The continuing activity on the Practical Positronic Rocket threads has made it clear that we need a place for speculations that do not flow out of particular posts. What we’re aiming at down the road is to implement discussion software that will make such threads easy to follow and contribute to, but for now we’re dealing with weblog software that is not optimized for the task. Hence this thread, which is open to rational theorizing about interstellar issues in comments that do not reflect content found in the posts elsewhere on the site. If your idea is ‘blue sky’ and not related to a particular post, this is the place to put it.
On the Speculative Edge
by Paul Gilster | Jul 10, 2008 | Exotic Physics | 143 comments
Hi George;
Thanks for the above concept. Hawking’s books are really cool. I still have my Copy of A Brief History of Time as well as A Briefer History of Time. It is truly remarkable that Stephen Hawking continues to hang in there to continue to do productive theoretical physics. Hawking has a new theory he proposed for the very birth of the Big Bang. I will let you know when I hear more about it.
By the way, I revisit a concept that I posted at times or made reference to at other Tau Zero threads during the past year or two for which I have no idea who the originator of the concept was.
Basically, the concept entails using good old nuclear fission, steam driven turboelectric generators to power very high gamma factor ion or electron rocket exhaust mechanisms or perhaps to power a photon rocket.
The idea further contemplates including a high atomic number shield or interstellar ion or atom collector in front the space craft to capture these atomic particles in such a way that the massive shield absorbs these cosmic rays which are at least partially captured by the nuclei of the atoms that make up the shield until the nuclei of the shield are gradually transmuted into highly fissionable fuels such as U-233, U-235 and Pu-239 and other fissionable materials such as U-238 which has a huge critical mass, as well as Neptunium 235, 236, 237, Americium 241, 242, 243, and the like. In short, cosmic ray capture by fission fuel breed stock could be used to produce fuel which could be fashioned into fuel to power a nuclear reactors or to produce fission or thermonuclear devices to power an 1960s concept Orion Style type pulse rocket.
The idea here further includes a means for reprocessing the shield material and continually rebuilding the shield as portions of the shield are used up in continuous mode or batch mode. Mechanisms for extracting and utilizing heat generated by the kinetic energy of incident atoms and ions as well as of heat generated by increased shield radioactivity could facilitate turbo-electric power generation from this heat source.
The shield might conceivably have a low photon energy inwardly reflective encasement in order to trap heat that would otherwise be radiated away as black body radiation. The reflector would be highly reflective to infrared as well as sub-millimeter microwave radiation.
Now that my brain is half a sleep, I will continue comments related to this concept by Noon today.
Thanks;
Your Friend Jim
Hi George;
It is good to be on site. As you have very often stated, Tau Zero is definitely the In Place to Be.
It occurred to me that perhaps the shield I mentioned above could be made of some sort of very low density metallic foam like materials composed of fission fuel breed stock. Metal foam core panels and structural elements I believe are used in the automotive industry to create very light weight but very stiff load bearing members.
The idea would be to use very low density forms of high atomic number materials shields so that the incident cosmic rays would penetrate perhaps several meters into the shield so that the shield region of build up would not be limited to the very forward outer surface of the shield such as might be the case for mildly relativistic space craft velocities. Note that alpha particles from radioactive decays can only penetrate at most about one layer of skin. The great danger of alpha emitters becomes manifest only when they are breathed in or ingested, wherein, in such a case, they are distributed through out the body. On alpha decay particle can in theory take out the bio-machinery of several cells. As a result, in theory, 50 trillion alpha emitting nuclei could trash the life processes of every cell in the human body. This corresponds to a mass of a small bacterium or a virus particle.
That being said, another way to construct the shield might entail some sort of aerogel like material made of the fission fuel production feed stock. The cosmic rays might penetrate several meters into such a low density material before being captured by atomic nuclei within the aerogel.
Note, that for highly relativistic ship velocities, the incoming cosmic rays would be much more penetrating thus allowing for much higher density shields.
I will have more to say about this concept later this evening.
Thanks;
Your Friend Jim
Hi George;
I watch programs on fusion, the history of the concept of the atom, and the LHC on the Science Channel this evening. The programs were very well done.
I had some others ideas for fissionable material space craft shields might entail the use of multiple layers of thin film fissionable material breed stocks wherein a series of thin films would be placed in more or less a parallel planar arrangement, one sheet behind another, wherein the cosmic rays incident on the ship would have the opportunity to penetrate the layered assemblage in such a manner that, if the first forward most layers of the shield did not capture a given cosmic ray, the preceding layer(s) would.
The general idea is to produce thin film layers of fissionable material so that critical mass or super critical mass is avoided and so that the materials can be easily collected without the need for powerful machinery such as bulk metals cutting instruments, hot cutting torches, or high powered lasers to remove portions of the otherwise solid thick shield: a process that could result in additional complexity for the mission.
Another option might entail using a fission fuel analogue of cotton or steel wool wherein the cosmic rays would be able to penetrate the shield further than they would for a solid volumetrically monolithic shield, once again, for the purpose of reducing the risk of critical or supercritical mass and for ease of processing into reactor fuel.
In yet another version, the fission fuel breed stock shield could be composed of a web of band or tape like strips for the same purposes as for the examples given in the previous two paragraphs.
One can see that there are a variety of ways in which the effective density and ease of harvesting of the bread fission fuel can be kept at a safe level and of ease of use.
The shields, no matter what their configuration can be surrounded by an IR and/or microwave reflector so as to collect blackbody emissions that might other wise be lost. Heavier outer shielding in an optionally substantially cylindrical or tubular arrangement can be used to capture decay products from radioactive decay and atomic fission wherein the heat generated by such capture can be used to power stream cycle or multicycle turboelectric systems.
I will have yet more to say on the concept of shields made of fission fuel breeder stock by later this morning or this afternoon.
Thanks;
Your Friend Jim
jim maybe we saw the same program about the LHC it was really exciting and interesting! the new physics we may get from this machine ( lol was the title of the show you saw “the big bang machine?),may open up new worlds to us and have as yet undreamed of applications for space craft propulsion! there was a show right after it that i kind of didn’t care for to much…all about all the ideas and attempts to achieve “cold fusion”.show was largely about how we have been spinning our wheels in that regard.funny thing too in that hour michio kaku is usually the host but this time he was not seen.i wonder what that was about?its been a hectic few days and now is the first time i have had to be on line since saturday! but anyhow keep the good ideas flowing.and thank you your friend george
Hi George;
After spending a relaxing Labor Day simply just goofing off, I imagined other configurations of the fission fuel breed stock shield.
Another configuration includes any of all manner of kinematic mechanisms that would involve separable blocks, segments, or other removable portions of such a shield wherein when the forward facing outer blocks or segments of the shield obtained a sufficiently high concentration of fission fuel, they would be automatically removed and sent to a ship board processing station where they would be fashioned into nuclear reactor fuel or the fuel contained within would be extracted and concentrated for nuclear reactor fuel and/or for nuclear fission style or thermonuclear devices for powering a bomb pulsed Orion style craft. Any left over material resulting from processing these blocks for fuel extraction could then be refashioned into blocks or segments and put into a queue where they would then be eventually sent back to the outer forward portion of the shield.
Other optional kinematic mechanisms could include rollers which gradually rotate forward located blocks, segments, or whatever, so that all surfaces of the blocks etc. can be substantially equally exposed to cosmic radiation before removal from the shield.
Perhaps the efficiency of proton, deuteron, or alpha particle capture can be enhanced by using some sort of mag-scoop, or other electro-dynamic funneling mechanism whereby the ions in front of the ship but not directly in its flight path could be scooped up and directed into the fission fuel breed stock shield. Laser beams might additionally be directed ahead of the ship so that more of the otherwise neutral interstellar or intergalactic gas could be ionized and electro-dynamically funneled into the breed stock shield.
The hydrogen and helium interstellar nuclei could be used at least partially as fusion fuel such as for interstellar ramjet systems and/or as a reaction mass accelerated by an ion rocket. The interstellar ramjet mode could be utilized selectively when the craft passed through interstellar gas clouds of densities which would be optimal of using the ramjet mode of the craft.
Regardless of the interstellar manned space craft initial designs and constructions, the great deal of interest generated among the many brilliant minds who have posted at Tau Zero and/or who continue to post gives me hope that we will crack the problem of manned flight to the stars.
As I like to repeat, “To The Stars!”
Thanks;
Your Friend Jim
Hey Jim, George,
Interesting ideas concerning shielding of fusion powered craft and for the fusion process itself. Can only think of only one additional possibility that seemingly could occur at speeds of may .01 C and above. A central opening in the front of the craft could direct ionized nuclei into a combustion chamber in the rear that would interact with the inter or intra galactic medium of matter providing fusion possibilities as well as all the other interesting ideas that Jim presented above.
