From: Billy Brown (bbrown@conemsco.com)
Date: Wed Jan 27 1999 - 07:40:56 MST
Ron Kean wrote:
> I think that a matter-antimatter bomb would exhibit the same efficiency
> (energy per unit mass) regardless of size. A single proton meeting a
> single antiproton would release the same amount of energy per gram as
> would a larger matter-anti-matter sample.
So far as energy production is concerned that is correct. The containment
system will tend to consume a larger portion of the bomb's mass as it gets
smaller, but that's just an engineering problem - I wouldn't be surprised if
someone found a way around it.
Antimatter devices are possible at any scale you want to use. However,
really small ones (less than about 0.1 kT) won't make an explosion. That's
because matter-antimatter reactions release their energy as high-energy
gamma radiation, which can penetrate large amounts of normal matter before
being absorbed. Thus, the energy of the bomb will always be spread over a
certain minimum volume of space - you can't make an antimatter bomb that
creates small explosions. If the bomb doesn't put out enough energy to
power a big explosion, you end up irradiating the area and heating it up a
bit instead.
So, antimatter devices would be a major threat. The delivery vehicle can't
actually be nanoscale, but it could probably be as small as a dust mote and
still carry an effective weapon.
Billy Brown, MCSE+I
bbrown@conemsco.com
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