
On a personal note, this was a very enjoyable blogpost to research, since I knew very little about Particle beam weapons going into this one.
What are Particle Beam Weapons?
Basically, Particle beam weapon (PBW) is a form of the directed energy weapon (DEW) and uses powerful magnetics and electrical fields to propel sub-atomic (like hydrogen) particles near or at the speed of light. Particle DEW come in two primary types: charged-particles and neutral-particles. When it comes to military application of these different types of PBW, charged are endoatmospheric, while neutral are exoatmspheric.
If this technology sounds familiar than you are not wrong, an Particle beam weapon is basically a so-called "atom-smasher", like the Large Hadron Collidor in my native nation, Switzerland.
If this technology sounds familiar than you are not wrong, an Particle beam weapon is basically a so-called "atom-smasher", like the Large Hadron Collidor in my native nation, Switzerland.

The details of Particle Beam Weapon

The heart of the PBW system is the particle accelerator that generators the beam of ions, and is the most complex part of the weapon. These accelerators are made up of segments or modules using radio frequency linear electric field to accelerate the charged particles, similar to the Gauss or Coil gun. Most of the current particle accelerators uses miles of these modules to propel these ions at light-speed, which does not translate well into battlefield applications. Another way for Particle acceleration, via induction linac system that unitizes very high currents for short pulses for ionic injection. These are, according to the sources, more suitable for an endoatomspheric DEW weapon because of induction linac stability for propagation of a high-energy beam that is more lethal. The US Air Force's own PBW program, RADLAC, is exploring alternative means of Particle acceleration, via their advanced test accelerator.
Military Particle Beam Weapons
Due to the different between the endo and exoatmospheric, we'll break this section between these different types of PBWs.
Neutral PBW:

Charged PBW:
The goal of current Particle beam weapon (CPB) research is for a one cm beam in the range of 1 GeV within a 1000 amp beam to knock out a target at 1,000 kilometers away. That that seems to be the military thinking on application for a CPB DEW system: interception for incoming missiles.
Since CPB are used in-atmosphere, there have been several attempts at bring this deadly DEW system from the pages of science fiction to reality. Originally, the US Navy looked at CPB weapons under Project Seesaw for usage as a interceptor in 1950's. Another attempt was made in 1974 to field a MILSPEC CPB for cruiser missile interception on carriers. The goal was to have a stowable CPB in the range of 4.5 kilometer that was rapid-fire (six shots a second). The project ran into development issues due to the natural of CPB physics: atmospheric blooming, Earth's magnetic field issues, power consummation, and size of the machine itself. In the 1980's and 90's, $46 million was poured into a CPB anti-ballistic missile system project called DELPHI and MINERVA that could intercept incoming reentry vehicles at between 80 and 4500 kilometers. The project was cancelled in 1992 under for economic and technical issues.
Advantages of Particle Beam Weapons
- Kinetic damage
- Thermal damage
- Damages or disables electronics
- Damages atomic structures of the target (think cue ball on a pool table)
- Ligth-Speed velocity
- Very short, if little, beam dwelling time
- Endoatmospheric/Exoatmospheric capable
- All-Weather capability
- localized EMP effect
Disadvantage of Particle Beam Weapons
- Electrostatic Blooming
- Massive power requirements (especially with pulse Particle DEW)
- fast discharge/slow recharge of capacitors
- Deflected by charged fields (like the Earth's magnetic field)
- Length of the Linear accelerators
- Very short range, especially in space combat


From the Fox Mulder corner...


