Chapter Summaries

J-PARC's tests and other institutions found no particle at 11.4514 GeV, undermining Atsuto Suzuki's attempt to dispute the results. As he and Bruce Arnow tried to prevent the Chinese Academy of Sciences from testing the predicted 923.8 GeV scale, Academician Pan revealed that CERN was ready to take over.

• Koichiro Nishikawa told Makoto Kobayashi that 4,396 candidate records showed no particle signal at 11.4514 GeV, and Kobayashi ordered him to send the results to the press conference.
• Atsuto Suzuki accepted the flat results but feared the Chinese Academy of Sciences might find a particle at 923.8 GeV, so he decided to block access to TeV-scale colliders.
• Bruce Arnow told Academician Pan that the Tevatron could not be restarted soon and that Fermi Lab's other devices were already booked, while Zhou Shaoping recognized the apparent tactic.
• Academician Pan said CERN would handle the TeV-level collision and introduced Carlo Rubbia, who assured him that everything was ready.

Hou Xingyuan and Carlo Rubbia secured CERN’s cooperation for the LHC experiment, which Academician Pan then ordered to begin. After nearly an hour of collisions, the event display revealed a clear bump near 950 GeV, leaving the gathered physicists stunned and hopeful that the particle had been found.

• Atsuto Suzuki was shocked when Hou Xingyuan and Carlo Rubbia appeared together, while Academician Pan explained that CERN’s support was tied to its hopes for the Future Circular Collider.
• Xu Yun realized that CERN’s cooperation could help the Chinese Academy of Sciences gain leverage over Japan’s International Linear Collider and advance negotiations for the FCC.
• Academician Pan greeted Carlo Rubbia, received his confirmation that the LHC was ready, and ordered the accelerator staff to start the experiment.
• CERN activated the CMS detector and collided lead ion beams while researchers collected and analyzed the resulting data.
• After 59 minutes, a filtered event display showed a pronounced bump near 950 GeV, startling Atsuto Suzuki, Higgs, Academician Pan, Witten, and Xu Yun.

CERN’s collision data confirmed that a new particle existed, and Academician Pan presented the reports for experts to assess. As researchers investigated anomalies in some reports, they found that familiar models could not explain them, and the chapter ended with someone remarking on the mystery.

• Carlo Rubbia reported that CERN had found 219 major events with signal bumps, and Academician Pan arranged for the data to be analyzed and shared with the researchers.
• The Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Supercomputer Dawning verified that the signal indicated a new particle rather than a statistical fluctuation, and Academician Pan announced the data review and expert vote.
• Christine and Lu Chaoyang noticed anomalous reports whose particle properties did not fit the expected model, and they discussed whether an earlier theoretical model could explain the discrepancies.
• Witten said that 39 anomalous reports did not undermine the particle’s existence but required explanation, and Gerard 't Hooft suggested an X17-like model.
• Higgs rejected the X17 explanation because the reports showed no sign of positron production, and an unidentified voice remarked that the anomaly was strange.

Xu Yun’s data led the physicists to uncover a major particle anomaly, and Yang Lao ruled out the W-boson explanation after Witten recalculated the coupling shift. The chapter left Witten realizing that the apparent 923.8 GeV particle might actually be two closely bound particles.

• Xu Yun showed Academician Pan data indicating zero topological susceptibility, and the physicists connected the particle’s anomalous decay factor to CP violation and a nonzero vacuum expectation value.
• Yang Lao proposed that a W or Z boson might explain the anomaly, pointing to Fermi Lab’s unusually heavy W-boson measurement.
• Xu Yun told Yang Lao something that prompted him to revisit the report and challenge the Weinberg-angle explanation.
• Witten recalculated the anomalous magnetic moment’s coupling shift and found it was only 1.53, disproving Yang Lao’s initial conjecture.
• Yang Lao suggested that the 923.8 GeV signal might represent two closely nestled particles, and Witten realized they could have been mistaken for one.

Yang Lao and the researchers confirmed that the 923.8 GeV signal came from two particles with an extraordinarily small energy split, then investigated their internal structure. Witten connected the anomaly to a doubly charmed particle that appeared during the collision and proposed that its quarks were divided between the two particles while its remaining essence merged with gluons.

• Lu Chaoyang recalculated the data and found that the signal’s energy matched a two-particle model, which also supported the model he had discussed with Christine.
• Yang Lao and the researchers checked the anomalous measurements, and CERN’s additional splitting test confirmed two particles separated by only about 520 eV.
• Polyakov and Nima ruled out an η-meson correction, leading the researchers to consider an unusual internal quark configuration and exotic hadrons.
• Witten examined the reports and identified a double-charm quark jet that appeared before the particles formed, then vanished as a charm quark appeared inside each particle.
• Witten proposed that the doubly charmed particle had split its quark content between the two particles while its remaining essence had transformed into and merged with gluons.