Your friend forrest
jim,forrest thank you for sharing these ideas.i feel that if we all keep at it…lol… sooner or later somebody might strike gold! and yes we do share this area with several fine minds.maybw we will really get started some day when something someone says really triggers something off on a larger scale! or at least that has always been my hope. have a great day guys and as jim likes to say,to the stars!! your friend george scaglione
Hi Forrest;
Thanks for the above comments. Also, very interesting idea about reaction with the inter or intra galactic medium. I am encouraged by all of the concepts that have been posted by you, george, and all of the other folks who post here at Tau Zero.
There seems to be no end to the number of concepts that people come up with to reach mildly relativistic velocities for manned interstellar traval using ordinary nuclear physics, classical electrodynamics, etc.
Thanks;
Your Friend Jim
jim, yes you are correct above.there thank god seems to be no limit on peoples imaginations! hope i come up with a new idea soon myself. i think the last one i talked about was flying through space using a fusion drive constantly creating (in some way) a small tear in space time right in front of you so as to have clear space into which to fly.seems to be in that way one could reach a relatively ( no pun intended) unlimited velocity. of coarse that small tear will require one hell of alot of work and thought and engineering before we can do it!!!lol reminds me of my (and nasas) idea of somehow utilizing the zpf in order to get the energy to fly through space! again lol “not so simple”. haha i seem to be most at home with cutting edge ideas like these! hope i hear soon from you jim forrest paul – thank you all very much yur friend george
Hi George;
Thanks for the above posting.
I had an interesting thought just as I was out driving home from an errand this evening.
I started thinking about nuclear fission fuel breeding from high atomic number feed stock and the concept of muon catalyzed fusion. Note that in muon catalyzed fusion concepts for low temperature or warm fusion, a single muon might catalyze as many as 1 million fusion reactions before decaying. The muon can catalyze fusion because it has a mass of 207 times that of the electron and therefore can approach nuclei much closer than an electron.
I began to think about the possibility of using muons or even tau particles to catalyze the fusion of elements of much higher atomic number than iron or nickel while using a reduced net energy input based of any catalytic action of high atomic number nuclei fusion processes based on muon or tau particle induced fusion. I then realized that the charge of high atomic number elemental nuclei is much higher than that of the elements/isotopes by which muon catalyzed low temperature fusion of low atomic mass exothermically fusionable elements could occur.
I then considered that even though fusion involving elements heavier than Iron is endothermic rather than exothermic, perhaps muons or tau particles can lower the fusion energy threshold thus perhaps leading to a technology wherein elements of higher atomic number than iron or nickel could be used as breeding stock to produce highly fissionable fuel, even from nuclear fission reaction waste products leftover from spent nuclear fission fuel, in such a manner that that they would be reprocessed into fission fuel wherein eventually, after many cycles, almost all of the original fission fuel mass would have been transformed into energy within nuclear fission reactors. This might seem to violate the laws of conservation of energy, but in reality, it might just be another way to convert mass into energy very efficiently.
If muon or tau particle electrical charge is too disparate from the electrical charge of the high atomic number nuclei under consideration, perhaps strangelets with a high negative electric charge could be used for the same purpose.
If such a technology is feasible, the result might be equivalent to matter/antimatter conversion in efficiency. However, there is no doubt that the size of the ship would have to be large in order to incorporate all of the material/spent-fuel re-processing equipment.
Thanks;
Your Friend Jim
jim thanks for the thoughts,but how big would the ship have to be is what i wonder? you know i am a great fan of assembling large ships in orbit by useing a new shuttle fleet.but i just wonder ,how big do you mean?however if you are onto something which is equivalent to matter anti matter conversion!! boy oh boy would THAT be great! and yeah,i came back later in the day as i said i would and then i did find your posting! tell us more at your convienience! good going,your friend george ps it is great the way you keep shurning out these ideas looking at physics from every possible angle! :) g
Hi George;
Thanks for the above comments.
I was mentally articulating a rather bazaar idea as I was out driving. I seem to get some creative spells when I am driving although much of them are science fiction like and at least in the beginning, have very little mathematical rationalization.
The really odd idea involves the idea of a truly and ultimate frontier. Basically, the notion involves actually traveling out of the entire cosmos, out of the entire creation, while at the same time remaining in existence.
We have all heard of the ideas of traveling out of our universe into hyperspace, a parallel universe, and the like. However, what I am imagining is traveling outside of any spatial temporal continuum or essentially traveling outside of any form of extended dimensionality whatsoever. Thus, I am contemplating travel in such a manner such that the person who somehow managed to travel outside of creation would become casually, existentially, or ontologically, completely isolated or decoupled from the entire rest of creation.
If such a state could be achieved, perhaps a person so “located” for lack of a better word would only interact with himself or herself, being unable to interact with the rest of creation. Perhaps the person would grow as he or she evolved in relation to his or her self. By growth I mean in character, in nature, intellectually, existentially, and ontologically. Perhaps the person’s nature would reach a state of complete thermodynamic equilibrium wherein the person would loose any form of sub-structure or sub-composition as well having all of his/her existential, ontological, natural, psychic, and physical aspects merged into a single homogenous whole that is absolutely blended and simple; a sort of absolutely simple beautiful sparkle or crystal incarnate.
At the other end of the spectrum, perhaps the person who left creation would develop all the more existential, ontological, natural, substantial, and accidental structure simply by interacting with it self in an ever growing fractal tree like development.
But before we are able to take any such journey’s out of creation, let us start exploring the creation of our galaxy and then observable universe as space heads and hopefully meet our extraterrestrial brothers and sisters one day as we travel to their home planets. Depending on what any ETI eat, I would be honored to prepare an ETI family a good old fashioned Texas Barbecue Pork meal on a good old fashioned charcoal grill, if they would let me mildly pollute their atmosphere with smoke.
I will have more to say on this subject in the coming days.
In the spirit of Tau Zero, I say “To The Stars!”
Thanks;
Your Friend Jim
Well guys,
I just posted on solar sails. After posting I realized that acceleration is all that is required for fast travel anywhere and solar sails can provide this acceleration as much as any other system that we presently have or may ever have, albeit a slower rate of acceleration. The problems will be two fold, I believe, to achieve relatively high speeds. The first we have discussed before which is shielding. Until we come up with a great system to shield, divert, or use as fuel, interstellar matter, I believe our speed possibilities are limited. The second factor, I believe, is aether drag. The drag of aether as seen concerning the Mercury and other space craft. If this effect is real, as I believe it is, then that’s where the real speed limitations will be for sails or any other mode of propulsion. It, accordingly, would be caused by the resistance to motion of the zpf which eventually would cause craft disintegration.
your friend forrest
jim,fantastic ideas wow! i once had a similar idea that went something like this : if just before the big crunch,you could escape the collapsing “egg”…then literally where would you be??? if it would be given that you had the capability to do such in the first place (not easy or likely i admit),then would you not be in a position to watch the next bIg bang from OUTSIDE!!!!?? …..AND…..forrest, yes sir as i was reading resistance from the zpf was the first thing that entered my mind!and although i have never been real crazy about solar sails,yet,if they get the job done how could i complain? you can not argue with success after all! you are also 1000% right in what you say about acceleration,isn’t that basically our business here!? well,jim and forrest there you have my comments. i hope i hear again from both of you soon ! your friend george scaglione
Hi George and Forrest;
Thanks for the above comments.
I had some ideas about zero point fields as I was running an errand this evening.
Imagine the possibility of the zero point fluctuations that we have theorized about and mathematicalized, actually having parallel histories or versions in a manner that are analogous to our universe having parallel histories according to the Many Worlds Interpretation of quantum mechanics. Accordingly, each individual zero point field fluctuation would be duplicated an ensemble if not a given Cardinality of infinity times in an equal number of parallel histories.
Since there are presumably zero point field fluctuations for every field we know about, there would presumably be an ensemble if not a given Cardinality of infinity of parallel zero point field fluctuations of the same species and to each such given individual zero point field fluctuations.
It might even be possible that just as there exist zero point fields and zero point vacuum fluctuations, there might exist a finer or more sublime level of, for lack of a better phase, meta zero point field fluctuations. An example would be a set of fields and/or meta virtual fluctuations that are in relation to known zero point field fluctuations as observed indirectly as well as the subject of known theory, as these observed and theorized fluctuations are to real mattergy or real particles.
