Li Dong shook his head.
"Teacher Zhang."
"I’m just asking."
"It’s not like I’m demanding he have the answer."
He paused for a moment before adding,
"Besides, Haozi and Gu God are two people who could actually solve this problem."
Zhang Wenping muttered quietly to Wen Jingxing beside him.
"Old Wen, do you think these two undergrads can really do it?"
Wen Jingxing took a sip of his tea.
"Old Zhang, I’ll be honest with you."
"Even a doctoral student might not be able to."
Just as they were chatting casually,
there were two knocks on the door from the outside.
A staff member poked his head in.
"Professors."
"The next group?"
Zhang Wenping nodded at the staff member.
"Send them in."
The door was pushed open.
In walked the group with Lin Feng and Chen Yue.
Li Dong turned his head to glance at the doorway.
He froze on the spot.
He didn’t recognize the person walking in front.
He didn’t recognize the person in the middle either.
But the one walking at the very back...
He recognized him.
Chen Yue.
Li Dong stood there stunned for about three seconds.
He subconsciously turned to Zhang Wenping beside him and said,
"Teacher Zhang."
"I’ll be recusing myself from this group’s defense as well."
"This kid was my high school roommate."
He pointed at Chen Yue.
Zhang Wenping was taken aback for a moment, then he chuckled.
He said to Wen Jingxing beside him,
"How does this kid have so many roommates? It makes it look like they’re all getting in through connections."
Wen Jingxing corrected him, holding his teacup.
"Old Zhang, don’t say that."
"A roommate of Li Dong’s? How could he be a slouch?"
The other judges nodded, their concerns assuaged.
Indeed, if Li Dong was this capable, how could the people around him possibly be bad?
Beside Chen Yue, Lin Feng was a bit dumbfounded.
’What?’
’This guy is East God’s high school roommate?’
’The kid never mentioned this to me before???’
However, everyone quickly moved on from the little interlude.
The defense process still had to continue.
This time, it was Professor Min Ziqiang who spoke first.
He opened the paper from the Sichuan University team and asked Chen Yue’s group how they came up with the idea to treat the entire mirror field as a continuous mirror density field, write the field’s total annual output as a double integral, and finally, perform a variation on that double integral.
This question also concerned their process.
Chen Yue answered without looking at any notes. His response was fluid, and the judges couldn’t find any fault with it. In the end, they all looked toward Li Dong.
Li Dong understood what they meant, so he nodded and addressed Chen Yue.
"Chen Yue."
Chen Yue’s eyelid twitched.
Li Dong suppressed a smile and asked the same question he had just posed to Wang Hao.
The judges in the room watched Chen Yue with great interest, wanting to see if Li Dong’s roommate would be stumped.
However, Chen Yue only mulled it over in his head for a moment before speaking directly.
"It can be used."
"But not by directly applying it."
Li Dong was quite astonished when he heard this; he hadn’t expected Chen Yue to actually be able to answer.
Chen Yue continued...
He explained that the "light source" in the Fixed Sun Mirror Field problem is the sun.
The sun’s position in the sky follows a trajectory that can be written out analytically, step by step.
From its rise in the morning to its setting in the evening, three hundred and sixty-five days a year, its path is entirely predictable.
Therefore, when this mirror array faces such a light source, the optimal orientation of each mirror is an analytic function of time and position.
But the "light source" for an atmospheric Cherenkov telescope array isn’t like that.
Its "light source" is a high-energy cosmic ray that no one knows when or from what direction it will fall.
The cascade shower created when this cosmic ray smashes into the atmosphere, which spreads a ring of Cherenkov light on the ground, is event-triggered.
So the job of this mirror array changes.
It’s not about "following" the light source.
It’s about getting into position before the event even occurs.
To capture that ring of light at the very instant the event happens.
Since the light source is random, the optimal layout of this array is no longer about facing an analytical light source.
Instead, it’s about facing a probability distribution.
He mentioned that his paper’s technique of "treating the entire field as a continuous density field" could, in fact, be adapted.
But after adapting it, the double integral that was originally for "how to precisely focus the light" would have to be replaced with another double integral for "how to maximize the effective sampling probability of the Cherenkov light ring."
The kernel of the integral would have to change.
The object of the variation would have to change as well.
After he finished speaking, Chen Yue looked at Li Dong.
Li Dong’s hand, holding a disposable paper cup, was frozen in mid-air.
He himself had never expected Chen Yue could explain it to this extent.
’Wait, you actually know this stuff?’
At this moment, Professor Min Ziqiang asked Wen Jingxing beside him, somewhat in disbelief,
"Old Wen."
"An undergrad just answered that question?"
Wen Jingxing held his teacup and said nothing.
In his mind, a thought was already forming.
’This kid...’
’Could I trick him into coming to Zhejiang University for his master’s?’
Although Li Dong was in a daze, he was actually quite happy inside.
After all, his high school roommate had just answered that question to such a degree right in front of him.
At this moment, he felt a pride like that of a father for his son.
But beneath that pride, a petty little annoyance was stirring.
’Why does this guy have to be such a show-off?’
’Damn it, just you wait.’
He showed no expression, simply nodding toward Chen Yue.
"Mm."
"Chen Yue’s answer was very good."
The look Chen Yue gave him in return was perfectly clear...
’Isn’t that obvious?’
’Have you forgotten who I am?’

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