The Boson Experiment and Earths End

By Bryan Whelan

Here are two more stories about earths future. One is in the near future and the other as far in the future as Earth can get.

The Boson Experiment was the brainchild of Abby McGovern, who was trying to create an artificial black hole. Her world was turned upside down when she met someone who was her direct opposite, a ghost hunter. The two never imagined that they would both eventually be chasing the same thing.

In Earths End, the Earth is about to be swallowed up by the now-expanding sun. Only three religions still survived, and science was one of them. The two religions, Christianity and Islam, accepted that this was the end of the human race and readied themselves to meet their makers. Science instead proposed leaving Earth and traveling to a distant planet as the last hope for humanity. Just how will they survive the journey for so many years? Will the human race live long enough to reach this new world?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris AU
• Release date: Oct 12, 2016
• ISBN: 9781524515799

Bryan Whelan

The fourth in the Lincoln Cain Spy series from the pen of Bryan Whelan, following on from Edge of Reality, The Hexagonal Dome and The Bandaid Conspiracy. Bryan is a retired Maths, Science and Information Technology teacher from Australia, who has been a fan of science fiction all his life. Author of several science fiction adventure stories, including The Swirling Lights of Paradise, The Hives of God’s World and Truth of Time, he injects a distinctly Australian flavour to them.

Book preview

Chapter 1

Abigail was putting yet another late night session at the Institute. Why not, she really didn’t have anything else on. The room was large but with only a few lights on, it gave her the feeling of being in a small room. The coffee on her desk had long gone cold and stale. The grey colouring of the surrounding desks and machinery gave cold comfort to her. This session was going to be another waste of time. She knew it but continued on with it anyway. Her only respite was the book she was reading. She might just finish it tonight.

She started the Harmon Collider. She continued her reading while the large machine got up to speed. It took about 5 minutes. After that time a buzzer sounded. Abigail put her book down and flicked the switch to start the pressure pump. Her colleague and pump specialist, Jim Grecian, had set up the pump earlier and had gone home. She then pressed the ‘Go’ button to start the Collider.

The physics behind all this was known about for hundreds of years. The last great advance on it was from the famous physicist, Steven Hawking but that was nearly 50 years ago. He had postulated the concept of negative time when black holes were formed. The Harmon Collider was a large circular chamber that spun minute particles, (for Abigail’s experiment she was using leptons) around and around and around and smashed them into each other in an attempt to recreate a black hole in a laboratory. The newly installed Digital Pressure Pump greatly increased the pressure inside the sealed container to enhance the collapse of the atoms. Simple enough concept in theory, next to impossible to reproduce in a lab.

Abigail watched through the viewer. This was a small window that was just big enough to fit your face over. The explosion of the collision was just a flash of light and in that instant it was all over. Nothing but an empty box to look at after that. But the event was recorded on the video machine. She could look at the results in super slow motion.

Abigail (Abby) McGovern was a single girl in her late thirties, dedicated to her field of nuclear physics. She had a high standing in the field and had several colleagues but only a few friends. Oddly enough, she was a product of her parents, who were obsessed with old fashion values and old fashion things. Abby dressed in an ankle length skirt, buttoned up to the neck, coupled with a cardigan and slip on shoes. She wore a belt around her waist and her dark glasses made her look like someone out the 1950s, not a modern physicist of the 2050s.

Another bust she thought after viewing the replay on the video machine. And with that, she packed up and went home. This was just four blocks away from the institute. She felt privileged to be able to live just near her work. It was one of those typical apartments. Two rooms with a large living area but not very spacious. When she arrived home, it was time to feed her cat, Newton. He had waited all day for her and it was time for his night time explore. Abigail then quickly zapped up a frozen meal from the fridge for herself and sat down to try and finish her book.

This routine had been going on for some months now. Trying to create a mini black hole in a laboratory looked impossible, no matter what variables she pumped into the machine. It was becoming frustrating. She was a leader in her field, a pioneer, in fact, so there was no one really to help her with this experiment. Even her pump specialist, Jim, was a little overwhelmed by the complexity of the experiment, despite his engineering expertise. By the end of the week, Abigail was mentally drained.

