The Semi-Science of Pym Particles : How to Access the Quantum Realm

Ant-Man and the Wasp are quite unconventional heroes in the MCU. They do have skills as regular humans; but their main ability is to shrink and expand in size. In fights they skillfully use this size-changing ability to stay on top of the game.

This size-changing ability is the credit of the Pym particle technology by Dr. Hank Pym, the first Ant-Man. As explained in the movie Ant-Man, the Pym particles can increase or reduce the atomic distances in a target object, thus increasing or decreasing the object’s size. However, this explanation immediately leads to contradictions with the incidents shown in the movies. I am listing them here.

1.        Here is the most basic problem we see. Even if the atomic separations are changed, the atoms themselves are unchanged. This means, the mass of a 70kg-person is totally unchanged. So, there is no way that an ant can carry around Ant-Man on its back, and the Wasp can fly with such small wings. There is no way a person can carry cars, tanks and entire buildings, even if their sizes are shrunk. On the other hand, in giant size, the atomic separations will be so large that the heroes’ bodies will become as soft as thin air — not useful in battles at all!

2.        Now here is the serious problem. If the atoms themselves are unchanged, their total size can never be less than that of a single atom. So, the heroes can never become subatomic, they can never go into the quantum realm, and climactic events like the entire End Game movie cannot happen.

However, these problems can be resolved by fixing a few things. I shall talk about them from two perspectives — a story perspective and a physics perspective.

From the story perspective, the MCU has tried to establish that Dr. Pym invented the Pym particle formula. But this fact is to be modified. The story can be as if the Pym particles already existed in nature, and Dr. Pym discovered them — just like the discovery of electron, nucleons and other subatomic particles. When J. J. Thomson discovered electron, I am sure he could not imagine what crazy quantum stuff scientists would do in the 21st century using electrons. Similarly, when Dr. Pym discovered Pym particles, he did not know what could be done using them. Let us say he worked out a basic (semi-classical) theory, which explained that Pym particles could alter atomic distances; but the subatomic scales could not be explained by his theory. This is like Newton’s law of gravitation, which can explain basic phenomena, but cannot explain deeper facts for which Einstein’s relativity is required.

So, in my version of the story, this is what happened. Dr. Pym eventually developed technologies to use Pym particles to manipulate atomic distances. During his research he realized that there was more to these particles. They showed some serious quantum phenomena at subatomic level. He did some work on that in the initial years, but not full-time. Because of his commitment to the Government, he invested most of his work hours to develop his technologies, while also operating as the first Ant-Man.

But he realized the importance of seriously working out the quantum theory the hard way, when his wife Janet, the first Wasp, made the ultimate sacrifice. If he would have developed the quantum theory and technology earlier, his wife could have come back from the quantum realm. So he started spending his years to work on the quantum theory. Eventually, during the events of the movie Ant-Man and the Wasp, he successfully cracked the problem.

What does his quantum theory explain? This is where the physics perspective comes. Pym particles must have properties so that they can give subatomic sizes to objects and also alter their mass. A possible way of changing the size is to modify the nuclear size and electronic orbitals. In my version of the theory, the Pym particles can modify the probability of where the electrons, protons and neutrons of an atom can exist, thus modifying the nucleus and orbitals. To achieve giant size, the nuclear and orbital sizes can be increased, thus expanding the atoms themselves. So no air-like gap is required to be formed between the atoms; instead, the original atomic configuration itself can acquire an expanded size.

A process similar to this one can be done in reverse to achieve the regular small size. However, achieving the subatomic size is the real tricky problem. In my theory, at first the size of each atom reduces in the above process. And then, all atoms as quantum wavefunctions overlap on top of one another to make a complicated subatomic-sized wavefunction. Thus, the heroes go subatomic and enter the quantum realm. But even in the complicated superposition state, the atoms are capable of keeping their regular interactions unchanged, thanks to the Pym particles. Because of this, the heroes’ minds are able to function in a regular way, and they are able to perceive their own bodies and all objects around them in usual forms. This is the most important part of all. If this does not happen, then all people and objects will be destroyed in the shrinking process — the way the Yellow Jacket technology kept failing in the beginning.

As the size-change is explained, we now have to find an explanation for the mass-change. Particle physics describes processes by which subatomic particles acquire their mass. These processes are in turn fundamentally related to Einstein’s mass-energy equivalence. So, in my theory, Pym particles can alter these quantum processes and redistribute the energy. They can absorb energy from nature and increase the mass of the atoms to achieve giant size; and also can disperse the mass-energy of the atoms and decrease their mass to achieve small size. In this way they can always keep a balance between the size and mass of the objects.

