in the hall, fist poised to pound some more. He had obviously been up all night. “You warned me, and I didn’t listen. Now the Foremost sandbags me in a pay-per-view interview . Find out what’s going on. What they know. What they want. What they’ll trade.
“Whatever you need—it’s yours.”
Then Chung departed, as abruptly as he’d arrived. With him went all thoughts of sleep.
CHAPTER 11
Bose-Einstein Condensate : the fifth phase of matter, after solid, liquid, gas, and plasma. Albert Einstein first theorized the Bose-Einstein Condensate (BEC) phase in 1924, building upon pioneering work of Satyendra Nath Bose, but the existence of BECs went undemonstrated until 1995.
A BEC consists of like atoms cooled to a few billionths of a degree Kelvin above absolute zero. Fallen into the lowest possible energy state, bosons (particles with zero or integral spin, such as pions, alpha particles, and individual atoms) effectively lose their individual identities, exhibiting coherence like photons—also bosons—in a laser beam. In quantum-dynamic terms, all particles in the BEC share a common wave function. BECs can be used to confine matter at extremely high densities.
—Internetopedia
The social pleasantries didn’t last long, even by Art’s minimalist standards.
“Reviewing your infosphere, I would guess you use BECs,” said Rashk Keffah. She was a junior officer, an engineer, and stocky for a K’vithian. She was also the sole surviving expert aboard Victorious in the safe handling of antimatter.
Pashwah Two, like her parent, consistently declined to explain Snake body language. Art’s and Eva’s translator, Joseph Conrad 213, was still learning on the job, but Joe had no such reservations. “Did you notice the two eye blinks? That was a sneer.”
The fourth and final biologic at the table was Rashk Lothwer, who shot his crewmate a look. (No comment from Joe, so the glance meant what it did among humans: surprise and/or “Watch it.”) More than a crewmate, in fact. The entire ship’s complement of Victorious appeared to be in clan Arblen Ems. Arblen Ems Rashk Lothwer, Mashkith’s chief lieutenant, was of the extended Rashk family. Were he and Keffah cousins? Brother and sister? Unknown.
They were alone in the officer’s wardroom of the UP cruiser Actium , the Snakes seated on tall stools fabricated for them from ship’s stores. Hidden fans raced to vent the strong, pungent odor of sulfur dioxide, traces of which had adhered to the visitors’ pressure suits.
Art had called the meeting to discuss refueling of the starship. Could it be done, were the decision made to do so? Dramatic INN interview notwithstanding, that was not a given. Meanwhile, Carlos Montoya and his UPIA bosses were in the initial stages of a witch hunt over the security breach. “Nothing stays secret forever,” was not cutting it as an explanation.
Eva refused to take the bait. It helped, Art supposed, that she could feign ignorance of the sneer. “That is correct. The high density of storage made possible by BECs is a big plus.”
“Until it blows up.” After another warning glance from Lothwer, Keffah added, “Indefinite, precise control of the cooling and the magnetic containment is required.”
Spinning charged particles, such as electrons, are tiny magnets. That made it possible, Art knew, to trap super-cooled atoms inside magnetic fields. It didn’t matter whether those atoms were matter or antimatter. What did matter were the exact characteristics of the field. Clumped too compactly, a BEC exploded: a so-called “bosenova.” Insufficiently confined, and a BEC dispersed—which, with antimatter, meant explosion at contact with normal matter.
Complex as confinement was, safely holding antimatter was but one step in a long process. A few subatomic particles at a time, the antimatter was created by high-speed, normal-particle collisions. Those collision byproducts that were antiparticles had to be captured
“Whatever you need—it’s yours.”
Then Chung departed, as abruptly as he’d arrived. With him went all thoughts of sleep.
CHAPTER 11
Bose-Einstein Condensate : the fifth phase of matter, after solid, liquid, gas, and plasma. Albert Einstein first theorized the Bose-Einstein Condensate (BEC) phase in 1924, building upon pioneering work of Satyendra Nath Bose, but the existence of BECs went undemonstrated until 1995.
A BEC consists of like atoms cooled to a few billionths of a degree Kelvin above absolute zero. Fallen into the lowest possible energy state, bosons (particles with zero or integral spin, such as pions, alpha particles, and individual atoms) effectively lose their individual identities, exhibiting coherence like photons—also bosons—in a laser beam. In quantum-dynamic terms, all particles in the BEC share a common wave function. BECs can be used to confine matter at extremely high densities.
—Internetopedia
The social pleasantries didn’t last long, even by Art’s minimalist standards.
“Reviewing your infosphere, I would guess you use BECs,” said Rashk Keffah. She was a junior officer, an engineer, and stocky for a K’vithian. She was also the sole surviving expert aboard Victorious in the safe handling of antimatter.
Pashwah Two, like her parent, consistently declined to explain Snake body language. Art’s and Eva’s translator, Joseph Conrad 213, was still learning on the job, but Joe had no such reservations. “Did you notice the two eye blinks? That was a sneer.”
The fourth and final biologic at the table was Rashk Lothwer, who shot his crewmate a look. (No comment from Joe, so the glance meant what it did among humans: surprise and/or “Watch it.”) More than a crewmate, in fact. The entire ship’s complement of Victorious appeared to be in clan Arblen Ems. Arblen Ems Rashk Lothwer, Mashkith’s chief lieutenant, was of the extended Rashk family. Were he and Keffah cousins? Brother and sister? Unknown.
They were alone in the officer’s wardroom of the UP cruiser Actium , the Snakes seated on tall stools fabricated for them from ship’s stores. Hidden fans raced to vent the strong, pungent odor of sulfur dioxide, traces of which had adhered to the visitors’ pressure suits.
Art had called the meeting to discuss refueling of the starship. Could it be done, were the decision made to do so? Dramatic INN interview notwithstanding, that was not a given. Meanwhile, Carlos Montoya and his UPIA bosses were in the initial stages of a witch hunt over the security breach. “Nothing stays secret forever,” was not cutting it as an explanation.
Eva refused to take the bait. It helped, Art supposed, that she could feign ignorance of the sneer. “That is correct. The high density of storage made possible by BECs is a big plus.”
“Until it blows up.” After another warning glance from Lothwer, Keffah added, “Indefinite, precise control of the cooling and the magnetic containment is required.”
Spinning charged particles, such as electrons, are tiny magnets. That made it possible, Art knew, to trap super-cooled atoms inside magnetic fields. It didn’t matter whether those atoms were matter or antimatter. What did matter were the exact characteristics of the field. Clumped too compactly, a BEC exploded: a so-called “bosenova.” Insufficiently confined, and a BEC dispersed—which, with antimatter, meant explosion at contact with normal matter.
Complex as confinement was, safely holding antimatter was but one step in a long process. A few subatomic particles at a time, the antimatter was created by high-speed, normal-particle collisions. Those collision byproducts that were antiparticles had to be captured
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