As we all know, Yang Zhenning and Li Zhengdao won China's first Nobel Prize. In fact, before them, there were two Other Chinese scientists with world-class major scientific achievements: physicists Wu Youxun and Zhao Zhongyao.
Wu Youxun is arguably China's best physicist, and this Jiangxi man, who is 1.9 meters tall, is also known as China's "most magnificent physicist".
He not only had major scientific breakthroughs in the physics community, but also was the "founding father" of Chinese physics research, and even Yang Zhenning, Li Zhengdao, Deng Jiaxian and many other physics masters were his students.
If he had not resigned his mentor's Nobel Prize nomination, China would have won the Nobel Prize in Physics 30 years in advance.
Commmptom scatters
In 1926, the Nobel Prize selection committee included the discovery of the "Compton effect" in the next year's list of physics prizes.
Arthur Holly Compton
The American physicist Arthur Holly Compton believed that his student Wu Youxun had made outstanding contributions, so he decided to nominate Wu Youxun in addition to himself to be awarded at the same time, but Wu Youxun modestly believed that he was a student of Compton, only as an assistant to the tutor, so he strongly demanded that his name be crossed out of the list of winners.
A year later, Compton alone won the 1927 Nobel Prize in Physics.
Wu Youxun should have been the first Chinese to win the Nobel Prize, but because of Mr. Wu's humble attitude, his name did not appear in the Nobel Prize in the end, which is indeed regrettable.
But it is gratifying that Professor Compton, in his 1926 book "The Theory and Experiment of X-rays", gave high praise to Wu Youxun's work.
Particularly striking is professor Compton's juxtaposition of Wu Youxun's X-ray spectra of 15 elemental scattering and his own graphite-scattered X-ray spectrogram as the main basis for confirming his theory.
So, what is the Compton effect?
We all know that light has wave-particle duality, but in the last century, many scientists have questioned this conclusion.
On December 14, 1900, Max Planck presented a paper entitled "On the Theory of the Law of Energy Distribution in the Normal Spectrum" at the Physical Society in Berlin, and proposed the concept of energy particles.
Planck's formula derived from this hypothesis is very consistent with the spectral energy distribution law of blackbody radiation experiments, and successfully solves the problems encountered by scientists in the process of studying blackbody radiation phenomena.
This idea of energy discontinuity also opened the door to the other side of light, particle nature, and laid the foundation for quantum theory, for which Planck won the 1918 Nobel Prize in Physics.
But the theory was rarely accepted at the time. This also indicates that every new breakthrough in physics for mankind will suffer many obstacles.
Above: Photon schematic; Bottom: Photon hologram
However, the young Albert Einstein (21 years old) at that time noticed the significance of energy particles, and he proposed for the first time that the energy of light when absorbed and emitted is also a part, and that light itself is composed of inseparable energy particles, which should be called photons.
Einstein also wrote a formula for calculation:
Ek=hν-W, the photoelectric effect equation.
In this formula, h is Planck's constant, ν is the frequency of light, W is the escape work, and Ek is the work that electrons need to do to get rid of metal attraction.
This formula lays a solid foundation for the particle nature of light. It also won Einstein the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics.
Thus, the particle properties of light can already be confirmed based on Planck's energy particles and Einstein's photoelectric effects.
However, the concept of photons was too outrageous at the time, so some physicists believe that the evidence provided by energy particles and photoelectric effects is not enough. In the "you give me one more proof before I believe" stage.
Until the advent of the Compton effect, the particle nature of light had a third conclusive evidence that could perfectly dispel the thoughts of those who opposed it.
Well, according to classical electromagnetic theory, since light is the propagation of electromagnetic waves, and light causes passive vibration of charged particles inside matter, the vibrating charged particles absorb energy from the incident light and scatter it around.
According to Einstein's photoelectric effect formula hv = W + Ek, that is, when the photon hits the surface of the metal plate, its own energy is converted into the energy of the electron escape in addition to overcoming the escape work.
However, in 1918, when Compton studied the scattering of X-rays by graphite, he found that in the scattered X-rays, there were not only rays with wavelengths equal to the original wavelength, but also wavelengths with wavelengths greater than the original wavelength.
Compton believes that when photons and electrons collide, there are also some special energy of photons that are also transferred to electrons, that is, it is assumed that photons, like physical particles such as electrons and protons, have not only energy, but also momentum.
Einstein's equation for the photoelectric effect, however, only represents the conservation of energy between photons and electrons.
After listing the equations according to this idea, Compton calculated the wavelength difference before and after scattering, and the results were exactly the experimental data, thus confirming his hypothesis.
Compton further confirmed with careful thinking that photons are as particle-like as electrons and obey the law of conservation of momentum.
The photoelectric effect and the Compton effect are the same in physical nature, both are the interaction of photons and electrons, but there are subtle differences between the two.
First, the wavelength of incident light is different:
Incident light is the photoelectric effect if it is visible or ultraviolet light, and Compton effect if the incident light is X-ray.
Second, the microscopic mechanism of photon and electron interaction is different:
In the photoelectric effect, the electron absorbs all the energy emitted from the metal, in the process only to satisfy the law of conservation of energy; while Compton scattering is the elastic collision of photons with electrons, following the law of conservation of momentum of relativistic energy.
Mr. Wu Youxun is even more instrumental in verifying the Compton effect.
In 1925, Compton officially announced the experimental results of X-ray scattering spectra, which immediately caused a sensation in the physics community in the United States and the world.
