Tachyons in fiction

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The hypothetical particles tachyons have inspired many occurrences of tachyons in fiction.

In general, tachyons are a standby mechanism upon which many science fiction authors rely to establish faster-than-light communication, with or without reference to causality issues. For example, in the Babylon 5 television series, tachyons are used for real-time communication over long distances. Another instance is Gregory Benford's novel Timescape, winner of the Nebula Award, which involves the use of tachyons to transmit a message of salvation back in time. Likewise, John Carpenter's horror film Prince of Darkness uses tachyons to explain how future humans send messages backward through time to warn the characters of their impending doom. By contrast, Alan Moore's classic graphic novel Watchmen features a character who uses "a squall of tachyons" broadcasting from space to muddle the mind of the only person on Earth capable of seeing the future.

The word "tachyon" has become widely recognized to such an extent that it can impart a science-fictional "sound" even if the subject in question has no particular relation to superluminal travel (compare positronic brain). Classic Anime fans may associate tachyons with the energy source for the wave-motion gun and wave-motion engine in Space Battleship Yamato (Starblazers in the United States). Further examples include the "Tachyon Tanks" of the PC game Dark Reign and the "tachyon beam" of the game Master of Orion. The space-combat sim Tachyon: The Fringe utilizes "tachyon gates" for superluminal travel but gives no exact explanation for the technology, and the MMORPG Eve Online features six types of "Large Tachyon Lasers", technically a contradiction since by definition, lasers emit light—photons, not any kind of hypothetical tachyon.

Other examples of the use of tachyons in fiction include:

• In Dan Simmons' Hyperion universe, a faster-than-light communication medium, the 'fatline', is used for starships and planets to send high-priority messages to each other without suffering months or years' delay for normal radio transmission. The fatline messages can be intercepted and decoded by fatline receivers, and the message is described in Hyperion as a "burst of decaying tachyons."

• In the Star Trek fictional universe, tachyons are among the fictitious or hypothetical particles frequently invoked in treknobabble, often as a deus ex machina used to maintain the plot. Tachyons are frequently invoked to explain some aspect of the Romulan cloaking device. Cloaked ships have been detected by watching them pass through a tachyon beam, essentially creating a faster-than-light burglar alarm. Ships using imperfect cloaking devices are also implied to produce residual tachyon emissions, such as in the film Star Trek: Nemesis. In the film Star Trek: Insurrection, ships fire "tachyon pulses" at one another, disrupting the targets' "shield harmonics" and thereby allowing transport through the shields. Finally, in the third season Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Explorers", a tachyon stream was used as an (accidental) means to propel an ancient sailing ship to warp speed.

• Isaac Asimov's novel Foundation's Edge, which brings tachyons into its discussion of faster-than-light travel, where they are particles which exist in hyperspace.

• The Stargate TV series (Season 4) has exemplified the use of Tachyons as a means for ship propulsion for the Asgard. They use a series of three Tachyon particle accelerators to power the ship at faster than light speeds. The Asgard have among the fastest ships in the galaxy. (CORRECTION: The Asgard ships were stated to use "four neutrino ion" generators, there was no mention of tachyons in reference to the propulsion system."

• Troy Denning's novel Star By Star, part of the "New Jedi Order" Star Wars series, has a method of following a ship's path through hyperspace by stripping tachyons from it and thereby leaving a superluminal "trail".

• In Jack Williamson's novel The Humanoid Touch, the humanoids are said to have tachyonic ships propelled by "rhodomagnetic" science.

• The Tom Baker-era Doctor Who story "The Leisure Hive" features a race called the Argolins who utilise tachyons for a cloning-like procedure and for "illusions" as such. The Argolin Pangol explains, "Tachyons travel faster than light. A tachyon field can therefore be made to reach point B—that visidome, say—before its departure from point A, the Generator." Romana says that the Time Lords "abandoned tachyonics when we developed warp matrix engineering".

• Robert J. Sawyer's novel Flashforward features the invention of a Tachyon-Tardyon Collider, allowing experiments which previously required large particle accelerators to be performed in a machine about the size of a microwave. Additionally, a space probe is launched with a tachyon transmitter, allowing it to send information to Earth at faster-than-light speeds.

• In Babylon 5 a tachyon field (physics) in normal space forms a rift in time, allowing the movement of large objects through time.

• Tim Powers's novel The Anubis Gates, winner of the Apollo Award in 1987, involves the use of tachyons to initiate time travel.

• Mario Puzo's novel The Fourth K uses tachyons as an argument for the establishment of new scientific procedures.

• In Red Dwarf, a reference to tachyons is made to describe the form in which a Holoship is able to travel as super-light particles through wormholes and stargates.

• In Faerie Wars, Princess Blue tries selling a skin care treatment using tachyons to reverse time on the object applied with it.

• In the children's series Andrew Lost by J. C. Greenburg, tachyons are said to power the Time-a-tron in books 9-12.

• In Terry Pratchett's 'Johnny Maxwell' trilogy of children's books, the time-travelling bag-lady is called 'Mrs. Tachyon'.

• Kevin Spacey's character, Pröte, in the 2001 film K-Pax, explains that his race has harnessed the incredible energy in a ray of light and spoke of traveling at multiples of c, or "tachyon speeds." Dr. Mark Powell (played by Jeff Bridges), to gainsay Pröte, alludes to Einstein claiming that nothing can travel at the speed of light. Pröte counters by saying that he had "misread Einstein" who said that "nothing can accelerate to the speed of light or its mass would become infinite... Einstein said nothing about entities already traveling at that speed or greater."

• In the series pilot of Eureka a scientist creates a "tachyon accelerator", activates it, and as a result the laws of physics and the fabric of space-time itself begin to unravel. This is apparently due to a "tachyon collision" created by the machine. The effects are stopped by creating a second collision to counteract the first.

• The Mutant character Silver Samurai has the power to generate a tachyon field which can cut through everything but adamantium by channeling his mutant energy into anything, usually his katana.

• In Redemption Ark, one of the main characters modifies a starship with inertia suppression technology to convert its inertial mass into that of a tachyon. However, accidents with this technology have a habit of removing affected individuals from recent history.

• Some commercial promoters of crystals for personal wellness will refer to tachyons and zero-point energy within such crystals

• Ozymandias uses tachyons to impede Dr. Manhattan's understanding of events occurring and about to occur at the end of Alan Moore's graphic novel The Watchmen.

• In the computer game Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, players can build a "tachyon field" which improves a base's defensive capabilities, and equip units with a "tachyon bolt" weapon.

• In the computer game Wing Commander: Privateer, players can buy tachyon cannons which are the second most powerful, fastest firing, and highest velocity weapon in the game. Plasma Gun is the most power weapon but has an extremely slow firing rate, velocity, and requires an immense amount of energy.

• In the DC Universe Tachyons are used by both Hourman II and III.