Particle Beam Weapons in Sci-Fi
Unlike blasters, phased plasma rifles, and Gauss cannons, Particle beam weapons are much rarer in the realm of sci-fi, partly due to the forces of trends in science fiction works. It doesn't help people like me when research topics like this, when most sci-fi creators resort to the ubiquitous 'blaster' weapon or lethal direct-energy beam rifle without much explaining of what the hell the energy weapon even is. Some beam-based DEW could be either a Laser or even Particle, or completely invented like the Star Trek phased polaron beam used by the Dominion. A few works, like the ALIENS: Colonial Marines Technical Manual make a point of creating a realistic Particle weapon, giving it the full MILSPEC treatment.
Examples of Particle DEW in Sci-Fi
HALO
The Type-50 and Type-52 sniper-beam rifles are forms of charged Particle DEW, and are used primarily by the Covenant Kig-yar member race. The design of these beam rifles is semi-realistic and the line-of-sight performance of the beam is dead-on. This could be a window into the future application of hand-held Charged Particle beam weapons.
The Star Trek Universe
Along with the phaser of the Federation, most of the other races, including the Romulans and the Klingons, use an directed energy weapon called the 'disruptor' as their primary ship-board and small arms DEW. While chapter and verse was written about the phaser, Official Star Trek canon is oddly silent about the disruptor's inter workings, and it has been seen in both 'pulse' and 'beam' versions, complicating matters. The little that is canon able the disrupter comes from page 88 of the 1998 Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Technical Manual. It states that "The physics behind the disruptor involves the creation of a particle stream in which the total energy field per particle is so high that it cannot be contained for more than a few milliseconds. The field rapidly unwinds, and the instability releases the contained energy, disrupting any matter the beam contacts."
During the Star Trek: Enterprise era, the pre-Federation Vuclan, the Suliban, and the Xindi all use Particle beams for their personal and ship board weapons, like the combat cruiser D'Kyr class mounted several Particle beam weapons.
Gears of War
According to a few sources and the behavior of this satellite-based DEW system, the Hammer of Dawn seems to be a NPB weapon, that is powered via 'Imulsion-energized' , and targeted from a special SOFLAM-like device. The Gearspedia states that the Hammer of the Dawn is a laser, but other sites say that it is particle beam...go figure.
ROBOTECH
Particle weapons make frequent appearance through the ROBOTECH saga, especially during the Robotech Masters/Southern Cross War, where both sides used Particle weapons. The Robotech Masters unitized Particle beam weapons for their bioroids and clone infantry, along with naval armaments. The Southern Cross appears to use Particle weapons for much of their DEW systems, including the Hover tanks, where the "ion rapid fire cannon" is the primary armament in two configurations. During the Invid Invasion saga, the REF used the Mars Gallant H-90 handheld CPB DEW system, and was powered by a micro protoculture cell that variable yield pulse-bolts. Some site say that the REF Alpha fighter had an upgraded handheld Mecha CPB DEW deployed later in the war, replacing the older KEW GU-13 35mm.
Battletech

Stargate: Atlantis
When it comes to the hard science portion of Stargate Atlantis you expect it to be nonexistent, and this rings true of their take on a CPB DEW pistol. During the run of the series, the former runner Ronon Dex uses an 'particle magnum' large-framed DEW pistol that looked like a sci-fi S&W Model 29 .44 magnum 'Dirty Harry' model. The gun was original from the advanced Travelers civilization, and Ronon had picked up one along his running days. This DEW pistol feed from a cylinder shaped power-cell, and could switch from stun to kill.
Gundum

ALIENS
On the M577A3 APC:
"The most recent variant of the M577, the M577A3, mounts two 20 MeV turbo-alternator powered charged particle beam cannon, The deployment of these weapons has been made possible due to the introduction of a Martin-Continental micro magnetohyodgynamic turbine capable of generating 20 mW of electrical power to run the big particle accelerator guns. Sufficient turbine fuel exists to power the guns for 50 seconds firing and there is some 300 kg of deuterium tankage to provide particle beam mass. The effective range of the weapons against light armoured targets is approximately 3000 metres though at longer ranges the beams are capable of disrupting unshielded electronics"
From the ALIENS: Colonial Marines Technical Manual by Lee Brimmicombe-Wood (1996)

In the sequel, the Collectors use particle beam weaponry, and the player can equip one of their cannons. During gameplay, the Collector cannon fires a continuous beam burning the targets down, but you have to expose yourself when firing it, and it drains quick.
Babylon 5

