God particle

*"This is humankind's greatest discovery. And also its doom."*
―Claudia Tiedemann[src]
The **God particle**, also known as **dark matter** or **black matter**, was a special type of particle that served as the foundation of time travel within the looped worlds, and was what gave elementary particles their mass.

The God particle would manifest in different forms, depending on the circumstance. At times, it appeared as a dark fluid, which appeared to be a highly concentrated version of the God particle. This fluid was created during the 1986 incident at the Winden Nuclear Power Plant, and was partially composed of the radioactive isotope Cesium-137. The fluid was used to power the various time machines that existed in Adam's and Eva's worlds.

At other times, the God particle took the form of a globular, chaotic mass; these masses could be stablized via electricity, transforming the dark mass into a perfect sphere. By electrically manipulating the sphere before stepping into it, an individual could time travel to any desired date, breaking the 33-year cycle. In other circumstances, the God particle appeared as a small, luminous sphere of energy; the God particle also seemed to create time windows, on occasion.

## History

### Adam's World

#### 1986 - 2053

On June 21st, 1986, an incident occurred at the Winden Nuclear Power Plant; the Unknown had accessed the power plant and opened a valve in the volume control room, producing highly unusual nuclear waste. This material, a dark fluid, appeared to be a highly concentrated version of the God particle, and was partially composed of the radioactive isotope Cesium-137. Some believed the incident also created the wormhole in the tunnels, but in truth, the wormhole’s origins laid elsewhere.

Director Bernd Doppler covered up the incident, storing the radioactive waste in yellow barrels and hiding them beneath the plant, in a sealed-off section of the Winden Caves. However, Doppler instructed his workers to analyse a sample of the substance. When Doppler viewed the results of the tests, it suggested the God particle, that which had been hypothesized by scientists for years, had somehow been created. Doppler was shocked by the data, and ordered that the tests were run again, only to receive the same data. Later that year, Doppler revealed the existence of the barrels to his successor, Claudia Tiedemann, on her first day as the new Director.

On November 12th, 1986, Jonas Kahnwald used Tannhaus's clockwork device to close the passage between 1953, 1986 and 2019. The machine had multiple effects: the machine, while placed in the tunnels' center, caused a small orb of dark matter to form above it, while also creating a time window in the bunker even further above.

In June 1987, Tiedemann crossed paths with her time-travelling older self, who handed her a version of Tannhaus's clockwork device. The device contained vials of the dark fluid, one of which Tiedemann handed to her orderlies at the plant to be analysed. Poring over the data, Tiedemann arrived at the same conclusion as her predecessor: that the incident at the plant had produced the God particle.

On June 23, Noah inserted a vial of the dark matter to fuel the upgraded time travel chair, in the bunker. He used the machine to return the child Helge Doppler to 1954.

In November 2019, the then-Director, Aleksander Tiedemann, feared the barrels would be discovered, due to the Winden police requesting a permit to search the facility; Aleksander had the barrels covertly loaded onto a truck and taken off site. Jonas Kahnwald accessed the truck and took some of the radioactive material, in order to power Tannhaus's clockwork device.

On November 12th, a dome of dark matter momentarily appeared in the skies above the forest, when Jonas used the clockwork device to close the passage between 1953, 1986 and 2019. Aleksander and Regina observed the phenomena, concerned and confused by what they were seeing.

In 2020, various owners of the clockwork device used the machine to transport themselves through time. When travelling, a small dome of black matter shot out from the machine before disappearing, enveloping the travelers.

Prior to the Plant being decomissioned on June 28th, 2020, Aleksander brought the barrels back to the plant and had them embedded in concrete in the reactor's cooling bank, hoping to conceal their existence forever. However, on June 27, special investigator Clausen finally obtained a search warrant, and demanded that the concrete was broken open; when he opened one of the barrels, the God particle rose from within. This was one of the primary actions that triggered the apocalypse of Adam's World, in conjunction with Sic Mundus manipulating their own instance of the God particle in 1921. These actions caused a massive dome of dark matter to form above from the plant before shooting out, wreaking havoc and destruction across Winden and the world beyond.

In November 2020, in the post-apocalypse, Claudia Tiedemann travelled to the wreckage of the plant, and found a small, radiant sphere of energy, hovering above the cooling bank; yet another form of the God particle. Eventually, after several years of experiments, Claudia used electricity to transform the sphere into a mass of dark matter, though which precise time travel was made possible. However, Claudia was instructed by her alternate counterpart to delay the dark matter's functionality, so that the course of events continued as it always had.

In June 2053, Jonas Kahnwald used the spherical God particle to escape to another time, though he did not intend to travel to 1921.

At some point prior to September 2053, Adam and Sic Mundus arrived from 1921, making the power plant's wreckage their new base of operations. After sending Agnes Nielsen and Silja through the God particle, so they could ‘fill in the gaps’ in the time loop, Adam had the alternate Martha tied up and placed in the center of the plant’s cooling bank. Adam explained that he and his people had constructed a machine that "not only crossed time, but also space". The machine could concentrate the God particle from both his and Eva's world - "the energy of both apocalypses" - onto a singular point. Adam used this machine to execute the pregnant Martha, hoping that he would destroy the unborn Unknown, and by extension, destroy the Knot itself. However, Adam's plan to destroy the Knot failed, as he had misidentified the true origin of the Knot.

#### 1888 - 1921

When Jonas, Magnus Nielsen, Franziska Doppler and Bartosz Tiedemann were left stranded in 1888, and the clockwork device destroyed, the travelers were left without a clear way to escape. However, the alternate world's Martha arrived, and left them one of the dark matter pellets which powered the sphere machine.

Using bolts of electricity - as Claudia had done in the post-apocalypse - Jonas gradually provoked the fluid form of the God particle to transform into its spherical, utilizable counterpart. However, despite Jonas's efforts to protect himself, he was continually electrocuted while working to control the God particle; over time, he became heavily disfigured, until he was recognisable as the man known as Adam.

Eventually, a new spherical form of the God particle existed, in the underground Sic Mundus lab, beneath the church. In 1911, Adam used the God particle to transport the infant Silja to the post-apocalypse.

On June 25, 1921, Adam convinced Jonas to use the God particle, transporting Jonas to June 20, 2019: the day of their father's suicide. Two days later, Adam and the teenage Noah both used the God particle to travel to June 27, 2020, the day of the apocalypse. Immediately following this, Sic Mundus members Magnus Nielsen and Franziska Doppler manipulated the God particle via electricity, helping to trigger the June 27, 2020 apocalypse.

### Eva's World

#### 1986

On June 21st, 1986, an incident occurred at the Winden Nuclear Power Plant; the Unknown had accessed the power plant and opened a valve in the volume control room, producing highly unusual nuclear waste. This material, a dark fluid, appeared to be a highly concentrated version of the God particle, and was partially composed of the radioactive isotope Cesium-137.

#### 2019

A spherical form of the God particle existed, in the underground Erit Lux headquarters. Eva's disciples - Noah, Egon, Bartosz, Claudia and two of the three Unknowns - used the God particle to travel and play their role in the time loop.

## References

1. ↑ https://dark.netflix.io/sic-mundus/
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 *Dark* Season 3 Episode 5: "Life and Death"
3. ↑ *Dark* Season 3 Episode 6: "Light and Shadow"
4. ↑ *Dark* Season 2 Episode 3: "Ghosts"
5. ↑ *Dark* Season 2 Episode 2: "Dark Matter"
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 *Dark* Season 2 Episode 5: "Lost and Found"
7. ↑ *Dark* Season 2 Episode 8: "Endings and Beginnings"