Editing 2873: Supersymmetry

{{comic
| number    = 2873
| date      = December 27, 2023 
| title     = Supersymmetry
| image     = supersymmetry 2x.png
| imagesize = 313x375px
| noexpand  = true 
| titletext = High-speed collisions at the Baby Park track may support the hypothesis that Daisy is her own evil twin, a theory first suggested by Nintendo in the game Majorana's Mask.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by A RELATIVISTIC WALUIGI ANNIHILATING AN UNSUSPECTING LUIGI - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This comic imagines a "theory of supersymmetric Mario Bros." that merges the theoretical physics concept of {{w|supersymmetry}} (explained in more detail below) with another "super" thing, {{w|Super Mario Bros.}}, originally developed for the {{w|Nintendo Entertainment System}} and later the ''Super'' Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), two home game consoles popular during Randall's childhood. The comic humorously combines the two domains by equating certain subatomic particles and Mario game characters. Mario is the titular protagonist of his franchise and Luigi is his brother, and their centrality to the games are similar to the nucleus (proton and neutron) being the center of an atom.

The subatomic particles and their character equivalents:

{| class="wikitable" style="margin:auto"
|-
! Particle !! Symbol !! Type !! Charge !! Mass !! Mario Character !! Notes
|-
| {{w|Proton}}
| p / p<sup>+</sup>
| Baryon<br/>('uud' quarks)
| +1
| ≲1 {{w|Dalton (unit)|m<sub>u</sub>}}
| Mario
|-
| {{w|Neutron}}
| n / n⁰
| Baryon<br/>('udd' quarks)
| 0
| ≳1 m<sub>u</sub>
| Luigi
|-
| {{w|Antiproton}}<br/>(not involved in the diagram)
| <span style="text-decoration: overline">p</span> / p<sup>-</sup>
| Antibaryon<br/>('<span style="text-decoration: overline">uud</span>' quarks)
| -1
| as proton*
| Wario
| Wario is the "evil" version of Mario
|-
| {{w|Antineutron}}<br/>(not involved in the diagram)
| <span style="text-decoration: overline">n</span> / n<sup>-0</sup>
| Antibaryon<br/>('<span style="text-decoration: overline">udd</span>' quarks)
| 0
| as neutron*
| Waluigi
| Waluigi is the "evil" version of Luigi
|-
| {{w|Electron}}
| e<sup>-</sup>
| Lepton<br/>(charged)
| -1
| 5.5x10<sup>-4</sup> m<sub>u</sub>
| (Princess) Peach
|-
| {{w|Positron}} / Antielectron<br/>(not depicted/involved)
| e<sup>+</sup>
| Antilepton<br/>(charged)
| +1
| as electron*
<!-- | Wapeach? -->
|-
| {{w|Electron Neutrino}}
| ν<sub>e</sub>
| Lepton<br/>(uncharged)
| 0
| Assumed >0<br/>(very small*)
| (Princess) Daisy
|-
| Electron {{w|Neutrino#Antineutrinos|Antineutrino}}<br/>(not depicted, hypothetical)
| <span style="text-decoration: overline">ν</span><sub>e</sub>
| Antilepton<br/>(uncharged)
| 0
| as electron neutrino*
<!-- Wadaisy? -->
|}
<nowiki/>* - to within experimental error

The "Free Luigi Decay" diagram is a {{w|Feynman diagram}} reinterpreting the process of {{w|free neutron decay}}. 

The right-handed Daisy (Electron Neutrino) means that Daisy’s direction of spin (in subatomic terms, a measurement which does not now match that of the angular momentum in classical physics which inspired its naming) is the same as the direction of motion. A left-handed Daisy (Electron Neutrino) would have the opposite value. 

Certain current understandings of the process require that the electron neutrino be an ''anti''neutrino, but antineutrinos have not so far been sufficiently confirmed to exist, with some theorising that a neutrino can be its own anti-particle (unlike the neutral neutron, composed of charged quarks, which has the similarly neutral antineutron, composed of oppositely charged antiquarks). 

The '''title text''' is a pun on the title of the Nintendo 64 game ''{{w|The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask}}'' and the concept of {{w|Majorana fermion}}, which attempts to reconcile how, while many particles have separate antiparticle counterparts, certain ones do not. Until this is resolved, scientists may depict a theoretical antiparticle in place of a neutrino in order to preserve various total values across the diagram. But scientists do wonder if a neutrino is its own antiparticle, much as they have also previously wondered if {{w|Neutrino oscillation|they also flip their 'flavor'}} as a way to explain certain experimental results.

Baby Park is an oval-shaped race track in the ''{{w|Mario Kart}}'' series and used as a particle collider in the title text, first featured in ''{{w|Mario Kart: Double Dash|Mario Kart: Double Dash!!}}'' on the Nintendo GameCube.

===Background on subatomic particles===
In {{w|particle physics}}, a depiction such as a {{w|Feynman diagram}} can be used to try to explain elementary (and composite) particles, and how various interactions occur between them. At the atomic level, this may involve the bulky nucleons (protons and neutrons, these being each a particular triumvirate of quark 'flavors'), electrons (smaller, charged fermions) and various others (such as neutrinos, also fermions, chargeless and often ''nearly'' massless). Sometimes other more exotic/fundamental particles (force-mediating or otherwise transient) are included.

Added within the {{w|standard model}} are the "{{w|antiparticle}}s" that are oppositely charged (or built up of more fundamental antiparticles), and further issues have required extending this further through theories of supersymmetry which further adds counterparts that have alternate '{{w|Spin (physics)|spin}}'s.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

:Mario : Proton
:Luigi : Neutron

:Wario : Antiproton
:Waluigi : Antineutron

:Peach : Electron
:Daisy : Electron neutrino

:Free Luigi decay:
:[Illustration of Luigi → Mario + Peach + Daisy]
:[Label below Daisy:] (Right-handed)

:[Caption below the panel:]
:The theory of Supersymmetric Mario Bros suggests that each fundamental particle has a Super Nintendo partner.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Video games]]
[[Category:Mario Kart]]
[[Category:Physics]]