Chapter 473: Chapter 407: Vacuum Decay

Feeling a bit idle, Lu Li thought about finding something to do.

He glanced at Liu Kexin, who was having a great time in “Cyberspace,” and decided not to disturb her.

Suddenly, Lu Li, with his keen sense, noticed that Shen Xia was hospitalized.

He was momentarily stunned, wondering, “Why is she suddenly in the hospital?”

He had a good relationship with Shen Xia.

Now that he sensed she was hospitalized,

he naturally wanted to visit her.

Lu Li transformed into a streak of light and instantly arrived at the hospital in Gansu.

He didn’t go in immediately, buying some fruit and the like nearby before heading inside the hospital.

Although Lu Li could directly condense fruit with particles, he didn’t want to expend energy.

If you can buy it, why waste energy?

Single-patient room.

Lu Li knocked on the door; hearing a “come in” from inside, he pushed the door open and entered.

Wearing a hospital gown, Shen Xia was receiving IV fluids. She should have been resting, but she was sitting there, intently focused on a tablet, seemingly dealing with some matters.

Seeing she hadn’t noticed him, Lu Li approached and placed the fruit basket on the bedside table, casually saying, “Sick and still busy with work?”

“Yeah, some things…” Shen Xia broke off mid-sentence, looked up pleasantly surprised, and said, “Lu Li, what are you doing here?”

Lu Li settled onto the chair by the bed and smiled, “Came to see you.”

Setting down her tablet, Shen Xia asked curiously, “How did you know I was hospitalized? Did Teacher Qian tell you?”

Lu Li chuckled, “Did you forget I have superpowers?”

Shen Xia slapped her forehead, “Almost forgot about that, being sick makes the brain sluggish.”

Lu Li casually asked, “Why did you get sick?”

Shen Xia replied, “Probably overworked. Fainted at work, and a colleague brought me to the hospital.”

Lu Li said, “Let me check on you.”

Shen Xia extended her hand gracefully, “Okay, thank you.”

Lu Li was momentarily surprised; he had planned to check her body using energy from a distance, not expecting to need to use his X-ray vision or make contact. Yet, she proactively extended her hand.

The reason for not using X-ray vision was out of respect.

Lu Li had always considered Shen Xia a good friend, never having impure thoughts, and naturally wouldn’t use X-ray vision.

He instinctively took her hand, “You’re welcome, I’ll check you right away.”

Shen Xia watched him curiously, “Aren’t you going to check my pulse? Why are you holding my palm?”

Lu Li said offhandedly, “Oh, holding the palm works just as well.”

He didn’t voice another thought: not holding the palm would also be fine.

This was Lu Li’s first time holding Shen Xia’s hand.

Truth be told, he didn’t find it as soft as most girls’.

He even felt the numerous calluses on Shen Xia’s palm through touch.

It showed Shen Xia must do quite a bit of work in her daily life.

Lu Li did not dwell on it too much.

He guided a strand of energy along her palm, circulating it through her body.

A moment later, he released her palm, saying, “Nothing major, just a bit of low blood sugar and overwork, which led to fainting.”

As he spoke, Lu Li also secretly used the strand of energy to subtly help her body recover.

Shen Xia smiled, “You’re quite the miracle doctor. Just a simple check, and you know the issue. The hospital made me do a lot of tests to come to that conclusion. Originally, I thought I’d be fine and wanted to go home to rest and return to work tomorrow, but my colleagues weren’t reassured. They insisted on me staying for observation for a couple of days.”

Lu Li comforted her, “If you’re not feeling well, just rest. The work will never end. I know you’re strong-willed, but don’t joke around with your health.”

“Okay, I’ll listen to you.” Shen Xia nodded slightly and sighed, “It’s not easy to be in charge of such a big project, and to have achieved some results with your help. I just want to do my best not to let you down for giving me this opportunity, but who knew I’d suddenly fall ill.”

At this point, she changed the subject, “Hey, I haven’t seen you lately, what have you been busy with?”

Lu Li half-joked, “If I told you I’m saving Earth, would you believe me?”

Shen Xia was taken aback, then nodded vigorously, “I believe you. There was a news report saying that you disclosed a gamma-ray burst is approaching the solar system, which would destroy Earth’s atmosphere and lead to the extinction of surface life. Although many people think it’s fake, I believe you wouldn’t speak without reason. So… are you thinking about how to resolve the gamma-ray burst, or have you already found a solution?”

Many people didn’t believe this matter.

Lu Li didn’t expect Shen Xia to have no doubt and even ask if he had come up with a solution.

This feeling of being trusted made him feel very appreciated.

Lu Li spoke truthfully, “I’ve thought of a few solutions, one of which has a relatively high probability of success, and I’m working hard to conquer it.”

Shen Xia asked curiously, “Can you tell me what solutions you’ve thought of to address the gamma-ray burst?”

Lu Li asked back, “As a physicist, you should know about energy neutralization, right?”

Shen Xia thought for a moment and said, “If you don’t demand a macroscopic image, the process of colliding positrons and electrons or matter-antimatter in an accelerator, producing a large number of photons, might be close to the energy neutralization you’re talking about. In reality, on a macroscopic scale, the possibility of energy neutralization is almost zero, especially since a gamma-ray burst is high-energy gamma rays. If you want energy neutralization, the probability is that the two energies will pass through each other.”

Lu Li agreed with her opinion, “That’s usually the case, but theoretically if the waveforms could align perfectly, they could neutralize each other.”