Her only avenue of pleasure was Friday night. Her best friend, Katy West, was a lot more outgoing and worked as a digital economist. The two of them went out each Friday night. It was more like Katy dragging Abby out to a bar or restaurant each Friday to get Abby more connected with the outside world as Katy put it. Abby really did have a good time with Katy though. She could let her inhibitions go somewhat and forget about the frustrations of the week.

Katy also used to visit the Institute from time to time. She came to see Abby, but more often, to spy on that cute Pressure Pump technician, Jim Grecian. Katy was somewhat besotted with him, although she would not admit it. All she could muster was a silly giggle when Abby introduced her to him. Anyway, it gave Katy something to do while Abby worked.

Well, Friday night coming up again. Abby knew that Katy was going to drag her to that awful bar downtown that Katy likes. So she thought of way to get back at her. She called Jim over and asked him if he was free that night. He was. To ease his confusion as to why Abby would ask him out a bar, she explained that Katy, who he met the other day, wanted to get to know him better. Jim was on board with this as he thought Katy was quite nice too.

The three of them finally found a table and Katy brought the first round of drinks. She spent the next few minutes, sipping her drink and staring into Jim’s eyes. Abby was smiling quietly to herself. She felt like she had got her own back on Katy. The evening was going well so far but the place was crowded.

So what do you do exactly? enquired Katy of Jim.

I look after the Digital Pressure Pump at the Institute replied Jim.

So you’re like the service station attendant who pumps up my tyres. Katy was on her third Cosmopolitan.

Not really. Although the principle is the same. The pump is a digital pump which can control the amount of pressure in a set volume. Outside the volume, the pressure remains normal. And unlike your tyre pressure, we can set this pump up to thousands of Megapascals. We concentrate the pressure into a fairly small area. This has the effect of enhancing the atomic collision of the colliding atoms and produces a much more significant impact. You see Hawking predicted that if you apply enough pressure to an atom, then physical space and time would be compressed. You could create a singularity that for all intents and purposes would have no volume, no space and no time. Jim explained.

Mega what? Katy said with her pitched enquiring voice.

Megapascals. It is a unit of pressure. The pressure in your tyre is usually around 200 Kilopascals. One Megapascal is 500 times more than that. The Digital Pressure Pump can go up to about 500 Megapascals. Jim replied.

To Abby, this was like hearing how your job works one o’ one. Katy, on the other hand, had this glazed look come over her.

Sorry, you lost me at pressure. Katy replied. But do go on. You sound fascinating!

Abby stood up. I think this is where I make a tactful exit. Katy did not mind but gave Abby a hug and then Abby left.

Abby didn’t see Jim until the next Monday. She was reluctant to pry but she was dying to know how they got on. After all Katy was her best friend.

Well, how did you two get on after I left. Give me some dirt on her! asked Abby when she saw Jim arrive.

Not bad. She is nice to talk to and I talked a lot about what I do. I’m sure she didn’t understand a lot of it. But then again, when she talked about the heady world of digital finance, I was equally at a loss. OK, we are going out again tomorrow. I’ll keep you posted. Jim replied.

Abby returned to her work. She spent the morning analysing the results from last week. The negative results showed that she needed to change the conditions yet again. The atoms couldn’t be sped up anymore. They were already travelling at the speed of light. Also the Harmon Collider was only the size of a large hall. Its predecessor, the famous Hadron Collider at Cern in Switzerland, some 50 years earlier, was a 27 kilometre circular tube that was buried several hundred feet below the surface of the Earth. This new updated model could also use any subatomic particle that you dialled up, but leptons were the particles of choice. Technology had advanced since the turn of the Century. So the new model could now fit into the Institute’s basement. While the old Hadron Collider could get the particles to reach near the speed of light, the new Harmon Collider (Named after its inventor Jacob Harmon) could maintain light speed with most particles, especially leptons. The trick of colliding particles had not changed. You send two sets of particles in opposite directions. Spin them around and around until they reach the speed of light, then crash them into one another and use special detectors to observe the results. Technically that meant they collide at twice the speed of light but by the laws of relativity, that did not happen. Also a view port was added so that the observer could actually look through a clear plate to see what was happening.

