Cao Zhen, chief scientist of "Lasuo": We built the world's most sensitive "Fire Eye Golden Eyes" every day to welcome billions of "Foreigners" ｜ Mine years

Author:Cover news Time:2022.08.18

High -altitude cosmic line observation station pull cable

Cover reporter Chen Yanzhang's interviewee confessed

On August 18, the theme press conference of the "Ten Years of China · Sichuan" of the Sichuan Provincial Party Committee of the Communist Party of China was held in Chengdu.

The conference mentioned that Sichuan is becoming an important carrying area for national strategic technology forces and accelerated convergence of innovation elements. Sichuan has major national scientific and technological infrastructure in Asia's largest aviation wind cave group, high altitude cosmic line observation station, and extremely deep underground dark material laboratory.

The high -altitude cosmic line observation station located in Ganzi Daocheng is the most sensitive high -energy cosmic line detection device in the world. It is like Sun Wukong's "fire eye golden eye". Recently, the highest energy photon was discovered, and the era of "ultra -high energy gams of celestial literature" was opened.

Ten years of grinding a sword. Cao Zhen, a cover news reporter talks Cao Zhen, chief scientist and project engineering manager of the high altitude cosmic line observation station (LHAASO, referred to as Lasuo).

Cao Zhen (third from right) at the project site

Not willing to be a "accompanying runner"

The universe is infinite, and the messenger has marks.

The core goal of Lasuo is to help scientists catch the cosmic line sprinkled from outer space to the earth. These cosmic lines are equivalent to "messenger" one by one. The information they carry can help people explore the origin, cosmic evolution, and high energy celestial evolution of high energy cosmic lines The mystery.

In 1949, after the first -generation cosmic line researcher represented by Zhang Wenyu returned to China, he started to establish a laboratory on Luoxue Mountain in Dongchuan, Yunnan, and used traditional cloud -fog detectors to study. However, in the 1970s, the laboratory entered the "available state". At this time, large accelerators have become the main force of particle physics experiment research.

At the end of the 1980s, the second -generation explorer relayed and began to apply for the construction of the Tibetan Yangbajing Exploration Station. "At that time, we were in the learning stage as a whole. Site. "Cao Zhen recalled that China was responsible for the construction of Yangbajing base, while the Japanese side provided array equipment.

With the firm conviction of seeing the broader universe, Cao Zhen led the team to formally propose the construction of "Laoso" in 2009. From April 2008 to March 2014, Cao Zhen's team passed the extensive location of my country's high altitude regions. With field surveys, the high -altitude cosmic line observation station project was finally selected in Haizi Mountain in Daocheng, Sichuan, and established a measurement and control base in Daocheng County, which is lower in altitude.

In 2013, in the "Middle and Long-term Plan for the Construction of major national scientific and technological infrastructure (2012-2030)" issued by the State Council, Lasuo was listed as one of the 16 major priority projects.

In August 2014, the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Sichuan Provincial People's Government signed the "Framework Agreement on the Construction of the Costed Observation Station of the High Altitude Cosmic Line", marking that Lasuo officially settled in Sichuan.

Poacule in construction

Open a new era of "ultra -high energy"

In 2017, Lasuo broke the ground on Haizi Mountain in Daocheng County. Cao Zhen said that the reason why the location is located in Daocheng, Sichuan is because the cosmic taunles are easily absorbed when crossing the atmosphere. The more the detectors are set in places with high altitude and thin air. The more likely the signal, but if the altitude is too high, the construction is too difficult.

"In addition to good natural conditions, it is inseparable from the strong support of the Sichuan Provincial Party Committee and Provincial Government." Cao Zhen said.

To build such a huge project in the unmanned area, the first difficulty to overcome is that the infrastructure needs to start from scratch. Cao Zhen introduced that when the first batch of construction teams settled in Daocheng site, a thrilling scene occurred: because there were no residential houses, they could only sleep with tents. At that time, the sky was still snowing. While crying, but fortunately did not rush into the tent.

Shui Chelv detector array composed of photoelectric multiplier pipes

Cao Zhen introduced that in addition to building workers, scientists are also fighting for the front line. The total area of 78,000 thousand -square -meter water Chellenkov detector array is completed by a team of a young scientist team with an average age of 37. In the face of about 2.5 water cubic sizes and 350,000 tons of water, they During the construction process, it is facing a 300 -fold project scale and difficult environment.

One step is that scientists install 3,120 photoelectric pipes to the 78,000 thousand square meters of array, and then fill the pure water. "There is no sunlight in the huge closed pool before the water injection. The entire installation season is basically maintained at about minus 4 ° C. The working environment is very challenging." Cao Zhen said.

Because of the large amount of engineering and long construction period, the ropes are operating while construction, which has produced a lot of achievements that have attracted worldwide attention. In addition to determining the "standard candlelight" super high energy segment of the crab -shaped nebula, on May 17, 2021, Lasuo also found the first batch of "electronic electronic accelerators" and the highest energy photon to open the era of "ultra -high energy gams of celestial literature". Published in the journal "Nature"; on February 3, 2022, the international physics authoritative magazine "Physics Review Express" published the latest achievements of "Laoso", which once again verified Einstein's theory of time and space symmetry.

Poacule in construction

Welcome to billions of "outer foreigners" every day

At the end of 2021, Lasuo officially passed the performance process and officially entered the scientific operation stage.

Overlooking from high altitude, the 1.36 -square -kilometer LHAASO is composed of 3 detectors array. The largest area is one square kilometer -ground -ground firing particle array, consisting of 5,216 electromagnetic particles detectors and 1188 m cricket detectors. ; Miaozi detector is matched with the dot matrix, and a 2.5 -meter -high "mound" can be seen every 30 meters. In addition, in the center of the La Suo Disc, there is a striking "Pin" glyph, which is 78,000 square meters of water Chellenkov detector. The inside of the detector is a closed pool with a deep 4.5 meter. The Water Chelv detector array of the road detection unit. On the two corners of the pool, the 18 container -style wide -angle Chellenkov telescope forms array, which cooperates with each other to complete the 360 -degreeless watch.

"The division of labor in the three detectors is different, and it can be confirmed and added with each other." Cao Zhen for example, the telescope array records the entire process of development in the air before the universe line reaches the ground, while the other two arrays capture the reach when they reach the reach Instant information. "Such a highly composite and capable detection array is rare in the world."

Cao Zhen (first from left) at the project site

Nowadays, after the completion of the construction, the cape "welcome" the billions of "foreign guests" cosmic line every day, becoming the busiest "universe station" on the planet. In the future, Lasuo will also discover more mysteries of the universe through research on these cosmic lines. "Scientists are the most curious groups of people. They desire to promote the unknown desire to continue to explore the accelerator deep in the universe and make a deeper interpretation of the universe." Cao Zhen said.

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