Recaps

After Xiao Yi’s Fields Medal interview aired, Luo Mingya reconsidered her stalled research and decided she wanted to graduate. Xiao Yi continued investigating high-temperature superconductivity, preparing to return home and test his emerging theory.

• Ye Cheng shared photos of Xiao Yi’s interview with the Joint Examination Group, where his friends joked about touching his medal.
• Luo Mingya and the USTC students watched Xiao Yi’s interview, which explained that his work on the mass gap problem had grown out of his research into superconductivity.
• After hearing Xiao Yi urge people to remain curious about problems, Luo Mingya told Sun Lina that she wanted to graduate.
• Xiao Yi’s interview became a trending topic, while Ye Cheng found him working through stacks of research notes in his hotel room.
• Xiao Yi connected his analysis of quark-gluon plasma phase transitions with superconducting-insulating transitions in FeSe/SrTiO3 monolayers and planned experiments after the congress.
• Xiao Yi opened a funding application for research on high-temperature superconductivity and FeSe/SrTiO3 monolayer materials, eager to see how Material Mastery would help.

After giving his Fields Medal Lecture and returning to Shangjing, Xiao Yi met Yang Zhenning, who congratulated him and shared stories about physics. Xiao Yi then graduated from his doctoral program and accepted research appointments from both the Mathematics Research Institute and the Institute of Physics, becoming Professor Xiao.

• Xiao Yi gave his Fields Medal Lecture at the International Congress of Mathematicians, then attended its closing ceremony and flew home with Ye Cheng and the others.
• Xi Lan, Pang Cheng, and Xun Yong welcomed Xiao Yi at Shangjing International Airport and brought him to Basic Science Park.
• Pang Cheng introduced Xiao Yi to Yang Zhenning, who congratulated him on proving the Yang-Mills mass gap problem and spoke with him about life and physics.
• Xi Lan and Pang Cheng held a joint graduation ceremony for Xiao Yi, who received a Doctor of Science degree certificate from the two research institutes.
• Xi Lan and Pang Cheng invited Xiao Yi to become a researcher at their respective institutes, and Xiao Yi accepted both appointments.

After graduating, Xiao Yi returned to Fei City, where USTC’s president and senior faculty offered him a professorship and funding to establish a laboratory. Xiao Yi revealed his plans to study high-temperature superconductivity and asked the university and province to support a condensed matter-materials lab.

• Xiao Yi reviewed the costs of building his own laboratory and decided to wait for his project funding before proceeding.
• Xiao Yi returned to Fei City and reunited with his parents before USTC’s president Bao Hexin and several academicians and professors visited him.
• Bao Hexin offered Xiao Yi a university laboratory, a research team, guaranteed funding, and other incentives to return to USTC.
• Xiao Yi said he wanted a condensed matter-materials laboratory to investigate high-temperature superconductivity and develop a practical superconducting material.
• Bao Hexin agreed to discuss Xiao Yi’s request with provincial leaders, and USTC’s deans presented him with professorship appointments in mathematics and physics.

Xiao Yi accepted a professorship at USTC while preparing to investigate high-temperature superconductivity. USTC leaders approved a 500-million-yuan laboratory for him on Fei City Science Island, named Science Island Laboratory.

• USTC students celebrated Xiao Yi becoming a professor, while Jiang Long mistakenly muted him in the Joint Examination Group before unmuting him.
• Xiao Yi told Pang Cheng that he would remain a researcher at the Institute of Physics while working in Fei City, then considered how more experiments and material samples could help his superconductivity research.
• Bao Hexin defended the funding for Xiao Yi’s laboratory at a USTC meeting and revealed that Xiao Yi hoped to develop a high-temperature superconductor with industrial applications.
• Academician Li Jiangan argued that Xiao Yi’s research could benefit both quantum computing and nuclear fusion, persuading Pan Wei, Academician Chen, and the other opponents to support the funding.
• Anhui Province and national sources allocated 500 million yuan for Xiao Yi’s laboratory, which was named Science Island Laboratory after consultations with Xiao Yi.

Xiao Yi helped design the Science Island Laboratory while developing a model that linked local electron density waves and spin density waves to explain high-temperature superconductivity. He named the model XSC theory and planned to test and refine it using experiments in Luo Mingya's laboratory.