Witten and the other physicists found a possible mechanism by which double-charm quarks could annihilate into gluons, explaining the particles’ unusual bound state despite the process’s extraordinarily low probability. As they began calculating the particles’ exact composition, Witten saw a result that startled him.

• Anton Zeilinger questioned Witten’s proposal because physicists had no evidence that quarks could transform into gluons.
• Anton Zeilinger examined report P292 and noticed an imbalance in baryon number, prompting Higgs to ask Xu Yun for the gauge-group expression behind his calculation.
• Higgs’s calculations showed that the proposed model and the observed data supported charm quark pairs annihilating into gluons, though the probability was only one in 8.58 billion.
• Xu Yun suggested that a double-charm quark might be willing to become a gluon because it loved one, and Witten and the others applauded after confirming the particles’ binding mechanism.
• Witten began calculating the particles’ precise structure, then stared at the result in shock.

Witten and the other physicists calculated that the resonance data described two nearly confirmed supersymmetric particles, stunning the press conference. Xu Yun suspected the second part of the formula involved grand unification and noticed Atsuto Suzuki’s shock.

• Witten introduced the gluon field into his calculations, lost his balance, and searched for the report containing the resonance result.
• Witten and Academician Pan saw that the final expression involved a fermionic operator and could connect the resonance signals of two particles.
• Yang Lao, Gerard 't Hooft, Higgs, Polyakov, and the other scholars concluded that the discovery involved two supersymmetric particles, and the audience reacted with shock.
• Lu Chaoyang and Christine recognized the result as the model they had previously considered, while Atsuto Suzuki was stunned by the discovery.
• Xu Yun reasoned that supersymmetric particles might be a clue to grand unification and saw Atsuto Suzuki standing frozen nearby.

Academician Pan closed the press conference after announcing two new particles near 950 GeV and outlining the Academy’s role in their discovery. The Huaxia physics community left with a place in the coming verification work, while Atsuto Suzuki and the other critics received a pointed farewell.

• Academician Pan congratulated Witten, who credited the Academy and CERN and said he hoped further verification would find more supersymmetric particles.
• Academician Pan announced that CERN had found two previously undiscovered particles near 950 GeV, while withholding their supersymmetric identification pending verification.
• Academician Pan praised Huaxia physicists and said the community could now discover dark matter and calculate unknown particles.
• Academician Pan thanked certain colleagues with sarcastic wishes and blessing postcards, leaving Atsuto Suzuki and the others clapping stiffly.
• The Academy cut Hou Xingyuan’s speech, and Academician Pan declared the conference officially closed before the delegates applauded.

After recovering from the press conference, Xu Yun answered messages and browsed Moments, where he discovered that Weng Yujing’s father had posted approval for the Yongling excavation project. Xu Yun asked Weng Yujing about the post, and she confirmed her father had blocked her from seeing it.

• Xu Yun woke after sleeping through the morning and recalled using Dirichlet's and Eisenstein's Mind Cards for three hours at the press conference.
• Xu Yun invited Chen Shanshan to dinner, then reviewed congratulations and job inquiries from friends and passed potential candidates to Tang Li.
• Xu Yun saw his mother's congratulatory post and noticed she was advertising him as an unmarried bachelor.
• Xu Yun spotted a post from [Coastline] showing the Huaxia Archaeological Bureau's approval for the Yongling excavation project.
• Xu Yun recognized [Coastline] as Weng Yujing's father and sent her a screenshot, and Weng Yujing complained that he had blocked her from his Moments.

Xu Yun learned that Weng Yujing’s father, Weng Tong, was a senior archaeologist involved in the Yongling excavation, and he urged Academician Pan to use the Gravity Gradiometer to survey the tomb. Academician Pan agreed to act and then told Xu Yun to leave for Xichang within an hour.

• Xu Yun called Weng Yujing and learned that her father, Weng Tong, was a researcher and professor who had spent decades pursuing the Yongling excavation.
• Xu Yun connected Weng Tong’s project to the Yongling excavation and decided to prepare before contacting him directly.
• Xu Yun called Academician Pan and explained how the Gravity Gradiometer could improve the survey of Yongling and help prevent damage like the Dingling excavation.
• Academician Pan agreed to consider Xu Yun’s proposal and told him to wait for news.
• Academician Pan called Xu Yun back and ordered him to get ready to leave for Xichang in an hour.

Xu Yun traveled with Academician Pan and Wang Yaoping to the Xichang Satellite Launch Center to explore cooperation on a platform for the Yongling excavation’s Gravity Gradiometer. The chapter ended as Wang Yaoping reunited with an elderly acquaintance at the base.

