Scattering Barriers are an application of psikinetic tilt, where the probability distribution of a particle in space-time is altered as it tries to cross the barrier. It's manifested by a psikinetic capable soul as a defensive barrier able to diffuse incoming matter and energy.
The wavefunction is altered in such a way that an incoming particle has almost zero probability of existing on the other side of the barrier (but not exactly zero). The particle's wavefunction is also altered in such a way that it's most probable location is changed to a random location somewhere within the manifesting soul's range of spiritual influence. This basically teleports the particle to a random location when it tries to cross the barrier.
For objects consisting of multiple particles, this results in that object's total destruction. Each particle will have its location randomly determined when it tries to cross, dispersing them across the soul's range of spiritual influence. The object is scattered into a diffuse cloud of electrons, protons, neutrons and other particles.
Energy and Momentum Conservation
Momentum is conserved by Scattering Barriers. The momentum of a particle before teleportation is equal to its momentum after teleportation in both magnitude and direction. This means the cloud of scattered particles collectively have the same momentum as the object which originally struck the Scattering Barrier.
Conservation of energy also applies. Energy potentials (such as potentials from gravitational fields, electric fields, magnetic fields, etc) must be respected. Teleporting a particle from deep within a planet's gravitational well to a large distance from that planet will instantaneously increase the particle's gravitational potential energy. In theory, Scattering Barriers can therefore create perpetual motion machines of the first kind, with potential energy being harvested from a cloud of constantly infalling particles endlessly renewed by the Scattering Barrier teleporting them back away from the source of the potential field.
Under normal (monohypostatic)
Psikinetics this is forbidden, as the soul manifesting the Scattering Barrier must source from elsewhere in the environment the energy required to teleport the particle higher up the potential well. Teleporting a bound electron away from an atomic nucleus breaks the chemical bond, which requires energy. Vice versa, if it teleports a particle deeper into a potential well, it must distribute the particle's potential energy into another system. This movement of energy creates both a resource burden (in terms of available sources and sinks for potential energy), as well as a burden of possible psikinetic burn-out. Under sustained stress near sources of potential, Scattering Barriers can be costly for a soul to sustain.
Scattering Barriers manifested by
Souls containing either a
Theosis or Iconoclastic hypostasis can use Symmetry Violations to break the energy conservation requirement. These souls can use this power to create energy from nothing, and erase it into nothing. This however still carries with it a burden of potential psikinetic burn-out (especially as Symmetry Violations double the rate of psikinetic burn-out). Increasing praxis with Theosis however can reduce the overall costs of sustaining a Scattering Barrier.
Limitations
As covered above, Scattering Barriers must fund changes in particle potential with energy either taken from elsewhere in the environment or through the Symmetry Violating powers of the Theosis and Iconoclastic spiritual hypostases. Both requirements necessitate strain upon the soul generating the barrier, pushing it closer to psikinetic burn-out, unless the soul has a high level of praxis with Theosis.
As also alluded to above, Scattering Barriers reduce probabilities of particles existing beyond the barrier to a vanishingly small value but not to zero. This means a very small number of particle do cross the barrier. The quantity passing through chiefly depends upon the intelligence of the soul generating the barrier, and to a lesser extent its spiritual power.
A soul must track, measure, and perform calculations of the Schoedinger equation for every particle passing through the barrier before it can alter their wavefunctions in the required manner. This requires gargantuan computing power, growing exponentially with the number of particles being influenced. A soul of more limited computational power will reach a computational limit with regards to the number of particles it can teleport per second. Any particles exceeding that limit will pass through the barrier untouched.
Scattering Barriers must also break molecular bonds when teleporting electrons and nucleons apart. The soul must provide the energy for this, either from the environment or from Symmetry Violation. The soul's spiritual power determines the maximum energy it can provide, and if it can't supply the energy to break these chemical bonds then conservation of energy will cause the teleportation to fail. These atoms and molecules will therefore pass through.
Beyond these limitations, even with theoretically unlimited computational and spiritual power, some number of particles will always pass through, and this is simply a consequence of quantum phenomena. The wavefunction on the other side of the barrier can be made vanishingly close to zero but it can't be reduced to zero entirely. This means that, for a large number of particles impinging upon the barrier, a small number will teleport themselves through the barrier via quantum tunneling despite the near-zero probability of them existing there.
The average psikinetic-capable species in the universe is capable of generating Scattering Barriers where one ton of matter is reduced to a few grams after passing through. This is representative of the computational and spiritual power limitations of monohypostatic mortal souls.
Rodinians and
Nadrakians can reduce the same mass to a few hundred electrons and nucleons after passing through. This is equivalent to the mass of the Moon hitting their Scattering Barriers, and only 100 milligrams of material passing through. This is close to the fundamental limit due to natural quantum tunneling.
Radiation Risk
Scattering Barriers produce clouds of ionizing radiation in the form of free protons, electrons and decay products from decaying free neutrons, all released by the scattering of particles from objects disintegrated by the barrier. Much of this will recombine into Hydrogen atoms over time, but nevertheless creates increasingly hazardous conditions for life, sensitive electronics/technology, and material integrity.
Singularities
Monohypostatic Scattering Barriers can't teleport singularities enclosed within an event horizon. To perform psikinetics, a soul measures particle properties and receives information from this. The soul cannot receive any information from within an event horizon, so therefore can't measure a singularity's properties. Black holes therefore pass through monohypostatic Scattering Barriers completely unaffected.