• Xiao Yi contributed design ideas to the Science Island Laboratory and helped accelerate its plans, while orders for equipment were placed and construction was scheduled to take about a year.
• Xiao Yi reviewed BCS theory and Cooper-pair formation as he investigated how local electron density fluctuations could strengthen electron interactions.
• Xiao Yi modeled iron-based superconductors using Absolute Electronic Computation and DMRG, then found that iron-vacancy-induced density fluctuations and spin density waves could produce an effective attraction near the Fermi Surface.
• Xiao Yi combined electron density waves and spin density waves in a unified model, named it XSC theory, and found that it could explain nearly all the high-temperature superconductivity phenomena he had listed.
• Xiao Yi concluded that experiments were needed to refine the coupling constant and decided to borrow Luo Mingya's laboratory.

Xiao Yi attended Luo Mingya's graduation defense and learned that she planned to leave USTC for a confidential military research project. After the academicians praised her dissertation, Luo Mingya began to name someone she considered even more outstanding.

• Xiao Yi visited the School of Materials Science to borrow a laboratory and learned from Professor Chen that Luo Mingya was defending her dissertation and planned to leave for a military project.
• Xiao Yi accompanied Professor Chen to the lecture hall, where Fei Xiaonan tried to persuade Luo Mingya to stay at USTC.
• Luo Mingya told Xiao Yi she would explain her decision after the defense, while Xu Ming revealed that Sun Lina was upset because she would have to stop slacking off once Luo Mingya left.
• Luo Mingya presented research building on their work on two-dimensional materials and answered the defense committee's questions successfully.
• Academician Liao and Academician Li argued over Luo Mingya's future treatment, and Luo Mingya interrupted to say someone else was even more outstanding.

After Luo Mingya passed her doctoral defense and left for a classified military project, Xiao Yi used her laboratory to perfect his theory unifying copper-oxide and iron-based high-temperature superconductors. He submitted the paper to Nature and turned his attention to synthesizing superconductors.

• Xiao Yi praised Luo Mingya's doctoral thesis, and she explained that his advice about staying curious had inspired her to pursue a question connected to a classified military project.
• Luo Mingya agreed to let Xiao Yi use her laboratory and left the next day for the project, while Xiao Yi continued experimenting with superconducting materials.
• Over the following month, Xiao Yi guided researchers in Sun Lina's laboratory as he optimized XSC theory and unified the mechanisms of copper-oxide and iron-based high-temperature superconductors.
• Xiao Yi completed his paper, noted that his theory still could not unify low-temperature iron-based superconductors or BCS theory, and submitted the paper to Nature.
• Xiao Yi decided to begin synthesizing high-temperature superconductors, starting with one that could replace niobium-titanium alloy.

Nature editors Warren and Mende found Xiao Yi’s paper proposing a coupled electron-density and spin-density wave model for high-temperature superconductivity, and Giorgio Parisi’s experiments confirmed its predictions. Half a month later, Nature published the result, setting the scientific community abuzz over the proposed mechanism.

• Warren and Mende discovered Xiao Yi’s paper on the mechanism of high-temperature superconductivity and brought it to editor-in-chief Edman Crees.
• Crees asked Nobel laureate Giorgio Parisi to review the paper, and Parisi agreed after learning Xiao Yi had written it.
• Parisi studied Xiao Yi’s model and ran experiments to test its predictions linking electron density waves and spin density waves.
• Parisi tested nearly twenty samples, including copper oxide and iron-based superconductors, and found that their results matched the model’s predictions.
• Nature published Xiao Yi’s work under the headline “Revealing the Mechanism of High-Temperature Superconductivity,” drawing intense attention across the scientific community.

Pan Wei, Lu Zhao, and Academician Chen recognized the significance of Xiao Yi’s XSC theory after Nature published it and laboratories worldwide confirmed its predictions. As the physics community called for Xiao Yi to receive a Nobel Prize, the Nobel committee debated his nomination and postponed awarding him until a practical high-temperature superconductor was developed.

