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[Urist Tilaturist]

After someone on another thread made a comment about a "Yamato cannon", a discussion began about how the thing worked, or could work. Toady intervened on that thread and said to stop the derailing, so I created this thread here to continue the discussion.

My last point was that tachyons with mass seem very unlikely indeed to me and many more knowledgeable physicists, so the concepts behind these devices are based on big ifs.

[My Name is Immaterial]

PTW.

[Urist Tilaturist]

I presume that stood for "posting to watch" and not "pay to win" or anything else.

[My Name is Immaterial]

Heh. Yes, the first one.

[10ebbor10]

The idea of tachyons itself is already unlikely.

Then again, A tachyon must have an imaginary mass, otherwise the Relativistic Theories no longer apply. Once that happens, you can basically do everything you want.

Do note however, that having imaginary mass does not mean that they can not be used for propulsion, or can't affect everything else.

[Urist Tilaturist]

How do particles with imaginary mass behave? I am very unfamiliar with them.

[10ebbor10]

No idea.

[Sergarr]

Particles with imaginary mass would move into imaginary coordinates after being pushed by a normal non-imaginary force.

I'm not sure if we can access imaginary coordinates.

[Urist Tilaturist]

Since these would be outside the universe, no, if my understanding of complex numbers applies.

We are really waiting for 10ebbor10 to come back with his explanation; he seemed confident that they could be used.

[smjjames]

Aren't tachyons actually the result of your math being screwed up? There's no proof of their existence and AFAIK, nobody has actively tried to see if they do exist.

If they do exist, then that implies that our understanding of the universe is very wrong,

[Urist Tilaturist]

Tachyons with real mass are impossible, to my understanding. What we were discussing was theoretical particles with imaginary mass and how they could be used, if they even existed, which I think is very unlikely. All this is very theoretical and likely useless, and is trying to explain a weird engine mentioned in another thread.

[smjjames]

Sounds somewhat like these virtual particles thing.

[10ebbor10]

FTL particles are the result of trying to utilize relativistic equations with faster than light speed particles while still maintaining a real energy. (So you could technically have FTL particles with real mass and imaginary energy).

On that note, I'm quite sure that they won't move into imaginary coordinates if acted upon by real forces.

Now the reason they could be used is because they have a real energy, which means that by sending them backwards you could propel yourself forwards. However, it would not allow you to go faster than light.

Another interesting thing happens if you give them an electric charge. That would result in them creating Cherenkov radiation, even in vacuum, which would remove energy from their system. Interestingly, as these FTL particles loose energy, they gain speed, which means that each particles would continually accelerate until eventually reaching an infinite speed.

Aren't tachyons actually the result of your math being screwed up? There's no proof of their existence and AFAIK, nobody has actively tried to see if they do exist.

Yes they are. CERN tried to look for them, found no evidence of their existence.

Oh and another note. Tachyons are an actual thing. They don't travel faster than light. They do have imaginary mass. The Higgs field, is a Tachionic Field.

[smjjames]

What's the difference between the imaginary FTL tachyons and the real tachyons? Being named the same thing is kind of confusing.

[Urist Tilaturist]

Hence why I am trying to keep this discussion about particles with imaginary mass and how they could be used. I think we all agree that particles faster than light with real mass are impossible. This all started in a discussion about how these particles could be used as fuel or even weapons, generated from vacuum.