To deal with singularities, the soul would need to call upon supernatural powers from the Theosis ousia, where clairvoyance could potentially penetrate the event horizon. Rodinian
Mycoships are typically the only entities capable of doing this, as the calculations involve quantum gravity and are hence exceedingly difficult even for Rodinian minds to crunch in a moment's notice. The spiritual power required to unbind the large gravitational potential from nearby objects near to the horizon is also strenuous.
The Mycaurum of
Rodinia (the golden spires enclosing the central planetarium) emits the strongest known Scattering Barrier in the known universe aside from the Earth's and the former
Archnadrakian Balaine's. It's been observed teleporting interstellar mass black holes to its far side, where such black holes have been dispatched as a weapon against the Rodinians by raging civilizations through careful gravitational slingshotting.
Rival Psikinetics
What happens if a psikinetic-capable entity attempts to cross the Scattering Barrier generated by another psikinetic-capable being?
The answer is a battle of influence plays out over the particles within the intruding entity's body. The soul generating the Scattering Barrier attempts to alter the wavefunction of the particles within the other entity's body, and the other entity responds by reverting the changes or stopping them. This is a battle determined by the raw intellect of the two entities and how fast they can respond to each other's actions. The faster and smarter soul will usually win out.
A defensive technique used by spiritually powerful entities unable to compete intellectually is altering the coupling constants of the electromagnetic field and electric charges in their body. Electrons and protons then bind more strongly to one another and increase the potential energy in their bond. If this is made a function of their separation distance, then it means the bond strength increases with separation distance. The result is that teleporting the psikinetic entity's body apart requires a rapidly billowing cost of energy to be paid so that the particles can be teleported apart to an arbitrarily large distance. This technique makes it more taxing on a Scattering Barrier when it tries to destroy the other entity, which can stop them being destroyed.
Uses
Filtration
Scattering Barriers can be used to filter out specific particle fluxes, for example photons of a specific wavelength or cosmic ray protons. They can therefore act as reasonable radiation screens.
In other instances they can filter materials of any phase (solid, liquid, gas, or plasma) to remove impurities. Passing liquid metals through a Scattering Barrier a few times can produce exceptional purity.
With sufficient training and practice, it's possible to shape particle wavefunctions to encourage quantum tunneling to a specific destination as opposed to random ones. This creates the possibility for effective filtration, purification and sorting systems where elements can be harvested from waste products and distributed onwards for new usages. An example is the Sub-mycelia the Rodinians use to clean wastewater. Several steps are used to filter out atom based on atomic number, meaning elements are separated out into silos of exceptional purity, leaving behind a stream of matter containing only hydrogen and oxygen. This will therefore likely be water, heavy water, hydrogen gas, and oxygen gas (possibly ozone and hydrogen peroxide too, depending on the source).
Stealth
Scattering Barriers can hide objects from radar and other sensor systems where detection is based on emitting radiation and then measuring whatever bounces back from the environment. Incoming microwaves used in radar detection systems try to cross the Scattering Barrier, but end up teleported away with the same momentum. They therefore can't reflect off the object to be measured by the radar sensors.
In principle this can be extended to all photons, producing a volume of space inside the Scattering Barrier where photons cannot penetrate (aside from trace amounts). Those inside the Scattering Barrier can't observe sources of electromagnetic radiation outside it (including light). But whilst they can't see anything outside, those on the outside can't detect what's inside. The only thing they'll be able to detect is the absence created by the barrier. Such an anomaly would resemble a black hole without the extreme mass or gravitational lensing, and be almost impossible to detect in the vastness of space.
Objects inside still emit radiation however, such as infrared. These photons will cross the barrier and be teleported to a random location with the same direction and momentum. The overall particle flux per square meter from the objects inside the barrier is unaffected, but the image is completely scrambled. To avoid detection from self-emission, other measures need to be employed.
Levels
Psikinetic (Monohypostatic)
This most basic type of Scattering Barrier. Indicted by a dull blue glow.
This is generated by mortals and operates using psikinetic tilt to alter particle wavefunctions in a way making it extremely unlikely for them to exist on the other side of the barrier. When they try to cross, they will quantum tunnel to another location outside the barrier.
They must obey conservation laws regarding momentum and energy, and are prone to psikinetic burn-out and computational limits when too much matter crosses.
Theosis (Dihypostatic)
The type of barrier commonly used by Rodinians and Nadrakians. Indicated by a bright white glow.
These can use Symmetry Violation to break the conservation of energy requirement. They can also benefit from praxis in Theosis to create barriers with reduced computational and spiritual power requirements, and less strain upon the conjuring soul.
Iconoclastic (Trihypostatic)
Not commonly used. In theory can be conjured by Rodinians and Ninth Caste Nadrakians. Indicated by a red glow.
These barriers erase objects from existence when they traverse the barrier. Few can generate them, and fewer can sustain erasing the mass-energy content of macroscopic objects, which are immense. In theory, could be combined with praxis of Theosis to eliminate this cost.
Iconoclastic Scattering Barriers are believed to be 100% impermeable, unlike the standard psikinetic barriers which still allow a tiny particle flux through them due to quantum tunnelling. Iconoclastic barriers also destroy spiritual dyne that passes, and hence can block spiritual phenomenon (such as
Congealed Malice, Book of Exetharsis incantations, psikinetic influences, etc).
Comments