The "meson" gun

[Sigtrygg]

Now that the SoM is out one of the things I have noticed is the use of TL12 damper technology to revolutionise the tech paradigm.

The meson gun appears at TL11, but the modern consensus is that what we understand as mesons are not involved

At TL12 the meson screen becomes possible, nuclear dampers, fusion+...

So the breakthrough in GUT appears to be TL11 with the "meson" gun.

What if greater understanding of the fundamental interactions begins with manipulation of the combined electroweak force which allows for pentaquark guns, or pentatop quark guns. These could be disguised as meson research.

A bundle of pentatop quarks decaying inside an enemy ship would disrupt the nucleons of a few atoms, which would begin a chain reaction that fizzles out after a while but not before making a mini-nuke go off inside the target.

TL12 adds strong interaction manipulation to the GUT technology, making the TL12 stuff (dampers, screens, fusion+)

 

[WHULorigan]

Now that the SoM is out one of the things I have noticed is the use of TL12 damper technology to revolutionise the tech paradigm.

The meson gun appears at TL11, but the modern consensus is that what we understand as mesons are not involved

At TL12 the meson screen becomes possible.

Or at least mesons are not primarily what is releasing the energy at the target. They may be involved somewhere in the process. In fact that might have been part of the believability of the cover-story about a meson beam.

 

[Sigtrygg]

Or at least mesons are not primarily what is releasing the energy at the target. They may be involved somewhere in the process. In fact that might have been part of the believability of the cover-story about a meson beam.

I've updated the OP - I posted it and then had to go do stuff.

 

[WHULorigan]

Now that the SoM is out one of the things I have noticed is the use of TL12 damper technology to revolutionise the tech paradigm.

The meson gun appears at TL11, but the modern consensus is that what we understand as mesons are not involved

At TL12 the meson screen becomes possible, nuclear dampers, fusion+...

So the breakthrough in GUT appears to be TL11 with the "meson" gun.

What if greater understanding of the fundamental interactions begins with manipulation of the combined electroweak force which allows for pentaquark guns, or pentastrange quark guns. These could be disguised as meson research.

A bundle of pentastrange quarks decaying inside an enemy ship would disrupt the nucleons of a few atoms, which would begin a chain reaction that fizzles out after a while but not before making a mini-nuke go off inside the target.

TL12 adds strong interaction manipulation to the GUT technology, making the TL12 stuff (dampers, screens, fusion+)

I've updated the OP - I posted it and then had to go do stuff.

NICE.

 

[WHULorigan]

So the breakthrough in GUT appears to be TL11 with the "meson" gun.

Also, there is an obscure reference in old DGP material (I unfortunately cannot remember where it is, but I KNOW it exists) that mentions that much of the breakthrough technology at TL11 had to do with the discovery of "metaconductor" technology that not only greatly revolutionized and/or miniaturized the already existing gravitics technology, but also opened up the ability to practically manipulate the nuclear forces in engineering applications. (Recall that in MT, the "Thruster"-type M-Drive became available at TL-11, and was based on a unification of both Gravitic and Nuclear Force principles).

 

[ottarrus]

The 'meson gun' is just a techno buzz-word. What it really means is 'a powerful enough subatomic particle beam that it requires its own specific screen system'.
I mean, lets be realistic here... somewhere between Earth's current mature TL 8+ and TL 11 there WILL be several scientific discoveries that will flip physics as we currently understand it on its ear. There's LOTS of stuff we presume or hypothesize exist but have not actually documented yet. For just one example, 'gravitons' are hypothetical quantums in physics. Nobody has ever detected one or even proven it exists. Just because our current math models predict or suppose something exists does not make a reality. I'd like to remind everyone that the 'luminoferous aether' was a legit scientific theory until the 1900s... and many genius level minds of the time were utterly convinced of its legitimacy.
Your TU can call a meson spinal mount a 'wave motion gun' for all the actual science involved in it, but the term 'meson gun' has been in canon for as long as High Guard and it's as good a thumbnail description as any.

 

[MonsterX]

All spinal mount weapons shall henceforth be referred to as wave motion guns and require the wearing of dark glasses when firing, for safety.

 

[ottarrus]

All spinal mount weapons shall henceforth be referred to as wave motion guns and require the wearing of dark glasses when firing, for safety.

 

[Sigtrygg]

My aim is to maintain some connection with Traveller canon but update in light of known and handwavium physics.

Meson guns and communicators make use of the properties of a subatomic particle
called the pi neutral meson. Mesons, like neutrinos, do not interact significantly
with other particles, and matter is therefore transparent to them. However, mesons
decay in a short time into other particles which do interact, and which possess high
energy. Mesons are created by the collision of an electron and a positron, in the
converging beams from two particle accelerators. In a meson gun, the beam travels
to the target, where the mesons decay, causing a large energy release

So first of all we need a much greater understanding of the weak interaction and strong interaction - Sci Fi TL11 is where electroweak interactions become manageable.

We can maintain the electron/positron collider - Sci Fi the energy just has to be much higher (hello fusion reactor and high temperature superconductor materials)

The suggestion of using top quarks rather than up is because this is TL11 - Sci Fi

Meson gun as a code name may actually fool people thinking it is meson research, which in a round about way it is.

 

[WHULorigan]

Per Classic Traveller: Meson guns and communicators make use of the properties of a subatomic particle called the pi neutral meson. Mesons, like neutrinos, do not interact significantly with other particles, and matter is therefore transparent to them. However, mesons decay in a short time into other particles which do interact, and which possess high energy. Mesons are created by the collision of an electron and a positron, in the converging beams from two particle accelerators. In a meson gun, the beam travels to the target, where the mesons decay, causing a large energy release.

And for the non-physicist, some of the problems/questions that arise from the above are:

1. Pi-neutral mesons are identical quark-antiquark pairs (up-antiup or down-antidown), and so decay electromagnetically VERY FAST, and not via the slower weak or strong force - so direct manipulation of the weak or strong force would not work as a meson screen - it could possibly be accomplished thru the electroweak interaction if these are in fact the particles involved.
2. T5 Suggests that the particles involved are actually the charged Pi-mesons (up-antidown (+1) or down-antiup (-1)) that DO decay weakly, and their immediate decay products, muons (-1 charge) and muon-neutrinos (0 charge). Muons subsequently decay weakly into electrons and electron neutrinos. While muons certainly do tend to penetrate matter, any of the charged particles would be easy to deflect with a magnetic field. See also collimation and exponential decay problems below.
3. If the converging electron-positron beams do so within the reaction chamber or immediately in front of the "barrel" of the weapon, the exponential decay of the particles will begin immediately and continue as they travel toward the target, meaning the most intense part of the energy burst will be at the weapon barrel and/or point of convergence. This means the beams should really be oriented to converge close to their target, but yet outside of it. But charged particles (such as electrons and positrons) do not maintain collimation as they propagate because they will mutually repel without the electromagnets of the accelerator barrel to direct them.

 

[Sigtrygg]

Glueballs.

The latest research on glueballs.

The meson gun actually being based on gluons rather than mesons (gluons decay into mesons) is something I have to now consider.