Theory on the nature of turbolasers

[Crossover_Maniac]

Normally, anything considered a 'laser' would fire massless particles (photons). I know, turbolasers aren't really lasers, but bare with me for a second. But lasers don't produce flak bursts. In fact, I can't see how any particle can 'burst' unless the particles underwent decay somewhere along its path. And massless particles can not decay. The reason why is explained right here:

7. Massless particles must travel at the speed of light, while other cannot reach this speed. Why are all massless particles stable? If evidence is found that neutrinos spontaneously decay into other particles, would this imply they have mass?

Massless particles are timeless. If you do some special relativity and look at the time dilation equation, you can show that the "proper time" of a lightspeed particle can be zero, even when the outside observer measures infinite time. (Strange but true.) Let's say that a massless particle, such as a photon, had some decay constant -- a length of time that passed before it was likely to decay. What does that mean to a photon? Nothing. If no time passes for a photon, it will never get to any kind of decay, no matter how short the decay constant is. Time, for a massless particle, is meaningless.

So, turbolaser bolts can not be composed of massless particles. However, if they were composed of a particles with a short rate of decay. The flak burst could be the bolt decaying into energetic particles with distructive energy. The distance for the turbolasers to flak could be set by varying the velocity of the turbolaser bolt. While a velocity increase from 0.9999 c to 0.999999 c wouldn't mean much to outside observer, the difference in time dilation effects are quite large. Time dilation at 0.9999c would be 0.014 allowing the turbolaser particles to exist 71 times longer than the same kind of particle that was stationary to an observer. And the time dilation at 0.999999 c would create a time diation effect of 0.0014 increasing the turbolaser rate of decay 700 times longer in relations to a stationary observer. This makes more sense than massless particles exploding in the middle of their path.

[omegaLancer]

Good theory, but it an offical statement that TL are electromagnetic energy ( most likily Gamma rays)... I believe that they some how manage to create a soliton ( a standing wave ) of electronic magentic energy by spinning the beam ( as stated in SWICS for AOTC), that why it has such a long range. Some how they can design a soliton that will disperse at set ranges, scattering the individual photons in a spherical manner..

[nightmare]

The only decay needed is of the magnetic containment field.

a) Plasma contained in magnetic bottle.

b) Magnetic field weakens to the degree of no longer being able to contain the plasma = sudden burst of plasma in all directions.

No particle decay whatsoever required. Magnetic fields do weaken when they are not continuously generated. It's as simple as that, we can do what I described in small scale today. The laser part is a seperate matter.

[omegaLancer]

TL are not a plasma, it a burst of electro magnetic energy.. The problems is the extreme range of the pulse, and the fact that can be made to burst as if it explosive shell, the so call flack effect..

The easiest way to have the TL burst behave in such a manner is using a complex wave function that imitates a soliton ( A standing wave that behaves like a particle.. It also doesnot lose energy or diminish in power ot intensity). If the the soliton can force to become unstable it would release its energy into the packets of photons that compose it... create a blast or the so call flack effect...

[omegaLancer]

did some research on soliton theory, seem that light soliton are being research and are called light bullets, an unstable light bullet would break apart after traveling like an explosion. From the light bullet home page http://www.sfu.ca/~renns/lbullets.html

Unstable Halo States: One-Halo Simulation
In addition to the qualitatively similar Gaussian-like (approximately bell-curve shaped) solitary waves discussed so far, the governing equation also admits so-called "halo states" comprised of a bright central ball surrounded by a number of spherical shells. In analogy with the inverted pendulum mentioned earlier, these states are found to be unstable to propagation, the smallest amount of noise tickling the solution and causing it to decay into a number of "normal" light bullets. This first simulation depicts the propagation of the one-halo state. We have performed a somewhat complicated mathematical analysis that allows us to understand why the system initially decays into the tube and ball structure. In the final image, the front-most light bullet is seen to exit the computational mesh and reappear at the back wall.

go to http://www.sfu.ca/~renns/images/halo2.html to see the simulation and watch as the Light bullet explode into several smaller light bullets..

[His Divine Shadow]

Here is my Theory on Turbolasers:
================================
The unified TL theory
I will go over Blasters, Laser cannons and Turbolasers, Blasters first.

1. Blasters

Blasters are plasma weapons, simple as that really.

Anyhow, quotes about blasters:

Pg. 63: "Orveth, sig, prothium, eleton, tolium, and skevon are the six most common gasses used for blasters, and normally cost 50 credits per large canister. Other gasses, such as the spin-sealed Tibanna gas from Cloud City, are just as powerful but harder to find."