• Xu Yun packed and met Academician Pan, who brought Wang Yaoping along for the trip to Xichang.
• Academician Pan explained that Wang Yaoping hoped to introduce Xu Yun to the launch center and discuss possible cooperation.
• Xu Yun recognized the launch center as a promising partner for stabilizing and carrying the Gravity Gradiometer.
• After a drive of more than six hours, Xu Yun, Academician Pan, and Wang Yaoping arrived at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center.
• Wang Yaoping greeted the elderly man waiting at the entrance as “Little Ge.”

Old Wang brought Xu Yun to Xichang Satellite Launch Base, where Xu Yun asked Professor Ge Tongyou and the base’s researchers for help stabilizing a Gravity Gradiometer platform. The base revealed that Jilin University had already sent a letter of intent to collaborate, leaving Xu Yun surprised by the unexpected connection.

• Old Wang reunited with retired Professor Ge Tongyou at Xichang Satellite Launch Base, and the group toured the facilities with chief designer Li Hua.
• Ge Tongyou described the base’s advances in satellite instrument stability, surprising both Old Wang and Xu Yun with its improved error figures.
• Old Wang told Ge Tongyou and Li Hua that Xu Yun was developing a Gravity Gradiometer using the Pangu particle, and Xu Yun explained the Yongling project’s need for a stable instrument platform.
• Xu Yun asked Xichang Satellite Launch Base to help solve the platform’s balance problem for a trial Gravity Gradiometer.
• Li Hua handed Xu Yun a fax titled “Letter of Intent for Collaboration on the Design of Certain Gravity Gradiometer Components,” naming Jilin University and Huang Yuting as the applicants.

Xu Yun learned that Huang Yuting, Professor Huang Danian’s daughter, had continued her father’s Gravity Gradiometer research despite shrinking support. After Xichang’s engineers judged the missing components feasible to build, they agreed to begin work, bringing a temporary instrument for Yongling within reach.

• Li Hua explained that Jilin University’s Gravity Gradiometer proposal came from Huang Yuting’s team, which had lost funding and members after years without results.
• Xu Yun realized Huang Yuting had continued the research of her late father, Professor Huang Danian, and learned that Xichang had found her structural design sound but incomplete.
• Xu Yun asked whether the structure and the surveying, mapping, and balancing modules could be combined into a temporary Gravity Gradiometer for Yongling.
• Li Hua estimated the balancing module’s requirements, and Ge Tongyou said their team could build it with their current capabilities.
• Ge Tongyou reassured Xu Yun that he would assemble a team that afternoon and have the balancing module completed within two days.

Huang Yuting faced the loss of another key member of her struggling gravity gradiometer project, but Xichang Satellite Launch Base agreed to adopt the group’s designs and collaborate on the work. The base’s urgent plans to complete the instrument were tied to investigating the Yongling Tomb and the possible existence of the Yongle Encyclopedia.

• Huang Yuting arrived at her laboratory and learned that Lin Chen wanted to leave the research group after completing his doctorate.
• Lin Chen urged Huang Yuting to consider changing directions, explaining that the project had stalled and lost institutional support since her father’s death.
• Huang Yuting called Dean Zhu to request approval for Lin Chen’s departure, but Dean Zhu asked them to wait a few days.
• Dean Zhu told Huang Yuting that Xichang Satellite Launch Base had agreed to use the group’s structural drawings and jointly develop a gravity gradiometer.
• Dean Zhu explained that Xichang had already completed the measurement module and hoped to finish the instrument within seven days for the Yongling Tomb excavation and a search related to the possible Yongle Encyclopedia.

Huang Yuting rushed to the Xichang Satellite Launch Base after learning that Xu Yun’s team could build a highly sensitive gravity gradiometer within seven days. There, she discovered that her three-arm design could not balance the Pangu particles, and Xu Yun proposed using a crystal lattice as a relay.

• Huang Yuting and Lin Chen flew to Rongcheng, where Xu Yun met them and explained that USTC’s dark-matter experiment had produced a gravity-gradiometer measurement module with 10^-16 m/s precision.
• Huang Yuting insisted on traveling overnight to the Xichang Satellite Launch Base, and Xu Yun and Wei Siming drove her and Lin Chen there.
• At the base’s busy laboratory, Ge Tongyou welcomed Huang Yuting and recalled how her father’s gravity gradiometer had served on a Navy ship.
• Ge Tongyou and Li Hua pointed out that Huang Yuting’s three-arm, six-accelerometer design could not achieve electrostatic balance with the uncharged Pangu particles.
• Lin Chen suggested replacing the target particles, but Ge Tongyou warned that this would make the measurement problem much harder.
• Xu Yun proposed adding a crystal lattice as a relay.

