Analog Science Fiction and Fact - 2014-07

by Penny Publications

  The other work in this area is being done at NASA's Eagleworks at the Johnson Space Flight Center in Houston by Dr. Harold G. (Sonny) White and his coworkers. Sonny White presented their recent results at the Spacevision 2013 conference in Arizona, and his talk can be viewed on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9M8yht_ofHc.

  The basic idea is that in a region of space containing an electric (E) field and a magnetic (B) field at right angles, a plasma of charged particles of either sign is deflected in the same E ✕ B direction perpendicular to both fields. Conventional plasma thrusters, first used in Russian spacecraft, have been demonstrated to operate on this principle. White argues that in the "fireworks" of the quantum vacuum, with virtual electron-positron pairs and other pairs of virtual particles winking briefly into existence and then disappearing, a strong E ✕ B crossed field should provide the equivalent of a plasma discharge, so that the quantum vacuum itself should provide the reaction mass needed for propulsion. In other words, giving the virtual particles a push in the E ✕ B direction should propel the vehicle in the –E ✕ B direction.

  In principle, this should be a DC effect and should produce a steady thrust in the presence of static electric and magnetic fields. However, perhaps in order to achieve the high fields for more thrust, the Eagleworks thrusters operate at frequencies of tens of MHz. Note that in such high frequency operation, the E and B fields oscillate in phase and change sign together so that the E ✕ B direction remains unchanged and the direction of expected thrust does not reverse during the cycle.

  The Eagleworks group claims to have found a way of increasing the density of virtual particles in the quantum vacuum in order to increase the thrust derived for pushing on them. In the video mentioned above, they have reported measured thrusts of 20 to 110 µN and thrust/power ratios of 1 to 20 N/kW, about six orders of magnitude better than a photon thruster. These results have not been reported in a refereed physics publication, but it is a spectacular result.

  To visualize what such a device could produce in continuous operation, consider a simple case. A top-end automobile battery has a mass of about 15 kg, and for a period of a few minutes in "cranking mode" it can deliver about 12 kW of continuous power. A 20 N/kW thruster at this power level would produce a thrust of 240 N, which could levitate a mass of over 24 kg. Therefore, if the thruster and associated hardware had a mass of less than 9 kg, the thruster+battery system could fly, antigravity style, supported by its own thrust! There are also spectacular possibilities in space. In his talk, White outlined a number of short-duration space missions to the planets of the Solar System that might be accomplished with space drives using nuclear thermo-electric power sources and thrusters delivering 0.4 or 4.0 N/kW. This would be truly a game-changing space technology.

  This brings up the question of whether propulsion by pushing against the virtual particles of the quantum vacuum makes any physics sense. That is a very controversial question. Two of the well-established theories of physics give very different predictions for the density of mass-energy in the quantum vacuum. The believable value comes from general relativity and cosmology, which explains the accelerating expansion of the Universe as resulting from a vacuum mass-energy density of about 10 -26 kg/m 3 . In contrast, quantum field theory predicts a vacuum energy that is about 120 powers of ten greater than this (and is presumably wrong). This discrepancy in predictions remains unresolved, and is an embarrassment in physics. Eagleworks uses quantum field theory in estimating thrusts. A further issue is that White said that Eagleworks had devised a method of increasing the density of virtual particles in the vacuum for increased thrust, but he did not explain how this was accomplished.

  We can also ask what happens to the reaction momentum delivered to the quantum vacuum by an Eagleworks Q-thruster. Virtual charged particles, mainly electrons and positrons (about half with negative mass-energy), appear momentarily, existing on "borrowed" energy and momentum, and then disappear back into the vacuum. If they receive momentum by being pushed in particular direction during their brief existence, where does that momentum go when they disappear again? In his talk, White refers to a "wake" left behind the forward-moving Q-thruster, presumably carrying away the momentum imparted to the vacuum. But what could such a wake be made of? Vast amounts of energy (511,000 electron-volts per particle) would be required to make the virtual electrons and positrons real, so that they could carry away the momentum. The particles of the wake could not be photons (or gravity waves or neutrinos), because their momentum carrying capacity is only 3 1 ⁄3 µN/kW. Moreover, about half of the virtual particles have negative mass-energy, which further complicates the issues of momentum transfer.

  It has been suggested by a not-disinterested party that the Eagleworks Q-thrusters are actually Mach-effect thrusters in disguise, operating at a higher frequency to produce the larger thrusts observed. Maybe so.

  In any case, this work suggests that it may be "space-drive time"; that space drives have already been invented and are about to reach the level of practical application. Watch this column for further developments.

  References

  Mach-Effect Thrusters:

  • Making Starships and Stargates: The Science of Interstellar Transport and Absurdly Benign Wormholes, James F. Woodward, Springer Praxis Books, New York (2013); ISBN: 978-1-4614-5622-3.

  • "How Long Will It Take To Build Starships?", James F. Woodward, Journal of Space Exploration (to be published, 2014).

  Q-Thrusters:

  • "Advanced Propulsion Physics: Harnessing the Quantum Vacuum", H. White and P. March, Nuclear and Emerging

  Technologies for Space (2012); http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/nets2012/pd f/3082.pdf.

