The first perform of Rick’s portal gun is to journey to different parallel realities the place he crosses paths with numerous different Ricks. Kevork Abazajian, a professor of physics and astronomy in addition to the director of the Heart for Cosmology on the College of California, Irvine, says that alternate realities are “a typical science-fiction theme lately. I feel it’s impressed by the truth that, in cosmology and particle physics, there’s a actual risk of a number of universes current — it’s a vital consequence of some interpretations of quantum mechanics.”
There are a few totally different theories as to the place these different universes are. One is that they’re on another aircraft of existence, the placement of which is undefined. One other, which makes extra sense for Rick and Morty, is that they’re very, very, very distant. As Abazajian explains, “Due to the finite nature of the velocity of sunshine, we can’t see past a sure distance, which is known as the cosmic horizon. However in normal cosmology, we’ve infinite house past our horizon, and in case you have infinite house, meaning you might have different universes on the market past that distance.”
He says that almost all universes will likely be wildly totally different than ours and will even have totally different legal guidelines of physics, however as a result of there are infinite potentialities, some will resemble our personal nearly precisely, that are usually the sorts of different universes the characters in Rick and Morty, Into the Spider-Verse and Physician Unusual and the Multiverse of Insanity go to.
Stepping into the interdimensional journey of Rick’s portal gun, Abazajian says, “You might have tunneling between multiverses should you (make use of) further dimensions and have been capable of create wormholes.”
For example what a wormhole is, Abazajian does just about the identical factor Sam Neill’s character does in Occasion Horizon when he takes a bit of paper, pokes a gap within the prime and the underside after which folds the paper so the 2 factors meet. Touring throughout house to get from one level to the opposite is simply too far to ever accomplish, however a wormhole creates a bridge between these two factors, which is what Rick’s gun is doing. “Touring past our cosmic horizon is simply too far, however in case you have an additional dimension, you may join between them on this method. That’s one believable technique to journey throughout disconnected areas,” says Abazajian. “That stated, there isn’t a identified mechanism for creating this type of wormhole.”
Teleportation
Along with interdimensional journey, Rick’s portal gun offers for loads of intra-dimensional journey too, the place he’ll journey to a different planet in his personal universe or simply one other room in his home. Abazajian says the identical physics are concerned right here as with interdimensional journey, simply at a smaller distance.
Portal Fluid
Relating to the aforementioned inexperienced portal fluid, it nonetheless makes portals with out the gun, like within the episode the place Morty spills some and finally ends up with a portal on his hand.
“I might guess that (the portal fluid accommodates) the power that’s wanted to create a wormhole,” says Abazajian, who explains the portal fluid would additionally have to include “the particular form of matter that might stabilize the wormhole.”
It’s not clear that such matter exists, however there’s a title for it: unique matter.
The fluid must stabilize the wormhole in just a few other ways. For one, a wormhole is both two black holes merged collectively, or a black gap right into a white gap (that are nonetheless hypothetical). “A white gap is a black gap, however it’s emitting matter versus swallowing it,” Abazajian explains.
Rick’s portals would probably be black holes into white holes, as a result of you may go freely by means of both finish of them, and there’s no suction pulling you in, as there can be with two black holes merged collectively. Primarily, the portal fluid creates wormholes so secure that it accounts for this property.
It could additionally must account for curvature. It is a bit more durable to elucidate, however lemme give it a strive: If you happen to have been to leap right into a black gap, you’d get “spaghettified,” or tremendous stretched out like a protracted strand of spaghetti with the intention to get by means of it. So that you can go safely by means of a black gap with out spaghettifying, the black gap must be “very, very large,” says Abazajian. “It’d must be a billion instances our solar’s measurement.”
Rick’s portals are about six ft in diameter, and so, they will need to have little or no curvature to them because of the portal fluid’s use of unique matter to stabilize issues.
Apart from curvature, Abazajian says you’d nonetheless die should you head right into a black gap as a result of “you’re heading towards the singularity, and it’s not clear what you’d see as a result of the character of house and time will get confused. Time really turns into house, and that’s a really bizarre factor when you get right into a black gap.”
However once more, in Rick’s case, the portal fluid stabilizes issues sufficient that he can stroll out and in of a portal like a easy doorway.
Gun Controls
As for why the portal fluid requires a gun, Abazajian says {that a} very small proportion of alternate realities would resemble our personal, so it is smart for the gun to have the ability to find these dimensions, then harness the uncooked energy of the portal fluid to succeed in them.
Admittedly, how Rick controls the gun is inconsistent within the present. Generally he fiddles with the dials earlier than pulling the set off; different instances he simply blasts it, and it takes him to exactly the place he desires to go.
Now, Rick has every kind of mechanical enhancements in his physique — he even as soon as referred to himself as “Inspector Gadget” — so, to reconcile this inconsistency, Rick might need some form of chip in his mind that may management the portal gun, however often it malfunctions or he desires to manage the gun manually.
Time Journey (Or Lack Thereof)
All that stated, if Rick’s portal gun can achieve this a lot, why can’t he use it to journey by means of time? As a result of, as all Rick and Morty followers know, Rick by no means offers in time journey.
Abazajian’s reply: “As a result of dangerous issues occur whenever you journey by means of time. You get very bizarre causality issues. There are methods of touring by means of time in sure options of normal relativity, however they’re very, very particular issues that contain constructions we don’t know to exist referred to as cosmic strings. The important thing distinction is that the portal gun does spacial journey, not time journey.”
So time-traveling is a completely totally different factor than interdimensional journey. It’s like evaluating apples and oranges. Or Strawberry Smiggles with a Plumbus.