Xu Yun proposed using a high-density lattice to reduce electrostatic interference in the gravity gradiometer, and Huang Yuting’s calculations showed a 98.54% balance rate. The team also devised a correction for the device’s current density as it passed through the flooded levels of Yongling’s underground palace, clearing the way to assemble it.

• Xu Yun explained that a high-density lattice could divert the electrostatic field affecting the gravity gradiometer’s measuring arms.
• Huang Yuting used the Little Wooden House system to calculate a 98.54% balance rate for a 50-by-50 lattice, and Ge Tongyou approved the proposal.
• Ge Tongyou assigned Li Hua to arrange production of the lattice panel, possibly with help from a partner organization.
• Ge Tongyou described how standing water and changing solid-liquid regions inside Yongling could disrupt the gravity gradiometer’s total current density.
• Huang Yuting proposed adding an axle load meter and particle emitter to correct the current density, and Ge Tongyou’s calculations confirmed the plan was feasible.

Xu Yun and the Xichang team received and inspected critical Gravity Gradiometer equipment delivered by the 29th Research Institute. With the handover complete, Li Hua invited Major Cao Yi to watch them assemble the instrument at the base.

• Xu Yun, Ge Tongyou, Huang Yuting, and the others rested at the guesthouse, then spent two days refining the Gravity Gradiometer while Academician Pan took Old Wang back to Rongcheng.
• Ge Tongyou and Li Hua welcomed Cao Yi and his convoy of six trucks from the 29th Research Institute, which delivered equipment to the base.
• Li Hua and Ge Tongyou inspected the wooden-crated components and found them in good condition.
• Li Hua and Huang Yuting used a Coordinate Measuring Machine to check the remote-sensing balance instrument and measuring arms, which met the team's requirements.
• Li Hua and Ge Tongyou completed the inspection and handover of the remaining equipment, then invited Cao Yi to watch them assemble the Gravity Gradiometer.

Xu Yun, Li Hua, Ge Tongyou, and Cao Yi assembled the experimental gravity gradiometer at the Xichang Satellite Launch Base, installing its Pangu particle containers and connecting its modules. After the completed instrument powered up, Li Hua told his assistant to bring out something, leaving the next step unstated.

• Cao Yi was surprised that the advanced gravity gradiometer was being assembled in a storeroom, and Li Hua and Ge Tongyou explained that function mattered more than ceremony.
• Cao Yi volunteered to help, and everyone sorted the equipment before Ge Tongyou led the final assembly.
• Zhang Han delivered six canisters of ultracold Pangu particles, which Xu Yun and his team installed in the measurement modules.
• Xu Yun’s team connected the measuring components while Tang Fei and Liang Haoran worked on the cooling system and joked about its cost.
• The group completed the gravity gradiometer and powered it on; Li Hua then told Little Guo to take something out.

Xu Yun, Huang Yuting, and Li Hua tested the Gravity Gradiometer by mounting it on a modified F-500 unmanned helicopter. The instrument’s readings accurately revealed the base’s underground drainage layout and detected cockroaches, leaving Li Hua impressed by the test’s success.

• Li Hua explained the rocket transport standby area and introduced the F-500 unmanned helicopter that would carry the Gravity Gradiometer.
• Huang Yuting questioned whether the drone could lift the 400-kilogram instrument, and Li Hua explained that the base’s modified F-500 could carry up to 600 kilograms.
• Ge Tongyou confirmed the equipment was ready, and Guo Ziyang checked when reconnaissance satellites would pass over the base.
• Li Hua ordered the drone to take off, and the F-500 lifted the Gravity Gradiometer to hover about sixty meters above the group.
• Xu Yun directed a ground measurement and identified drainage pipes, a likely water pump, and small moving gradients he attributed to cockroaches.
• Xu Yun offered free pest-control products, and Li Hua recognized that the instrument’s findings matched what lay beneath the test area.

Xu Yun and Li Hua confirmed that the Gravity Gradiometer could map objects inside a shielded supply truck and even detect a kitten beneath it. Li Hua then led Xu Yun’s team to scan a mountain, where the discovery of widespread ice debris hinted at a secretive final test.

• Li Hua had Guo Ziyang bring a cafeteria truck so Xu Yun could test the Gravity Gradiometer on its hidden contents.
• Xu Yun identified the truck’s vegetables, engine, damaged suspension, and a cat beneath the chassis; the team found the kitten and verified the scan results.
• Li Hua took Xu Yun and the others to Unnamed Peak and ordered them to scan its mountainside without explaining the test.
• Zhang Han reported that ice debris covered much of the mountain, and Xu Yun realized it had likely been placed there deliberately.