Chapter 660 CERN“s Vote 

While the Jinling Institute for Advanced Study was conducting experiments on “sonoluminescence” and “acoustic” fusion, a seminar regarding the Yang-Mills existence and mass gap was currently being held at the CERN headquarters in Switzerland.

Not a lot of people were attending this conference. Basically, all of them were top physicists, and more than half of them had won the Nobel Prize before.

It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that if someone blew up this conference room, it would set back physics research by decades…

After Witten entered the conference room, he found a low-key position to sit down. He looked at another scholar sitting at the conference table.

Peter Higgs!

The godfather of subatomic particles!

Ever since Higgs returned to the UK from CERN in 2013, he rarely appeared in the public now. He was now 91 years old, so Witten didn’t expect to see him here.

However, this did make sense. After all, this conference would determine the future of physics, and anyone who cared deeply about physics wouldn’t miss an opportunity like this.

There was still some time before the conference would begin. Witten looked around the scholars in the room and saw that not only was Peter Higgs here, but many introverted, lonely physicists also showed up. They were sitting in this conference room, quietly waiting for the conference to begin.

“This is surprising,” Jaffe said to Witten with a smile. “I didn’t expect to see so many old friends here.”

“Yeah.” Witten nodded emotionally. He was about to say something, but he heard a microphone testing sound coming from the front of the conference room.

The chairman of CERN was standing on the stage. He cleared his throat and said, “We have spent more than enough time discussing the Yang-Mills existence and mass gap.

“The entire theoretical physics community is waiting for our conclusions. Instead of letting the debates continue, it would be better to let the physics community hear our opinions… On whether it is correct or not.”

The chairman paused for a second before adding, “Therefore, I propose we vote.”

There was a commotion in the conference room.

The chairman coughed and raised his voice.

“Everyone that agrees, please raise your hand.”

More than 70% of the people in the conference room raised their hands.

The staff members sitting in the back counted the show of hands and sent the voting data back to the screen on the stage.

The chairman looked at the voting data and nodded. He signaled everyone to put their hands down before he continued to speak, “Everyone that disagrees, please raise your hands.”

Just like before, a lot of people raised their hands.

However, only around 15% of the people raised their hands in disagreement. A lot of people seemed hesitant when raising their hands, like they weren’t certain about their opinions.

The chairman looked at an old man sitting in the first row of the conference room and asked in a respectful manner, “Mr. Higgs, I noticed that you raised your hands twice, can I ask why?”

Professor Higgs, who was sitting in the front row, stood up while shivering slightly.

He looked at the chairman and said, “Mr. Chairman, the reason why I raised my hand the first time is that I can’t find any problems in the thesis. I raised my hand the second time because I am against making hasty decisions.”

The chairman nodded and said, “I know what you mean, but we have spent enough time discussing. It’s not just me; a lot of people also think it’s time for a final vote.”

“I don’t think we have discussed enough yet,” Professor Higgs said. “First of all, as the proponent of this theory, he is responsible for explaining his theory in detail. He should answer our questions directly. However, I have been paying attention to Jin Ling University’s official website, and it seems like Professor Lu has no plans for a report.”

A lot of people agreed with this.

Almost half of the people who raised their hands in disagreement agreed with Higgs.

In particular, Professor Wilczek, who was another Nobel Prize laureate, nodded and complained to the chairman.

“I don’t have any ridiculous demands. Even if he doesn’t want to come himself, he should at least send a student or assistant!”

It wasn’t an uncommon thing for scholars to send their own students or assistants to conduct academic reports. Whenever a professor was too busy with research or simply not interested in reporting, they would send their own students instead.

For example, Shinichi Mochizuki, who developed the “Inter-universal Teichmüller theory”, made two of his students report on the ABC conjecture. Shinichi Mochizuki, on the other hand, was “monitoring” the report through a live video feed.

It wasn’t a good idea for Professor Lu to leave China right now, and most scholars sitting here were well aware of this.

However, even though Lu Zhou couldn’t leave the country, he should at least send a student to do the report for him.

When the CERN chairman heard Wilzek’s words, he contemplated it for a while.

“I will relay your suggestion to Professor Lu.”

“Let’s not talk about the report, just the thesis content. Does anyone have any questions or doubts regarding Professor Lu’s theory on the Yang-Mills existence and mass gap?”

This time, not a single person raised their hand.

Not even Professor Higgs.

There was also Witten, who hadn’t raised his hand for the entire conference.

The chairman looked around the room and felt relieved. He had a smile on his face.

Since all of these big names didn’t have any objections, there shouldn’t be any serious problems with the thesis.

“It looks like we have reached a consensus.

“History will remember this day, we just took a big step toward the Grand Unified Theory!”

He paused for a second and continued, “The discussion about the Yang-Mills existence and mass gap ends here.

“Also, a lot of professors, such as Professor Witten, proposed an experiment for the latter half of this year to the first half of next year. We will arrange an experimental plan for the m particle and conduct energy zone testing for Professor Lu’s thesis…

“Regardless of whether or not we can find the particle, I believe that the experimental data obtained will help our understanding of the standard model!”

The CERN conference came to an end.

On the same day of the conference, CERN issued a public statement, announcing their approval for Lu Zhou’s thesis on the Yang-Mills existence and mass gap. They also published their meeting agenda for the next month, as well as changes to their experiment schedule.

One news article appeared after the other.

Because of CERN’s voting results, this matter completely blew up…

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