• Lu Zhao showed Pan Wei Xiao Yi’s Nature paper on how electron density waves coupled with spin density waves, and Pan Wei was impressed by the theory and Giorgio Parisi’s praise.
• Academician Chen joined Pan Wei and Lu Zhao, and he and Pan Wei agreed to build a good relationship with Xiao Yi and discuss how XSC theory could aid their quantum information research.
• Nearly twenty laboratories, including Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, CERN, and MIT, reported experimental results that verified XSC theory, prompting worldwide attention and praise from Giorgio Parisi and Edward Witten.
• The Nobel Prize in Physics committee discovered that Xiao Yi was already nominated for Absolute Electronic Computation and debated whether his new superconductivity theory could also merit the prize.
• Eva Olsson overruled Göran K. Hansen’s support for awarding Xiao Yi immediately and decided the committee would wait until his theory led to an industrially useful high-temperature superconducting material.

Xiao Yi began writing Principles of Experimental Analysis after using Material Mastery to study high-temperature superconductors and realizing he could turn its insights into methods other scientists could use. As his book gained acclaim and he lectured on XSC theory, construction of the Science Island Laboratory progressed, and the textbook was published more than eight months later.

• Xiao Yi analyzed TBCCO-2212 and other superconductors with Material Mastery, but limited experimental resolution constrained his findings.
• Xiao Yi decided to write a textbook titled Principles of Experimental Analysis while waiting for the Science Island Laboratory to be completed.
• Pan Wei and other Quantum Information scholars invited Xiao Yi to lecture on XSC theory and asked him to join their field, but he declined while offering to help through his superconductivity research.
• Xiao Yi began writing the textbook, received support from USTC, and earned high praise from academicians for the first section's analytical methods.
• Xiao Yi lectured on XSC theory, and construction of the Science Island Laboratory began with a projected nine-month schedule.
• More than eight months later, Xiao Yi's Principles of Experimental Analysis was officially published.

Professor Liang Heping and Professor Wen Yuan discovered that Xiao Yi’s new textbook, Principles of Experimental Analysis, offered valuable methods for analyzing materials images and data. As universities rushed to obtain copies, demand surged and Springer Nature Greater China contacted USTC Press to discuss global publication.

• Professor Lan showed Liang Heping and Wen Yuan Xiao Yi’s Principles of Experimental Analysis, and they were astonished by its image and data analysis methods.
• Liang Heping, Wen Yuan, and Professor Lan argued over who would keep the book until Dean Lin Guowu took it to review.
• News of the textbook spread through Tsinghua’s School of Materials Science and nearby universities, prompting USTC Press to send professors copies.
• Xu Jiajie told Academician Sun that USTC Press would expand the print run and send copies to Peking University, as demand approached one hundred thousand.
• Peter Thomas, president of Springer Nature Greater China, called Xu Jiajie to discuss global publication cooperation for the textbook.

Xu Jiajie arranged for Springer Nature to publish Xiao Yi’s Principles of Experimental Analysis globally, and Xiao Yi completed its translation while the Science Island Laboratory was built and equipped. Xiao Yi then began developing a high-temperature superconductor, and the first results revealed a silver-doped hexagonal close-packed FeSe material with exceptional performance.

• Xu Jiajie told Xiao Yi that Springer Nature wanted to publish Principles of Experimental Analysis globally, and Xiao Yi agreed to meet with them.
• Xiao Yi inspected the completed Science Island Laboratory and approved its construction.
• Tang Enping and Professor Oppley met Xiao Yi at USTC Press, and Xiao Yi agreed to translate his book himself before signing the publishing contract.
• Xiao Yi completed the translation, the laboratory was equipped, and he recruited Xu Ming and other students to help research high-temperature superconductors.
• Xiao Yi used Material Mastery to study the experimental data and guide the team’s experiments.
• One month later, Xu Ming reported that their silver-doped hexagonal close-packed FeSe had a critical temperature of 92 K, a critical current density of 10^7 A/cm^2, and a critical magnetic field strength of 27 T.

Xiao Yi and his team developed a silver-doped HCP-structure FeSe superconductor with a 92K transition temperature and exceptional practical and quantum-computing properties. After Xiao Yi shared samples with Bao Hexin and Pan Wei and kept the preparation method secret, the team published their results, stunning the scientific community.

