Anti-Matter Gun

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Antimatter guns are common weapons in the science fiction universe and are usually employed in space combat involving a 3D battlefield that spans up to several light minutes. This weapon is very likely to be used in space battles, as clusters of antimatter munitions can travel through empty space without reacting with "regular matter" and annihilate itself.

In space battles, antimatter might be stored in electromagnetic bottles and then projected by particle accelerators to cause tremendous damage to enemy capital ships, and utterly annihilating a corvette, fighter or any other small spacecraft.

[edit] Theory

The core of antimatter weapons are of course antimatter ammunition. Antimatter is matter which is composed of the antiparticles of ordinary matter. It was originally discovered by the famous British physicist Paul Dirac. Antimatter will undergo annihilation when it comes into contact with regular matter, transforming into several forms of energy, usually consisting of high-energy gamma radiation and series of high-velocity subatomic particles.

The goal of an antimatter weapon is to project an antimatter munition, or a cluster of same, onto an enemy vessel to cause an annihilation reaction, which destroys the enemy vessel. However, due to the absence of air or other carrier medium, there will be no shockwave, which renders these otherwise explosive reactions (nuclear fission/fusion and annihilation) somewhat weaker than a Relativistic kill vehicle strike. However, it is impossible to accelerate an object with substantial mass to relativistic speed using any technology that is presently known.

The antimatter weapon would allow a corvette or gunship the ability to cripple or critically damage a capital ship and is therefore a highly effective weapon in space battles.

[edit] Outside of fiction

Aside from fiction, the real world application of antimatter weaponry is closely associated with advances in particle accelerators and electromagnetic containment. The former allows more efficient production and the latter will permit antimatter to be stored without annihilating itself and causing extensive damage to surrounding apparatus.

[edit] Fictional Universe

In the fictional universe of Wing Commander, Antimatter guns are too large to be mounted on anything smaller than a destroyer and too inaccurate to be used against fighters. They are nevertheless a valuable asset since they attack armor directly, bypassing any form of shields — including capship-issue phase shields. Improvements in this gun allowed for the targeting of bombers and slower moving fighters by 2669.

The version of the weapon released in 2667 had the damage potential to vaporize 30 centimeters of durasteel armor with one direct hit.

The earliest known version of this weapon was seen on the Concordia class Super Cruisers which entered service in or around 2645.