed and converted once.

It is an adaptive formula, applicable to stars within a certain range of parameters.

If it was done by someone else, there might not be a month or two without the door, but for Xu Chuan, this is all too familiar.

He is the founder of the Xu-Weyl-Berry theorem. Except for the two conjecture proposers of Weyl and Berry, no one is more familiar with the Weyl-Berry conjecture than him, and even the two founders are not necessarily familiar with him.

Therefore, it can be said that the deformation and conversion of the Xu-Weyl-Berry theorem is like a fish in water.

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