Abby had taken the whole idea one step further. By continually bombarding a certain spot with particles, you could hopefully warp space and time due to the high speed. Because the speed of light could not be breached, it was space and time that bent around to keep the particles colliding at the speed of light. She had added the special Digital Pressure Pump, to manually increase pressure at the point where they crashed, so that point was already under tremendous pressure to start with. The theory was that if you could get the pressure up enough and bombard the spot with enough particles, maybe, just maybe, the spot would collapse in on itself, much the same way as a star does when it collapses. In theory quite sound. In practice, almost impossible to reproduce, as far as Abby was concerned.

As the weeks went on Abby and Jim had become closer, simply because he was now dating her best friend and he was keen to find out more about her. The three of them now regularly went on their Friday night jaunts. Abby was still content to live her solitary life though.

Back at work, Abby called Jim over one day. I’ve have an idea, Jim she said.

Is it possible to increase the pressure pump beyond the 500 Megapascals we currently have it set at? Asked Abby.

Only if you want to blow this whole facility up. Replied Jim. There are safety limits placed on the device. I couldn’t increase it even if I could. But just suppose you could. The pressure would become too great for the chamber itself and the resulting explosion would destroy it.

OK. What if we could reinforce the chamber and remove the safety limits of the pressure pump? enquired Abby.

Well, theoretically, if we remove the small matter of the chamber being destroyed, then I can’t see why we couldn’t increase it. But tell me, the theoretical calculations you have done so far have put the pressure at 500 Megapascals max, why would you want to go beyond that? Jim asked.

Yes you are right in theory. But look at our results! The theory says it is supposed to work but it doesn’t. We can’t make the particles go any faster. So the only thing we can change is the pressure. How much more is anyone’s guess? Abby replied.

So the two set about drawing up initial plans to reinforce the chamber. As Jim was an engineer, his ideas carried weight, but it was simply a matter of making the outside walls much more thick. They took their plan to the board.

The Institute Board was the ruling body. It consisted of six people each of whom had been with Institute for many years. The board controlled who had access to the collider and when. It also controlled the funding that was allocated to the Institute and managed several other physical experiments besides the ones on the Collider. Board meetings were held at the end of each month. This gave Abby time to write up a detailed proposal and put her case.

Chapter 2

This proposal you have put to us puts our Collider at great risk. You could destroy our whole facility should something go wrong. I don’t think we can allow this. Said one member after hearing Abby put her case.

His name was Jervis Lecrovat. A noted scientist in his own right but in the field of nuclear chemistry. He had always been against the physics department taking up valuable time on the collider when his chemistry department could make better use of the time creating new and wonderful chemical compounds. In addition Abby did not like him at all.

Abby really hated these type of meetings. It was left to a bunch of people with little or no knowledge of her field to make a decision that may affect her future career. But it was a necessary evil if she was ever going to move forward. She sat there in relative silence for quite some time.

The Head Director finally got up to speak. Members, the proposal is clearly risky. The effects of this experiment going wrong could shut down the facility for some time. However, if the experiment proves to be a success, it would put us on the world’s stage as the premier scientific research facility. Your decision is based simply on whether we are prepared to take that risk.

The discussion continued for another hour. Some argued against it, some for it. Without an intricate knowledge of nuclear physics, there could be no certainty of gauging success or failure. Jervis in particular was dead against it. But in order to move things forward, the Head Director got up and spoke again.

Members, I have a proposal. Abigail, you and Jim Grecian have shown us in great detail how you propose to increase the Digital Pump beyond its safety limits to hopefully create a mini black hole in our collider. If you are successful this would be the making of this facility. You are clearly passionate about the success of it but many of our members have grave reservations, especially when we consider the consequences of failure. So I put it to you, Abigail, how much are you willing to risk for success in this venture?

