Source:
Sci-pedia - The Online Resource for Science
LINER galaxy
A low-ionization nuclear emission-line region (LINER) is a type of galactic nucleus that is defined by its spectral line emission. The spectra typically include line emission from weakly ionized or neutral atoms.
LINER galaxies are very common; approximately one-third of all nearby galaxies to Earth (galaxies within approximately 20-40 Mpc) are classified as LINER galaxies.
Source:
Sci-pedia - The Online Resource for Science
Loop quantum gravity (LQG)
Loop Quantum Gravity was developed in the twenty-first century by physicists to meld quantum mechanics and general relativity into one. Just as in quantum mechanics, which describes a smallest quanta of light, the photon, for instance, loop quantum gravity describes a smallest quanta of volume (and area). This idea has great appeal because if there is a smallest quanta of volume then it would be impossible for a singularity to form and physics would still apply even inside a black hole and at the big bang (which wouldn't exactly be a big bang but a big bounce).
Another aspect of loop quantum gravity is that the links that make up the loops stitching together the quanta volumes of spacetime are usually local. But not always. It is possible that a link between nodes of volume could have been established early in the universe and then the nodes separated over time. Somewhere across the universe then could be an entangled quanta of volume corresponding to a local quanta of volume ...
Source:
Sci-pedia - The Online Resource for Science - Loop Quantum Gravity
Meta-verse
The meta-verse was a virtual world developed by the Earth Aggies. Once the ability to scan a human brain and load it into a computer was achieved many humans chose that alternative when facing death.
With their technical capabilities the Aggies on Earth developed a virtual world for those choosing the scan who would not become Ems. The Ems interfaced with the natural world, metazens with a virtual world.
The meta-verse was eventually destroyed by the Beleni and never recreated since its greatest appeal was undermined, unlimited life expectancy.
Source:
Sci-pedia - The Online Resource for Science
Nonlocal link
In loop quantum gravity links that make up the loops stitching together the quanta volumes of spacetime are usually local, that is they are causally related. But not always. It is possible that a link between nodes of volume could have been established early in the history of the universe and then they separated. Somewhere across the universe then could be an entangled quanta of volume corresponding to a local quanta of volume.
Surprisingly these links aren't necessarily rare. It's estimated that there could, on average, be more than one per cubic nanometer of space. Not enough to disrupt the smooth aspect of spacetime we experience but enough to explain entanglement of distant particles.
They can be used to send information and mass over vast distances, much farther than a wormhole drive . . .
It appears that links follow a kind of power-law, called Lotka's Law, when it comes to their abundance or scarcity as related to the distances they bridge. The farther the distance the scarcer the link.
Source:
Sci-pedia - The Online Resource for Science – Nonlocal links
Quantum battery
The isotopic energy reservoir, which provides the huge amount of energy the wormhole drive demands when forming a wormhole mouth, is an energy storage system which uses the atomic nucleus rather than chemical means to store energy. By using specific isotopes energy can be stored in an excited state of the nuclei of those isotopes. As such it provides several orders of magnitude (up to 1,000,000 times) more energy density than any other energy storage method.
Another advantage of isotopic storage is that the energy can be released on a much shorter time scale than usual. For example, in a specific excited state of an isotope of molybdenum a "hole" created in an atomic shell will attract a free electron. The free electron falling into that shell will in turn transfer just the right (small) amount of energy to the nuclei and, like a switch, cause a fast but controlled release of the stored energy.
One problem with isotopic storage is that of a natural tendency to lose their charge over time (this is also a problem with more conventional energy storage devices).
The quantum battery takes on the charge leakage problem. By harnessing the power of "excitonic energy" — the state in which a nucleus absorbs charged photons of light, the resulting battery is highly robust to energy losses. The fact that the photon is absorbed in an isolated state where it cannot exchange energy — by absorbing or releasing photons — with its surroundings, prevents the charge leakage.
Breaking down this isolate state allows the battery to discharge and release its energy.
Source:
Sci-pedia - The Online Resource for Science
Spin-two drive
Spin-two is a reference to the particle of gravity, the graviton, although spin one-half particles (fermions) are more important to the drives operation.