Bridgeman
At the same time, Professor Bridgeman, a well-known physics experimenter at Harvard University, has repeatedly done experiments on the "Compton effect", but has failed to obtain the expected results.
As a result, physicists all over the United States have questioned the authenticity of the "Compton effect".
After Wu Youxun heard about it, he went into the laboratory, checked all the data again, and personally did 3 experiments, and the results verified the authenticity of the Compton effect.
Wu Youxun decided to use action to repel people's doubts.
The next afternoon, Wu Youxun took to the podium at Harvard University. The classroom was filled with physicists, scholars and professors from around the world, waiting with contempt for Wu Youxun's supplementary speech and announcement of the results of the experiment.
Wu Youxun, on the other hand, was not in a hurry and justified in arguing the Compton effect. Then, he performed physics experiments on the spot. Finally, there was a round of applause for his skillful and wonderful experiments.
After that, the Compton effect quickly gained worldwide recognition.
But few people know that before this, Wu Youxun often worked around the clock to verify the Compton effect, and it was common to forget about sleeping.
After a large number of physical experiments, Wu Youxun's verification work has made great progress. One, two... Until the success of the fourteen element test, when he was about to complete the test of the fifteenth element, Wu Youxun became ill and bedridden.
Wu Youxun stamps issued by China are printed with the spectral map he verified
After nearly two months of treatment and recuperation, Wu Youxun threw himself into the research of X-ray scattering despite his physical weakness, and in only 3 months, he verified the X-ray spectrogram scattered by fifteen elements, which became the main basis for Professor Compton to confirm his theory.
Wu Youxun was born in Gao'an County, Jiangxi, in old China at the end of the 19th century, and studied under his uncle Wu Qiluan at an early age.
This uncle returned to his hometown from Yunnan, was proficient in literature and history, also knew mathematics and theory, was upright, knowledgeable and knowledgeable, and was a good mentor and friend of Wu Youxun when he was a teenager.
Wu Qiluan's teaching of Wu Youxun is very extensive, both old and new, speaking both Language and Mathematics, and the teaching method is both indoctrination and inspiration.
In this way, Wu Youxun's knowledge base in his childhood was very solid, and he also knew that the country was in deep trouble.
After graduating from nanjing higher normal school with lofty ideals, Wu Youxun was admitted to study in the United States at official expenses. His mentor was Professor Compton, who was 5 years older than him.
Since 1923, Wu Youxun and Professor Compton have been engaged in the study of X-ray scattered light together.
In 1924, he co-authored with Compton the article "Wavelengths of Molybdenum Rays After Scattering by Light Elements", which attracted great attention from the physics community.
In 1926, Wu Youxun published two separate papers, "Energy Distribution of Variable and Invariant Lines in the Compton Effect" and "Energy Ratios of Variable and Invariant Lines in the Compton Effect".
These research results accurately confirm the objective existence of the Compton effect.
Wu Youxun also included the X-ray spectrograms scattered by 15 elements in his doctoral dissertation, "On the Compton Effect."
This paper, which caused a sensation in the world and won a very high reputation for China, is still preserved in the library of the University of Chicago, becoming a glorious page in the history of world physics Chinese.
In his book The Theory and Experiments of X-rays, Compton cites Wu Youxun's work in 19 places, especially the spectral map. Compton juxtaposed it with the ×-ray spectra scattered by the graphite he obtained in 1923 as the main basis for confirming his theory.
It is touching that Professor Compton believes that the "Compton effect" can also be called the "Compton-Wu Youxun effect". Since then, in some physics textbooks at home and abroad, the "Compton effect" has been called "Compton-Wu Youxun Effect", but Wu Youxun always humbly and categorically refuses after he knows it.
In the days that followed, Professor Compton never forgot this student from the other side of the ocean. He often praised Wu Youxun's unique insights and experimental talents.
In December 1961, when Professor Compton, who was nearly 70 years old, learned that Dr. Yang Zhenning, a student of Wu Youxun, would return to China to visit his family, he approached Yang Zhenning and asked him to greet Wu Youxun on his behalf.
In January of the following year, Dr. Yang Zhenning returned to his motherland and gave his book to his teacher Wu Youxun, and the title page of the book read:
"A few years ago, when I met with Professor Compton, he asked me how my teacher was doing, and said that my teacher was the most proud student of his life."
Wu Youxun returned to China and has always devoted himself to China's physics research and education. Even during the extremely arduous period of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Wu Youxun still cultivated a large number of outstanding talents in the Physics Department of Southwest United University, and Yang Zhenning, Li Zhengdao, Zhu Guangya, Deng Jiaxian, and Chen Fangyun were among the best.
After the founding of New China, Wu Youxun served as vice president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and director of the Department of Mathematical Chemistry, and was fully responsible for the research of national scientific and technological development and basic theory.
In his scientific leadership work, he not only has courage, but also extraordinary foresight. As early as the founding of the People's Republic of China, he proposed the initiative to establish new research institutes such as computers, semiconductors, and electronics at the Academy of Sciences as early as possible.
Later, these research institutes were established one after another, making outstanding contributions to the scientific and technological development of New China.
On September 18, 1999, on the occasion of celebrating the 50th anniversary of the founding of New China, the state solemnly commended the meritorious scientists of "two bombs and one satellite". Among the 23 "two bombs and one star" meritorious person who was commended, 14 were from Mr. Wu Youxun's disciples.
It can be seen that wisdom makes people learn and advance, and humility makes people famous throughout the ages!
Elder Wu is a good example for us to admire.
@Popular science has material