• Xiao Yi explained that silver-doped HCP FeSe reached a 92K superconducting transition temperature and offered improved strength and processability.
• Xiao Yi told Xu Ming and the others to publish the experimental results without revealing the preparation method, then invited Bao Hexin and contacted Pan Wei.
• Bao Hexin and Pan Wei examined the reported measurements and samples, were astonished by the material's properties, and took samples back for testing.
• Bao Hexin and Pan Wei confirmed the results, and researchers at leading Chinese universities began requesting samples from Science Island Laboratory.
• Xu Ming completed the paper, which the team posted on arXiv three days later, and Xiao Yi's new FeSe superconductor stunned scientists around the world.

ETH Zurich professors debated Xiao Yi’s FeSe superconductor and learned Nature had commissioned laboratories to verify it. Results from all ten laboratories confirmed its reported properties, prompting worldwide declarations that humanity had entered the era of high-temperature superconductivity.

• Andreas Schilling and Gabriel Eppley examined Xiao Yi’s arXiv paper and questioned how FeSe could have its reported properties without a disclosed preparation method.
• Oprah and Nature editor James told Eppley and Schilling that Nature had sent samples to designated laboratories for verification and that Xiao Yi had withheld key techniques as confidential technology.
• Eppley and Schilling decided to study Xiao Yi’s book, Principles of Experimental Analysis, hoping its experiments might offer clues to the FeSe synthesis.
• Tsinghua University and laboratories in Russia, Singapore, Japan, the United States, France, and Sweden confirmed the new FeSe’s reported superconducting and mechanical properties.
• Media and people around the world celebrated the confirmed high-temperature superconductor, while online discussions debated its significance, its secret preparation method, and Xiao Yi’s book.

Nature editor-in-chief Magdalena Skip tried to make Xiao Yi reveal his new superconductor’s preparation method, breaking their agreement and dangling a Nobel Prize, but Xiao Yi rejected the offer and publicly exposed the call. The backlash engulfed Nature, whose CEO Lanka Warner collapsed as the journal faced defections from scientists.

• Nature editor-in-chief Magdalena Skip agreed to send Xiao Yi a copyright transfer agreement, but shareholder Davis ordered her to demand the superconductor preparation method and offer a Nobel Prize hint if Xiao Yi refused.
• At Science Island Laboratory, Liu Cong confirmed that Xiao Yi’s new FeSe superconductor could be mass-produced, arranged state-backed support, and assigned Wang Li to protect him.
• Xiao Yi recorded Skip’s call, rejected Nature’s demand, and emailed the journal asking it to withdraw his papers and coverage; he decided to publish future work on his own website.
• Xiao Yi published an article accusing Nature of losing credibility and posted the call recording, triggering widespread criticism, while rival journal Science urged him to submit papers to them.
• Skip and CEO Lanka Warner blamed each other as the Nobel Prize Committee called and eleven scientists announced they would stop submitting to Nature; Warner then fainted.

Xiao Yi arranged for HTSC-1 to be mass-produced as a state-owned asset and chose solid-state lithium batteries as his next research target. After Sun Lina reclaimed Xu Ming and the other students, Xiao Yi decided to prepare for the project while recruiting researchers for Science Island Laboratory.

• Xiao Yi discussed the HTSC-1 factory with Chen Hua and agreed that Hui Province and Science Island Laboratory would jointly establish a company to produce it.
• Xiao Yi declined to invest personally, treating HTSC-1 as repayment to the government, and turned his attention to solid-state lithium batteries.
• Xiao Yi explained the promise of solid-state batteries and invited Xu Ming and the others to join his next project.
• Sun Lina arrived and ordered Xu Ming and the others back to her laboratory, delaying Xiao Yi's research project.
• Xiao Yi planned to recruit researchers for Science Island Laboratory and decided to prepare for solid-state battery research while applications were still open.

Liu Xiaodong faced exploitation by his supervisor, Zhao Guoqing, and applied to Science Island Laboratory after Zhou He urged him to leave. He passed the online screening and arrived for the in-person examination, determined to join Xiao Yi’s laboratory.

• Zhao Guoqing pressured Liu Xiaodong to hand over his unfinished research data, while Liu recalled that Zhao had previously taken his work for Li Yi.
• Zhou He advised Liu Xiaodong to leave and apply to Science Island Laboratory, explaining that Zhao planned to use his research for Li Yi.
• Liu sent his résumé to Science Island Laboratory, received an invitation to its online written examination, and passed into the final in-person selection.
• More than seven hundred applicants took Xiao Yi’s written examination, and one hundred advanced to the in-person examination.
• Applicants learned that three Outstanding Young Scholars had applied, while Liu Xiaodong joined the crowded competition for junior research positions.
• Xiao Yi greeted the applicants, and Liu Xiaodong resolved to become a member of Science Island Laboratory.

