µ-Singularity Reactors (aka: Hawking Reactors)

[ittiz]

First off for clarification µ-singularities are tiny black holes. I had an idea for a type of reactor beyond antimatter on the technological horizon. It would use µ-singularities orbiting one another and combining at a specific rate to keep the average mass of the µ-singularities in a certain range. Also it would have a higher energy density than antimatter.<br /><br />This principal works on Hawking radiation, which is the reason why I call it a Hawking Reactor. According to Dr. Hawking's theory black holes release radiation through spontaneous pair production at the event horizon. This may not make much sense to most people so here is a simple explanation. Particles of light can appear out of nowhere without any energy input as long as they appear in pairs going in opposite directions and disappear before they can do any work. A problem arises when these light particle pairs appear on the very edge of a black hole. One particle appears inside the black hole and the other outside. This means they can never be reunited before they can do work because the particle inside can't escape the black hole. So what happens is the light moving away from the black hole absorbs energy from the mass of the black hole equal to it's own energy. When this happens it's called Hawking radiation.<br /><br />Depending on the mass of the black hole will depend on what wavelength (color) of light will be released. The smaller the black hole the shorter the wavelength. Black holes of less mass than a star are µ-singularities. Tiny µ-singularities release light as x-rays and gamma rays and slightly larger µ-singularities (about the mass of an asteroid) can release visible light. This energy can be harnessed either through solar cells for visible light or by heating water or some other liquid for small µ-singularities. Because the light released by smaller µ-singularities is shorter in wave length it's also higher in energy. So to have a high energy reactor you would just make th

 

[rogers_buck]

Small black holes evaporate quickly dependent upon size. When black holes evaportate they produce GRBs in the 10^20GeV range. The wavelength of the Hawking radiation is dependent upon the entropy of the black hole rather than strictly upon its mass (though they are related).<br /><br />I guess I missed your basic premiss of how energy is stored in the reactor. Seems like the total flux density of Hawking radiation would be pretty low because of the small event horizon.<br /><br />

 

[barrykirk]

Very small singularities are going to be very difficult to combine. The cross section for collision is going to be miniscule.<br /><br />It will probably be possible to build the tiniest black holes when the LHC at CERN comes on line, but they will have lifetimes of nanoseconds at best.<br /><br />

 

[ittiz]

They would be small but not that small. maybe about the mass of small asteriods. So About the mass of a mountain or so.

 

[barrykirk]

What is the size of a black hole the size of an asteroid. A couple of micron's at most I would guess. How are you going to maneuver something that massive with that kind of accuracy. And how would you manufacture something like that. I'm not saying it's impossible, but it's probably a couple of centuries out.

 

[nyarlathotep]

"And how would you manufacture something like that. I'm not saying it's impossible, but it's probably a couple of centuries out."<br /><br />Well, you take neutrons and compress them until they stick.

 

[qso1]

The biggest problem I can see with black hole based propulsion is that its usually not explained where the black hole itself is going to come from or if its to be artificially built somehow.<br /><br />In past postings of similar ideas, it appears to be generally assumed that we go out and get a black hole then utilize it.<br /><br />Does this idea depend on a black hole obtained from the cosmos or one generated artificially somehow? <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><strong>My borrowed quote for the time being:</strong></p><p><em>There are three kinds of people in life. Those who make it happen, those who watch it happen...and those who do not know what happened.</em></p> </div>

 

[barrykirk]

Take neutrons and compress them till they stick.<br /><br />Ahhhh. No, I don't think so.<br /><br />First, the black hole size mentioned earlier was the size of a small asteroid....<br /><br />That's a lot of neutrons to get to stick together.<br /><br />The problem is that when neutrons start to stick together, some of them get converted to protons.<br /><br />And as the mass gets larger and larger it will start to decay.<br /><br />As I said earlier, manufacturing black holes the size of asteroids is centuries out from now, even if it's possible, and would require us to discover and be able to harness physical laws that we just don't know right now.

 

[ittiz]

I'm not proposing exactly how the µ-Singularity would be made or combined. I'm assuming there would be some way to make them in the distant future. Maybe some kind of anti-matter powered accelerator. I'm mostly just putting forward the idea. Combining the µ-Singularities might not be necessary, but as energy is drawn out of them they would lose mass. If one of the µ-Singularities winks out of existence I guess it's excess energy could be reflected into the remaining µ-Singularities. The good thing about this is that as long as the excess energy being emitted from the µ-Singularities is reflected back the energy/µ-Singularity mass will only decrease at the rate the energy is used. The less massive the µ-Singularities used the more energy would be extracted at one time but the better the reflective shielding would be needed. Also the energy would probably be extracted by thermal methods. Which means some of the radiation from the µ-Singularities would be allowed to penetrate the reflective shielding to heat some substance and in turn generate power.

 

[publiusr]

Some have suggested that black holes may be quite common. If one could be located out past the OOrt cloud--an invisible perturber perhaps,, it could be encirlced by a large sphere with rods that can be moved toward or away the BH if it drifts too far to one side--and the pole retracted once it comes back into position.<br /><br />The BH would rotate one way--the sphere the other. Small bits of matter are fed into it to generate hot fusion--and water in the body of the sphere heats up--with the poles of the BH having elements that can be bathed in tiny x-ray jets--with separate sterling engines there.