  SF Novels by John Cramer: my two hard SF novels, Twistor and Einstein's Bridge, are newly released as eBooks and are available at: http://bookviewcafe.com/bookstore/?s=Cramer&submit=Search.

  Alternate View Columns Online: Electronic reprints of over 160 "The Alternate View" columns by John G. Cramer, previously published in Analog, are available online at: http://www.npl.washington.edu/av.

  * * *

  THE REFERENCE LIBRARY

  Don Sakers2212 words

  I've talked about the appeal and history of SF short stories before (in the July/August 2011 issue, in fact). This time around I have a batch of new anthologies and collections to tell you about—plus a couple of novels, because no matter how much we like short fiction, who wants an exclusive diet?

  In book form, you'll find short stories in one of four packages: anthologies, collections, omnibuses, and fix-ups.

  An anthology, for our purposes, is a collection of short works by more than one author. The earliest known anthology, The Garland (produced by Meleager of Gadara in the first century B.C.E.) was a book of poetry by 46 authors. In the book, Meleager uses the metaphor of poems as flowers. The Greek word for a garland (or collection of flowers) is anthologia. The term entered English in the 1600s as "anthology."

  The first SF anthology was Adventures in Space and Time, edited by Raymond J. Healy and J. Francis McComas (1946). Since then, thousands of anthologies have been published, and several sub-types have emerged.

  Some anthologies are based on quality: either presenting award-winning stories, or giving an editor's choice of the "best" stories. (I'll talk about two recent examples below.) "Original anthologies," of which Frederick Pohl's Star Science Fiction (1953) was the first, feature previously unpublished stories—as opposed to "reprint anthologies," which contain previously published stories. And of course there are hybrids composed of a mix of original and reprint stories.

  A "collection," in current usage, generally refers to a book of short fiction by only one author. The earliest single-author collections date back to the early seventeenth century; SF/fantasy writers such as the brothers Grimm, Washington Irving, and Edgar Allan Poe led the way. In the post World War II period, both small presses and major publishers brought out single-author collections (and anthologies) of stories previously
published in the pulp magazines.

  Among the SF collections fondly remembered by readers is Ballantine/Del Rey's 1970s–80s Classic Library of Science Fiction series, affectionately known as the "Best of" series. With consistent design and titles (always The Best of [Author's Name]), these books included an appreciative introduction by another major SF writer, followed by a selection of the title author's best-known stories.

  An "omnibus" is a book that contains several other books, usually previously published ones. The word is Latin for "for all"—from the 1830s onward, it was a popular term for a public-conveyance carriage with many passengers. (Even today we call one such vehicle a "bus.") In publishing, the metaphor is that several books share the same covers as passengers share the same carriage.

  An omnibus may be several novels, but it may also contain short story collections or even anthologies. Among the earliest major omnibus volumes in SF are Arthur C. Clarke's Across the Sea of Stars (1959) and Isaac Asimov's The Rest of the Robots (1964). Many of us fondly remember the Science Fiction Book Club's many omnibus editions such as Asimov's The Foundation Trilogy and James Blish's Cities in Flight.

  Finally, a "fix-up novel" (known in lit-crit circles as a "composite novel") is a type of collection in which all the stories comprise a continuous narrative. Although the individual stories can stand alone, each with its own beginning and end, the overarching narrative makes the whole more than the sum of its parts. For authors, a fix-up novel can be a way to earn some money and build reader interest from the constituent stories while writing the novel; for readers, the individual stories can provide a way to "test drive" before committing to a whole novel, and also can satisfy the desire to know more about the characters and world of a favorite story.

  Classic fix-up novels include Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles (1950), Anne McCaffrey's Dragonflight (1968) and The Ship Who Sang (1969), Mike Resnick's Kirinyaga (1998), Charles Stross's Accelerando (2005), and Theodore Sturgeon's More Than Human (1953).

  For information about SF anthologies, collections, and omnibuses, the standard reference for works published before 1983 is the comprehensive Index to Science Fiction Anthologies and Collections at http://www.philsp.com/homeville/isfac/index.htm. For post-1983 works, you'll want to visit http://www.locusmag.com/index/ for The Locus Index to Science Fiction.

  Year's Best SF 18

  edited by David G. Hartwell

  Tor, 415 pages, $15.99 (trade paperback)

  Kindle: $8.39, iBooks, Nook: $9.99 (e-book)

  ISBN: 9780765338204

  Genres: Reprint Anthologies, Short Stories

  This latest volume in David G. Hartwell's long-running Year's Best SF series covers stories published in 2012. When Hartwell started this series in 1996, most of the stories came from familiar sources, mostly print SF magazines and original anthologies. Back then it was just barely possible to keep up with the flow of new SF short fiction.

  This volume contains 28 stories from a stunning variety of venues, both print and electronic. Unless you have inhuman amounts of leisure time, you'll find a fair number of stories you've never seen before. Two stories, Catherine H. Schaffer's "The North Revena Ladies Literary Society" and Linda Nagata's "Nahiku West," appeared in Analog.