To develop the spin-two drive Dr. Dagmar Mach used the existent wormhole drive's (see below) ability to cast exotic mass-energy (negative mass-energy) into nonlocal links which for all intent and purposes act like narrow wormholes.
Nonlocal describes particles that are too far apart to causally affect each other (see Nonlocal links above).
The cast energy causes fermionic particles, particles with one-half quantum spin, to flip their spin (say from up to down). The nonlocal partners to these fermions, entangled particles in other words, assume the opposite spin state. By modulating the mass-energy, a pulse can travel down the nonlocal link at a frequency determined by the spin-two drive.
Using the drives ability to create pulsating “bubbles” of negative mass-energy a ship inserted into the nonlocal link is pulled and pushed along to the far end.
Once the ship enters the link the drive shuts down and the decaying pulses eventually allow the link to “relax” to its original state. By that time the ship has already emerged at the nonlocal destination. The link portals now decay completely and the nonlocal tunnel closes.
The advantages of the spin-two drive over the wormhole drive are many. Because the spin-two drive is only opening an already existing wormhole like link the exotic mass-energy needed is one-tenth that of a wormhole drive which must force the wormhole open from beginning to end in the wormhole dimension.
Another advantage is that the nonlocal links are by definition usually connecting regions of space that are far removed. Jumps of a six-thousand light-years have become common, compared to the forty light-year jumps possible with the wormhole drive. In fact there is no limit to the jump distant but because the distribution of jump lengths follow a gaussian distribution (Lotka's Law, see Nonlocal links above) very long links are harder to find in the quantum foam and therefore it takes a longer and longer time to make very long jumps . . .
Source:
Sci-pedia - The Online Resource for Science – Spin-two Drive
Super-radiant power plant
A rotating black hole called a Kerr black hole by physicists, can serve as a power amplifier. If you surround the black hole with a spherical mirror and then inject a small amount of radiant energy from a star at just the right angle to the rotating black hole that energy will skim the surface of the hole's event horizon.
If done properly the radiant energy will be 'dragged' by the frame-dragging effect of the black hole's immense gravity around the hole and emerge amplified. Do this several times and you can amplify the energy from an ordinary star to the huge levels.
The radiant energy is injected at a certain frequency and the resultant amplification shifts that frequency. Always remembering that as the energy increases the frequency of a photon of electromagnetic energy also increases.
Just as radio waves can travel through certain materials while bein
g reflected by others the mirror appears transparent at the lower and upper frequencies of the injected radiant energy and transparent at frequencies in between.
In this way the energy can be injected into the spherical mirror and emerge amplified where it can then deposit its energy in a conversion layer that blankets the sphere.
Source:
Sci-pedia - The Online Resource for Science
Tower complex
Tower complexes developed in the 21st Century from the old city metroplexes. Housing hundreds of millions of people in an area smaller than the cities from which they sprang the tower complexes led to many areas of the Earth returning to their natural state.
Few people lived outside the tower complexes and those that lived inside them were mostly supported by the government. Only because the Ems at first, and then the Aggies, improved the efficiency of the economy and managed the complexes effectively were the complexes able to grow to their huge dimensions.
Source:
Sci-pedia - The Online Resource for Science
Wormhole drive
The design of a wormhole generator and therefore a wormhole drive is a materials problem. The Mach device is made up of three layers, each with its own special characteristics. The innermost layer provides a solid support for the outer layers and contains the material which supplies the negative mass or exotic mass needed to open a wormhole mouth. In a fusion ship this layer is adhered to the outer surface of the crew wheel.
Next is the actuator layer which drives the Mach effect in the outermost layer and is usually made of a PZT (lead-zirconium-titanate) composite. A large voltage is supplied to this layer and driven with a sinusoidal signal.
The outer layer, the Mach layer, is made from a material with a large capacity for internal energy changes. And when it is driven by a quickly ramping voltage applied to the actuator layer it will shield the innermost layer from the universal mass exposing the large and negative (or exotic) bare mass of the layer's electrons. This large mass with it's repulsive gravity can open and keep open a wormhole.
The Mach Effect (named after the nineteenth century physicist and philosopher Ernst Mach, not the wormhole drive's inventor) describes the relationship between a particular mass and the universal mass. Mach conjectured that the inertia (resistance to a change in velocity) of a particular mass was caused by all the other masses in the universe, the universal mass.
