(aka, “Not your father’s photon torpedo”)
On Earth, there has been much discussion concerning the discovery of a new subatomic particle. Highly likely to be the Higgs Boson – the quantum of the hypothetical Higgs Field, which theoretically endows matter with mass – the discovery now leads to the question of the practical implications, if any.
In Eurania, developments of bosonic applications have reached the military, with the introduction of the “bosonic” torpedo, less than a year after deployment of the neutrino torpedo. Both use a neutrino-based delivery mechanism, but the similarities end at that point.
Neutrino torpedoes “package” standard pulse cannon charges in neutrino-lined “detonation-wrappers”. The wrappers shield the energy charges from the influence of standard E-M countermeasures, while preserving their light-speed capability. Though they are unable to provide similar shielding from newly-developed weak-force countermeasures, they do facilitate programmable proximity detonations, a notable advancement over the contact blasts of the pulse cannon.
“Bosonic” torpedoes, on the other hand, directly release the weak force of W or Z bosons (depending on the mechanism installed) by detonation of the neutrino wrapper in a reaction with the electrons of the pulse cannon charge. Channeled and amplified by the resulting reaction with the surrounding Higgs Field, the energy released is much greater than a pulser blast, field testing to determine how much greater.
Image creator : Lucas Taylor