Now that we have gone this far out on a limb, perhaps there is yet another level of fields/fluctuations that is in relation of the above conjectured meta zero point field fluctuations as these meta zero point field fluctuations are to known zero point field fluctuations as the known zero point field fluctuations are in relation to the real mattergy fields and particles. Perhaps there are anywhere from one additional level to several more hierarchical levels to an ensemble of such levels to an unknown Cardinality of infinity of such levels.
If we could be brave enough to consider such meta zero point fields, could we tap them for energy, space time generation, or other physical laws generation for purposes such as exploring the final frontiers or perhaps for making new frontiers?
Thanks;
Your Friend Jim
jim forrest i saw this morning,in the wall st journal of all places!!! that th LHC should come on line!!!! (FINALLY!!) on wednesday ! should be a great help in all this “he said as he crossed his fingers! “thank you very much george
Hi Folks;
Regarding Karl Schroeder’a Stellar Cycler, I can imagine such a craft on steroids wherein a very magnetically active star, perhaps a blue super giant or a red super giant would continuously power a solar sail (or PV powered ion or electron rocket) wherein the craft would either take circuitous loops of growing radius, or of the same radius, perhaps even decreasing radius with the aid of increased linear charge density within the charged cable that induces the circuitous motion through the Lorentz force interaction with the stellar magnetic field.
Another option might even entail such a craft taking a circuitous route around a super massive black hole such as the one(s) at the center of the Milky Way. Using super massive black holes of the billion solar mass class might even facilitate higher gamma factors yet.
Yet another option would entail CMBR energy sails or CMBR energy to electrical energy conversion mechanism based sails wherein the stellar cycler would perform circuitous routes in the vicinity of a galaxy in intergalactic space to largely avoid drag induced by interstellar dust prevalent within an intragalactic environment.
Karl Schroeder is the expert on Stellar Cyclers and the concept is his baby and so I will in no way claim any novelty to any of the above ideas on my part since I am sure Karl has thought about Stellar Cyclers through and through. However, since we are taking about electromagnetic energy sails here, I present the above comments as an encouragement for all of us space heads, especially those of us who like the romance of sailing ships – interstellar or intergalactic sailing ships, except with all of the high tech engineering and physics we can muster.
One of the comments above made by Adam Crowl inspired me so much that I seem enamored by solar sailing as of late. I am sure other concepts will be developed using membranes to capture beamed or ambient energy.
Thanks;
Jim
jim, glad i finally got to see these comments and yes i think here is the proper place for them.as i said to you and forrest a bit earlier in an e mail lol “all we need now” is a heck od ALOT of engineering!!!! still waiting for the start up of the LHC too! in my humble opinion it will not be able to give us anything but help in these topics – no matter from what angle you view it! thank you guys your friend george
Hi George;
Thanks for the above comments. That LHC rocks!
I had some additional comments regarding travel out of the cosmos or out of the bulk of creation.
In particular, I imagined traveling out of creation wherein the creature who so separated itself from the cosmos would either reach a perfected perfectly homogeneous or simple featureless thermodynamic equilibrium state or would perhaps develop more internal structure in a self developing like manner akin to a fractal tree growing by its own self interaction and even the self interaction of sub-sets of itself. This notion I mentioned a few days ago above.
Now what if such complete casual, existential, ontological, and substantial removal from the cosmos could be done repeatedly wherein the creature who so removed itself would come back into the cosmos to share its insights, virtues, and wisdom as well as its social, moral, and emotional development with its fellow creatures within the cosmos.
That being said, it occurred to me today that perhaps some super advanced future technology could be developed that changes the relationship of a creature such as a person and/or a space craft in relation to its spatial-temporal-mattergy environment in an accidental, substantial, ontological, existential, and/or casual manner. The idea here would be that such a technology could be used to terminate at least partially the relation between say myself at this computer on which I am composing this message and activating or transferring the relationship of myself from the space-time-mattergy environment that I am currently in to that of say a location on a cosmically remote planet in space time within our universe or another universe. The effect would be similar to teleportation.
The idea here is that no active fields, space time warps, classical scale based teleportation, quantum teleportation, wormholes etc., would be utilized. Instead, an interrelation changer would change the relationship between my body and the cosmos in a spatial-temporal-mattergy sense. I have no idea how this could work. It is almost as if the technology involved would need to be metaphysical, perhaps the technology of those pure spirits we all have come to conceive as angels as a popular cultural artifact in contemporary religions whether or not we believe in such. I wonder if even any such existent pure spirits could have such technology. It may be beyond the grasp of all creatures at least those that currently exist, even the most advanced ones.
I will have more to say on these concepts in the coming days.
Thanks;
Your Friend Jim
Hi George and Forrest;
I had an interesting idea regarding optimized photon rockets.
The first idea involves the concept of simply an ordinary photon rocket chamber with a blackbody emitter which is anywhere from the temperature of a tungsten filament of an incandescent light bulb (about 3600 K) to that of some exotic yet to be developed black body emitter at say 100,000 K.
The idea is augmented by the concept of a nuclear fusion reactor power source that powers a turboelectric steam driven generator wherein all of the waste heat or almost all of the waste heat is captured and used to drive lower transition temperature material based steam turbines. The whole ship could be enclosed by highly conducting if not superconducting outer walls in order to keep sub millimeter IR and microwave energy from escaping into the interstellar medium.
The beautiful aspect of such a machine is that the effective Isp at least for the exhaust stream would be 30,000,000 seconds commensurate with the speed of light in a vacuum. Another idea would be to power lasers which direct their energy in a beam that is essentially unidirectional for added efficiency over a non-coherent energy emitter.
Another option would entail a matter antimatter reactor to provide turboelectric power for the blackbody emitter or laser beam generator all else being essentially the same as the previous example given above.
Still a more efficient system would carry only antimatter fuel and collect the reactive normal matter from interstellar space. Can you imagine the gamma factor possible for a photon rocket powered by such a system wherein the end cycle efficiency in terms of the latent fuel energy to final kinetic energy transfer to the ship approached 100 percent, or even only 95 percent.
It could be the case that sporting around the Milky Way Galaxy might involve such photon rocket systems with ever improved efficiency. Even the difference between say 70 percent efficiency relative to say 95 percent efficiency can result in a gamma factor difference of about 100 for crafts that carry large supplies of matter/antimatter or antimatter reactants on board. Electro-dynamic field effect breaking or steering could be used to slow the ship down and for flight course correction.
Thanks;
Your Friend Jim
jim yes super advanced future technology of the type advanced aliens may have or that we could someday have (because of things like the LHC being brought into play) are very exciting and interesting we could speculate from now until christmas! lol that would be a kinda looong e mail though!!!!! ps the propulsion ideas are good too but i’ll bet you 25 cents that the fusion will come first. thank you very much your friend george
Hi George;
Thanks for the above response. Fusion I believe will be a good start. With the planned National Ignition Facility within the U.S. and that ITER facility being planned internationally, we may finally be on track to develop commercial nuclear fusion based electrical power sources.
A rather strange idea occurred to me last evening for which I became fully conscious of and for which I reflected on for the first time as far as I can remember. The idea essentially involves taking two stellar massed black holes in close orbit around each other and somehow by some unspecified means instilling tremendous electrical charge within them. Basically, the amount of charge would be equal for both black holes and would be of the same sign wherein the repulsive electrical forces acting on the charged black holes by virtue of the electrical charges instilled within would at least temporarily hold them apart from gravitational wave emission based collapse of their mutual orbital configuration.
It might be the case that new physics could be uncovered regarding the classical and/or quantum behavior of the very high amplitude low frequency electromagnetic waves produced by the oscillating electrically charged black holes. By continually instilling additional electrical charge, the electromagnetic wave radiating system could continue to operate and be held up against gravitational wave based radiative collapse.
Another aspect of this idea is the production of a gravity wave generator of long temporal duration. By keeping the black holes in a continually repulsive arrangement, the black holes could continue to radiate gravitational radiation in the form of high amplitude gravity waves.
Since such a radiating system would in theory be maintained in equilibrium, the amount of gravitational wave radiated power would be equal to the amount of low frequency electromagnetic wave radiated power, and the wavelength of the gravity waves would be the same as that of the electromagnetic waves thus perhaps offering insight or even effectively unifying the force of gravity with that of electromagnetic radiation. Since the outward travel of the gravity waves would be superposed on the outward travel of the electromagnetic waves, perhaps novel electro-gravatic phenomenon could be so produced.
A miniature version of this configuration might be produced by small microscopic black holes, perhaps in some way, even at the LHC.
I will have more to say on this concept this evening.