Bubblegum Crisis
In this groundbreaking cyberpunk Anime (and one of my favorites), the USSD, the UN global space force, has two hundred VA-61 satellite based-particle beam weapons in Geosync orbit that are used for space-to-ground artillery, and anti-ballistic missile defense. According to the Bubblegum Crisis Megatoyko 2033 RPG manual, these spaceborne DEW have a destructive power over 100,000 miles, and can be pinpointed targeted with ground-based systems, like the USSD constructed "Killer Doll" Boomer, whose AI was directly linked with the VA-61s. Just put the Killer Doll near or at a target location, and unleash fire from the sky.
SOURCES:
- Introducing the Particle-Beam Weapons by Dr. Richard M. Roberts. Air University Review, July-August 1984. http://www.airpower.au.af.mil/airchronicles/aureview/1984/jul-aug/roberds.html
- Neutral Particle Beam by Federation of American Scientists.org (date uncertain)http://www.fas.org/spp/starwars/program/npb.htm
- Air Force 2025 by USAF Center for Strategy & Technology for the Air Force Chief of Staff 1995-1996: http://csat.au.af.mil/2025/index.htm
- Lasers, Charged-Particle Beams, and the Strategic Future by Donald M. Snow Political Science Quartlely, Vol. 95 No. 2 Summer, 1980.
LINKS:
http://www.b5tech.com/oldb5tech/earthforce/earthalliance/omegaparticlebeam/heliumparticlebeam.html
Thread on Physics forum:
http://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=439139
Good post, William!! You've done good research on the PBW.
ReplyDeleteJust a slight correction- protons are ionized hydrogen nuclei, so a proton beam is also a hydrogen beam. Particle beam weapons are essentially chained lightning, with all that implies. Unlike the red zappy phase pistol beam, a particle beam will probably look much like a lightning bolt that travelled more or less straight. It might look like an intense blue-white beam.
The "blasters" of some SF works- like Poul Anderson's "Virgin Planet"- are based on ion streams or bolts of nuclear particles. The disintegrator rays from "Forbidden Planet" are said to be "neutron beams". In Star Trek, phasers and disruptors may be particle weapons.
Phasers are a weird one. Phasers seem to fire some special "phaser particle" that has simple electromagnetic effects on low power levels- like stunning organisms or heating rocks until they glow- and cause some kind of "nuclear disruption" at high power levels, starting a chain reaction that converts most of a target's mass into neutrinos. Visually, we see the victim glow, break apart, and fade out with a lingering scream. There is no real science behind this nuclear disruption at all- at least not yet- but that certainly doesn't stop me from enjoying the show!!
Disruptors seem to have similar effects as phasers. It is possible that disruptors are simpler "brute force" weapons that brutally kill a target while phasers are more refined- but I've seen phasers cut huge bleeding holes in Klingons in Star Trek 6 while disruptors in the same show vaporize people neatly, so I don't really see how phasers are more refined!! Originally, the Klingons carried phasers- in the TOS episode "Errand of Mercy", Kirk hears Klingon weapon fire that he identifies as "Klingon phasers" when the Klingons attempt to use terror and coercion tactics on the illusionary Organian villagers. Both phasers and disruptors are really just soft SF death rays that do whatever the writers want them to do.
Using real technology, the only beams we will have to worry about in the future are electron beams, ion beams, and neutral beams for use in space. Plasmoid bursts and muon beams are possible as well. Neutron beam weapons are a nonstarter without a physics breakthrough, since neutrons are uncharged and can't be accelerated by electromagnetic means. The more fanciful weapons seen in SF that fire exotic massive particles remain beyond our horizons for now.
On a closing note- in older "rocketpunk" novels, blasters fire blasts of nuclear particles that vaporized targets. Disruptors fire a beam that kills by "disrupting" targets, whatever that means. Disruptor beams have a longer range than blasters, leave charred, twisted bodies- or just piles of ash!!- and tend to be used by shadier humans.
Christopher Phoenix
It is odd how inconsistent ST was about the damage a DEW did to their target, and I agree with you that they are a blanket term. I think Asimov also had nuclear particle DEW beam in the Foundation series, "Q-Beams" I believe they were called. Phasers are one of the more interesting SF weapons, my favorite ST phaser was the one from ST:III.
ReplyDeleteOne of the bad things about CPBW I forgot to mention, and you brought it up, Mr. Phoenix, is the lightning effect. In a military or enclosed setting, the blinding light of the CPBW would be bad, especially for night ops. I also forgot to mention the DEW from the Matrix films. No one is quite sure what that gun fires.
From the artistic standpoint, it is not that odd that phasers have such varying levels of effects on a target- other than the adjustable beam settings, of course- the phasers have the effects required for dramatic storytelling. At the same time, the phaser guns must be easy to do the special FX for with the available budget and not too gory to show on TV. That's why the phasers cut bleeding holes in the Klingons in ST6- Kirk had to arrive and talk too the dying ambassador, which would be rather difficult if the Klingons had been disintegrated!!
ReplyDeleteMy favorite phasers are the TOS-era Type 1 and Type 2, the TMP and TWOK era phaser, the ST3 phaser, and the assault phaser from ST6. All of these designs are sleek, ray-gun gothic style weapons any self-respecting spacefarer would be proud to carry. Did you know the TOS-era Type 2's handle was a removable power pack? I found a great discussion of all the phasers seen in Star Trek at this site: http://www.phasers.net/index.htm.
