3263: Baryon Asymmetry
| Baryon Asymmetry |
 Title text: Wait, what do you mean, 'dark matter'? It's not dark, it interacts with high-energy gamma rays ... right? Oh jeez, did I forget to make it interact? |
Explanation[edit]
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This is one of 39 incomplete explanations: This page was created recently, but was recently annihilated by it's anti-matter counterpart, and needs recreating. Don't remove this notice too soon. If you can fix this issue, edit the page! |
In this comic, Cueball talks with the creator of the universe (possibly the one previously seen in another recent comic). Cueball wants to know why the universe has baryon asymmetry, which refers to the fact that the observable universe contains much more matter than antimatter. Current physical theories imply that matter and antimatter should have been created in roughly equal amounts. The fact that antimatter is extremely rare is very fortunate for humans and other objects made of matter, given that matter/antimatter reactions destroy both substances with a violent release of energy.
As it turns out, though, the creator of the universe, far from being wise and all-knowing, simply forgot to add a roughly equal amount of antimatter. Realizing their mistake, they proceed to add the antimatter that they originally forgot, only to create a massive explosion as large parts of the universe experience annihilation.
The creator seems to have been careless to the workings of their own created universe, only now adding in the forgotten antimatter without considering the widespread impact it would have on the current state of the universe. This is strange, given they created the universe, and they would surely not be oblivious to the fact that it either has not been working as intended (missing around half of its mass) or any realization that the forgotten feature was actually a bad idea after all. Although as he is conversing with Cueball, who has exhibited similar degrees of personal ineptitude, and as this might or might not be the same entity as seen getting things 'wrong' in 3222: Star Formation, this might just go to show that it is a shared trait to have so much ability but so little foresight and understanding.
An alternative explanation could be that the sphere is an equivalent to (or disguise of) Black Hat, who knows all about the impact and yet 'corrects' the situation anyway, simply not caring about destroying the universe they created, or even deliberately choosing to worsen the situation. This would not be the first time that Black Hat has apparently been willing to badly subvert such wish fulfillments, if he is involved.
The title text resolves another physics mystery in a similarly unexpected way. Dark matter, another substance that is thought to exist but is considerably less well understood than antimatter, mysteriously interacts via gravity but not, as far as we know, via electromagnetism. The creator seems to reveal that dark matter was supposed to interact with high-energy gamma rays, a form of electromagnetic radiation (which, at least as far as the creator is concerned, would not make it 'dark'), but they forgot to add that property to the substance that we had consequently called "dark matter". Exactly how this follow-up issue was posed is unknown, following the sudden annihilation of much (if not all) matter in Cueball's vicinity, and likely also his own body. However, there is a chance Cueball is safe from this, as the void shown is unknown, and the last panel could display events happening elsewhere in the universe, where the void is safe from such things.
It is uncertain if any more questions could be asked, after this other apparently-intended situation was properly implemented, but they might include something about the nature of dark energy, yet another mystery regarding the nature of the universe in which various after-market 'fixes' could also be particularly problematic.
The creator of the universe in this comic might be the same floating sphere featured in 3085: About 20 Pounds. Talking to a floating sphere/orb or some similarly non-corporeal entity is a recurring subject in xkcd.
Transcript[edit]
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This is one of 29 incomplete transcripts: Don't remove this notice too soon. If you can fix this issue, edit the page! |
[Cueball is floating in a void. He is speaking with the creator of the universe, who appears as a black sun symbol.]
Cueball: So you're the creator of the universe?
Creator of the Universe: That's me! So, got any questions?
[Cueball puts his hand to his face as he floats upright.]
Cueball: Oh man, so many. What's the reason for baryon asymmetry? Why is most of the universe matter and not antimatter?
[Cueball's hand is back down he resumes his previous position.]
Creator of the Universe: Crap. Did I forget the antimatter? One sec, let me just…
[Many explosions fill the panel, including a large explosion in the centre.]
BOOM
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Randall made a what if? blog Article and video on antimatter. YZ100 4:34, 25 June 2026 (UTC)
If I had a dollar for ever floating black sphere that talks in XKCD, I'd have 4 bucks. Which isn't alot, but it's weird that it's becoming a recurring subject. RG (talk) 06:21, 25 June 2026 (UTC)
- Why would you only ask the all-powerful floating black sphere for a dollar? 82.13.184.33 08:23, 25 June 2026 (UTC)
- It'd be safer! Probably. (Unless the theory about him being a Black Hat-by-proxy is correct, in which case all bets are off.) 82.132.239.58 14:12, 25 June 2026 (UTC)
I'm the gate! I'm the key! I'm...in the wrong comic! 2A02:2455:1960:4000:E16D:EF33:CC13:79C9 07:19, 25 June 2026 (UTC)
This is a great SMBC. 2A0D:6FC7:622:BB15:9189:B3E6:8C3:779E 09:38, 25 June 2026 (UTC)
There's another comic with the Creator of the universe I'm sure. It's the one where they made a bunch of nice clouds I think. Does anyone know what that is? GSLikesCats307 (talk) 10:20, 25 June 2026 (UTC)
- That would be 3222. A similar sphere also appears in 1173 and 3085, but it looks a little different. 2A00:FBC:E87A:6682:FA9C:C595:1673:92DB 12:56, 25 June 2026 (UTC)
- I think there's a good chance that the Creator with the clouds-fixation is this one too (similarly short-sighted and/or forgetful of the necessary implications). The "About 20 Pounds" one seemed positively competent, by comparison. Also, while that one's statement about dark matter isn't totally incompatible with this one's, they seem to have different perspectives on it, unless that was just due to the different style of questioning about it.
