Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
The greeting ceremony at the airport wasn’t spectacular. There were no welcoming staff and no crowd. Apart from three directors and one president, there were only two research assistants that also came along.
According to Mr. Faltings, these two were doctoral holders of the Max Planck Institute. They were here were because they had worshiped Lu Zhou for a long time.
Although there wasn’t a crowd, there were two Nobel Prize and one Fields Medal winners here, so the pick-up was quite meaningful.
However, as a scholar, Lu Zhou didn’t care about this kind of stuff.
When he went to Stockholm to receive the award, he took the subway after landing and went sightseeing by himself.
This time, Lu Zhou planned to take a taxi to the hotel. He even mapped out the travel route.
However, it seemed that he had overprepared…
“You’re an absolute genius, how did you come up with the formulas?” Professor Ertl said while sitting in the special Max Planck Institute car.
Lu Zhou said in a joking tone, “You might not believe it, but the Schrodinger equation gave me a lot of inspiration.”
Klitzing smiled and said, “This isn’t unbelievable. HF methods and molecular dynamics simulations have a lot to do with quantum mechanics.”
Professor Ertl continued to ask, “I’ve read your thesis. Although I don’t understand some of the theories, I still have doubts about the parts I do understand. How do you accurately simplify the solution of the multi-body ground state to the ground state density? What is the difference between the theory and the first principle calculation method if it is passed through the Schrodinger equation?”
The first principle calculation method was the core method of modern computational chemistry, and the source of the theory was the Schrodinger equation in quantum mechanics. This kind of calculation method had some issues.
First of all, the number of variables reached 3N (N being the number of total particles), and this astronomical number resulted in controversy.
It wasn’t just because the number of variables was so large. In order to make the theory more “presentable”, the empirical parameters were also horrendous.
“Yes, but not entirely,” Lu Zhou replied. He then smiled and said, “I introduced the concept of partial functional density theory in the ground state density distribution problem. For example, taking the radius of the designated core atom as RA, the chopping function outside the truncation radius is the same as the real valence electron wave function ψv, thus obtaining…”
“Let’s talk about the specifics in a week,” Stratmann said as he was already confused. He looked at Lu Zhou and asked, “What do you plan to do this week?”
Lu Zhou didn’t have access to a blackboard, so it was difficult to explain in detail.
Lu Zhou thought for a moment before saying, “Before the report, I want to become familiar with the environment around here. Is there any interesting places that you would recommend?”
Professor Klitzing was suddenly interested, and he said, “Places? There isn’t a more interesting place than the laboratories at the Max Plank Institute, do you want me to take you there?”
Lu Zhou immediately replied, “Please do.”
Compared to the landmarks of the Brandenburg Gate and the Houses of Parliament, Lu Zhou was still more interested in laboratories. In particular, the laboratories of the Max Planck Institute were famous in the condensed matter physics field.
Plus Lu Zhou had a Nobel Prize winner as his tour guide.
After a half an hour drive, they arrived at their destination.
Lu Zhou took out his suitcase from the trunk in front of the Pegnitz Hotel.
He was about to bid farewell to the scholars when he suddenly remembered something.
“Oh yeah, I have always wanted to ask something.”
Professor Klitzing said, “Go ahead.”
Lu Zhou smiled and said, “This question might be a bit boring. Just out of curiosity, why was my invitation letter from the condensed matter physics institute instead of the chemistry institute?”
Lu Zhou would understand if it came from the mathematics institute but from the condensed matter physics institute… Although it wasn’t completely unrelated to his research, he was still confused.
Suddenly, there was an awkward tension in the air.
Especially Professor Ertl and Professor Faltings.
Lu Zhou suddenly realized that he shouldn’t have asked this question.
Professor Klitzing looked somewhat proud as he cleared his throat and speak, “Good question…”
However, Faltings interrupted him.
“This is a boring question.” Faltings looked like he didn’t care when he said, “Also, next time I’ll play Blackjack instead of flipping a coin.”
Lu Zhou: “…”
Lu Zhou kind of knew what was going on…
The predecessor of the Max Planck Institute was the Royal Society of Williams which was founded in 1911. Emperor Williams II believed that interest in science and technology could enhance the country’s strength, so he established the society in his own name.The royal family funded the research to strengthen Germany’s scientific research community.
This decision was undoubtedly wise. Due to the support from the state, a large number of outstanding scholars and scientific research projects were created. Within 30 years, German technology was the best in the world.
After World War II, although the Royal Society of Williams was disbanded, it was retained due to support from the United Kingdom Max Planck Institute.
The impact of this historical heritage could be seen today.
Although the academic community had been leaning toward America ever since the Cold War, the Max Planck Institute had always been the world-leading institute on condensed matter physics.
From this aspect, the Germans were undoubtedly more fortunate than the French who had lost their status as the world’s mathematical center.
Lu Zhou spent a day resting in his hotel room. On the second day, he went to one of the Max Planck Institute laboratories.
Strictly speaking, the laboratory was also a legacy of the Royal Society of Williams, but it was unrecognizable after the modern renovations.
“… The laboratories of the Max Planck Institute are located in various cities in Germany. This is only one of them, but it is the largest. Many chemistry and physics projects are done here.”
Lu Zhou said, “So the research projects here are determined by the research institute?”
Professor Klitzing said, “Not exactly. Strictly speaking, most of the projects here are done by research groups. There is a big difference between the research groups. We use a different research method compared to American research institutes.”
Professor Klitzing walked along the tree-lined path leading to the condensed matter physics laboratory while talking to Lu Zhou about the internal organization structure of the Max Planck Institute.
They walked past a round-shaped building when Lu Zhou asked, “What is that?”
Professor Klitzing smiled and said, “That is the Institute of Plasma Physics, I bet you can’t guess what’s inside.”
“Is it a collider?” Lu Zhou joked.
“Haha, nope. It’s more fictional than a collider,” Professor Klitzing joked. He then said, “You might have heard of it before, controllable nuclear fusion is an interesting topic.”