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Krenim and I were discussing the validity of the Omega particle (from Voyager's "Omega Directive") on the TNO chat (that's every Thursday starting at 10 PM GMT, 5 PM EST, on CastleNet, channel #tno...er, um... ). Here is the relevant part of our conversation, if anyone is interested.
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Is it possible for a tau to orbit an atomic nucleus like an electron, considering how much larger it is?
Oh, and I found the perfect new sig in there... :-)
------------------ "It'd be a pity if every pencil on Earth suddenly collapsed in on itself and blew everything up." -Krenim, TNO chat, September 30, 1999
OK. First, here's my theory relating to subspace. Existance (for lack of a better term) is divided into layers. Picture eleven or so sheets of clear rubber stacked on top of each other. We're on the top layer. If you could somehow pull the layer immediately below your layer THROUGH your layer and surround yourself with the bubble, the stress created by the lower layer trying to return to its original position would create considerable propulsive potentials. If you pulled a still lower layer up through both the first layer AND your layer to surround yourself with it as well, you end up with more potential. Of course, the analogy isn't perfect, but you get the idea. Now say you could poke a small hole in our layer and drop a particular type of explosive into the hole. The explosion might be enough to rip your layer and the subspace layers away from each other, thus making subspace, for all intents and purposes, nonexistant over the radius of the blast.
This might also account for the possibility of holes forming in space due to high frequencies of warp travel (yeah, I know we all loved that episode). Space may only be able to take so much punishment.
------------------ For every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong. - H. L. Mencken
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Well, I guess Taus could orbit a nucleus....if they exsisted long enough. Taus quickly, VERY quickly decay (as do muons, the interemediate-mass lepton between the electron and the tau) into lighter particles. Taus have only been created in high-energy acclerations. You smash anti-particles together at high energy, and the energy is convereted into a tau and some other stuff. There wouldn;t be enough time after the creation of the tau before its decay to somehow move it over to orbit a nucleus, i don;t think.
------------------ USS Infinity NCC-157240 First Transwarp Ship of the Fleet Epsilon Omega Shipyards
"It's like I said, the more things change, the more they stay the same."-Unknown Vulcan Philosopher
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