Xiao Yi interviewed applicants for Science Island Laboratory and selected its first group of researchers, prioritizing motivation and a supportive environment for fundamental research. Liu Xiaodong received an offer and decided to leave his postdoctoral position after confronting his advisor about remaining work.

• Xiao Yi interviewed Outstanding Young Scholars Sun Chongyun, Hu Yi, and Qian Wanli, offering the mathematicians freedom to pursue research and learning that Qian had left Shanghai Jiao Tong University to avoid an academic rival.
• Xiao Yi interviewed Liu Xiaodong and noticed that several papers credited his postdoctoral advisor Zhao Guoqing or another lab member as first author, while Liu’s independent paper appeared to be entirely his own.
• Xiao Yi completed the interviews and selected seventeen full researchers and Associate Researchers, along with twenty-six postdocs and Assistant Researchers.
• Liu Xiaodong received an offer from Science Island Laboratory and told Zhao Guoqing he was leaving his postdoctoral position rather than completing the remaining experiments.
• Every selected applicant confirmed that they would join Science Island Laboratory, and Xiao Yi planned to return to experiments on solid-state battery materials.

Xiao Yi tested several solid electrolytes and chose Li6PS5Cl as a promising commercial option, then used Material Mastery to develop a nanoporous carbon interlayer concept. As Science Island Laboratory began receiving staff, he learned that Liu Xiaodong’s supervisor was blocking his departure and called Liu to ask whether he wanted help.

• Xiao Yi compared LLZO, Li3PS4, Li6PS5Cl, and a PEO-based electrolyte, and concluded that Li6PS5Cl offered a better balance of performance and production costs than LLZO.
• Xiao Yi simulated protective layers for Li6PS5Cl, identified nanoporous carbon as the best preliminary interlayer material, and continued experiments to refine it.
• Wang Hao told Xiao Yi that thirteen recruits had reported and Professor Qian Wanli would leave Shanghai Jiao Tong University before the next week.
• Wang Hao informed Xiao Yi that Liu Xiaodong’s supervisor, Zhao Guoqing, had refused to approve Liu’s departure from his postdoctoral station.
• Xiao Yi decided to let Liu Xiaodong choose whether to accept assistance and called him.

Liu Xiaodong struggled to leave Shanghai Jiao Tong University because Zhao Guoqing refused to sign his postdoctoral departure application. After Xiao Yi intervened through Zhao Chuan, Liu got the signature and prepared to join Science Island Laboratory.

• Liu Xiaodong told his former advisor Luo Binyong that Zhao Guoqing would not sign his departure application until he completed an experiment and handed over the data.
• Luo Binyong learned that Liu had accepted a position at Science Island Laboratory and suggested that Xiao Yi could help resolve the problem.
• Xiao Yi called Liu, offered to contact Zhao Chuan, and invited Liu to join his research group.
• Zhao Chuan called Liu, said he had reprimanded Zhao Guoqing, and asked Liu to bring over his departure application for a signature.
• Liu went to Zhao Guoqing's office, received the signature and an apology, then told Luo Binyong that the issue was resolved.
• Luo Binyong explained that Xiao Yi's standing as a scientific genius made others reluctant to oppose him, and Liu opened his curtains with renewed hope about joining Science Island Laboratory.

Xiao Yi introduced his new research team to a project aimed at commercializing lithium-sulfur solid-state batteries and assigned experiments on carbon nanoporous materials, solid electrolytes, and sulfur electrodes. After half a month, he found a promising sulfurized polyacrylonitrile electrode design, but lithium phosphorus sulfur chlorine interface modification remained unresolved, so he prepared to develop a new theory.