I am willing to risk my professional career on it! Abigail said without even thinking about her answer. She was regretting her answer already.

All right then. Members, I propose that we accept Abigail’s submission. We will fund the upgrade of the Digital Pump and the modifications to the Collider. However, if the experiment proves to be unsuccessful, especially if the Collider and/or pump are damaged, then you will tender your resignation from this facility forthwith. Firstly do you agree with this, Abigail? The Head Director explained.

Abigail was stunned. Never before had she had to literally put her reputation on the line. She believed that the experiment should eventually work. The theory was right. She had checked it over a hundred times. But in practice, she had never had any success. She swallowed and then said.

I accept your proposal. I believe it will work and I’ll stake my reputation on it. Abagail replied.

So be it. Members, could I have a show of hands of those in favour of my proposal. The Head Director said. A group of hands were raised.

And those against. He added. Another group of hands went up. The Head Director clearly carried a lot of influence.

Then the proposal is accepted. Abagail, you have a go for your upgrades. But I do warn you of your promise. You will tender your resignation if it fails or if there is any damage to the collider and/or pump. The head said.

I thank the board for its decision. I won’t let you down. Abagail replied.

The board meeting then finished. Jervis got up from his seat and stared at Abagail as he left. He was seething.

Mark my words, girly. Your experiment is doomed to failure. And when that happens I’ll be there with your resignation papers! Jervis said to Abagail quietly as he left.

The next day, Abagail found Jim in the Engineering Department and told him of the good news. He was delighted. He could now implement his ideas of extending the Pump’s limits. Jim then went to his engineering team and began discussions of the modifications.

The engineers liked the ideas in principle and thought it was quite possible. They began to work on the modifications. Jim, in the meantime, looked into how he could bypass the safety limits of the pressure pump and get it to increase without limit.

Abby was getting quite excited about the prospect that this experiment may actually work. She spent the next few days looking into what effects the particles will endure with this increased pressure. She knew it should work in theory but she went over and over the calculations just to make sure.

That Friday night was quite a celebration for the three of them. Although Katy struggled to understand the fine detail of their plans, she was enthusiastic for them. All through the night, they never really entertained the idea of failure. But at the end of their get together, Katy asked the question of Abby.

What will happen if you can’t get this to work? You said yourself, that there is no guarantee of success. Katy asked.

Abby and Jim faced each other with a forlorn look. Abby took a final sip of her drink. Jim nodded to Abby as if to say, it’s OK to tell her.

If the experiment fails, especially if there is damage to the Collider and/or the pump, then I have agreed to tender my resignation. Abby said.

What! You didn’t agree to that, did you? Katy said in shock.

Yes I did. It was the only way I could get approval. Look Katy, this experiment could mean a great deal of success for me and open up many doors in the field of nuclear physics. I had to make an instant decision when I told of the proposal by the Board. That’s what I decided. Besides I am one of the top nuclear physicists in my field. I should be able to get some sort of job somewhere else. Abby replied.

But you are risking your life’s work! Katy said.

I know. If it turns out to be a failure, then I won’t spend the rest of my life on a futile quest. At least I can make a positive contribution to Physics somewhere else. Abby replied.

What about you Jim? Are you in the same boat as Abby? Katy said with a worried look on her face. She didn’t want her new beau to become an unemployed bum.

No, not really. I would be reassigned onto some other experiment. But I would be so disappointed if the experiment does not work. Abby and I have put so much into it. I am behind her 100 percent. Jim replied.

The next few months were a hive of activity for the Engineering Department Abby, in the meantime was engrossed in constructing theoretical experiments in what might happen at different pressures. The Friday night outings had to be cancelled for a while.

Eventually the new modified pump was installed, the exterior of the collider at the point of collision was reinforced and even the view plate was made a little bigger.

All was now ready for the first test.

