Eons slipped by quietly. Then, today, after countless days of flight, a magnetic monopole passed silently through the superfluid helium-3 chamber of one of the magnetic monopole Detectors Li Qingsong had built.
Like a ghost, it passed through without leaving a trace, having almost no physical effect on the superfluid helium-3. The only sign of its passage was a slight fluctuation in the chamber's magnetic field.
Then, without a backward glance, it reentered the vastness of space to continue its long journey through the Cosmos, a journey that might not end until the Cosmos itself does.
The event in this ordinary Interstellar System was but a tiny fragment in the particle's near-endless existence, one not even worth remembering.
Yet, this single, tiny disturbance was recorded by Li Qingsong. It would become the critical key to breaking through a major technological barrier.
Gazing at the star-filled expanse, Li Qingsong's eyes seemed to follow the path of the long-gone magnetic monopole, and he did not look away for a long time.
'I've finally detected a magnetic monopole. I finally have solid, irrefutable proof that they truly exist...'
In that single moment, Li Qingsong made a greater scientific gain than all his previous research combined.
This was a monumental discovery, a massive breakthrough in fundamental physics. And "fundamental" means it is the foundation supporting all future scientific research and applications.
It would be impossible to overstate the significance of this discovery.
First, Li Qingsong had, for the first time, scientifically verified that the Strong Core Force could indeed be unified with the Electroweak Force.
This was scientific evidence, not the sociological evidence he had relied on before. Previously, his certainty had been based on a simple fact: the existence of a Strong Core Civilization within the Cosmos, which served as indirect proof that the Strong Core Force could be unified.
Magnetic monopoles were born in the earliest moments of the Big Bang, around 10^-36 seconds. At that time, the Strong Core Force and the Electroweak Force must have still been unified, only later differentiating into two separate forces.
In scientific terms, this process is described as SU(5) → SU(3) × SU(2) × U(1).
This very process is what led to the birth of magnetic monopoles. Therefore, Li Qingsong could directly conclude that the Strong Core Force must have been unified with the Electroweak Force during the birth of the Cosmos.
This was direct evidence.
Direct, not circumstantial. Its power as proof far surpassed that of indirect evidence.
Besides proving the unifiability of the Strong Core Force, the discovery also provided evidence for another theory.
The theory of cosmic inflation.
Li Qingsong's scientific framework already held that the Cosmos was constantly expanding, supported by a wealth of observational evidence like redshift.
But that was merely observational evidence. The discovery of the magnetic monopole, however, could prove the theory of cosmic inflation from first principles.
The reasoning was simple. According to existing theory, the number of magnetic monopoles created during the early Big Bang should have been enormous. So why are they so rare now?
There was only one obvious reason: cosmic inflation.
The rapid expansion of the Cosmos diluted the density of magnetic monopoles, making them as rare as they are today.
Like a single drop of water in the ocean.
Thus, by measuring the density of magnetic monopoles, Li Qingsong could extrapolate a great deal of information and study the various changes the Cosmos underwent throughout its evolution.
In the future, with more advanced technology and more accurate measurements, Li Qingsong might even be able to use magnetic monopoles as a tool to detect and interpret changes in distant galaxies, further deepening his understanding of cosmic evolution.
Now, what Li Qingsong needed to do was clear.
He needed to use the current data to further study the properties of magnetic monopoles and fill in the gaps in his theoretical framework. At the same time, he had to keep the magnetic monopole Detectors running in the hopes of observing more of them and gathering more data.
This single observation, while momentous, was clearly not enough.
However, this would be a long-term project. After all, magnetic monopoles were exceedingly rare, so Li Qingsong couldn't expect to observe many more in a short amount of time.
For now, however, there was another, equally important task he could undertake.
The detection of proton decay.
The detection of proton decay, magnetic monopoles, and neutrino mass could be considered the three pillars supporting the Grand Unified Theory. All three were equally important; none could be omitted.
Magnetic monopoles could prove the symmetry breaking in the early Cosmos and reveal topological defects.
Proton decay detection could prove the unification of quarks and leptons at a unified energy scale.
Neutrino mass could prove that the lepton number is not conserved.
Without any one of these three, the Grand Unified Theory would be incomplete and could not be considered truly unified.
Of the three, research into the origin of neutrino mass was more theoretical and didn't require investment in large-scale scientific apparatus.
The discovery of magnetic monopoles was somewhat related to the study of neutrino mass, but it had an even stronger connection to proton decay.
This was because the discovery of the magnetic monopole had already filled in a considerable portion of the existing theoretical framework. Based on these new additions to the theory, Li Qingsong's research into proton decay also quickly yielded a theoretical breakthrough.
Now, Li Qingsong finally understood why, despite building so many proton decay Detectors, he had still failed to detect a single instance of the phenomenon.
His latest theoretical research indicated that a proton's lifespan was indeed finite, lasting approximately 10^37 years.
Based on that lifespan, the sheer number of Detectors he had built should have detected the event long ago.
But... while he had correctly predicted the approximate lifespan of a proton, he had been wrong about one thing.
The way protons decay.
After revising his theoretical framework based on the confirmed existence and observed properties of the magnetic monopole, Li Qingsong discovered that a proton's decay path didn't produce a Photon as he'd previously predicted. Instead, it produced an entirely new kind of Particle.
It was a Particle similar to a Photon, with zero rest mass and traveling at the speed of light.
This new Particle also had extremely high penetrative power. And because proton decay events are so rare, very few of these Particles are ever produced. As a result, the probability of detecting one—even inside a proton decay Detector capable of sensing neutrinos—was vanishingly small.
After all, a single Detector was bombarded by more than a nonillion neutrinos every second, and that immense number resulted in a comparatively paltry few dozen collision events per day.
So how many of these new Particles could there possibly be?
To detect a collision event from one of these Particles using a proton decay Detector... he'd probably be waiting until the end of time.
So, how could he detect proton decay?
Li Qingsong was stumped.