Chapter 583: The White Dwarf Warfleet
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The location where they held the high-energy particle physics experiment was not on Earth but in space.
The largest particle collider that mankind had ever built was there. It was placed in Mercury's original orbit around the sun, and it had a parameter that stretched an astounding 3.5 billion kilometers. Each time the particle collider was turned one, the huge amount of energy generated would cause dramatic changes to the gravitational and electromagnetic forces in space.
This was aside from the Dyson Sphere, the largest single man-made object in space. It was also a kind of holy land for physics.
Attached to the particle collider were countless laboratories and up to tens of thousands of affiliated experimental factories. Tens of millions of humans reside there, turning it into an enormous city in space.
…
At this moment, within the High-Energy Particle Physics Lab.
A piece of material equivalent to the size of a fingernail had been lying within the explosion-proof, anti-radiation, quarantine room.
However, such a tiny little object had a mass of up to ten tons.
Even state-of-the-art optical equipment would not be able to detect the material's true color as its entire mass gave off a high amount of radiation. The glow coming off it was enough to make the room gleam with light that seemed like a dazzling aurora. It was also making a terrible amount of noise.
Luo Shengwei had waited until he clearly understood the major significance of this breakthrough to the humans. Then, he immediately cleared the rest of his schedule and got into his personal ship to rush toward the laboratory.
"By supplying a high amount of energy to an atom, it'll scatter the electrons after it obtains the energy. Then, the electron clouds near the atom would be blown away, obtaining the core." A laboratory leader explained the process to Luo Shengwei in a dull manner. Nevertheless, his tone was one of excitement. "With this foundation in mind, we once again strengthened the strong forces between the atom's core, and finally obtained this amazing material. It's in the exact same state as the theoretical white dwarf!"
This was not just an impressive breakthrough, it was also an important verification of the Unified Field Theory.
Every phenomenon in the universe could be explained by the four basic forces — gravity, electromagnetism, as well as the strong and weak nuclear forces.
The former two were long-ranged forces, while the latter two were short-ranged forces. All this time, physicists had been pursuing a way to unify all these natural phenomena. It was like the holy grail to them in the field of physics. It was a supreme throne, the ultimate answer to everything in the universe.
However, the cognitive limitations along with inferior methods of observation muddled the theory and prevented it from becoming fact from an argument.
It was only until a hundred years ago that technology rapidly grew along all other fields in science, resulting in a technological boom.
With laboratory equipment that was even more advanced, the methods of observation used became more and more refined, resulting in the resurfacing of this theory. Even so, it took another decade or so to relatively perfect the emergence of the Unified Field theory.
The Unified Field Theory was also known as the Unified String Theory.
The material had been thoroughly broken-down to its limit, including the strings which are the building blocks of the universe. It was a type of probabilistic wave that obeyed the laws of quantum theory, and it would occasionally disappear and reappear as it moved to and fro the fourth dimension from time to time. It did not matter if it was gravity, electromagnetism, strong or weak nuclear forces or atoms, all of their characteristics were a result of the various manifestation of these 'strings'. Every force was one of two sides — harmonious, or unified.
However, theory remained a theory and no matter how logical a theory was, it would remain a hypothesis instead of fact until it was verified.
The verification of the theory was, in a sense, no less inferior to the theory. Instead, it further perfected the theory.
"Before you arrived, we've already begun attempting destructive experiments on the material. However, due to the lack of ample preparation, we're still not at its upper limit. At the current levels of testing, the material is seemingly indestructible."
Luo Shengwei was faintly excited as he momentarily glanced and saw that the material was radiating constantly, emitting a strong pulse. However, he immediately realized a problem.
"This piece of white dwarf matter seems to be in a constant state of discharge. How long will it take before it stabilizes?"
"Excellent question, it's true that the material could stabilize after a period of time when the energy within it is balanced. After all, it'd be impossible for it to remain in a constant state of discharge. It's currently out of tune with its current environment — like a foreign body in a foreign universe. We initially wanted to wipe it out but after realizing that it would probably only exist for about twelve hours, we decided otherwise. Once the strong and weak nuclear forces weaken to some extent, it'll completely disintegrate. However, the containment room was built with high-strength critical metal, making it extremely safe. Even if the equivalent of a hundred thousand nuclear bombs detonated within the room, it still wouldn't be able to destroy it."
"Since it is possible to create the white dwarf matter, shouldn't there be a way to make it stable in the long term?" Luo Shengwei immediately asked. The humans were currently in a tense situation, especially since they were enshrouded by the dark clouds of war. If this material could be used to build a war fleet, the contrast of power between the warring sides would be completely rewritten.
"Of course there's a way. It's to constantly supply the material with a huge amount of energy!" The laboratory leader replied hesitantly.
Luo Shengwei's eyes grew bright as he immediately asked, "How huge of a sum?"
"The average annual energy expenditure would be ten times the mass of anti-matter we have!"
Luo Shengwei quickly calculated the number in his mind and almost lost his breath. Based on the calculation, this fingernail-sized piece of white dwarf matter would at least require an energy expenditure of a hundred tonnes of anti-matter.
So how much anti-matter were the humans producing annually?
Barely a billion tons. Even if every anti-matter resource were to be used for the maintenance of the white dwarf matter, it could only maintain about one trillion tons of it. Although a trillion tons did not seem to be a small sum, it was actually only about a hundred million cubic meters when compared to the extremely dense white dwarf matter.
Even if a surface was painted with a layer of the white dwarf matter about one millimeter thick, it would at most only cover about a hundred billion square meters.
What could a hundred billion square meters do?
The current standard human curvature war fleets had a surface area of about twenty-five billion square meters. If the humans used up all their stockpiled energy, they could barely support forty vessels and this was only their maintenance. It did not include the manufacturing process. Although Luo Shengwei did not raise the question, he thought in his mind that the energy currently available was far lesser.
'So, to build or not to build?'
Luo Shengwei deeply thought about the matter for a while before he clenched his teeth and made up his mind.
'Build it!' Even if they had to surrender their last resource, donate all their blood before selling that blood, they had to build it!
The material had a kind of absolute power to it. The white dwarf matter was very dense from its atomic cores being completely compressed. Although a metal like this was as crispy as a biscuit, it was tough enough not to even get a scratch when it was placed on a star.
Even if the war fleets were only coated with a thin film of white dwarf matter, it would make it seemingly indestructible. Aside from anti-matter, the humans could not possibly destroy it with the power they currently had.
…
Half a month after the theory was verified, a shipbuilding plan codenamed "Pangu" had been officially established. Very quickly, the project began its construction.
However, the white dwarf matter would still not be able to be produced at an industrial scale. It was still subject to the anti-matter critical compression storage problem, and that problem would require some time to solve. However, most of the technology used was ready-made tech. This included the bio-space capsule that could expand the anti-matter storage capacity several hundred folds, and the most important one of all — the curvature engine.
Its weight would be several hundred times heavier than a standard curvature ship, and it would weigh close to a planetary fortress. However, since it was only about two-thirds the size of a regular curvature airship, at the very least, the curvature engine would not require too many modifications.
Unlike conventional flight, the mass of the ship would not affect the speed of curvature flight. The speed would only be affected by the space occupied by whatever material was traveling. Even if the mass was hundreds or thousands of times heavier, it would still not affect the speed of curvature flight in a meaningful way.