This took the form of gradually increasing the pressure up to a point where it was comparable to before. All went quite well to this point. They were ready to trial it with pressures beyond what they had experienced.

Jim had the honours of cranking up the pressure. He initially took it to 500 megapascals as before. Nothing wrong so far. Then to 700, nothing, then to 900. Still the collider walls held. All good so far. He finally cranked it up to a 1,000 which in metric terms, the pressure was now in the Gigapascal range. Once at that measure, the collider alarms, started to sound. The walls were audibly creaking and the pressure pump was starting to vibrate noticeably.

Jim immediately shut down the pump. Abby looked disappointed.

If I let it run at that pressure for any longer, it would have exploded. This is problem of not having the old safety limits fitted. Jim explained.

OK. What if we create a collision just below that Gigapascal limit, do you think the pump will stand it? Abby asked.

Only one way to find out. Jim replied. The two then clasped hands together in a gesture of good luck. Jim started the pump up again and over the next fifteen minutes cranked it up slowly to just below 1 Gigapascal in pressure. He then gave the OK signal to Abby, who then started up the collider. The pump had to continue at this pressure for another 5 minutes while the collider gained speed. But it was holding.

Once the speed was attained, Abby then set the Collider off and watched in the view screen. The collision happened in an instant as it always does. Abby barely noticed that it had happened. However, this time there was a lingering dark spot that was created soon after. It only last a few microseconds, but long enough for Abby to see.

Did you see that? She exclaimed.

Well, no. The view screen is only big enough for one. Jim replied.

Let’s look at the video replay. Said Abby. All collisions were recorded on video. As it happened so quickly, the video was essential for viewing anything visible. There were a myriad of other detectors there as well. So Abby went to the video machine and set off the replay. In real time there was virtually nothing to see. So Abby slowed it down. The pair of them watched as the collision occurred. The familiar flash of explosion was easy to see but, as Abby declared, you could see a distinct dark orb or something appearing where the flash was. It only lasted for an instant but both of them saw it.

I think we have something! Abby screamed.

Whatever it was, it wasn’t in existence long enough for us to identify. But any casual observer looking at that would have to say that it could be a mini black hole! Jim replied.

So all we need do is increase the pressure more! Abby exclaimed.

Hang on. If we do that we will blow up the pump for sure. Jim responded.

Abby thought for a moment. She then jumped up and raised her finger indicating she had an idea.

Consider this. If we repeat the experiment exactly as we have just done, then the pump will be OK. What if you were to increase the pressure a lot in the few microseconds as the collision takes place? Abby suggested.

You still run a big risk of blowing up the pump. I have no idea how long we can sustain that kind of pressure. It may be a few minutes or a few microseconds. My money is on the microseconds. Jim replied.

Well think about this. If what we saw was indeed a mini black hole, then we would only have to maintain the pressure for a few microseconds as the collapse in the collision, once started, should be self sustaining. The whole concept of black hole creation is that once the collapse has started nothing will prevent it from stopping. So turning off the pump just after, should not affect the collapse. Abby explained. The two were now getting excited. But as the pump needed to cool down over the next few hours, the two decided to try out their risky idea tomorrow.

Chapter 3

Both Jim and Abby couldn’t get back into the lab quick enough the next day. Jim cranked up the pump to just below the Gigapascal mark and Abby fired up the Collider. After 15 minutes, the Collider was ready. Abby set it off and signalled to Jim at the same time. Jim immediately cranked up the pump to 1.2 Gigapascals and then started the shutdown procedure straightaway. As the leptons travelled around the Collider at the speed of light, Jim was never going to be too quick for the collision. So it was just a matter of increasing the pressure for just an instant. Abby in the meantime shut down the Collider as well and the two of them raced over the video replay. Abby set it to very slow motion.

Again, they saw the familiar flash of explosion but this time, the odd ball of blackness remained for a slightly longer period of time. The timer on the replay measured it as twenty microseconds.

I was right! Abby explained. All we need is more pressure!

Let’s hope not too much more. I don’t know if the pump can handle much more! Jim replied.