Thanks;
Your Friend Jim
Hi George;
Note that for very intense electromagnetic waves or very high amplitude electromagnetic waves generated by such means, the electromagnetic waves generated may themselves have a significant self gravitational wave or gravitational energy associated with them that is based on the general relativistic behavior of the gravity associated with the EM waves own energy content. Thus, the distinction between the gravitational wave energy and the electromagnetic wave energy is reduced or eliminated altogether. This may apply not only between the electromagnetic portion of the EM wave and the gravitational energy associated with the EM wave, but also between the total EM wave energy and the non- electromagnetic energy based gravity waves that would be emmitted even for a black hole system having no electric charge.
The total power radiated from a larged massed such system held at equilibrium for short time intervals would be very closely equal to the following formula:
Pt = Pg + Pem + Pemg wherein Pg is the gravitational radiation emmitted power, Pem is the electromagnetic radiation emmitted power, and Pemg is the gravitational emmitted power associated with the energy content of the emmited electromagnetic waves.
For long time periods, the radiated power equals Pt = Pg + Pem + Pemg + Ph wherein Ph is power radiated by Hawking Radiation. For very small massed black holes, the Hawking Radiation power becomes significant.
Regardless of whether equilibrium is maintained, the formula Pt = Pg + Pem + Pemg + Ph applies.
For blackholes of the large size limit but with decreasing orbital radius, Pg > Pem + Pemg because the gravitational potential energy loss of the otherwise electrically stabilized system is reduced wherein this increased energy loss results from increased gravitational wave energy emmission and decreased electrical charge instillation with respect to the stabilized system bounding condition. For blackholes of the large size limit and increasing orbital radius, Pem + Pemg > Pg because the other wise electrically stabilized system has reduced gravity wave power emmission and increased electrical charge instillation with respect to the stabilized system bounding condition.
As a result of the above general equation, Pem = Pt – Pg – Pemg – Ph. The total energy associated with the radiating EM waves = Pem + Pemg = Pt – Pg -Ph. The gravitational wave power = Pg = Pt – Pem – Pemg – Ph. The total gravitational wave energy emmitted = Pgt = Pg + Pemg = Pt – Pem – Ph.
Likewise, the Hawking Radiation power output = Ph = Pt – Pg – Pem – Pemg.
Thanks;
Your Friend Jim
jim first of all as i was reading your 1st set of comments above – lol – it occured to me!!! what if!!!! ANGELS as we have come to know them where “simply” alien creatures who have the technology you describe! pro found idea profound idea!!!!!!!!!!! could we develop such technology!? yes maybe in a million years or so! be glad to see your future comments on this subject. trouble is as we all readily admit about the ideas we all share here….how to do them!!?? ….well…. i admit with that second posting above at first i was saying to myself,ooh maybe he is showing some idea as to how to do it,but – i have to admit that in the second half of the above posting where you get much more mathematical – i have to admit you pretty much lost me!!! well no problem that has been known to have happened before — keep up the pro found thoughts my friend,believe me this IS the correct place for them!!!! i understand alot more people read these thoughts than respond.sure wish some more of them would jump in.anyway,thank you very much your friend george
Hi Folks;
One of my hopes is that we will learn how to extend human life expectancy indefinitely. If DNA maintenance and repair of damage to DNA within cells could be completely re-corrected and cells completely rejuvenated, with the avoidance of any life threatening accidents or violence and a finding of a cure for any and all illnesses, we might be tempted to believe that the human life time could be extended to the life time of the stable forms of elements that make up our bodies, or perhaps even the lifetimes of protons which I believe have been shown to have a half life at least on the order of 10 EXP 35 years. Since the human body continually replaces atoms, the life time of the proton might not even apply in the extreme theoretical upper limit case since protons and elements could always be manufactured artificially with an artificial machine or with an natural agent harnessed by humanity to produce protons and stable atoms.
Now this is all an extreme example, but can you imagine how far humanity could travel outward into the great void of our universe in 10 EXP 35 years assuming a colonization wave spreading at 1/2 C and not even assuming cosmic space-time expansion. Assuming space time expansion at its current rate, the distance traveled would be many orders of magnitude greater that the 0.5 x 10 EXP 35 light years traveled by the colonization wave traveling through space at 1/2 C. The recessional velocity of the craft from the Milky Way after 10 EXP 35 years of space-time expansion at its current rate would be many orders of magnitude greater than C.
Now although my examples given above are obviously conceivable although they are as of yet pie in the sky dreamy notions, the point I am trying to make is that lifetime extension or life expectancy extension I think might make manned rendezvous travel to the nearest stars by optimized fusion powered ion or electron rockets, perhaps even photon rockets feasible since travel to say the Proxima Centauri System or to Barnard’s Star at about 6 light-years becomes much more feasible at 0.1 C when the useful mature working life span of a human is extended from the current 45 to 50 years to say 90 to 100 years. Such journeys can become highly palatable for fusion powered craft with lots of fuel carried on board with terminal velocities of say 0.2 C to 0.3 C which are theoretically possible if one does not need to carry fuel on board to slow down, such as in space craft with electro-dynamic field effect breaking mechanisms.
Either way, Paul’s concept of Ad Astra Incrementis is how I think travel to the stars will be played out. However we continue to seek fundamental propulsion breakthrough physics as well.
Thanks;
Jim
Hi George;
As I was out driving this morning, a really odd set of ideas occurred to me.
The first idea revolves around the notion of reified parallel histories such as those that supposedly exists at least as a mathematical and computational artifact within the Many Worlds Interpretation of quantum mechanical phenomenon.
Basically, the idea first came into my mind a number of years ago after thinking about a phrase or statement I believe, if I am not mistaken, that was made by Eisenhower regarding man’s harnessing the power of the cosmos in the form of the newly developed hydrogen bomb.
I began to think, this good old plain nuclear fusion energy powers the stars, the predominant energy source of baryonic based mattergy within our universe, and perhaps in some form, also that throughout our multi-verse. I then begin to think of ways that one could possibly, if only remotely so, ramp up the power density of hydrogen fusion energy processes when it occurred to me that in the distant future, perhaps we could build systems that would extract energy from thermonuclear devices wherein the quantity of fusion fuel would be duplicated an ensemble if not infinite number of times in any possible reified parallel histories. The idea involves producing devices that would have the yield of not just the nuclear fuel in our history, but the combined yield of numerous if not an ensemble plus of histories, perhaps even a Cardinality infinity of Aleph 1 parallel histories wherein the parallel history versions of the exploding device would have their energy directly input into our history but some mechanism such as wormholes, inter-history quantum entanglement, or inter parallel history multiple connectedness with the location of the fusion fuel in our history.
But I then thought, “Well great!, What good could come from such an enormously high yield device except Armageddon or Doomsday?”. However, the idea of producing such a device but on a much more limited and safer scale to propel an Orion style craft on steroids occurred to me, and I though, my God, perhaps virtually if not absolutely, unlimited gamma factor velocities could be achieved with such a mechanism.
The possibility that a whole parallel history branch is born for each act of wave function collapse or quantum de-coherence and that such histories might some how be real boggles the mind, a continually self replicating universe that replicates for each act of quantum de-coherence. If our current history is of infinite spatial extent, then be corollary there are an infinite number of parallel histories branching off from just our universe every second, some similar or identical to our and some radically different.
I will have more to say on this concept in the coming days.
Thanks;
Your Friend Jim
Hi George, Forrest, and all other Folks;
I starting thinking about the concept of fuel runways today and it occurred to me that in the future, as we discover and learn to manipulate, produce, or harvest cold dark matter from the interstellar and perhaps intergalactic medium, we might find a way to assemble and utilize a cold dark matter runway that is analogous to a fusion pellet runway. The idea here is that a cold dark matter wick or stream of pellets could be laid out ahead of a star ship wherein the wick or pellets would be made to burn or undergo explosive energy release respectively and wherein the reactions could take place within a ship based reaction chamber which could collect the reaction energy released or reflect such energy or the reactions could take place behind the ship and transfer momentum against a pusher plate similar to the Orion concept. The pellets, if so used, could be linked by a CDM string and could have normal matter transponders affixed to them by some form of baryonic to CDM reaction or coupling mechanism. Using CDM as the fuel source would eliminate the risk of collision with the fuel wick or pellets. The caveat is finding a CDM energy reaction mechanism that provides captureable energy to propel the craft forward.
Another rather bazaar idea involves the cosmic engineering construction project of a huge effectively tubular structure, perhaps billions of light-years long, and far into the future, if not tens of billions of light-years long that is composed of Cold Dark Matter deposition in space and held straight or open against collapse by the Cold Dark Matter analogue of electric charge, or the analogue of the electric and/or magnetic fields. Perhaps a supers-symmetric selectron/photino or similar field could be utilized here. The idea is to “charge” the tubular distribution or structure to hold it in a non-collapsed configuration while at the same time utilizing the tubes center of mass to pull transiting space craft down the tube toward the length wise center of the tube.