  Like the rest of the current "Best of the Year" anthologies, this volume leans toward the more literary stream of SF—not to say that's a bad thing. You'll find familiar names like Gregory Benford, Pat Cadigan, Gwyneth Jones, Ken Liu, Robert Reed, Bruce Sterling, Michael Swanwick, and Gene Wolfe. Yet there are also some authors you might not expect, such as John Barnes and C. S. Friedman... as well as a few up-and-coming names in the field.

  These are all good stories, well worth the price of admission. I was particularly taken by Eleanor Aranason's "Holmes Sherlock: A Hwarhath Mystery," in which the author's unusual aliens take on the Great Detective; C. S. Friedman's "A Perfect Day," a humorous take on employment in the near future; and Robert Reed's "Prayer," a satirical tale set in a Canada occupied by a United States under the control of an artificial intelligence called Almighty.

  There's plenty here for Analog readers to enjoy.

  Twenty-First Century Science Fiction

  edited by David G. Hartwell and Patrick Nielsen Hayden

  Tor, 572 pages, $34.99 (hardcover)

  Kindle: $14.44, iBooks, Nook: $16.99 (e-book)

  ISBN: 9780765326003

  Genres: Reprint Anthologies, Short Stories

  A glance at the title of this anthology may leave you wondering (as I did) if the book is-n't just a bit premature. Wouldn't you want to wait until the century is, oh, at least halfway over?

  Au contraire. The intent of this book is to focus on authors who, according to the editors, came to prominence in the twenty-first century. The result is a 34-author lineup that reads like a Who's Who of modern SF, ranging from Madeleine Ashby to Peter Watts.

  Once again, there's some bias toward literary-flavored stories... but there are plenty of tales that would be at home in Analog's pages. In particular, you won't want to miss Neal Asher's "Strood," a surprising take on Damon Knight's classic "To Serve Man," or Hannu Rajaniemi's post-Singularity story of an intelligent dog and his feline sidekick, "His Master's Voice."

  Elizabeth Bear, Tobias Buckell, Brenda Cooper, Cory Doctorow, Ken Liu, John Scalzi, Karl Schroeder, Charles Stross, Jo Walton, and two dozen more—there's a lot going on here. At nearly six hundred pages and $35 for the hardcover, I'd definitely counsel going for the e-book edition if that's a choice.

  The Clock Struck None

  Lou Antonelli

  Fantastic Books, 272 pages, $14.99 (trade paperback)

  ISBN: 978-1-61720-944-4

  Genres: Single-Author Collections, Short Stories

  It's possible that you haven't run into the stories of Lou Antonelli. Since 2003, he's been publishing delightful short tales of alternate history all over the nooks and crannies of the SF world. Thanks to Fantastic Books, we now have 28 of these little gems in one place.

  Many of Antonelli's stories have an unexpected twist ending. And many of them are what he calls "secret history" stories, which aren't exactly alternate history—they're set in our familiar history, but there's always some element that contemporary observers missed. For example, take the time travelers in "Meet Me at the Grassy Knoll."

  As for alternate history, well, one of the included stories, "Great White Ship," was a finalist for the 2013 Sidewise Award, which is given for outstanding works in the field of alternate history. In "Pirates of the Ozarks" the New Madrid earthquake of 1812 turned the Great Plains into a new sea. "The Starship Theodora" posits a universe in which a Christianized Roman Empire conquered the stars.

  Lovers & Fighters, Starships & Dragons

  Tom Purdom

  Fantastic Books, 356 pages, $15.99 (trade paperback)

  ISBN: 978-1-61720-943-7

  Genres: Single-Author Collections, Short Stories

  Tom Purdom's first story appeared in 1957, and his first novel in 1964. He's been published everywhere—including Analog —and his work has appeared in various "Best of the year" anthologies. His 1999 story "Fossil Games" (which appears in this volume) was nominated for the Hugo Award.

  The twelve SF stories in Lovers & Fighters, Starships & Dragons are a perfect blend of really cool ideas and believable, sympathetic characters. Beyond that, Purdom doesn't shy away from exploring the moral and ethical choices of his characters.

  In "The Mists of Time," for example, a pair of far-future historians struggle to understand the motivations of their subject, a British Navy sailor involved in the slave trade. "Canary Land" tells the story of an American geneticist who emigrates to a Chinese-settled Moon in search of work... but it's also a tale of the costs and rewards of immigration into a foreign society. "Bonding With Morry" is an old man's love story, but also a meditation on our relationship with technology.

  Definitely recommended.

  Man-Kzin Wars XIV

  created by Larry Niv
en

  Baen, 217 pages, $15.00 (trade paperback)

  Kindle: $7.73, iBooks, Nook: $8.99 (e-book)

  ISBN: 978-1-4516-3938-4

  Series: Man-Kzin Wars 14; Known Space

  Genres: Military SF, Shared/Franchised Worlds, Short Stories

  Many years ago, Larry Niven opened up one part of his Known Space universe and invited other authors to come in and play. The result: fourteen anthologies so far, and counting.

  Set in a period in which humans are in the process of colonizing other worlds, the Man-Kzin Wars involve the often-hostile interactions between humanity and the Kzinti, a race of warrior cats.