Punching dragons while being in giant size is surely a practical advantage of having a huge mass. But the real significance of the change in mass lies somewhere else. If the heroes become subatomic without any change in mass, they will practically become subatomic black holes, threatening the existence of the entire planet. So it is really important for the mass to change with size.

This summarizes my theory on Pym particles. Let me know what you think about it. Also you can share your own ideas in the comments below.

P.S.  Some More ‘Semi-Physics’

Since you have read the whole article by now, I am sure you are very much interested in physics, and also in exploring scientific explanations of story-concepts. So here is a bonus thought for you.

As I have said, the Pym particles can absorb energy from nature and also can disperse energy to nature. But how much amount of energy is that? We are talking about entire buildings here. If this much amount of mass-energy is released within a fraction of a second during the shrinking process, the effect will be as severe as a really powerful nuclear explosion. On the other hand, the same amount of energy is nowhere available in the surroundings to be absorbed during the expanding process. How does the energy redistribution happen then?

The answer lies once again in the nature of the Pym particles. They operate in the quantum scale. And as we know, the quantum realm is totally different from our everyday environment. Through the quantum realm, the Pym particles can access all of space in the universe, and even other dimensions in the multiverse. So, the energy redistribution does not need to happen in the human-perceived neighborhood, but it can happen over the whole universe and other dimensions. This process is similar to the way the sorcerers of Kamar-Taj draw energy from other dimensions of the multiverse. After all, magic is science that we don’t understand!

On top of this, the particles do not need to redistribute the energy in the human-perceived time. Through the quantum realm, the particles can access all of past, present and future. So the particles have actually got a practically infinite amount of time and an infinite sized multiverse to redistribute a finite amount of energy. The effect will be barely noticeable to our regular human senses.

The Semi-Science of Thanos’s Snap : Role of Each Infinity Stone

There are six infinity stones related to six elements of nature and life — space, time, power, reality, mind and soul. All of these stones have their own unique capabilities. But working together, after being attached to the infinity gauntlet, they can destroy life at a universal scale.

How does this really happen? First of all, we know from Einstein’s relativity that nothing can move faster than light. The MCU seems to respect this basic fact, as the movies show all intergalactic travels only through wormholes; such as Bifrost bridges and portals. (I shall write about this in a different post.) So, if Thanos’s snap sends out a regular electromagnetic signal, the signal will take many billion years to traverse the whole universe. So, an ‘instantaneous’ destruction of life in the whole universe cannot happen.

You may find more problems like this, if you think about the snapping process carefully. Problems like this imply that the process cannot be done by a regular electromagnetic signal travelling through space. Thanos’s snap is an extremely complicated process; and each infinity stone has its own role to play in it. So, here I am writing my theory on how each stone may contribute to the universal-scale destruction of life with Thanos’s snap. I am assuming that, with the snap or reverse-snap (by Professor Hulk using the Stark gauntlet), a complex signal is sent out that carries individual signals from all the infinity stones. The infinity stones perform their assigned tasks using these special signals.

Space Stone

Let us start with the problem which I have mentioned earlier. We know that the space stone is capable of creating portals between different places in space. A portal is basically a wormhole, which can be used to transport anything between the two connected places ‘instantaneously’; even if the two places are lightyears away from each other. So, it is the space stone’s job to transport the snapping or reverse-snapping signal everywhere in the universe ‘instantaneously’. It can do so by creating a huge network of portals spanning across the whole universe.

Time Stone

Notice that I have put the word ‘instantaneously’ in quotes. This is because, there cannot be absolute instantaneous events happening across the whole universe. Solar systems and galaxies move with respect to one another at velocities comparable to lightspeed. So, according to Einstein’s relativity, time itself runs very much differently at different places in the universe. The job of the time stone is to address this problem. This stone is known to play around with time. So, even if absolute instantaneous events are fundamentally impossible, the time stone can minimize the differences between times when the snapping or reverse-snapping signal reaches different places in the universe.

Mind Stone

The primary job of the mind stone is probably to take command from the wielder of the gauntlet. The mind stone reads the wielder’s wish and transforms it into the snapping or reverse-snapping signal. The stone probably also lets the wielder see what is happening in all the targeted places in the universe while the destruction by snapping or resurrection by reverse-snapping is being carried out.

Another important job of the mind stone can be restoring the minds in all the resurrected bodies after the reverse-snap.

Other than these, the mind stone may have another role to play. Even if Thanos has been saying about destroying half of all life, he probably only meant half of all sentient creatures, as we have not seen any trees or plants disappearing. This fact gives a clue about how ‘half of all life’ is randomly selected. The mind stone probably identifies all active minds in the whole universe. Then, it randomly selects half of them, which are targeted for destruction.