A huge civilization or world could be assembled within, perhaps using the baryonic mattergy equivalent of 10 EXP 18 solar masses effectively molded or incorporated into numerous planet massed or solar massed worlds connected by transit tubes that work as mass drivers to impart ultra-high gamma factors to the cars traveling within and which reclaim or recycle the cars kinetic energy by linear magnetic induction energy extraction.
Traveling out of the tube which could be millions of light-years wide if not a few billion light-years wide would be performed using reactionary antigravity or repulsive gravity action. The gravitational field a relatively short distance from the mid-length of the tube would be repelled against by an antigravity field. If the tube was so designed such that the overall mass density of the tube was say 0.1 to 0.01 that of a black hole having the diameter equal to the length of the tube, perhaps the gravitational field intensity a distances even a relatively short distance away from the mid-length portion of the tube could be enormous; at a distance of 1/4 of the way down the tube, perhaps similar to the gravitational force near the surface of a neutron star. Thus the need for a uni-polar CDM analogue of an electric charge/field to hold it open against gravitational collapse.
Thanks;
Your Friend Jim
jim yes i have heard about huge enginering projects before,like lol, a lhc with the circumfrence of the sloar system or galaxy! now THAT would be indeed a LARGE hadron collider! keep up the great thoughts your friend george
Hi George;
Thanks for the comments.
One wonders what if any limit exists on the future size of synchrotrons or linacs. Suppose that in, say 100 billion years, the edge of the observable universe is 100 billion lightyears from the Milky Way. Perhaps we could build a particle accellerator with a diameter of 150 billion light years or perhaps even just under 200 billion lightyears in diameter. In one trillion years, a diameter of 1.5 trillion light years or perhaps even just under two trillion lightyears. Perhaps linacs of similar dimensions.
If we humans plan to last for ever as a species, given enough time on a cosmic scale, there seems to be literally no limit to the size of the accellerators we might build as cosmic engineering projects.
Perhaps when we learn to accellerate particles to the Planck Energy and beyond such that the particles become blackholes, we will even be able to produce black hole smashers and thus perhaps probe the innerworking of blackholes by some how uncloaking the point-like signulariies, or smeared out, super dense but not point like analogues predicted to exist within the center of blackholes by certain quantum gravvty theories.
Ramp up the particle energies and perhaps we will probe any existent boundary conditions that might exist as layers or additional transition zones within singularities or the finite quantum analogues themselves.
One wonders whether or not there will ever be an end to new fundamental particle physics and discoveries as well as in the particle collision energies and luminosities of our accellerators.
Either way, your above comments have really inspired me and I think that particle physics is fun and can no doubt help us get to the stars and even roam around the galaxies. I say, Ad Astra Incrementis
Thanks;
Your Friend Jim
jim yes thanks for the good words.and you are probably right that there actually need be very little holding us back as a species from these huge engineering projects,except,lol,will we last that long!!!! also,respectfully,in a world where it is taking us long enough to get back to the moon and we also seem in no great hurry to get to mars…well errr ahhh it is a little dificult for me to really seriously see gigantic projects in space in the distant future! sure i can be wrong and hope i am.i do not say anything is impossible given enough time technology and engineering.but let me sign off for now with a quote from the late great arthur c clarke that kinda fits here…”when an old and distinguished scientist says that something is impossible he is most probably wrong” !!!!! i agree. thank you one and all your friend george
Hi George;
Thanks for the above comments.
The slow pace of our journey back to the Moon, and then to Mars is definitely somewhat of a bummer.
However, I had an interesting set of thoughts tonight on the concept of hidden quantum variables.
It occurred to me that if we could discover and learn to manipulate any sub-quantum variables in such a way that we could alter the individual trigonometric wave-functions that add together to form the wave-function of a particle which Shroedinger’s Equation expresses a wave function of a particle (which evolves in a deterministic time dependent manner), we might have a way of causing the distribution of the probability amplitude of a particle to be skewed and highly localized in space and/or space-time at a location which is of cosmic distance in space time from the particle’s starting position. The wave function that expresses the amplitude of the probability of the particle being located a cosmic distance away might suddenly have the bulk of its value located within a very distant region of space thus making it highly probable that the particle will suddenly jump to or be located at this distant space-time region; a sort of quantum tunneling induced not by natural time evolution of the probability amplitude of the particle or by placing a energy barrier adjacent to the particle, but rather controlled programming and manipulation of the trigonometric functions that superpose to produce the over all probability amplitude for the particle. I am suggesting that the bulk of the integrated expectation value of the particle from the limits of negative infinity to positive infinity would be contained in a miniscule volume of space a great cosmic distance away from the particles initial position.
The individual probability amplitude functions, even the very basic components such as a single sine wave might be artificially stretched, squeezed, lengthened in period, skewed, etc. to achieve the desired result. A really cool aspect of any such possible technology would involve constructing these wave function terms or individual simple trigonometric wave-functions from “smaller” more simple sub-components. Thus, the Fourier Series. Spherical Harmonics, Bessel Functions, etc. terms that define the particles and perhaps even the overall wave-function of a human body or a space craft might be constructed from scratch, deconstructed, morphed, or otherwise transformed into other versions or forms, or selectively amplified, morphed, or transformed into other geometrical mathematical forms.
Such a technology might permit mankind to travel anywhere within at least the observable universe instantaneously, travel back in space-time, or forward in space time in quantum jumps or perhaps such into other universes or other parallel or higher dimensional space.
I will have more to say about this concept in the coming days.
Thanks;
Your Friend Jim
Hi George;
I had some additional thoughts regarding wave function subcomponents and the construction of wave functions or their alteration from below the quantum level. The idea as such involves taking wave function components from virtual zero point fields and particles and incorporating such or transporting such into the wave functions of real particles in such a manner that the wave function components so harvested from the zero point field particles are added and/or substituted into and for, respectively, the summation of trigonometric series terms of the over all real particle wave functions to thus alter the expectation values for the location of the particle with respect to its starting position.
The idea is to take wave function components of zero point virtual particles and reify them either before or upon incorporation and/or substitution into and for, respectively, the wave function subcomponents of the real particles and/or fields thus tailoring, reshaping, skewing or otherwise manipulating the location of the great majority of the integrated expectation value of the given real particles to transfer the location a great distance in space and/or time; past, present, or future.
One benefit of using zero point virtual particle and field fluctuation based summationed wave function trigonometric components is perhaps, just possibly, the fact that the virtual particles are constantly coming into and out of existence, or at the very least being drawn from some reified vacuum state and then disappearing or for lack of a better word being sub-ducted back into the vacuum state. Thus there may be an immediately inexhaustible supply of such virtual function based wave function sub-components to choose from.
Another idea related to the morphing, skewing, stretching or otherwise displacing the bulk or perhaps all of the expectation value within a given set of limits of integration would be to simply teleport the expectation value by classical scale teleportation mechanisms such as space time warps, wormholes, electromagnetic analogues to gravitational general relativistic wormholes, and classically induced space time multiple connectivity etc., (which might in some ways be degenerate descriptions of these teleportation methods as currently the subject of advanced classical mechanics), or the expectation value might be teleported by energy barrier modification based ordinary quantum tunneling, or perhaps by quantum entanglement induced quantum teleportation, or more in the spirit of this discussion, by wave-function subcomponent or individual summand trigonometric terms, construction, summation, morphing, skewing, stretching, displacement, or other by other transformative operations acting on the individual summation terms, a limited non zero subset of such terms, or the entire set of such terms so constituting the wave function of a particle, human person’s body or a spacecraft or other transport.
I will have more comments regarding this extremely hypothetical almost God like technology in the coming days.
Thanks;
Your Friend Jim
I had some additional thoughts regarding wave function construction, modification, or transformation of particles, human bodies, and transports.
Once again, the really big caveat being the possibility of reifying wave function summand terms, let alone reification of such terms drawn from the virtual fluctuations of the zero point fields.
This additional notion involves the potential actual construction of a particle from scratch by judicious super-posing trigonometric function terms in such a manner that a stable, meta-stable, or unstable wave packet is produced in the form of a particle wherein this form includes the charge, flavor, spin, energy, velocity, rest mass, polarity, magnetic moment, etc, of a particle.
Basically, the notion involves the complete construction of novel particles and fields, whether fermions or boson, matter or antimatter, baryonic or Cold Dark Matter (e.g., super symmetric particles) particles, etc. from scratch. The particles so artificially constructed might have qualities never before existent in nature, at least within our universe or our multi-verse, assuming there might be more than one multi-verse.
