Broken Symmetry

“Well, it does, in a sense,” Harold said. “It indicates a working SSC in some other universe. If it hadn’t been killed, it’s now about the time when we would have started running the machine. Think of it.”

Think of it. A universe where the SSC was never canceled. A universe where science never lost its way, where the government and the lay people understood the importance of this project, appreciated the need for basic research.

Perhaps in that universe, the other projects, like SETI and the human genome project, were also going strong. Perhaps in that universe, the space program hadn’t stopped at the Moon, but was even now moving humanity towards the stars. Perhaps…

“Harold,” Roy said softly, “can we use your theory to travel to that other universe?”

Harold looked wistful, and shook his head. “I’m afraid that’s unlikely. The energies are just too much. You’d have to be in the path of the beam, and that would probably kill you. Of course, we could get a resonance effect going, but I’m not sure how.”

Roy bit his lower lip and nodded. “It was worth asking. Too bad we can’t use your theory to our advantage.”

The two men sat in silence for a moment, and then Harold’s eyes glinted. “Actually, we can!”

“How?”

“Look,” Harold said, “What’s the most expensive part of the SSC?”

“The ring, of course,” Roy replied.

Harold nodded, excitement in his eyes. “Yes, the ring. The detectors and even the computers are cheap compared to that. But don’t you see? We don’t have to worry about funding the ring anymore!”

“You mean to say—” Roy began.

“I mean to say that someone else in another universe is paying to run the beams. We can just set up detectors and piggyback on their experiments, like when we do experiments on synchrotron radiation. We just have to wait for a crossover, and I believe I can calculate when those will occur. And when a beam comes through—zing!—and collides with the protons in the surrounding dirt, we take data.”

Roy pressed his fingers together and leaned back in his chair. “We could restart the SSC at a fraction of the original cost,” he said, “because the scientists in the other universe have already built it.”

“My point exactly.”

Roy picked up the phone to call the Department of Energy.

5. Spin Up

The Reichen run, as Kristin called it, was six weeks in the past. It was also the only run of the collider that had actually gone perfectly, ever since Reichen threatened to shut them down. Perhaps, Kristin had told Ray jokingly, there had been something to the idea of ordering the collider to behave itself. Since then, they had run the accelerator many more times, and as always, the beams kept disappearing.

Kristin and Ray stood on the hot grassy plain, studying the detector that should have picked up the beam they had run earlier today. After half an hour of examining the huge boxes filled with plastic scintillator, she turned to Ray and said, “Now do you believe my theory?”

Slowly, Ray said, “It does seem to be the only possible answer.”

“Only answer, you mean. Ray, you’ve checked my calculations. You know that I’ve predicted every single beam disappearance since the Reichen run. Either I’m the victim of the most improbable set of coincidences, or—” She shrugged. “Or I’m right. And I must be. The data proves it.”

Ray nodded. “I guess you’re right. Too bad.”

“Too bad?” Kristin felt stunned. “What do you mean, too bad? We’ve just demonstrated something that will shake the theoretical foundations of physics as much as relativity did!”

Ray smiled, bitterly. “Come on, let’s walk back to the car.”

In the car driving back to Waxahachie, he continued. “Kristin, I didn’t mean to belittle your accomplishment. Your theory will make a major impact, and you should be proud of that. But your theory also means that we’re going to have stop running the collider immediately.”

“What? Why?”

“Because if the beams are being diverted into another universe, who knows what damage they’re doing there? We’re sending antimatter beams into the unknown. If they’re interacting with the matter of an alternate Earth…” He trailed off.

Kristin swallowed hard. “I see what you’re saying, but I don’t think we have to worry too much about that.”

“Why not? You don’t care if we’re causing matter-antimatter explosions in another universe?”

“No! It’s not that at all. We don’t have to worry about the explosions hurting anyone, because for this phenomenon to be happening, our SSC would probably have to resonate with another SSC in the other universe. It’s inherent in my calculations.”

Ray nodded. “I see. If that’s the case, then our beams would be traversing the barrier between universes simply to go from our tunnel into theirs.”

“Exactly. The beams may be going into another universe, but only if there’s an SSC ring there.” She paused. “An abandoned one, actually.”

“Abandoned? How do you know that?”