Most media SF gets the look of energy weapons, including particle beams, completely wrong. In space, there is no medium to scatter, absorb, or refract the beam from a death ray. The beams will, sadly, be invisible- even if the output from a beam weapon was in the visible part of the spectrum- and you will only be able to see where the beam impacts a target. Arthur C. Clarke got around this by postulating a weapon that fired a white hot spear of molten iron at enemy ships in one of his stories. The spear was quite visible in the vacuum, puzzling characters observing a space battle.
In an atmosphere lasers and particle beams will often be quite spectacular. Infrared lasers are invisible, but visible light lasers make visible paths in clean air, and near-ultraviolet beams can ionize the air and make glowing beams. Particle beams look and act much like lightning bolts that go straight.
I think the lightning guns in the Matrix fire electron particle beams. Such high-current beams can disrupt the Sentinel's electric circuits, killing them. Any living being caught in the discharge will be burnt and electrocuted- just as Tank was. The guns were not very far-fetched for a future with living machines and antigravity airships- but we humans will never be able to learn judo by downloading software into our brains. Our fragile brains learn skills by forging new connections in their neural net, and you can't program a neural net. Brains are fundamentally different from computers.
Some people worry that you might expose yourself to dangerous amounts of radiation by firing a particle beam "blaster". Dr. John Schilling says that the backscatter is not too bad at kilojoule levels in air, but particle beam artillery would be another matter. Radiation is a funny thing, however- Anatoli Bugorski, a Russian scientist, was hit in the face by a proton beam during a particle accelerator accident. He did not die, even though scientists estimated that he absorbed far more than a lethal dose of radiation. Remarkably, he did not suffer any loss of intellectual capacity and went on to receive his PhD. Perhaps he did not absorb much of the radiation because it was confined to a narrow beam. This result suggests that radiation dosage may not be enough to kill a human with a narrow particle beam- we'll need to vaporize, I mean "disrupt", a good portion of flesh to get a clean kill!! Mere speculation on my part, I don't have any expertise in nuclear medicine.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatoli_Bugorski
Christopher Phoenix
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future weapons beams will affect the brains of the droid humanoid or machine. no need to physically disrupt anything. emp effects will
ReplyDeleteultimately be proven to work 100% without as large a power requirement.
nothing will turn to ash it will simple disfunction including biological
entities. this type of beam is going to be useful, cheap and very
lethal to living and computer based items.
Great site ! Scary - Probably exists as we speach !
Deletemay i ask a question? Magnetic field will exert a perpendicular force to moving charges. Therefore, is it possible that we hit the target with out pointing the weapon at the target, unlike how we use a gun?
ReplyDeleteThere is another question. If i am correct, charged particles should be neutralize rapidly in air, should it not? So, how short is the effective range for particle weapons on earth and in space?
Thank you very much. It is a awesome article.
Luke
I think it could be possible for a atmospheric Particle DEW could be similar to the weapons on Black Ops, and the aim box is much wider than our current tiny bullets.
ReplyDeleteAs will all DEW system, the greater range, the ranger impact that the beam or pulse can have. The endoatmospheric Charged Particle DEW were experimented by the The SDI program, and proved to be an effective DEW for missile defense if the technology had been there, at ranges between 80km and 4500km. I think any DEW, especially lasers and plasma will have some atmospheric scrambling, but the all-weather capability of CPBW was one of the factors why the USAF was interested in CPBW. In terms of range and lethality, it is all based on the juice that you dump into the weapon. The more juice, the more effective. That was one of the reason why CPDEWs have stalled in developed...they are thirst weapons!
Thanks for reading and commenting!
Why would you have sentient being shooting each other with guns when in 2013 we already have robot drones that can do this for us? In the future, you wouldn't have armed conflict between sentient beings, you will have robots vs robots, and when one side's defenses are broken robots whipping out helpless living beings. Although it would be interesting to know what these future robots will use as weapons.
ReplyDeleteBeware the robots that fight for you...just look like Battlestar Galactica, Black Ops: II, and Space: Above and Beyond.
ReplyDeleteGreat post. I'm witnessing soft kill applications now, experiencing how a "Cloward and Piven" system approach can swamp, or minutely affect, all forms of metabolism, species migration, control, etc., using an iPad interface. Futurewarstories post mention here: http://tinyurl.com/o3vsk75 - Communication Breakdown: "Triangulation" in Psychology and Satellites. Thank you !
ReplyDeleteCan CPC weapons become powerful enough to replace nuclear weapons as shown in the anime Zoids Chaotic Century & Guardian Force? You know, like destroy entire cities, mountains, even a civilization without the threat of a nuclear winter? As awesome as that sounds it's terrifying to think of such a weapon. I'd just like an honest answer from honest people about our possible future. Thank you.
ReplyDeletesincerely, John .W.
No Half Life?
ReplyDeleteMore shame.