Thus new particles and fields, and thus new forces might be artificially produced, that never before existed and perhaps also hybrid particles that are a possible and perhaps optionally, a blend of known particles, theoretical particles, or even of the new particles themselves with known or theoretical particles.
Another, and in some ways, perhaps more plausible way to produces such new particles, fields, and forces, whether the particles and fields be entirely new or blended combinations of known and theoretical particles and/or fields might simply involve the tailored and systematic programming of the overall probability of the wave-functions of known particles and/or fields by simply inducing wave function state changes within the known particles or fields by methods such as instilling the particle in a certain energy well or adjacent to an energy barrier, the judicious use of quantum entanglement, or other well known classic quantum mechanical means of altering the energy state, integrated expectation value distribution, or overall wave function of the particle.
Such a transformative method might in some forms simply be a degenerate explanation or method for ordinary particle interactions, decays, and other transformations such as those that occur in nuclear reactions and in particle accelerators. However, I was considering a more basic, fundamental, and primitive concept wherein the overall wave functions so transformed would be done by controlled, systematic, and programmed construction of the wave function state that defines the new particles and/or fields. This notion is a bit of an anathema among physicist especially traditional quantum theorist who hold that the uncertainty principle and the believed lack of hidden quantum variables would prevent such.
I will have more comments on these concepts in the comming says.
Thanks;
Your Friend Jim
Hi George and other Folks;
The idea of constructing space-times from scratch using trigonometric wave function components occurred to me a few days ago.
Basically, the idea is similar to the above construction techniques described above in my previous posting on this general subject, and would involve the construction of space time continuums, to use a popular science term (not to be confused the magazine by that name), wherein the over all wave function of the space or space-time region to be constructed would be assembled from scratch by superposition of trigonometric function summand terms in such a manner so as to from a stable or meta-stable space or space time. Space-times of arbitrary dimensions could perhaps be constructed by such a technique including space times of any non-negative real number dimensions. Note that the spatial dimensions of certain repeating fractal patterns are said in at least some cases to have a non-integer fractional dimensionality, or in some cases, an irrational positive number of dimensions.
I consider the possible construction of space times with a seemingly unimaginable negative real number of dimensions wherein the space time “wave function” for lack of a better word, would be composed of wave-function subcomponents analogues in an analogous way that positive integer space or space-times might be constructed from trigonometric series.
Perhaps zero point fluctuations could be harnessed for their wave function components wherein these wave function components would be reified just before or as they are incorporated within a trigonometric series defining and so leading to the formation of a space time continuum of arbitrary dimensionality, and arbitrary curvature.
Note that some mathematical theoretical cosmologists, especially those with a strong philosophical bent, have proposed that the physical cosmos is constructed out of mathematical entities, and in some instances, pure abstract mathematical entities that are somehow reified in a manner that is analogous or similar to Plato’s Eternal Forms.
I will have more to say on this general concept in the coming days.
Thanks;
Your Friend Jim
Hi George and Other Folks;
I had yet another set of odd notions regarding using fundamental trigonometric function to construct the overall wave functions defining microscopic and macroscopic entities.
The notions involve first, the construction of mass or raw energy which is in an undifferentiated form. The idea would be to construct some very exotic mattergy state that is not differentiated into atomistic material. The idea basically involves somehow producing mass, energy, or mattergy that is perhaps optionally non-extended nor defined by space and/or time but which is a continuous material even on the microscopic or ultramicroscopic scales. The only composition of this bazaar material would be the trigonometric functions or analogues of fundamental trigonometric functions that build up or compose this proposed non-atomistic and perhaps non-spatial and/or non-temporal material.
A second notion involves the production of the dimension of mass and/or energy that has no spatial and/or temporal extension. The dimension of mattergy as such would optionally not even exist in space and/or time. Thus, the mattergy dimension would not even be point like since a point is a geometric object defined by its location in space and/or time and which has in some interpretations a spatial and/or temporal extension of zero extent, if such can be imagined.
A third notion involves the rather odd idea of building up vector mass, wherein such a concept would have some bazaar ramifications associated with vector quantities. Note, that mass as known by current science is a scalar quantity instead of a vector quantity. However, since the concept of scalar electromagnetic fields, scalar magnetic fields and the like is not a stranger to science fiction, pseudoscience, and in some cases, serious theoretical proposals, I thought that I would also mention the concept of scalar mass. Perhaps such a bazaar vector quantity could be constructed from scratch using basic trigonometric functions in order to produce its over all defining wave-function. Perhaps also, such summand functions might be derived from real mattergy or from the zero point virtual particles and fields.
Note that Stephen Hawking has very recently proposed a solution to the birth of the universe that suggests that the Big Bang or birth of our universe occurred in every possible way wherein the overall big bang was an averaged result of the huge if not infinite number of ways that the universe could have been created. Accordingly, these many worlds like wave-functions of the various ways in which the universe began where pruned out of existence or washed out very, very shortly after the very initiation of the big bang to yield the stable consistent universe we know have.
I will have more to say on this general concept in the coming days.
Thanks;
Your Friend Jim
Hi George and Other Folks;
An idea for a really bazaar experiment occurred to me involving a hypothetical bulk material made of gluons; essentially a bulk form of glue balls material.
The idea involves the construction of a sail made of gluons akin to a solar sail, beam sail, or CMBR sail. The question I asked my self as this concept first occurred to me tonight was whether there would be any gravity modification, inertia modification, or other space-time distortion effects within a region of space time adjacent to and/or at least partially enclosed by such a membrane.
Just as EM energy reflective membranes in essence produce a transition zone boundary for incident light, optical materials in general can produce reflection based on the discontinuity of the index of refraction of the materials in which the incident light travels just before it impinges on the optical material and the optical materials itself, the fact that superconducting materials can block magnetic fields, and the fact that the event horizon of a black hole defines the point of no return wherein the event horizon marks a boundary that effectively seals off the space time within a black-hole with respect to the external space adjacent to the black hole, I wonder if a sheet or ultra thin film of stable gluonic material could also produce novel and exotic transition zone or boundary condition effects.
Moreover, I thought that perhaps such a membrane or sail, or whatever, traveling at relativistic velocities through space time might produce some novel general relativistic effects. It might be the case that a rotating toriodal shaped or similarly shaped ring made of gluons might induce some really bazaar spatial-temporal effects; perhaps some sort of strong nuclear force and gravitational unification effects, or strong-gravatic effects.
Such an experiment or related sets of experiments will have to wait until we can fashion any possible stable or meta-stable gluon based bulk materials which might be a very long wait. Perhaps the gluonic dynamics of ordinary baryonic atomic matter at normal densities cannot effectively be used to probe for such effects, because the interaction of the gluons with the quarks inside the nucleus and within a hadrons themselves result in the screening of such novel strong-gravatic effects thru coupling mechanisms between the quarks and the gluons or quarks and the hadrons which are comprised of quarks.
Thanks;
Your Friend Jim
Hi George and Other Folks;
I hope the economic hard times developing within the U.S. will not put a damper on fundamental nuclear and sub-nuclear physics research within the U.S.
As someone interested in nuclear physics, I am not so much concerned which university hosts the Rare Isotope Accelerator (RIA) as long as it is hosted within the U.S. I think that the D.O.E. is about to get a great bang for the buck with this proposed machine for the reasons stated below.
First, understanding conservative laws such as the conservation of baryon number might lead to the discovery of the full scope of where and when it applies. Any violation(s) of this conservative law might lead to the discovery of processes by which the nuclear reaction sequences processes involved in nuclear fusion, nuclear fission, and radioactive decay and the baryons within the atomic nuclei or reacting material can be more fully processed into energy. This perhaps can lead to the ability to process a given sample of fuel, perhaps a complex mixture of such fuel with corresponding larger numbers degrees of thermodynamic freedom and reaction pathways in such a manner that more rest mass can be converted to energy than any known nuclear reaction sequence involving known fusion, fission, and radioactive decay. Perhaps the only limit may end up being complete mass to energy conversion which need not necessarily violate that law of conservation of mass-energy; in short perhaps just another method for converting mass into energy in addition of matter/antimatter interaction.
Second, the probing of the weak force and strong nuclear force within new and novel radioactive nuclides might point to physics whereby the unification of the strong nuclear force and the weak nuclear force, or between the strong nuclear force and the electroweak unification can be observed and more fully studied.
Third, any analogue to the electroweak mixing parameter can be sought and/or studied which can further shed light on the strong nuclear reaction and its relation to the weak interaction or the electroweak interaction. In short, any strong-weak mixing parameter, any strong-electroweak mixing parameter, and/or electro-strong mixing parameters could be studied experimentally.
