Supersymmetry

A game of building really expensive machines made of pipes

The Story

The Large Hadron Collider has been up and running for years, the Higgs is old news, and the physicists are thinking about the next big thing. And the next big thing is supersymmetry -- the theory in which every known particle has a really heavy twin called a superpartner. "That's a lot of exciting new particles to hunt down," the physicists say, "but the LHC isn't powerful enough to find them. We NEeD MoAR TeVZ!!!"

So the physicists hold a meeting with representatives from the governments of the European Union to discuss funding for a new project: the North European Massively Enormous Synchrotron for Investigating Supersymmetry.

"The LHC only gave us 14 TeV," they explain. "We'll need at least 600 TeV to find all these particles."

"How much do you think it will cost?" the representatives ask.

"Oh, it shouldn't be more than about <mumble>200 billion euros</mumble>."

The EU representatives turn pale. "What would it take to... find just one particle?"

The scientists go into a huddle for a few minutes. "Well, the first one should turn up at around 20 TeV." Getting some blank looks, they helpfully translate: "That's about 8 billion."

"Tell you what we'll do," the EU representatives decide. "We'll give you that much to get started, and if you find a particle, we'll give you some more money to look for others."

"Thank you kindly," the scientists say.

"Well, that went better than we hoped," one of the scientists says after the representatives left.

"Only because we didn't tell them about the doomsday scenario."

"The what?"

"You know, the one where we start producing gravitinos and induce a quantum black hole that swallows the Earth. Nemesis would be a really appropriate name if that happened."

"Oh, that. It's pretty unlikely. As long as we don't put the pipes too close together, anyway..."

How to Play

Your task is to build a particle accelerator by constructing a continuous loop of pipes. The longer the loop, the higher the energy to which the particles are accelerated. At each level, there is a target energy that you need to achieve in order to produce the particle being sought. When that particle has been found, you proceed to the next level, with a bigger playing area, more funds, and another particle to find.

The first thing you will need to do is purchase some pipes, which you can do using the Buy Random Pipe button. The pipes you buy appear in the inventory area at bottom left. To place a pipe, select it by clicking on it in the inventory, and then click on an empty square in the blue grid. You can also rotate a previously placed pipe by clicking on it, and remove a pipe from the playing area by shift-clicking it. Note: There is a cost each time you remove a pipe, so it pays to plan ahead.

Some squares on the grid are hatched out. These are off limits. (Strangely, some people object to having a high-powered radiation-producing particle accelerator running through their back yard.)

You can also purchase specific types of pipe using the Buy Selected Pipe button, but this is more expensive. Note that some types of pipe can only be obtained this way.

Your pipe circuit needs to include the starting pipe (with the green arrow) that is initially present in the playing area. This is where particles are injected into the accelerator. The starting pipe cannot be moved. Also, there must not be any open ends, or the system will not be able to hold a vacuum.

Once you have a complete circuit of sufficient length, press the Start Beam button. Now it's just a matter of sitting back and listening to the nice humming noise until your particle turns up. It may take a while, and there is a chance you'll run out of funds first (it's an expensive machine to run).

If you run out of funds, you can request more using the Apply for Funds button, but only a limited amount is available that way, so use it sparingly. If you get completely stuck, you can press the Restart Level button and try again.

When the particle you're after is found, you are given more funds, an enlarged area to work in, and a higher target energy. Your existing pipes remain in place, so it's a matter of extending your circuit to meet the new target.

Liquid Helium

The corner pipes contain powerful electromagnets to bend the particle beam, and these need to be cooled with liquid helium. There is a helium tank next to the starting pipe that will supply you with enough helium to get started, but eventually more will be needed. You will find extra helium tanks scattered around the landscape as the playing area grows. To connect to one, you need to build a side branch from your pipeline using a tee or cross pipe.

Status Indicators

The following information is displayed in the table at bottom right.

Funds	The amount of money you have left
Beam Path	Indicates whether you have a complete pipe circuit
Vacuum OK	Indicates whether all pipe ends are sealed off
Liquid Helium	Amount of liquid helium available and required
Required Energy	Energy needed to produce the type of particle being sought
Beam Energy	Energy achieved by your accelerator in its current configuration

Costs

	Random	Selected
Straight pipe	300,000,000	360,000,000
Corner pipe	600,000,000	720,000,000
Tee pipe		444,000,000
Crossing pipe	450,000,000	540,000,000
End cap		50,000,000
Removing a pipe	50,000,000
Running cost	10,000,000		per second