Power Stone

The actual destruction is done by the power stone. It is known to have the capability to destroy worlds. Staying true to its nature, it can also destroy the bodies of the selected sentient creatures. So, turning the selected bodies into dust is done by the power stone.

By the reverse-snap, all the bodies are to be resurrected. But the piles of dust, which were scattered years ago while destroying the bodies, cannot be recombined any more to recreate the bodies. So, a different process is required. The way to make it possible can be found in Einstein’s relativity. From this theory, we know that energy and mass are the same substance. So, in the reverse-snap, the power stone possibly provides enough energy to recreate the bodies of all the dead creatures.

Soul Stone

According to belief, a soul can never be destroyed. When a body dies, the soul is believed to be set free of the body. The MCU seems to respect this belief, as we have seen in the movie Doctor Strange.

When a creature dies because of Thanos’s snap, there is always a possibility that someone will reverse-snap to resurrect the creature. This means, the soul needs to be restored into the recreated body. To make this possible, the soul stone probably sends all the souls into a soul world — somewhere in the universe or in some other dimension. The stone can access this soul world as necessary. So, it releases the souls from there after the reverse-snap, and restores them into the recreated bodies. This is the job of the soul stone.

Reality Stone

According to quantum theory, information can never be destroyed. If creatures are erased from existence, there is a lot of quantum information that appears to be destroyed. But it actually doesn’t. The reality stone helps here to preserve the laws of physics. All quantum information about the destroyed bodies, the disappeared minds and their connections to the souls (which are in the soul world) are possibly saved by the reality stone into the fabric of reality itself. This not only helps in preserving the laws of physics, but also helps in the resurrection process after the reverse-snap. The reality stone can use this information to manipulate power stone’s energy to recreate the bodies perfectly. Then, this information can be used by the mind stone and the soul stone to restore the minds and souls into the recreated bodies. In this way, exact replicas of the erased creatures can be created.

This concludes my idea about the role of each infinity stone. In this article, I have tried to relate some actual basic physics with the movie concepts. Let me know what you think about this approach. Do you have other similar ideas of your own? Please share in the comments below.

[Short Read] Photon Blasts or Thunder — What Power will We See if Captain Marvel Wields Mjolnir?

In Avengers End Game, we have seen Captain America wielding Thor’s Mjolnir. He has acquired thunder power like Thor’s while using the weapon. The condition of being able to wield Mjolnir is that, the person has to be worthy of doing so. While many other heroes are not worthy, there might be some heroes who are worthy. To me, Captain Marvel seems to be a potential candidate for this.

Whether she is worthy or not is a different question; and for this article I shall assume that she is worthy. With that assumption, we can guess that she will acquire thunder power while wielding Mjolnir. But she already has the power of photon blasts. So, what exactly will happen? Will the thunder power replace the photon blasts? Or, will she be able to channel photon blasts through Mjolnir? Or, will she be able to use both powers simultaneously?

To find the answer, we at first need to understand what the primary function of Mjolnir is. If you think checking for worthiness is the primary function, then you are not really correct. Odin has placed the enchantment of worthiness into Mjolnir just a few years ago, during the events of the first Thor movie. But Thor has been using Mjolnir for centuries before that. As for example, we have seen him wielding Mjolnir to use his thunder power against the Frost Giants.

In the movie Thor Ragnarok, Odin has explained to Thor that Mjolnir has never been a source of power. It is Thor’s own power, which has been controlled and focused by Mjolnir always. This has been happening for centuries. So, controlling and focusing Thor’s thunder power is the primary function of Mjolnir. Also there are other basic functions; e.g. Thor can summon the hammer back to himself; he can also rotate and throw the hammer so that he can fly along with it.

Odin’s enchantment is then an extra layer on top of this basic function. Odin’s words are, ‘Whosoever holds this hammer, if he be worthy, shall posses the power of Thor.’ Thor’s powers are super-strength and thunder. This means, these are the powers which will be possessed by any worthy person who wields Mjolnir. The condition of worthiness is thus like a password. By knowing the password, i.e. by being worthy, someone will be able to use Mjolnir. The true ‘use’ refers to the functions I have mentioned earlier.

We have seen manifestation of all these facts in End Game, when Captain America has wielded Mjolnir. When we simply say that he can wield Mjolnir because he is worthy, we seem to miss the detail of Mjolnir’s functionality. The detail is that, Mjolnir has not been the source of the thunder power which Captain America has used. Instead, since Captain America is worthy, he has acquired Thor-level physical strength and thunder power within himself because of Odin’s enchantment. He himself has thus become the source of the thunder power. When he has become the source himself, he has taken advantage of the basic functions of Mjolnir. He has focused the thunder power from within himself through Mjolnir to fight Thanos.

