science

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[–] rain_enjoyer@sopuli.xyz 12 points 7 months ago (9 children)

you're off by something like 15-18 orders of magnitude

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[–] Paranoidfactoid@lemmy.world 0 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (8 children)

This is old, but you get the idea. See section 3.5.

https://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0510071

EDIT: I'm getting bullshit downvotes from people who clearly won't read the paper and don't understand the proposed detonation model. One need not have grams of antimatter to trigger a H-H fusion detonation. A relatively small amount of antimatter is needed to trigger initial fusion of a hydrogen target, which by cascade can be used to detonate additional hydrogen. This removes the fission trigger and allows for very small fusion weapons with relatively low yields. For example, a device the size of a hand grenade with tons of TNT equivalent output - like a truck bomb in your hand. Or a rifle sized X-Ray laser is another proposed weapon.

Read the study. This technology is feasible.

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[–] anton@lemmy.blahaj.zone 9 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (6 children)

The paper you linked says "1 microgram is sufficient to trigger one thermonuclear weapon" which corresponds to 6×10^17.
This makes your "few thousand" of by 14 orders of magnitude instead of 15, I bet you feel vindicated now.

For example, a device the size of a hand grenade with tons of TNT equivalent output

A man portable nuke has existed since the 60's so it wouldn't be a game changer.

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[–] Paranoidfactoid@lemmy.world 2 points 7 months ago*

You're getting the microgram statement from here. You miss the point. A millionth of a gram is feasible to make and contain right now. It was predicted by 2010 in the paper using CERN, and there are much better facilities producing since then.

You're missing the point to be pedantic over a 20 year old paper. Newer approaches reduce the antimatter requirements for such weapons even more.

This might make you wonder why antimatter is being transported around. The fact is, proposals to weaponize antimatter as a fusion trigger have been around for over 40 years, and the means to achieving that from a production and engineering standpoint seem a good bet to be available today.

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[–] gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 1 point 7 months ago

interesting! i had wondered whether that exists. the wikipedia page on radionuclides seems to hint so since it gives 10 kg as a possible total mass of fissile material in a critical scenarion but i still had doubts till now.

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[–] AbidanYre@lemmy.world 1 point 7 months ago (2 children)

I think even the TSA could tell that's a bomb.

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[–] anton@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 point 7 months ago (1 child)

Yes, but if you take the train or a private car you won't be searched. To get it across international borders try smuggling among other cargo or by submarine, maybe even diplomatic courier.

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[–] AbidanYre@lemmy.world 2 points 7 months ago

Sure. I just thought it was funny that it looks like the suitcase a cartoon character would put a warhead in.

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[–] HalfAFrisbee@lemmy.world 1 point 7 months ago

LMAO, the little baby down voted you.

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[–] rain_enjoyer@sopuli.xyz 2 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

it's not a twenty year old paper, it's a twenty two year old preprint which has all the reliability of a blog post. in 22 years, you can get born, complete all education bachelors degree, start masters degree and write a real paper that would be accepted in a real physics journal. the reason it's not accepted for all these years is it is packed full of crackpot nonsense. it cites Dan Brown's Angels and Demons ffs

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[–] echodot@feddit.uk 6 points 7 months ago

In conjunction with you know a fusion bomb so in and of itself not something I'd be concerned about.

It's like saying that a spark could be used to blow up a mountain, yeah it could, in conjunction with several hundred kilogrammes of C4.