In Particle Physics, there is a special tool that is used to help understand, visualise and calculate certain aspects of a particle interaction. This is the Feynman Diagram.

A lot of Feynman Diagrams are fairly dull, monotonous affairs, essentially consisting of two particles scattering off each other, like so:

However, there are some Feynman Diagrams which can, with the help of a little imagination, be made more exciting!
Recently, I discovered that, if I stare too long at Feynman Diagrams, I start to see the diagram in a different way, much like how you can often see faces while staring at a plastered ceiling, or see shapes in the clouds.

I see animals in Feynman Diagrams.

Here’s a few to get you started.

Now, any High Energy Physicist will tell you that this has already been done, in the form of the Penguin Diagram.

Which, if you squint a bit, can look a bit like a penguin. (The animal, not the chocolate bar)

The Penguin Diagram originated when a bet between Physicists was made, the loser of which had to include the word ‘Penguin’ in their next paper. So it’s all a bit artificial really…

Next, the deer diagram. It’s fairly self explanatory, the gluon emitted by the up quark represents the antlers, the rest follows from that…

The fish diagram. This one takes a little bit of thinking, but not too much. Obviously the top quark pair production vertex is the ‘nose’ of the fish, the bottom and anti-bottom quarks are the main fins of the fish and the quark antiquark/lepton antilepton pairs are the tail fins.

The lobster. This one, I’ll admit, is a bit contrived. But bear with me. The quark antiquark/lepton antilepton pairs at the very right are obviously the claws. Where the quark and anti-bottom lines form a diamond with the top anti top pair is the head, the gluon is the body (albeit a very skinny body considering the size of the head), and the protons at the left are the tail.

Well, it’s either a lobster or Edward Scissorhands on his side with his arms upstretched…