Fourth, the increased knowledge of the strong- weak force relationship or the strong-electroweak relationship can offer insights and discoveries which might be quite profound regarding the nature, behavior, and further understanding of each of the three flavors neutrinos, and by association, the three versions of electrically charged leptons, the electron, the muon, and the tau particle.
Thanks;
Your Friend Jim
Hi George;
An interesting idea occurred to me within the past hour.
The idea involves a gravitational mass based accelerator. The basic idea involves a linear or curvilinear long track in which is disposed in a tubular, or substantially cylindrical manner, a large mass which may be either a continuous mass or series of mass elements.
Basically, the idea involves some method of squeezing or narrowing of the mass just in front of the space craft to pull the space craft forward. As the space craft accelerated down the tube or cylinder, the massive portion of the tube would be radially compressed or brought into volumetrically dense form wherein, as the craft propagated down the tube, the massive linear tube element that was squeezed would open up again behind the craft or open up along the length of the craft and behind the craft. The craft would thus be accelerated forward with the force of gravity.
The material could be of white dwarf density, neutron star density, the density of stable quarkonium, or just above the density threshold of that of the black hole.
The mass or masses could be brought together in front of the craft by mechanical means, electromechanical means, or by other means and then parted by similar or dissimilar means. Electrically charging the entire track of mass might enable the track not to collapse under its own gravitational self interaction. If the track took the form of a rapidly rotating torus, or ring, then centripetal acceleration could be used to prevent gravitational collapse.
Another option would be to use a disposition of cold dark matter wherein the cold dark matter is allowed to fall inward in front of the craft and then diverges as the Cold Dark Matter linear mass element passes through itself. The propagation of a Cold Dark Matter density wave would be designed to perpetually form in front of the ship as the ship progresses down the disposition of cold dark matter. Thus, a density wave of increased density would propagate in front of the ship as the ship accelerated toward C and perhaps beyond if the attractive force of the forward placed density wave approached that of a black hole.
For sub-black hole mass density waves, a method of preventing the craft from being torn apart be tidal forces would be required; perhaps an electro-dynamic field and by magnetization of or electrically charging the contents of the ship and the ship itself to cancel out the tidal forces acting on the craft.
I will have more to say about this concept in the coming hours or by tomorrow.
Thanks;
Your Friend Jim
Hi Folks;
Another version of the gravatic mass accelerator would utilize an enhanced attractive gravity field emanating from the craft and/or an antigravity repulsive field emanating from the craft as it travels down the tube.
Essentially, the idea for the enhanced mass specific, or mattergy specific, attractive gravity field generator would entail the craft being pulled by the forward located mass concentration in front of the ship or car.
For the repulsive gravity field emitting craft, the propagating mass density concentration would be located behind the craft and would push the craft forward at ever higher gamma factors and possibly, by some general relativistic trick, superluminal velocities.
It might also be possible to use a propagating mass density wave in front of the car and a propagating mass density wave in back of the car wherein an attractive gravitational field emitted by the car would pull the car forward and a repulsive gravitational field emitted from the back of the car would push that car forward, for perhaps, even more rapid or otherwise effective acceleration and/or other kinematic effects or space-time distortion effects.
One option for producing the requisite mass energy density waves might entail beaming very intense beams of electromagnetic radiation in front of and/or in back of the craft as it propagates down the track. In this version, the propagating energy density wave in front of the craft would involve a continual process by which the electromagnetic radiation beamed radially inward, or substantially so, converges and then diverges in front the craft to form the propagating energy density wave in front of the craft. For the utilization of any propagation energy density wave in back of the car for applied antigravatic propulsion methods, the same general procedure could be used. When using electromagnetic energy as the medium to produce the propagating density waves, a means of collecting the diverging energy, after it has formed a spatial temporal portion of the propagating density wave(s), that is located along the outer walls of the track or acceleration tube could be incorporated into the overall system so that the very large energy quantities required to produce the propagating density wave(s) would not be lost to interstellar or intergalactic space, rather instead be collected to be recycled.
Alternate mass forms, or mattergy forms, that might be used to form the forward and/or backward mattergy density concentrations might include neutrinos in any of their flavor varieties, or perhaps super-symmetric hot dark matter particles, or other hot dark matter particles.
I will have more to say on this concept in the coming hours or day.
Thanks;
Jim
Hi Folks;
I had yet another idea for a gravitational mass accelerator.
Basically, the idea simply involves the construction of a stable monolithic tube or a linear or curvilinear series of tubular and/or ring like sections that might optionally be connected by lines, cables, chains, etc., and wherein the locations of these subsections would be maintained by rocket thrusters such as ion, electron, or photon rockets, or held in place by self repulsion based on electrical charge instilled within all of the tracks sub-components.
If the assemblage is of a rotating ring or rotating toriodal arrangement, then the rotational acceleration can be used to maintain the tracks ring like configuration including the holding up of the overall ring-like structure from self-induced gravitational collapse.
Essentially, the idea involves an accelerator track wherein in the case of a monolithic or continuous tube, a positive or attractive gravity enhancement mechanism would pull the craft forward by interaction with the tube material portions just in front of the craft while at the same time, a repulsive or negative gravity field generator located in back of the craft would repell the differential portions of the tube as they passed just behind the craft.
For accelerator tubes that are not continuous, such as the proposed series of tubular or ring like series that may or may not be interconnected with lines, cables, chains and the like; as the craft approached each series element, an attractive gravity field generator in front of the craft would be switch on and turned off as the front of the craft passed through the given segment of the series, while simultaneously or nearly so, a repulsive gravity field generator located behind the craft would be activated to repell the portion of and/or the entirely of a given segment as it passed behind the craft. The effect would be similar to that of a linear induction motor system that powers maglev trains such as those currently in operation in China.
Note that relatively small masses and densities might be utilizable for the gravatic accelerator tube mass or components thereof if the gravity field generators are capable of producing high mass specific gravity field intensities or high mass specific space time distortion effects.
I will have more to say on this concept later today or tomorrow.
Thanks;
Your Friend Jim
Hi George, Forrest and Other Folks;
Its good to be back at this thread.
An idea of interest occurred to me that involves the concept of using the electric field and/or the magnetic field of an extremely high amplitude low frequency or ultra-low frequency electromagnetic wave to temporarilly couple to an electrically charged and/or a magnetized space craft. The idea further involves decoupling the electromagnetic wave from the craft after the craft has been accelerated perhaps to relativistic velocities.
A very large amplitude electromagnetic wave for such a purpose might be produced by two very large electrical charges, be the charges of the same or opposite sign. For example, two macroscopic lumps of quarkonium might each be at least temporarilly charged to a magnitude of one coulumb and seperated by one meter and then forced to revolve around each other relatively slowly. The force acting between the two masses would be approximately 10 EXP 12 Newtons or about 10 EXP 8 metric tons. Alternatively, the quarkonium lumps could be charged to a magnitude of 10 EXP 10 Coulombs each thus resulting in a force of interaction of about (10 EXP 12)[(10 EXP 10) EXP 2] coulombs or 10 EXP 32 Newtons or about 10 EXP 28 tons. Charging the quarkonium nuggets to a level of 10 EXP 20 coulombs each would provide a force of interaction of about 10 EXP 48 tons assumming that the quarkonium’s self gravitation and strong nuclear binding energy would overcome forces which would otherwise tear the quark nuggets to shreds. At the very least, charges of the latter magnitudes might require the use of blackholes as the charging medium wherein the blackholes would be located many kilometers apart and be at the very least many kilometers miles apart. In fact, a force of 10 EXP 52 Newtons acting over one meter would be equal to 10 EXP 52 Joules of work or the equivalent of 10 EXP 32 metric tons of mass. Thus, the later value of charge hosts would probably require the form of black holes with a diameter of about (3)(10 EXP 5) kilometers or 300,000 kilometers that are forced to orbit each other with the simplified assumption that the mass equivance of such an amount of work would need to be embodied in a region of space time that is not completely closed off from the rest of the universe in the form of a single blackhole.
Regardless of the methods used to produce the ultra low frequency, very high amplitude, electromagnetic waves, one can see that if such a wave could interact with a highly charged and/or a highly magnetized space craft wherein the electrical and/or magnetic coupling of the craft with respect to the EM wave generator could be shut of after the craft aquired a very large velocity, extremely relativistic or unheard of gamma factors could be imparted to the space craft. The big caveats are the production of such an EM wave generator, the ability to shut the coupling between the craft and the EM wave pulse off, the ability not to destroy the craft with acceleration forces and/or tidal forces, and the requirement to not fry the craft with EM radiation.
