Chapter 98: Neutrino Oscillation
Negative Matter, Negative Energy?
He knew that negative matter and antimatter were different. Antimatter also possessed positive mass, and upon encountering positive matter, all mass would convert into energy, released as high-energy photons.
This was an energy release method more intense than a hydrogen bomb.
Humans had long ago truly produced antimatter and gained much understanding of it. For example, positrons used in some hospitals for cancer radiotherapy were a type of antimatter.
Negative matter, however, was matter with negative mass.
Based on the physics knowledge learned from those previous cycles, Jiang Yang naturally thought of a certain celestial body existing in the universe.
Black hole.
Because its own gravity was too powerful, within the boundary of the black hole, no object could escape. Because its escape speed had already exceeded the speed of light in vacuum, and the speed of light in vacuum was the upper limit of speed that all existences in the entire universe could reach.
But even so, the mass of the black hole would slowly decrease according to existing physics research.
This brought a contradiction: since no matter could escape the black hole, not even light, how could the black hole’s mass decrease?
A certain physicist, after research, proposed a theory: actually, it was not that matter escaped from inside the black hole, but rather that matter or energy with negative mass entered the black hole from outside.
To describe it in vivid language, virtual particle pairs would continuously randomly emerge in the universe vacuum; in this pair of particles, one possessed positive mass, and the other possessed negative mass.
They would annihilate each other in an extremely short time after emergence, leaving no external influence. Thus, from a macroscopic perspective, the law of conservation of mass-energy still held, and matter would neither appear nor disappear out of thin air.
But near the black hole, the situation changed.
There were three possibilities for this pair of virtual particles entering the black hole: 1, both particles enter the black hole, and the black hole mass does not change;
2, the positive particle enters the black hole, but the negative particle does not. However, the positive particle entering the black hole would cause the black hole boundary to expand, and the expanded boundary would also swallow the negative particle, so the black hole mass still does not change.
3, the negative particle enters the black hole, but the positive particle does not. The negative particle would cause the black hole boundary to shrink, perfectly creating conditions for the positive particle to escape.
Thus, from the outside, it appeared as if the black hole was continuously releasing radiation, causing itself to shrink.
In essence, however, it was particles with negative mass entering the black hole.
In this light… the culprit in that lunar underground passage that caused their spacesuits to corrode and the hydrogen bomb energy to weaken was actually the same as the cause of black hole mass reduction—negative mass?
Jiang Yang murmured: “Hawking radiation, virtual particle pairs?”
Professor Lu Zhaoming said in a low voice: “You can understand it that way.”
Phew…
Jiang Yang gently exhaled.
He knew this was merely a guess and could not guarantee it was certainly true. But even as a guess, it was the only one that the current domestic—and very likely the world’s most outstanding—scientist team could make.
No wonder in the previous few lives Professor Lu Zhaoming could not figure it out: their hydrogen bombs with a total yield of hundreds of billions of tons of TNT unexpectedly failed to destroy that underground chamber…
The reason was now clear.
There was a high possibility that a layer of “negative energy field shield” existed around that underground chamber, enveloping it.
Not to mention hydrogen bombs with hundreds of billions of tons of TNT equivalent—even if increased tenfold, they probably could not break through this layer of defense.
At the same time, it was very likely to have no blind spots.
Even if their technology suddenly surged, sufficient to transport numerous engineering forces to the moon and then dig another passage from other directions, they would probably still be unable to break through this layer of defense.
But in that case, what should they do?
Without breaking through this layer of defense, they could not enter the interior of that chamber to destroy the facilities inside and thereby prevent the apocalypse.
Sun Changhe looked solemnly at Lu Zhaoming: “Professor Lu, do you have any ideas on how to break through this layer of protection?”
Professor Lu Zhaoming shook his head gloomily: “No. This… this has completely exceeded our current level of technology. All our means were powerless before this.”
The online meeting room fell silent.
Jiang Yang’s heart was full of anger and unwillingness.
Cycle after cycle of reincarnation, countless people exhausting all their efforts for this, one great hero after another generously going to their deaths, ultimately allowing him to uncover part of the truth about the world apocalypse.
But things had progressed to this point, only to encounter another barrier?
And this time, the barrier seemed so solid that there was not even hope of breaking through.
There must still be a way, there must be!
He had reincarnated dozens of times, endured the pain of death dozens of times, overcome one obstacle after another to reach here—not to come here and give up weakly!
In his mind, scenes from those past cycles naturally emerged: one event after another he had experienced, one person after another he had met.
Road maintenance personnel who died of exhaustion on construction vehicles to ensure safe rocket transportation, workers who mobilized entirely and gave up rest to supply parts on time, researchers who worked in the laboratory until heart attack to formulate plans, astronauts who perished in the blaze of rocket explosions…
This was a war concerning the entire nation, the entire civilization.
For this war, people united, overcame one difficulty after another, resolved one hindrance after another.
How could they stop here?!
At this moment, all participants, whether researchers or administrative personnel, were all racking their brains.
Jiang Yang’s brain was also operating rapidly.
He knew that at this moment, he was indispensable. Not because he was so outstanding, but because his time loop ability naturally gave him a unique trait that no one else possessed.
He could stand at a more detached height to view the current predicament holistically.
Apart from him, no matter how much others reminded themselves to jump out of the existing framework, they could not achieve the same as him.
Just like without the change of gravity environment, astronauts training on Earth for however long could not truly know what it would feel like to step on the moon.
In this state, a flash of inspiration suddenly appeared in Jiang Yang’s mind.
He thought carefully, weighed repeatedly, striving to grasp that bit of inspiration.
The next moment, he suddenly looked up, stared straight at Professor Lu Zhaoming, and asked: “Do neutrinos belong to positive energy?”
Professor Lu Zhaoming was stunned: “Of course. Neutrinos possess positive mass, which has been fully confirmed by the ‘neutrino oscillation’ phenomenon.
The so-called neutrino oscillation is…”
Jiang Yang did not listen to his continued explanation but directly interrupted him: “Since neutrinos possess positive mass, how do they penetrate this negative energy field that envelops the entire underground chamber?”