This can be understood by considering a single mass in an otherwise empty space. How do you measure the mass's velocity? There are no fixed references which can be used to measure the velocity so in an empty space the concept of velocity is meaningless, the mass therefore has no velocity.
Since there is no velocity there can be no change in velocity and since inertia is a measure of a mass's resistance to a change in its velocity there can be no inertia. A subtle but logical argument.
Now given the existence of the Mach Effect it can be shown that if a material's (the innermost layer of the drive for instance) electrons are shielded from the universal mass then the large, negative (sometimes called “bare mass”) of the electron is revealed.
This follows from quantum field theory which shows that electrons are surrounded by a sea of virtual particles and these virtual particles have a large positive mass. Since the electron's measured mass is very small and positive then, by simple addition, its intrinsic mass-energy must be large and negative (sometimes called exotic mass-energy).
The final essential element for designing a wormhole generator is that the layers should be in acceleration. In the case of a fusion ship this is usually accomplished through the rotation of the crew wheel, always remembering that a change in direction is also an acceleration . . .
Source:
Wormhole Drive Engineering, 1st Edition by Dr. Dagmar Mach
Copyright 3001 A.D. - Chapter 2, Pg. 29 - The Mach Device
Zero-point energy
Zero-point energy is the lowest possible energy that a quantum mechanical system may have. Unlike in classical mechanics, quantum systems constantly fluctuate in their lowest energy state as described by the Heisenberg uncertainty principle. The empty space of the vacuum has these properties.
According to quantum field theory, the universe can be thought of not as isolated particles but continuous fluctuating fields. All fields have zero-point energy. But these fields cannot be a physical medium if it is to be Lorentz invariant such that there is no contradiction with Einstein's theory of special relativity.
Richard Feynman and John Wheeler calculated the zero-point radiation of the vacuum was so powerful that even a small cup of it would be enough to set all of Earth’s oceans to a boil. But Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity suggests zero-point radiation would “gravitate” — spreading out throughout the universe and be mitigated.
Then it was found that two negative energy surfaces in close proximity prevents the dilution of the zero-point energy, prevents it from “gravitating”. Thus the energy can be gathered and used immediately or stored for later use.
Source:
Sci-pedia - The Online Resource for Science
Other books and stories by this author:
Future Chron Universe:
Story Series: Novelettes & Novellas
Whatsoever You Do (Book 1)
War Through The Pines (Book 2)
Vigilance (Book 3)
To Tend And Watch Over (Book 4)
Union (Book 5)
Circle Of Retribution (Book 6)
Freedom From Want (Book 7)
Break Up (Book 8)
Kuiper Station (Book 9)
The Cloud (Book 10)
First Interstellar (Novella-Book 11)
First One Hundred (Book 12)
First Dark Ages (Book 13)
Second One Hundred (Book 14)
Second Dark Ages (Book 15)
Path Of The Long March (Book 16)
The Star Hopper (Book 17)
Story Series: Collections
From the Earth V-1 (Volume 1):
Whatsoever You Do
War Through The Pines
Vigilance
To Tend And Watch Over
Union
From the Earth V-2 (Volume 2):
Circle Of Retribution
Freedom From Want
Break Up
Kuiper Station
The Cloud
First Interstellar
From The Earth V-3 (Volume 3):
First One Hundred
First Dark Ages
Second One Hundred
Second Dark Ages
Path Of The Long March
Novels: Mach Series
Mach's Metric (Book 1)
Mach's Mission (Book 2)
Mach's Legacy (Book 3)
Future Chron1 (Mach Series Complete)
Novels: Star Series
Cycle of Stars (Book 1)
Empire of Stars (Book 2)
Revolt Of Stars (Book 3)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
D.W. Patterson lives in the state of Georgia (USA) with his beautiful wife Sarah. He studied physics and read classic science fiction (sometimes called Golden Age) in college. He thought that he would try writing such fiction someday but times and tastes changed.
Then he began, forty years (or more) too late, far behind the leading edge of science fiction and there he has stayed. He sometimes blogs about his stories and other science/science fiction matters at futurechronology.blogspot.com
Empire of Stars Page 18