Thanks;
Your Friend Jim
Hi Folks;
The discovery of the Omega b – particle and its measured mass of 6.2 GeV mass, a value very close to the 6.0 GeV mass predicted by lattice QCD, is a great triumph of our computational methods involving QCD physics.
However, when the LHC resumes operation after its repair, as well as further research; at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, the proposed Rare Isotope Accelerator, and the proposed 1 TeV to 1.5 TeV Linac progresses, we may discover another boundary condition or transition zone in the behavior of sub-atomic physics relative to the current limits of the QCD physics that is analogous to the discovery of quarks relative to the previous simplified nuclear models involving the previous notion that protons and neutrons are non-composite particles.
However, even if further levels of sub-structure are detected within the make up of quarks, the methods of lattice QCD I believe will still be a very useful model for predicting the behavior of quarks which can lead to the prediction and discovery of additional composite particles. One simply has to take the example of the physics of the conservation of baryon number and other models of the nucleus of the atoms as these models existed in the early to the middle of the 20th century, and the predictions that such models made as they were applied to the field of nuclear energy, and nuclear physics, to see the value of well established courser grained models.
Another simple and obvious example is the existence of college chemistry texts that are full of predictive models that are utilized throughout industry and research while neglecting the existence of the up-quark and down-quark based compositions of the proton and neutron.
Note that the proposed existence of 20 baryons, each made of 3 quarks, and with similar magnetic properties to the proton, as well as the existence of particles referred to as pentaquarks, etc., seems to be leading us to the discovery of a particle zoo, a slang term given in the 20th century for the proliferation of the discovery of numerous particles in the 1950s and 1960s most of which turned out to be composite particles composed of quarks. This begs the question as to whether quarks are composite themselves, and by corollary, whether or not there are additional nuclear or any sub-nuclear forces.
All of this ever growing knowledge of particles and fields can only help our quest to venture out among the stars.
Thanks;
Your Friend Jim
jim yes all of this new knowledge will not be able but to help our quest for the stars,but i kind of had the impression that the LHC would go on line and stay there so as to make the gathering of the aforementioned knowledge go much more quickly! now how much longer will we have to wait!? jim? forrest?…anyone? thank you george ps one of my less good characteristics has always been that i have always been in maybe too much of a hurry!! however we all have to admit that everything has gone bloody welll slooowly! where where we going to be in space by 2008?? and the lhc according to a program i saw was supposed to start up “full tilt boogie” and freakin stay there.once again ,the truth? hahaha not so much! remember when kirk wanted…answers…well he is lucky that he does not live in our time because we don’t get em! be glad for anyhing anybody may have to say thanks george
Hi George;
Thanks for the above comments.
I believe the plan is to have the LHC up and running for research in early next year. I have read reports that suggest it would be fully repaired and ready for operation by as early as this winter to as late as early this coming spring.
Mean while, the research agendas at the FermiLab Tevatron and also at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider continue at full tilt. However, I think when full scale research begins at the LHC early next year, we are going to see some real cool discoveries.
Regarding impatience, I am also impatient especially when it comes to physics, astronomy, cosmology, and especially manned space travel. I remember as a kid during the Apollo Program at times for hours on end fantasizing about the manned missions to Mars that every one was saying would occur by the 1980s.
Thanks;
Your Friend Jim
jim it is so good to see that,yes,some facilities are running full tilt. but i sure do look forward to when the LHC will be doing the same! also lol i’ll do you one better,i once went to a planetarium show where one of my buddies knew the guy who worked there,funny i still recall his name was jim mulligan.anyway,THEY had a prediction of a rather spectacular expedition to mars by 3 ships that kind of looked like tops.and THAT by 1974!!!!! wheeeew.pretty sure that at that time in the real world we had project gemini going.crazy what sticks in ones mind. thanks again your friend george
Jim, you really keep the postings flowing. Great with ideas. No problem.
We’re moving at a slow pace in space development all right. With all the other players though, the unmanned excursions are still very interesting. Man ain’t goin to Mars soon unless new technology carries a cheaper price tag. That’s what I’m hoping for. A way to move stuff out there cheaper, bean stalks or whatever. Whoever does it first could likely have other countries buying from them until they figure it out. Lets get that stuff out to geo-synchronous orbit then it will never come back. I think eventually it will be cheaper to re-manufactured stuff out there than to send new stuff up.
Jim, Hope the LHC is ready by early next year as your source suggests. The last thing I read suggested the Spring of 09.
your friend forrest
jim forrest, as i have been saying this morning people fail to realize the importance of the human expansion out into space and the HUGE imporrtance of the technological development that will go hand in hand with it !!!! funny thing i just read an article by elon musk the president of space x where he says virtually the same. the LHC i suspect is an imporatant part of the picture also. nice to see your latest postings guys hope afew more persons join us soon! respectfully your friend george
Hi George and Forrest;
Thanks for the above postings.
I can envision colonization of the moon and mars, resulting from at first, infrastructural elements being brought from Earth. Eventually, insitu resources are used to manufacture elements of infrastructure and the colonies bootstrap themselves into full fledge planetary civilizations that are independent and self sufficient.
We can then move out into any of the moons of our solar system that are colonizable and/or build huge rotating planetary colonies in interplanetary space. We then move on to the Oort cloud at the same time as the later is taking place or afterward, and developw world stations further out as well.
If we develop breakthru propulsion techniques that enable travel at just under C, at C, or greater than C, then the entire visible universe is ours to explore over the next 10 billion to 20 billion years or less.
Note that we tend to think of warp drives or other breakthru propulsion methods as permitting faster than light travel wherein the space that the craft is located within is transported through the surrounding space at superluminal speeds. Perhaps we can also consider such translational displacement of the space time that a craft would be located in at velocities exactly equal to or just a differential velocity element less than or greater than C.
Perhaps such warp drive velocity at C would be somehow related to the theoretical velocity of gravity waves propagation at C, and would result in some bazaar transport effects with regard to the space time within our universe, other universes, or other realms which might not be physical, or at the very least, not physical in the sense that we know or define as physical. Inertial travel through space at C accordingly permits a craft or persons within to travel an infinite distance in one Planck Time unit ship time and also infinitely far into the future during one such interval. My guess however is that the Lorents Transformation rules break down at velocities very, very close to C.
Regardless, I hope and believe we have all eternity to reach out and explore the wonders of all creation, and meet an ever growing number ETI civilizations wherein we can form a cosmic civilization of love and peace that is ever expanding outward, with ever new scientific, philosophical, mathematical, technological, medical, etc. discoveries.
Thanks;
Your Friend Jim
jim,forrest,yes alot of things may indeed be possible in so far as colonization of a great many places in our solar system.! propulsion IS THE NAME OF THE GAME though!!!!!!!!!!!!!! wow the oort cloud too.sounds really really good! imagination is really also the name of the game too.something that does NOT lack here! however i am afraid that it does elsewhere but i will try to be fair…if you could not pay your mortgage or find a job to replace the one you just lost or a good school for your children – how interested would you be in colonizing the oort cloud!? i fear we are up against alot of that too.respectfully your friend george
Hi George and Forrest;
I can imagine perhaps the future technological aggregation of matter as cosmic engineering projects wherein black holes of a mass as great as 10 EXP 16 solar masses or greater that are maximally rotating at speeds just under C wherein the reduced tidal forces near the black holes event horizons would be small enough to allow entire planets to pass through to distant cosmic destinations, or perhaps back or forward in time in our universe or into other universes. Such a technology and infrastructure would be an awesome undertaking.
Perhaps even more awesome would be the production of black-holes with the mass of the observable universe, that are rotating maximally at C or C-dv where dv is a differential velocity element that approaches zero. These huge blackholes and all things adjacent but external to them may act as a local break on the expansion of space time wherein the dynamic of the expansion of the local region of the cosmos at or just outside the event horizon is counterbalanced by the gravitational pull of the black hole.
Objects that are located in orbit around the blackhole that are in orbits at differential radial elements greater than the blackholes photosphere (where a beam of light orbits a black hole perpetually), would have such a relativistic gamma factor as well as a gravitational based time dilation, such that such a blackhole orbit could serve the purpose of a time machine wherein space craft, world ships, etc., could travel roughly 10 EXP 23 years or more into the future in one Planck Time unit with respect to external locations radially far removed from the blackhole.
Matter could be very slowly but gradually instilled within the blackhole such that Hawking Radiation would be eliminated thus perhaps permitting an eternal blackhole based civilization wherein the inhabitants would have all eternity to develope intellectually, spiritually, emotionally, psychologically etc.
As the range of the visible universe expands, the blackhole could be fed to have a greater radius to permit more extra-photospheric living volume and surface area.
Thanks;
Your Friend Jim