(ref: Cracken's Rebel Field Guide)

Gas, gas is ammo, so are powerpacks, so what we got is both energy and gas is used for ammunition, these are strong suggestions that they are plasma weapons.

Visuals where Jedi knights sometimes are able to deflect a bolt after it's started moving(There are also examples where they have the saber in position before the weapon fires) also agree that they are plasma weapons(IOW subluminal propagation).

This is further supported by the AOTC: Visual Dictionary wich quite clearly say:

Pg. 39: Power-charge magazines supply the gun with energy to hyper-ionize the gas into charged plasma in an igniter chamber. The resulting bolt is accelerated out of the gun electromagnetically.

(ref: Attack of the Clones: The Visual Dictionary)

2. Laser-Cannons and Turbolasers.

These are weapons, wich are much more closely related to turbolasers than blasters, and according to ICS, they move at C and have somethng like a bolt traversing the beam at STL velocities, when seeing impacts on ships, damage seems to coincide with the bolt, this might be true because the visible bolt most likely is plasma or some other form of charged particles wich can be dangerous on it's own and possibly exist for a while after the beam has terminated.

Pg. 80: The cannon's laser actuator combines high-energy laster gas with a large power charge. (The actuator's prismatic crystal produces the high-energy beam of charged particles coupled with light.)

(ref: The Essential Guide to Weapons and Technology)

As we can see, it's obvoius in how it's similar to a blaster, it uses blaster gas, however instead of ejecting the blaster gas like a plasmoid projectile, it "transforms" it into a charge particle/laser beam, this beam moves at C according to ICS.

We can also see in visuals how the wastes of this blaster gas interaction is ejected and drops indicating it's affected by gravity.
Anyhow, this we know, now lets focus on the bolt, wich many people have thought to be the damaging portion, well it probably does damage, and my guess is that it can exist for a short period of time after the Beam has terminated(explaining rapid fire guns, like Slave-1).

(This movie file supports this, the bolts dissapear a short while as the turret moves and there can no longer be a beam there: http://hisshadow.123hostnow.com/misc/me ... firing.avi)

Also, why does damage seem to occur with the bolt? Well, ray shields absorb energy, hence we won't see any effects since it's absorbed, but the bolt is physical so it's deflected instead, or explodes on the shield, wich would give the impression that no damage occured before the bolt, but as TESB show, such things can happen against unshielded targets.

Well thats mostly it, now follows quotes and theories on what they mean:

Pg. 88: Turbolasers are two-stage supercharged laser cannons. The small primary laser produces an energy beam that enters the turbolaser's main actuator, where it interacts with a stream of energized blaster gas to produce an intense blast.

(ref: The Essential Guide to Weapons and Technology)

This explanation agrees, it's part a laser cannon and it has a blaster like stage(wich energizes the blaster gas) and it uses this gas to somehow create a stupidly powerfull particle/laser beam.

Wich carries most of the destructive power? Well looking at these quotes:

Pg. 182: "The Yuuzhan Vong vessel poured its most lethal fire into the larger ship, and the cruiser replied with volley after volley of directed light."

(ref: Agents of Chaos)

This suggest the laser is the most damaging component.

This also agrees:

Pg. 242: "The laser beam, a meter thick, flashed from the depths of space to strike Tsavong Lah's worldship.

(ref: Enemy Lines I - Rebel Dream)

This again suggest the laser does a large part of the damage, it's atleast a 50/50 division I would dare to say.

Pg. 7: Two New Republic Assault Frigates, the Tyrant's Bane and Liberty Star, cruised in toward the Golan station. Though each ship was less than a third as long as the station, they bristled with fifty laser cannons and poured terajoules of coherent light into the Golan.

(ref: Isard's Revenge)

Assault frigates who's got mostly anti-fighter weaponry fires (probably, might be GT too)KT rated weaponry(as per ICS) and is described as coherent light.

[nightmare]

TL are not a plasma, it a burst of electro magnetic energy.. The problems is the extreme range of the pulse, and the fact that can be made to burst as if it explosive shell, the so call flack effect..

-----
Just EM bursts doesn't fit the facts, soliton or not.

[omegaLancer]

If you look at the light bullet web site.. Light bullets are soliton like burst of laser light.. It would prevent the spread of electromagnetic energy, so the TL burst would have the long range it has.. The Light bullet can be create so that it after traveling a predetermine distant it would explode in to hundreds of new light bullets in a spherical pattern... This would explain the Flak effect and the long range of turbo laser and it would still be electromagnetic energy....

[omegaLancer]

A better simulation showing how a electromagnetic soliton can decay and explode is here http://www.sfu.ca/~renns/images/halo7.html...

So no plasma needed, just shaping the waveform of the energy released by the TL, maybe this is what the spinning does..