• Xiao Yi introduced Tang Chunming, Liu Xiaodong, Meng Hao, and Chen Tao to the solid-state lithium battery project and set commercialization as its ultimate goal.
• Xiao Yi showed the team strong results from his carbon nanoporous material and assigned Liu Xiaodong to optimize it, Tang Chunming and Chen Tao to modify the solid electrolyte, and Meng Hao to test sulfur electrodes.
• After half a month, Xiao Yi concluded that the carbon nanoporous material had little room for further improvement and found that sulfurized polyacrylonitrile could provide a more stable sulfur electrode.
• Xiao Yi recorded the optimal sulfurized polyacrylonitrile structure and sent it to Meng Hao, leaving synthesis development as the next step.
• Xiao Yi found the solid electrolyte modification results unsatisfactory and decided to come up with a new theory for improving the lithium phosphorus sulfur chlorine interface.

Xiao Yi developed the Electron-Interface Reaction Migration Model to study reactions between solid-state battery electrodes and electrolytes, then began computing its density of states. The next day, Zhao Zhanyou invited him to the Plasma Institute to discuss building a new tokamak using HTSC-1, and Li Jiangan began explaining the proposal.

• Xiao Yi combined reaction-diffusion equations with electron wave functions to create the Electron-Interface Reaction Migration Model for battery interfaces.
• Xiao Yi planned to calculate the model’s density of states using the laboratory server and considered expanding the Science Island Laboratory after developing the battery.
• Wang Hao told Xiao Yi that Zhao Zhanyou wanted to meet him, and Xiao Yi later visited the Plasma Institute to see EAST.
• Zhao Zhanyou proposed building a new tokamak with HTSC-1 superconducting coils, comparing the plan with the older EAST and Energy Singularity’s Honghuang 70.
• Li Jiangan joined Xiao Yi and Zhao Zhanyou and said he would explain the proposal in detail.

Xiao Yi declined Li Jiangan’s request to help secure funding for a new fusion device but offered to help the Plasma Institute obtain HTSC-1 and solve theoretical problems. After studying the Greenwald limit, he completed and tested an electron-interface reaction migration model, whose experimental results left his research group astonished.

• Li Jiangan asked Xiao Yi to help the Plasma Institute secure support for a Tokamak device, but Xiao Yi declined and offered to help with HTSC-1 allocations and theoretical research instead.
• Zhao Zhanyou asked whether the Greenwald limit could be raised further, and Xiao Yi agreed to investigate the problem.
• Xiao Yi returned to Science Island Laboratory and began studying the research behind the Greenwald limit while waiting for his materials calculations to finish.
• Three days later, Xiao Yi completed the electron-interface reaction migration model and assembled his research group to verify it.
• Liu Xiaodong and the other researchers tested the model in the laboratory and found its average error was only five percent, with the maximum discrepancy below fifteen percent.

Guo Xiaoming discovered a new Chinese-language paper on Xiao Yi’s website proposing the Electron-Interface Reaction Migration Model, and researchers recognized it as a major breakthrough. The chapter left domestic groups preparing to apply the model while foreign researchers struggled to translate it.

• Guo Xiaoming found Xiao Yi’s newly posted Electron-Interface Reaction Migration Model paper and began writing an article about it.
• Yue Ming brought the paper to Professor Simon Billing at Columbia University, but they discovered it was written only in Chinese and had to rely on machine translation.
• Researchers overseas struggled to read Xiao Yi’s paper and speculated that he had turned to his personal website after his dispute with Nature.
• Chinese academicians recognized the model’s importance, replication experiments eased doubts about its data, and domestic research groups prepared to use it.

Researchers applied Xiao Yi’s EIRM model to stealth and radar research while its influence spread internationally. At Science Island Laboratory, Xiao Yi used the model to design a new solid-state electrolyte, and his team produced a battery with more than four times the energy density of current lithium batteries.

• Air Force researchers tested the EIRM model against interfacial reactions and used it to advance stealth-coating research, while radar researchers recognized its value for their own work.
• Researchers worldwide sought access to Xiao Yi’s paper, and an attempted plagiarism of a translated version on arXiv was deleted after heavy criticism.
• At Science Island Laboratory, Xiao Yi gave Liu Xiaodong and the others a preparation process for a new lithium phosphorus sulfur chloride electrolyte and joined them in making it.
• Xiao Yi and his colleagues assembled a battery using lithium metal, the new electrolyte, carbon nanoporous material, and sulfurized polyacrylonitrile as its cathode.
• After fifty charge-discharge cycles, the battery achieved an energy density of 1231 Wh/kg, and later tests showed a projected cycle life of 1500 cycles alongside strong dendrite suppression and temperature stability.