this post was submitted on 14 Jul 2024
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Here's a technical question. Is the antimatter fired in a stream, as a projectile, or contained within a projectile? Because I would think that if it's not held in an EM field after it leaves the barrel, it would just interact with the air it's passing through and detonate. Or is it just hand waved with the usual magic and bullshit explanation?
Because while I can understand the use of antimatter weapons in the (mostly enough) vacuum of space, the idea of firing it in an environment filled with ordinary matter strikes me as unwise. What does the antimatter only annihilate on contact with normal matter of the same element? That is to say, for example, does carbon only annihilate with anticarbon and no other substance, or will any ordinary matter react explosively with any antimatter?
From what I understand antimatter and matter react at the individual particle level and as far as we can tell they need their corresponding particle to react with.
i.e. Positron - Electron Proton - Anti-proton Neutron - Anti-Neutron
The charged ones would likely have little trouble finding their counterparts. Especially the positrons, maybe electron shells would prevent anti-protons from getting to protons.
I'm curious how stable anti-neutrons are in a matter world (and how free neutrons behave, for that matter). Does anything stop them from just joining the first atom they happen to get close enough to? And how long before they get close enough to an atom if they do, in say Earth's atmosphere?
Yes, for the (anti-)electrons. Antiprotons and neutrons should be able to annihilate as well, and vice versa. They are composite particles made of (anti) up and down quarks, so processes like antiproton (anti u anti u anti d) + neutron (udd) -> photons + pi- (anti u d) ( + pi0 maybe) could happen. The pions are short-lived particles called mesons, made of a quark and an antiquark.
I vaguely remember the idea of firing a powerful laser in the trajectory of the projectile before sending it out. Presumably the laser will turn air molecules into plasma and get them out of the way. Maybe this was for rail guns where individual remaining ions are of less concern.
There is a long range tazer design that uses this principle. It uses a tiny burst laser to plasmify the air, which then becomes the conductor for the electrical payload to the target.
I have no idea what book y'all are talking about, but does it specify that the rifle projects antimatter in any way? Maybe it uses antimatter in place of chemical propellant to fire a slug really fast? (and some handwavey technomaterial to contain the pressure)