RE: [RFC][Info] Playing with Boom-Boom (Or, Antimatter and You - A Children's Parable)
04-11-2019, 04:28 AM
04-11-2019, 04:28 AM
Antimatter does have a tendency to "just work" as an explosive. Or so we think. Honestly we haven't observed any large quantities of antimatter, like ever. There are a decent amount of positrons coming in as cosmic rays, but no observed anti-alpha particles (antihelium nuclei). So no evidence for antimatter stars, yet.
One of the issues is getting it to react when you want it to react, and not with the atmosphere immediately in front of your face. Containment is a real freaking problem. Normal matter doesn't like to touch, because all of the electrons on the outside repel each other. The whole atom is electrically neutral, but at the border, the electrons dominate the interactions (therefore, chemistry). So what to our mind feels like solid matter, say metal, is mostly empty space, with electrons actually flowing and exchanging photons constantly to keep from colliding. Of course in reality it's also quantum electrical fields too, but no point repeating what you already know.
Anyway for antimatter near matter, the outer positrons electrically attract the valence electrons of matter. When they annihilate, this exposes the nuclei, which are also electrically attractive. Protons and antiprotons attract like a moth to a flame. From here on out, you get total mess of baryons and sea quarks and shit, but your eventual output is gamma rays (high energy light), neutrinos, and electrons and positrons going fast enough to escape the reaction. But the reaction as a whole is very sticky and wants to happen as fast as possible, like fluorine but thousands of times worse. Also all* this radiation causes cancer, but unlike fission bombs you don't produce many radioactive products like iodine-131 that cause persistent pollution.
Anyway, if you need some ideas on how to contain antimatter, maybe Casey and Andy have a few ideas. If you want to fire antimatter at your enemies, then they definitely have ideas.
* Except the neutrinos, which don't do much of anything.
One of the issues is getting it to react when you want it to react, and not with the atmosphere immediately in front of your face. Containment is a real freaking problem. Normal matter doesn't like to touch, because all of the electrons on the outside repel each other. The whole atom is electrically neutral, but at the border, the electrons dominate the interactions (therefore, chemistry). So what to our mind feels like solid matter, say metal, is mostly empty space, with electrons actually flowing and exchanging photons constantly to keep from colliding. Of course in reality it's also quantum electrical fields too, but no point repeating what you already know.
Anyway for antimatter near matter, the outer positrons electrically attract the valence electrons of matter. When they annihilate, this exposes the nuclei, which are also electrically attractive. Protons and antiprotons attract like a moth to a flame. From here on out, you get total mess of baryons and sea quarks and shit, but your eventual output is gamma rays (high energy light), neutrinos, and electrons and positrons going fast enough to escape the reaction. But the reaction as a whole is very sticky and wants to happen as fast as possible, like fluorine but thousands of times worse. Also all* this radiation causes cancer, but unlike fission bombs you don't produce many radioactive products like iodine-131 that cause persistent pollution.
Anyway, if you need some ideas on how to contain antimatter, maybe Casey and Andy have a few ideas. If you want to fire antimatter at your enemies, then they definitely have ideas.
* Except the neutrinos, which don't do much of anything.
"Kitto daijoubu da yo." - Sakura Kinomoto