Now that he truly grasped the Unified Field Formula and propelled his technological level to that of a Strong Nuclear Civilization, Tom finally understood how much more powerful a Strong Nuclear Civilization was compared to an Electroweak Civilization.

Although Tom had not yet truly mastered any application technology of a Strong Nuclear Civilization, it did not prevent him from making predictions based on his current understanding.

First, in terms of energy.

For an Electroweak Civilization, like Tom before and now, the primary energy source was Deuterium-Tritium fusion.

The energy conversion efficiency of Deuterium-Tritium fusion is approximately 0.375\%, while proton-proton chain fusion, which only involves ordinary hydrogen, has an energy conversion efficiency as high as 0.7\%, almost double that of Deuterium-Tritium fusion!

At the same time, by combining proton-proton chain fusion with Deuterium-Helium-3 fusion, the energy conversion efficiency can be further increased to over 1\%, three times that of Deuterium-Tritium fusion!

Imagine what it would mean for a spaceship or a fleet to carry the same mass of fuel but be able to release three times the original energy?

Of course, changing from Deuterium-Tritium fusion to a proton-proton chain + Deuterium-Helium-3 fusion mode is extremely difficult.

This is because proton-proton chain fusion requires extremely high temperatures and pressures. Even the cores of massive stars like the Sun or Pegasus V342 cannot meet these requirements.

Of course, the type of fusion occurring in the cores of stars like the Sun is indeed proton-proton chain fusion, but this does not negate the reality that its interior has not actually met the requirements for proton-proton chain fusion.

This seems a bit contradictory: why can proton-proton chain fusion occur if the requirements are not met?

This is due to quantum tunneling.

Under extremely low probability, a proton inside one hydrogen atom can directly tunnel to the side of a proton inside another hydrogen atom, and when the two protons combine, proton-proton chain fusion occurs.

That is, it does not combine because it has sufficient temperature and pressure, but rather it combines and undergoes fusion entirely based on the probability of quantum tunneling.

So, is the probability of quantum tunneling leading to proton-proton chain fusion high?

The answer is not high at all; on the contrary, it is very, very low, even less than one in a hundred million.

Then why can stars like the Sun maintain such a high rate of fusion?

The answer is simple: it is too large, and there are far too many protons inside it. Even if the probability is extremely low, a large number of protons will always 'tunnel' to the side of other protons and undergo fusion for no apparent reason.

From this perspective, stars, according to conventional theory, should not exist, but the mysterious quantum mechanics allows them to exist.

This highlights the difficulty of performing proton-proton chain fusion.

If even the cores of such massive stars cannot achieve the corresponding temperatures and pressures, how can intelligent life do it?

The answer is also very simple.

After mastering the Unified Field Formula, an intelligent civilization can influence the Strong Nuclear Force to change the strength of various forces within the atomic nucleus, thereby reducing the difficulty of proton-proton chain fusion and making controlled proton-proton chain fusion a reality.

At the same time, the primary product of conventional proton-proton chain fusion is neutrinos, which carry away over 90% of the energy, making it unusable.

Similarly, after mastering the Unified Field Formula, Tom is confident he can find a way to change the fusion mode of particles, reduce the neutrinos in their products, and utilize more of their energy.

Although Tom cannot yet realize all these ideas, the Unified Field Formula has already resolved the theoretical obstacles and indicated the direction for future engineering implementation.

In addition to the significant increase in energy supply, Tom also saw the future direction in ion thrusters.

Also by influencing and manipulating the Strong Nuclear Force, Tom will be able to create electromagnetic acceleration devices based on completely different principles than before, increasing the speed of ions ejected by ion thrusters by tens or even hundreds of times.

The thrust produced by a unit of propellant is directly related to its ejection velocity.

The faster the propellant is ejected, the greater the thrust it produces. That is, the higher the utilization efficiency.

The change in fusion mode brought about a huge increase in energy supply, reaching about three times the previous amount.

The increase in propellant ejection velocity brought about a huge increase in propellant utilization efficiency, potentially reaching tens of times the previous amount.

What does the combination of these two mean?

Obviously, higher cruising speed!

Tom confirmed that this was the reason why the Mechanical Disaster fleet could achieve such high speeds.

And, the mastery of the Unified Field Formula also allowed Tom to truly understand the principle behind the Mechanical Disaster fleet's mysterious energy shields, which almost completely overwhelmed him.

This is also based on the manipulation of the Strong Nuclear Force!

Through some special equipment—Tom does not yet know the working principle of this equipment, but the Unified Field Formula also indicated the existence of such equipment—a Strong Nuclear Civilization will be able to change the state of matter into a thin layer of gluon plasma and then cover the surface of a spaceship with it.

The different particles within this layer of gluon plasma are connected by the Strong Nuclear Force, and its strength is even higher than the toughest special fibers Tom could produce, such as the material used for the Space Elevator.

This is equivalent to giving a spaceship or other facilities a layer of super bulletproof armor.

The most ingenious part is that this layer of gluon plasma, controlled by a magnetic field, can be manipulated conveniently and flexibly.

It can be seamless and integrated, or it can conveniently open a hole to allow projectiles or other weapons fired by one's own side to pass through.

When needed, it can envelop the entire spaceship in a very short time. When not needed, it can also completely dissipate in an instant.

Beyond this, Tom also found another possibility indicated by the Unified Field Formula.

Energy cannons!

Energy cannons are similar to electromagnetic cannons in that they both fire projectiles.

Of course, energy cannons are based on a more advanced mechanism and fire projectiles at a faster speed.

At the same time, it also has another most important improvement.

That is, a Strong Nuclear Civilization can also influence the Strong Nuclear Force to place its projectiles in a certain 'strong nuclear excited state' and maintain stability.

Atomic bombs and hydrogen bombs are called nuclear weapons fundamentally because their energy comes from the release of the Strong Nuclear Force within elementary particles.

And the projectiles of an energy cannon, when placed in a strong nuclear excited state, can also release a small portion of the immense energy contained within the Strong Nuclear Force.

From this perspective, the projectiles released by an energy cannon, when in a strong nuclear excited state, are not essentially projectiles, but can be regarded as a kind of ultra-miniature, low-efficiency hydrogen bomb!

But no matter how small or inefficient it is, it is still a hydrogen bomb.

On one side, there are ordinary electromagnetic cannon projectiles, which are merely faster and have higher kinetic energy, but primarily rely on kinetic energy to cause damage.

And now, the projectiles used by a Strong Nuclear Civilization are ultra-miniature hydrogen bombs. How can one fight against that?

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