At present, Li Qingsong still didn’t know the specific path of proton decay.
It might decay into a positron and a pi meson. If so, the pi meson would then decay into two photons, while the positron would annihilate with a surrounding electron, also producing additional photons.
It could also follow another decay path, decaying into a muon and a kaon. The kaon, in turn, would decay into a pi meson, which would subsequently also decay into photons.
Or it could decay into a neutrino and a kaon.
These different decay paths that Li Qingsong speculated about had one thing in common: the final products inevitably included photons.
Thus, by employing a detection mechanism nearly identical to the one used for neutrinos, he could confirm a proton decay event. All that was needed was for the detector’s photomultiplier tubes to capture the photons produced by the decay, or to detect the Cherenkov radiation generated by intermediate products moving through the water at superluminal speed. From the various phenomena observed during this process, he could then investigate the specific decay path and collect detailed data.
Of course, since the setup was designed to detect proton decay, neutrinos now became a source of interference.
Neutrinos have incredible penetrating power. Even with Li Qingsong building the detector tens of thousands of meters underground on a dwarf planet, it was impossible to filter them out completely.
Fortunately, the microscopic particles and phenomena produced by neutrino collisions differed from those of proton decay.
Therefore, Li Qingsong could create corresponding algorithms and identification programs. Combined with his direct control over the Clones for personal verification, he would be able to filter out the neutrino collision events.
At that moment, powered by a dedicated nuclear fusion plant, the massive underground experimental facility began to operate.
The spherical water tank, holding a staggering 120 million tons of water, had a diameter of over 600 meters.
The enormous sphere, over 600 meters in diameter, was truly as majestic as a great mountain. If not for the dwarf planet’s sufficiently low gravity, the material for the tank alone would have been a massive headache for Li Qingsong.
But even on the dwarf planet, in order to contain all that water, Li Qingsong had to use a specialized tank structure, combined with support from the dwarf planet’s own rock, just to keep it stable and prevent deformation.
Inside this sphere, as majestic as a mountain, Li Qingsong installed billions of photomultiplier tubes to maximize sensitivity and ensure not a single photon was missed.
The data generated by these billions of photomultiplier tubes all converged into a supercomputer built specifically for this purpose, used to analyze and screen the data.
Combined with all the other facilities, this single proton decay Detector alone required Li Qingsong to excavate a total of over a billion tons of material, filling an entire canyon on the dwarf planet.
Beyond the immense cost of the initial construction, just for ongoing maintenance, Li Qingsong had to station about 10,000 Clones here. At the same time, he diverted the brainpower of an additional 100,000 Clones, tasking them with thinking about nothing else but this Detector.
But even so, this was only the beginning.
’How could one proton decay Detector possibly be enough?’
After all, 10^36 years was merely the lower limit for a proton’s lifespan. Li Qingsong had no idea what its true lifespan was.
What if its lifespan was 10^46 years? In that case, from a probabilistic standpoint, the chance of this Detector detecting a single proton decay event within a year would be only one in several hundred million.
Even if its lifespan wasn’t that long, Li Qingsong still had to consider other factors.
Even though Li Qingsong had maximized its precision as much as possible, it was impossible to accurately capture every single proton decay event. It was highly likely that even if a decay occurred, it would be missed by the Detector or misidentified as a neutrino event.
And even if Li Qingsong could accurately capture every single proton decay event, thoroughly researching the process of proton decay couldn’t be accomplished with just a single observation.
It would require hundreds of thousands, or even millions or tens of millions, of repeated observations to truly clarify all its patterns and processes, and finally transform that knowledge into theory to supplement his framework for the Grand Unification Formula.
’In that case, how could one Detector be enough?’
In fact, for his proton decay detection project, Li Qingsong hadn’t planned for one Detector, or ten, but 1,000!
If precision was lacking and the probability was too low, then he would make up for it with sheer numbers!
A normal Electroweak Civilization might be able to build three or four of these mega-scale scientific facilities at most; any more would be unsustainable.
Even if their industrial and infrastructural capacity could handle it, their talent pool could not.
It’s not like you can just build these things, set them aside, and have them run automatically. They also require a huge number of top scientists to be involved.
A single Detector requires at least 10,000 top scientists!
They would only build a few and then try every method they could. They’d accumulate data bit by bit, patiently chipping away at the problem, slowly iterating and optimizing to improve detection precision in the hopes of one day fully mapping the process of proton decay.
But at this moment, Li Qingsong simply didn’t have that kind of time!
Even if Li Qingsong did have the time, he wouldn’t do it that way.
’To have such overwhelming industrial power and not use it, instead choosing to follow the path of a normal Electroweak Civilization? Wouldn’t that be idiotic?’
His way was the way of brute force, the path of overwhelming might. That was Li Qingsong’s specialty.
And so, under Li Qingsong’s command, tens of thousands of small Scientific Research Vessels set out toward the nearly countless larger asteroids and dwarf planets in the Pegasus V432 Star System. They began a comprehensive survey of their geological structures and elemental compositions to select suitable construction sites.
It could not be too large, otherwise its own high gravity would cause the pure water tanks to deform.
It could not be too small, otherwise its rock strata would not be thick enough to provide the Detector with adequate shielding.
It could not have too many heavy elements, otherwise its natural background radiation would be too high and severely interfere with the Detector’s performance.
It could not be too close to the star. After all, the Pegasus V432 Star was a very real, powerful source of neutrino radiation.
It couldn’t even be too close to a gas giant, as gas giants also radiate large amounts of neutrinos.
After a period of selection, Li Qingsong quickly chose 1,000 target worlds. Then, heavy transport ships mobilized. They were fully loaded with materials from the industrial bases, packed with all kinds of engineering machinery, and carrying vast numbers of Clones and general-purpose humanoid robots. They landed on these worlds and, with coordination from the Divine Craft AI, began a new round of massive construction.
At that moment, without manufacturing any new ships or preparing for any fleet voyages, the vast industrial system Li Qingsong had prepared in advance kicked into full operation.