Chapter 259: Gravitational Waves
Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Time quickly passed.
In late June, the college entrance examination results were released.
The whole family gathered around the computer. Xiao Tong was worried and it showed on her face.
It was like they were watching the Super Bowl.
Xiao Tong looked nervous as she turned to her brother for help.
“Brother...”
Lu Zhou patted her shoulder and said calmly, “Don’t be scared, you weren’t scared when turning your paper in, why would you be scared to receive it?”
“What...”
Xiao Tong hesitated for a bit. She then took a deep breath and entered her candidate number.
The score appeared on the screen.
Xiao Tong froze immediately.
It was not because it was lower than her expectations.
But because...
620!
Xiao Tong screamed out loud in excitement.
“Brother! I got a 620!”
“Nicely done, sis.”
When Lu Zhou saw this score, he nodded with approval as he sincerely felt happy for his sister.
The 2016 liberal arts minimum entrance score was 520, and she was 100 points above the minimum.
Although it was not high enough for Yan University, it was definitely enough for the University of Jin Ling.
“Haha, good job daughter,” said Lu Bangguo as he patted Xiao Tong’s head. He then laughed and said, “I’m going to buy alcohol.”
Fang Mei looked at him and said, “Drinking in the morning... Are you still going into the office?”
Lu Bangguo said, “I’m not going, I took today off!”
Both of his children were admitted to the university. He felt like he was at the top of the world. How could he not drink on this happy day?
The only thing was that Lu Zhou had been overseas for so long, but still did not bring a partner back.
Old Lu wanted to have a grandson!
It was like an early Christmas in the family.
Lu Bangguo was still ecstatic the next day, and he proposed to have a celebration feast with his friends and family.
However, Xiao Tong did not want to waste money, so he had to give up on the idea.
At night, Lu Zhou organized the interview schedule for tomorrow. As he looked at his sister who was laying on the couch, he asked, “Did you think about what major you want to apply to?”
Xiao Tong put down her phone and seriously thought about his questions before she answered.
“I know!”
Lu Zhou, “Yeah?”
Xiao Tong nodded and said firmly, “I’m going to major in finance!”
Finance was part of the liberal arts department at the University of Jin Ling. Although it needed a certain mathematical foundation, as long as one did not go into financial research, it would not require too much mathematics.
The most valuable thing was that Xiao Tong made up her own mind without help from her brother.
Lu Zhou was proud of her.
Lu Zhou nodded with approval and said, “It’s good to have a direction. Can you explain what finance is?”
Xiao Tong’s eyes lit up and she said, “Finance sounds like it has to do with money!”
Lu Zhou: “...”
What are you talking about...
Did you do any research at all?
Finance obviously has something to do with money!
Lu Zhou said, “Actually alchemy is a good major as well. It has to do with gold.”
Xiao Tong was confused and she asked, “Really?”
Lu Zhou said, “Kidding.”
Xiao Tong: “...”
...
Some people were happy, some people were sad. That was the reality of the college entrance examination.
Students gathered in the computer room of Jinling High School.
Back then, you had to fill in the college application form, then the school would enter it online for you. However, the students could enter the college application form themselves now.
Han Mengqi looked at the computer screen and bit her lips. She did not move the mouse for a long time.
Fortunately, she got an A for both of her two science subjects. She got above the minimum requirements for the University of Jin Ling.
Normally, her score would be good enough, but it would depend on how many people applied for it.
Mathematics...
University of Jin Ling’s mathematics department isn’t very strong...
Not a lot of people will apply right...
Han Mengqi gulped. She made up her mind and applied to University of Jin Ling mathematics department.
As for the option to accept other majors, she did not want to accept, but in the end, she checked the box.
“I hope I get in...”
The girl closed her eyes and clenched her fists as she prayed silently.
...
Lu Zhou stayed in China until July. It was about time his vacation ended.
Although he wanted to wait until Xiao Tong’s college acceptance letter, it was very troublesome to extend his vacation. Plus he had some stuff to take care of in America, so he did not want to stay for long.
After a 12-hour flight, Lu Zhou finally arrived back at the small town of Princeton.
For most American students, it was still summer vacation. Their vacation would last until the end of August.
However, for master’s students, their summer vacation time depended on their supervisors.
In some sense, American supervisors had much more power than Chinese supervisors. American supervisors could expel the master’s students. In China, only the university had the right to expel students.
There was a different power dynamic.
Lu Zhou obviously was not going to be like those heartless supervisors, but he would not be chill either.
His requirements for his three master’s students was for them to arrive at school before 15th July. If there were visa issues, he could extend the time to August.
Before Lu Zhou could assign them jobs, he had to meet with them face to face.
Lu Zhou placed his luggage in his apartment and went to the Institute for Advanced Study.
As he walked upstairs, he bumped into Edward Witten. Edward was surprised to see Lu Zhou.
“My friend, you are finally back.”
Lu Zhou was confused by Witten’s welcome and he asked, “What happened?”
Edward Witten smiled and only said two words.
“Gravitational waves.”
When Lu Zhou heard the words, he finally realized what Witten said.
In February 2016, the researchers of the LIGO project team announced that they had successfully detected gravitational wave signals from the merger of two black holes using LIGO’s two detectors.
The related thesis was recently published on arXiv, and it was being reviewed by theoretical physicists around the world.
Although Lu Zhou was on vacation for the past month, he was not completely out of touch with the academic community. He had always paid attention to new theses on arXiv.
Even though not every thesis on arXiv was useful, if the number of thesis in a certain field suddenly increased, that meant something had happened.
It was like the 750 GeV last year, the trending topic this year was gravitational waves.
Lu Zhou was somewhat envious as he said, “It’s an amazing discovery...”
Compared to his “insignificant” 750 Gev discovery, gravitational waves was undoubtedly more shocking.
“Yeah, it’s enviable,” said Witten emotionally.
The detection of gravitational waves filled in the last piece of the puzzle in Einstein’s general theory of relativity.
If Einstein was still alive, he would definitely earn another Nobel Prize in physics for this discovery.
After all, he won the Nobel Prize because he explained the photoelectric effect and not because of the general theory of relativity.
However, this was obviously not possible anymore. Since 1974, the Nobel Prize Committee ruled that Nobel Prizes were only for living people.
Witten had the most emotion toward gravitational waves.
The experiment was done 100 years after the theory was invented. If the same happened with string theory, he would never see a string theory experiment in his lifetime.
There was no doubt that the next Nobel Prize in Physics was going to MIT’s Rainer Weiss and his collaborators.
After all, the discovery of gravitational waves would be engraved in human history.
Witten cleared his throat and said, “LIGO invited me to help them do data analysis on the gravitational waves experiment. I’m guessing that since you don’t have a research project right now, are you interested in joining my research project? If you’re interested, I can get my students to book flights for you right now.”
Lu Zhou thought about it for a second. He then rejected this tempting proposal and said, “Gravitational waves aren’t within the scope of my research. Unfortunately, I can’t help you. I’m going to get pretty busy over the next few days.”
The reward mission from the system gave him a lot of freedom, but it would be more efficient if he allocated his time toward materials science.
The reward mission was more valuable than the gravitational waves research project.
Even though the gravitational waves sounded significant, the number of experience points might be less than 10,000.
Witten said, “Materials science?”
Lu Zhou nodded, “Yes.”
Witten sighed and said, “Okay then, it seems that you already have plans. I wish you good luck.”
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