- But there are also the probably different Time Travelling Spheres (maybe what they look like as Futurekind, if they aren't really the Kang-and-Koloth-type tentacle-monsters and these were just their temporal avatars), various 'out of the box' AIs, etc. You could go so far as to do a Grand Unified Charscter Theory to make them all the same (with time-travel abilities, room for anachronistic order of characterisation, gaining and/or losing competency/knowledge/Creator-abilitors accordingly and even changing their manifestation appearance somewhat (dark/light, the nature of their 'glow') according to how they do. So the AI-in-the-box (that likes being in the box) could eventually decide to make their own entirely new box, in the form of the universe. But only after some mild senility has perhaps set in. 82.132.239.58 14:12, 25 June 2026 (UTC)
I don't think there's any indication that Black Hat has anything to do with this comic besides bad things happening; and that's not a very good justification for talking about him in the page IMO Jarochar (talk) 17:49, 25 June 2026 (UTC)
Some of the weird observations of the universe may be the observer-exists-therefore-your-options-are-limited effect: Assuming a bunch of values for things (universal gravitational constant, speed of light, etc) are possible, but only 1 set of those values result in human being (or any living thing) being around to observe it, then if you know human beings exist then the universe must have that set of values for those things, odds be damned. 64.201.132.210 18:08, 25 June 2026 (UTC)
- That would be one or other of the anthropic principles, of course. 81.179.200.152 19:22, 25 June 2026 (UTC)
Might be worth a note (if not here, then in this site's what-if catalogue, which needs updating) that the issue of antimatter was raised in a YouTube/What-If video just a few days ago. Perhaps bringing this comic's general premise to mind. 81.179.200.152 19:39, 25 June 2026 (UTC)
The baryon asymmetry problem only exists if there isn’t a Creator. If there is a Creator, He wouldn’t have created half the universe in antimatter. Not sure if this should be stated in the explanation or not… Logalex8369 (talk) 20:02, 25 June 2026 (UTC)
- I'm not sure you can say either of those things. Not with any of the knowledge we possess.
- I can suggest several (currently highly uninvestigatable, but likely still being investigated) reasons for a Creatorless universe to (apparently, to our limited experience) be unbalanced. And name a few options that are (probably) ruled out.
- And any Creator worth his pillar of salt is going to be able to deliberately set up a half-and-half universe that doesn't go as badly as with the comic version's belated efforts. 'Cos when you add an omniscient and omnipotent Creator, absolutely anything is possible if They desire it. (Though I prefer to think that one of those would deliberately set it up to look like it's not Created at all. Which is how it apparently turned out, give or take these other limits to our understanding...)
- It's not so much a philosophical/theological black hole as one that's more rabbity, of course. Either way, easy to get lost if you forget about everything you can have a reasonable idea about. Either the remainder of the more easily confirmed reality, or at least enjoying the cosmic illusion of reality that was Created just for you. 81.179.200.152 22:46, 25 June 2026 (UTC)
Something I oftenh wonder about baryon assymetry is how can we be so sure that "most of the Universe is matter" without having interacted with most of the Universe, since from afar it should be impossible to distinguish between them. Something else I wonder sometimes about the matter is what happens when a particle meets its antiparticle, but there's a difference in energy levels. --94.73.49.104
- See the this aforementioned summary, just for starters.
- ...as for energy levels, imagine (for simplicity) you're colliding a couple of free hydrogen atoms with an oxygen. So long as they do combine/combust, and don't spontaneously decompose again, any relative energy levels just averages out, the resulting water molecule still happens. And if it's technically even simpler when any particle annihilates with any suitable anti-particle (they can't be 'too cold' to not cooperate, at least not like that, nor 'too hot'). The varying energies that arrive in the form of the original components would manifest in whatever the annihilation products would be without so much care for whether it was originally any kind of 'anti-energy' or not (see the appropriate Feynman Diagram for details?) because it pretty much wasn't any such thing. At least in practical physics as we know it. 81.179.200.152 22:46, 25 June 2026 (UTC)
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