"Burstein, Michael A - Broken Symmetry" - читать интересную книгу автора (Burstein Michael A)

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?"
"Because otherwise the energies of their beam would cause positive feedback with
ours, and -- and I don't want to think about what that would do to our
universes. It might bring them together, or blow them apart."
Ray sighed. "An abandoned ring. How ironic."
"Ironic?"
He was silent as they took a curve. "Louis Reichen called today, from
Washington."
"Oh. It's not good news, is it." It was a statement, not a question.
"No, it's not."
"That's why you brought up the idea of shutting down the SSC back there. To
soften the blow."
"Yes. After all, if we're going to have to shut it down anyway, I would rather
there be a good reason behind it. And if it was harming people in another
universe, that would be a good reason. But this -- this is just stalled budget
talks and political infighting. And we're the ones getting the axe for it."
Kristin didn't want to ask the next question, but needed to know. "How soon?"
"They're giving us half a year to wrap up any experiments that we might still be
running. I got them to grant us that much."
"And then?"
"Unless we can think of some way to get those beams back, that will be the end
of the SSC."
They rode the rest of the way back in silence.
#


6. Spin Down
Roy couldn't believe his luck. In only four weeks, they had convinced the DOE to
reopen the SSC facility. He and Harold stood on the ground above the underground
ring, watching the last of the scintillator detectors from Fermilab being
installed.
"Are you sure about this, Harold?"
His eyes twinkled. "Very sure, as always. According to my calculations, this is