Transcript

Overview

A hand drawn comic with no dialogue. All of the text in the comic appears contextually on documents, chalk boards or signs. The characters are blobby humanoids drawn in color gradients with expressive eyes and eyebrows. They communicate by changing their bodies’ textures and gradients.

Cover

How to Build a Universe

Written by Tim Cohen and Illustrated by Rose Gibian

Cover Description:

Panel 1: A yellow hand holds the page of an instruction pamphlet. The title of the comic is formatted as the title of the page. The rest of the text on the page reads:

“Congratulations! You are now the proud owner of a “Universe Machine,” a research device that lets the user experiment with creating different universes that are consistent with the rules of quantum mechanics and special relativity. Here are a list of options you must select before you can attempt to generate a universe:

1. Space-time dimension (default = 4)
2. Matter and forces (default = Standard Model)
3. Masses (max = M_pl)
4. Interaction strengths (max = 4 pi)
5. Initial temperature (max = M_pl)

Note: If you include a “Higgs boson” then you might find that the properties of your universe are very (very) sensitive to the Higgs boson mass you choose. If you prefer not to fine tune this parameter, we recommend upgrading your machine by adding “supersymmetry” particles.

WARNING: Adjusting the “cosmological constant” nob voids the warranty.”

Panel 2: A yellow, blobby character reads the booklet from panel 1. A similarly shaped purple character stands next to them holding a wrench and looking confused. They stand behind a complicated machine with conveyor-belt like output.

Panel 3: The yellow character reaches out to press a green button on a console of buttons and dials.

Page 1

Panel 1: Yellow character presses the green button.

Panel 2: Yellow crosses their fingers as Purple stands by nervously.

Panel 3: A blue and black circle floats above the conveyor belt, inside the circle is a swirling universe full of stars and galaxies.

Page 2

Panel 1: The universe starts to vibrate.

Panel 2: The universe starts to deform and vibrate more.

Panel 3: The universe implodes with a “paff!”

Panel 4: There is a smoking stain on the conveyor belt where the universe was. Both Yellow and Purple look frustrated and confused.

Panel 5: The characters shrug at each other.

Panel 6: Yellow presses the button again.

Panel 7: “Paff!” the universe implodes.

Panel 8: Yellow presses the button again, with more force.

Panel 8: “Paff!” the universe implodes again.

Page 3

Panel 1: Yellow is extremely frustrated, their body goes from blobby to fiery. They throw their arms up at the conveyor belt machine.

Panel 2: Purple has an idea, they roll out a chalkboard. Yellow calms down as they turn to watch.

Panel 3: Purple points to a line in the instruction pamphlet “if you include a ‘Higgs boson’ then might find that the properties of your universe are very (very) sensitive to the Higgs boson mass you choose.”

Panel 4: Purple writes complicated equations on the chalkboard, and then underlines, “adjust Higgs Mass”

Panel 5: Yellow adjusts the Higgs Boson Mass dial.

Panel 6: “Paff!”

Panel 7: Yellow turns the dial a little further left.

Panel 8: “Paff!”

Page 4

Panel 1: Yellow scratches their head, while Purple gets fiery and fumes.

Panel 2: Purple collapses into an annoyed blob. Yellow looks a bit concerned as they point to an equation on the chalkboard.

Panel 3: Yellow works on part of an equation relating to the change in mass of the Higgs Boson.

Panel 4: Yellow looks confused, they underline “need more precision”

Panel 5: Yellow adjusts a larger, more precise dial.

Panel 6: “Paff!”

Panel 7: An even larger dial, that Purple and Yellow work together to adjust.

Panel 8: “Paff!” An even bigger implosion.

Page 5

Panel 1: Yellow and Purple are both fiery and frustrated.

Panel 2: A new blue character pokes their head through the door, wondering what’s going on.

Panel 3: Purple explains how frustrated they are.

Panel 4: Blue looks at the instruction manual, with a raised eyebrow as Yellow and Purple look on worriedly.

Panel 5: Blue has a lightbulb moment.

Panel 6: Blue looks at a series of green “Particles” gauges, these gauges are all almost full. They point at the “electron neutrino” gauge

Panel 7: On the other side of the panel are the “Superpartners” gauges, these gauges are all in the red, near zero. They point to the “smuon sneutrino” gauge.

Page 6

Panel 1: Blue hands Purple and Yellow a pamphlet and two wallet sized cards.

Panel 2: The pamphlet is a CERN pamphlet for LHC Transit, and the cars are two metro cards.

Panel 3: Blue waves goodbye as Yellow and Purple head out the door.

Panel 4: Purple and Yellow approach CERN, they look tiny compared to the large spherical building.

Page 7

Panel 1: Purple and Yellow walk through a giant supercollider tunnel. The tunnel is long and octagonal, with symmetric scaffolding on each wall.

Panel 2: Purple and Yellow stand next to a map that says “Welcome to the ATLAS Station” and has a CERN logo. The map is a large circle with points on the circle labeled. “You are here” is at the bottom of the circle. At the top of the circle is “CMS”, moving counterclockwise from “CMS” is “ALICE” and continuing counterclockwise, passing “You are here” is “LHC-b” which is also connected through a smaller internal circle and offshoot.

Panel 3: Purple and Yellow look at a “Departures” board. “Proton…25 nanoseconds. Proton…50 nanoseconds. Proton…75 nanoseconds. Proton…100 nanoseconds. Proton…125 nanoseconds.”

Page 8

Panel 1: Purple and Yellow stand on the side of a collider tunnel that looks like a subway station.

Panel 2: They watch as a tangle of circles and curly lines comes hurtling through the tunnel.

Panel 3: They both grab on to one of the curly lines.

Panel 4: They are yanked down the tunnel.

Panel 5: They disappear into the tunnel.

Panel 6: Over the tunnel a sign reads: “Next Stop: Superspace.”

Page 9

A paperclipped sheaf of paper.

“PHYS 391 Advanced Physics Lab: Final Project Report

Our goal this quarter was to combine the rules of quantum mechanics and special relativity to generate a fully functional universe from first principles using the “Universe Machine” technology.

We began by working in 4 space-time dimensions and simply using the particles and forces of the so-called “Standard Model of Particle Physics.”

We were able to make the machine run. However, it would generate universes that were devoid of life. We re-read the manual and noted that one issue might be how carefully we were adjusting the mass of the Higgs boson. However, no matter how large of a knob we attached to the machine in order to fine-tune this value, we were still unable to achieve our goal of a habitable universe.

As future work, we are planning to introduce supersymmetry into our machine, which we expect will significantly reduce the need to fine-tune. To this end, we have traveled to the Large Hadron Collider. Using the ATLAS experiment, we are currently en route to “superspace.”

Although we have not yet been able to detect any supersymmetry particles directly, we remain optimistic that persistence will pay off. Soon we should have the necessary ingredients required to naturally generate stable universes that are capable of supporting life.”

“End. Brought to you by the UO Science and Comics Fellowship.”