This Is Not A Place Of Honor

- Introduction to Exotic Physics -

As I mentioned in the “About Me” page, I really like the science of the Beyond, specifically Exotic Physics. I assume they named it like they did because frankly... labelling it as "exotic" makes it sound far less threatening for prospective scientists than "anomalous physics" or "nothing-makes-sense physics".

I'm not an expert on it, far from it. I barely made it through calculus in college, so I don't understand any of the math behind it. Even still, I keep coming back to it, and each time I do, I learn a bit more. I can only go so long without talking to people about it, and there's not exactly an exotic physics chat room, so I'm gonna ramble about it for a bit.

To start, exotic physics isn't exactly one theory or framework. In fact, there isn't really a consistent theory for it at all. A lot physicists have tried, of course, and every year a new theory comes out claiming to "solve" exotic physics through a new approach, each with their own supporters.

There's just one problem. The math doesn't work out. None of them do. You end up with infinites, holes, things like that, all throughout it. We just haven't found a way to actually combine everything we've seen into one theory, and some people think it might not even be mathematically possible, but that's its own can of worms. If you want to read more about it though, look up the Tompkins-Hess Theorem. I promise you won't be disappointed.

I'm going to get a little technical here, but normally in physics, singularities imply a break down in theory. For instance, in fluid dynamics, a water droplet creates a singularity at the point it breaks away. Once you take molecules into account, though, the singularity goes away. We think this is what happens with black holes, there isn't really a singularity at its center, but something we can't predict because we don't have the concepts to define it yet.

In exotic physics, though, singularities are abundant, and we can't seem to remove them. Solving one just introduces another. It's called the Hydra Problem, because when you cut one head it just creates another.

One of the biggest issues is the “Hidden Sector,” the set of particles that exotic physicists believe to be responsible for interactions in the Beyond. I call them particles, but whether they are or not is really an open question.

To quote Axel Holloway, one of the founders of the field, "We see reactions. We detect readings. But they're so contradictory and vague that we can't even state that they're particles, let alone what the particles properties truly are." He said that back in 1961 to a newspaper while working with the DOA. The next year, he was disgraced and stripped of his access by the department. Make of that what you will.

Even still, the particle approach is still the most popular. The most complete of these theories is Archon theory, designed to explain observations in the most simple and elegant way, through 7 particles called archons. Personally, though, I'm not entirely convinced by it.

With everything else we know about the Beyond, I think it would make perfect sense for there to not be particles in it. if it doesn't have normal space, why should it have normal particles? Of course, there isn't really another approach that is as elegant as the Archon model, so who knows.