After understanding this detail, we can now see how Captain Marvel will use Mjolnir. She already has Thor-level physical strength. She also has flight and the power of photon blasts. By wielding Mjolnir, she will also acquire thunder power like Thor’s within herself. The thunder power will never replace her original powers, because this is not a part of Odin’s enchantment. Instead, at that moment she will possess both her original powers and Thor’s powers simultaneously. We don’t know if photon blasts can be channeled through Mjolnir, but Captain Marvel will not need to do that. In a battle she will easily throw photon blasts with one hand, and will channel thunders through Mjolnir with the other hand. Just imagine the battle scene, where her whole body is covered with her signature photon glow, and Thor-like thunders rumbling around her at the same time! This battle will be more intense than any other battle scene we have seen in the MCU movies till date. A really cool moment for the fans indeed!

How do you feel about Captain Marvel wielding Mjolnir? Do you wish to watch a battle scene like this in a future MCU movie? Let me know in the comments below.

[Short Read] The Letters T.H.A.N.O.S. are Clues to the Sources of the Infinity Stones

This one is not my theory — except for the soul stone part. The original theory has surfaced on the internet much before the release of Avengers Infinity War. In that theory, fans have noticed a striking coincidence regarding the name THANOS and the sources of the infinity stones (which clearly has been made by the Marvel authors intentionally). Here I am going to talk about this coincidence. Since the soul stone has shown up at the end, I shall keep it for the end.

T : Tesseract

The Tesseract is a four-dimensional cube that can manipulate space. It was on earth for a long time; and many people encountered it over the years. Loki took it with himself from the Asgardian vault, at the end of Thor : Ragnarok. Later, Thanos has taken it from Loki, and has extracted the space stone from it.

A : Aether

The Aether, that looks like a strange fluid, has the capability to manipulate the fabric of reality. It was hidden for a long time, until Jane Foster encountered it. The Asgardians instructed the Collector to keep it at Knowhere, at the end of Thor : The Dark World. Later, Thanos has taken it form the Collector. Though the Aether is a fluidlike substance, it fits onto the infinity gauntlet in the form of a stone — the reality stone.

N : Necklace

The eye of Agamotto, attached to a necklace, is a magical device that has the capability to manipulate time. Doctor Strange kept it with himself in the movie Doctor Strange. Later, from this device he has taken out the central gem, which is the time stone. Then Thanos has taken the stone from him at the end of the battle on Titan.

O : Orb

The Orb, that looks like a small spherical object, is a device that keeps the power stone in it. It was kept on Morag in an ancient palace for a long time. In the movie Guardians of the Galaxy, the power stone was extracted from the orb. The Guardians gave the stone to the Nova Corps on Xandar. Later, Thanos has decimated Xandar and taken the power stone for himself.

S : Scepter

In the movie The Avengers, Loki was carrying a scepter, which he was using for mind-controlling people. In Avengers : Age of Ultron, the mind stone was extracted from the scepter by Ultron. He placed it on Vision’s forehead. Later, Thanos has killed Vision and taken the mind stone.

In this way, five out of six letters in Thanos’s name can be connected to the sources of the infinity stones. So, before Infinity War, people have been expecting that the source of the soul stone would have a name starting with H, the only remaining letter. But in Infinity War we have seen that the soul stone was found on Vormir — nothing related to the letter H. Then, does this theory break down? Have the Marvel authors done it intentionally?

To match the theory, one may say, H may stand for hill. Someone has to climb up a hill/mountain and make a sacrifice to acquire the soul stone. However, H standing for hill does not feel appealing. This is where my theory comes in. I have two words of my choice, which can be related to the soul stone.

H : Hidden

The soul stone was hidden from all maps. In fact, Gamora had to go for a secret quest to find the way to the soul stone. So, H standing for hidden makes sense.

H : Heart

At Vormir, someone has to make a sacrifice to obtain the soul stone. The sacrifice has to be a person one loves, i.e. a person close to one’s heart. This is what is meant by the Red Skull’s words, ‘A soul for a soul.’ So, H standing for heart makes sense.

Among these two words, I personally prefer heart. Being hidden is not unique to the soul stone, because the other stones also were hidden in the past in one way or the other. But making the sacrifice of a person close to one’s heart is unique to the soul stone. So, H for heart feels to be the right word.

Did you know about this theory before? If not, then let me know in the comments below how you feel about this surprising coincidence. Also, let me know if you can come up with any other word starting with H for the soul stone.