A hunk of neutronium that isn't terrifically unstable or lighter than hydrogen; the true SCP is the quantum field holding it together, and the fitter universe that may have begun to consume our own
I trimmed your thread summary above, since it was taking up a lot of space on the forum listing. Try to keep thread descriptions and titles under 7 lines so you don't visually crowd out other people's threads. ~Zyn
I've had this idea kicking around for a couple weeks. Joined this site partially because I think it may be worth developing into something.
My idea is basically this: SCP-XXXX-1 is a piece of macroscopic matter that is completely composed of neutrons i.e. "neutronium". It isn't dense enough to be the degenerate stuff of neutron stars, but it's too dense to be the theoretically predicted zeroth element (which would be less dense than hydrogen). It is a solid piece of whatever, which shouldn't be possible because it lacks electrons and all the resultant electromagnetic bonds that hold ordinary matter together. It also appears to be completely stable. Free neutrons have a half-life of ~15 minutes, so there is something energetically favourable about its arrangement that is keeping the neutrons from decaying. Which leads into…
SCP-XXXX-2 is the anomalous quantum field (or fields) that is making this all possible. It appears to be similar to the Strong Force, though it acts over much larger distances, comparable to the electromagnetic force. It can take electrons and protons and combine them into neutrons, similar to the process that creates neutron stars, but requiring only an infinitesimal fraction of the density.
SCP-XXXX-1 was found in the physics department of a university. A sample of SCP-XXXX-1 (weighing Y kg) was found in a particle physics laboratory with the remains of a small particle accelerator as well as a researcher. The accelerator and the researcher are missing portions of themselves that equal approximately Y kg in mass, implying they had been converted into the neutronium.
The danger posed by SCP-XXXX is that the field has a tendency to spread. To counteract this, the recovered sample of SCP-XXXX-1 is stored in a vacuum chamber. Because the substance is electrically neutral, it can't be magnetically suspended, so instead it is suspended using a "strong force generator" or some similar sci-fi device. I'm thinking this would be Euclid class, since you need the sci-fi thingy to keep it in place, but its not gonna actively try to escape.
I have this broader narrative idea that the field is something from another universe starting to "consume" ours in a game of cosmological Darwinism. Something analogous to how larger galaxies have a tendency to "consume" smaller ones, this other universe has some property that seems to have given it an edge over ours. There's no evil god or malevolent alien trying to destroy us, just some quirk of the multiverse has brought these worlds together, and a small piece of one has bled into the other
As a courtesy to our readers on mobile devices, please collapse long posts. ~Zyn
What do you think about this? Is there enough there for an article? Or, more importantly, enough for a good article?
EDIT: Sorry for the long summary and missing collapsable. I'll be more careful about that in the future!