Shen Xia was surprised, “You could match the waveforms?”

Lu Li smiled, “I’ve got some confidence.”

Shen Xia suggested, “The energy of a gamma-ray burst is too vast for me to say, but if it’s gamma rays, it might not necessarily require energy neutralization; you could try to control it. Of course, with current Earth technology, we definitely can’t control a gamma-ray burst. But since you have extraordinary abilities, I think if the method is suitable, perhaps you could actually control a gamma-ray burst.”

Lu Li was taken aback, “Control gamma rays?”

Shen Xia nodded, “There’s a paper in ’Physical Review Letters’ describing an optical ’switch,’ a device that can pass or block gamma quanta by toggling an acoustic field. Simply put, the mechanism allows iron to be ’transparent’ to gamma rays when needed.”

Lu Li became interested, “Tell me more.”

Shen Xia recalled carefully and answered very seriously, “The study showed the acoustic-induced transparency of resonant media to gamma radiation in experiments. The essence of this phenomenon is the conversion of the absorption line’s frequency spectrum into a comb structure composed of satellite lines, whose interval with the main line is the frequency of the acoustic field. In the experiments, 14.4 keV gamma quanta were used, emitted during the decay of iron-57 nuclei in the excited state. The experimental results showed that by applying acoustic pressure to an absorber containing iron-57 nuclei with the help of a piezoelectric transducer, the optical density absorber could become transparent to resonant gamma rays. The absorber, attached to a piezoelectric transducer, could suppress the absorption of 14.4 keV photons by 148 times under a modulation index corresponding to an oscillation amplitude of 2.4, at certain frequencies and amplitudes.”

Lu Li listened intently.

“When radiation within one frequency range is used to control the electronic transitions of atoms in another frequency range, this effect is similar to the electromagnetic-induced transparency effect in optics.”

Shen Xia continued her serious explanation, “The effect demonstrated that, using low-frequency acoustic excitation, one could control the transmission process of high-frequency electromagnetic radiation with a frequency greater than 1013 MHz through resonant media. So, if you can find a corresponding method, perhaps you can control the gamma-ray burst instead of necessarily relying on energy neutralization. I believe this method has a larger realization possibility than energy neutralization.”

Lu Li was thoughtful.

He had always been considering how to “eliminate” the gamma-ray burst, never thinking about “controlling” it.

All the data searched and commands given to “Nuwa” were almost entirely focused on that.

But today, after hearing Shen Xia’s introduction, Lu Li realized that the most stable solution to the gamma-ray burst was not energy neutralization but controlling this high-energy radiation.

He found this method feasible.

Whether it could resolve the gamma-ray burst would depend on the results of his own simulations later.

Just as Lu Li was lost in thought.

Shen Xia seemed to think of something else, “Actually, I have another bold idea. If you could achieve it, solving the gamma-ray burst should be easy.”

Lu Li was still pondering the “control” of the gamma-ray burst.

Hearing this, he absentmindedly said, “Let’s hear it.”

Shen Xia asked, “Do you know about vacuum decay?”

Lu Li gathered himself, “Previously, in the physics books Teacher Wu gave me, vacuum decay was mentioned, referring roughly to quantum transitions—specifically, the process where a quantum in a high energy level transitions to a lower one, such as a photon or an electron not being able to have both a determined position and momentum.”

Shen Xia replied, “Yes, the basic principle of quantum theory is Werner Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle. According to this principle, all properties of quantum objects do not have precisely determined values. For example, a photon or an electron cannot simultaneously have a definite position and momentum. At a certain moment, it can’t have a definite energy either. What we are concerned with here is the uncertainty of energy. Though energy is conserved in the macro world—it cannot be created or destroyed—in the subatomic quantum realm, this law fails. Energy can undergo unpredictable changes at any time, and the shorter the considered time interval, the larger the quantum fluctuations. Essentially, particles can borrow energy from somewhere unknown as long as this energy is returned promptly. The exact mathematical form of Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle dictates that large energy borrowings must be quickly returned, while small borrowings can persist for longer.”

Lu Li remembered from the book’s introduction and continued, “The energy uncertainty leads to some strange effects, such as photons suddenly appearing from nothing—and then disappearing just as quickly. The probability of this phenomenon is one example of such strange effects. These particles rely on borrowed energy, hence exist due to borrowed time. We can’t see them because they’re just a flash, but they indeed leave traces of their existence in the characteristics of atomic systems, and these traces can be measured. It’s acknowledged that vacuum is indeed filled with such fleeting particles, not just photons but also electrons, protons, and all other particle types. To distinguish these fleeting particles from more familiar permanent ones, the former are called ’virtual’ particles, while the latter are ’real’ particles.”

“Exactly.” Shen Xia revealed a bright smile, “Other than their transience, virtual particles are exactly the same as real particles. If enough energy from the outside is supplemented to repay Heisenberg’s energy loaning, virtual particles could elevate to real status and be indistinguishable from other real particles of the same kind. For example, a virtual electron typically exists for about 10^-21 seconds. In its brief life, it isn’t static and can travel a distance of 10^-11 centimeters before disappearing. If this virtual electron gains energy within this time—for instance, from an electromagnetic field—it doesn’t necessarily disappear but can continue to exist as a regular electron.”

Lu Li suddenly understood, “I get it, I understand what you mean! If I can achieve vacuum decay, I can indeed easily solve the gamma-ray burst problem!”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep