Extracting power from a pulsar

[[e-mail]]

I want to use a pulsar as a power supply for an antimatter factory in a story but have no clear idea how it might work, and would rather base it on known physics than just dress it up in Treknobabble. Best I can manage is Great Big Coils positioned to cut the pulsar's magnetic fields from its poles as they whip by but the coils would need to be held stable over planetary-orbit distances against the reaction forces. Any better ideas?


Mark L. Fergerson

[twoborg]

"***@bid.nes" <***@gmail.com> wrote in message news:cd886035-8346-48ee-94f4-***@googlegroups.com...
I want to use a pulsar as a power supply for an antimatter factory in a
story but have no clear idea how it might work, and would rather base it on
known physics than just dress it up in Treknobabble. Best I can manage is
Great Big Coils positioned to cut the pulsar's magnetic fields from its
poles as they whip by but the coils would need to be held stable over
planetary-orbit distances against the reaction forces. Any better ideas?


Mark L. Fergerson


maybe magnetar would better suit the purpose. somehow megamagnetic fields
could
serve as some sort of electromagnetic force needed for massive nuclei
collision where pairs of matter-antimatter subparticles would be produced,
similarly like in today accelerators.

[[e-mail]]

Post by ***@bid.nes
I want to use a pulsar as a power supply for an antimatter factory in a
story but have no clear idea how it might work, and would rather base it on
known physics than just dress it up in Treknobabble. Best I can manage is
Great Big Coils positioned to cut the pulsar's magnetic fields from its
poles as they whip by but the coils would need to be held stable over
planetary-orbit distances against the reaction forces. Any better ideas?
Mark L. Fergerson
maybe magnetar would better suit the purpose. somehow megamagnetic fields
could
serve as some sort of electromagnetic force needed for massive nuclei
collision where pairs of matter-antimatter subparticles would be produced,
similarly like in today accelerators.

Yeah, but magnetars typically emit inconvenient(for story purposes) x-ray and gamma radiation bursts. Pulsars exist that don't radiate much but do have huge usable time-varying magnetic fields.

I also posted in rec.arts.sf.science and got the ideas I needed there. Thanks anyway.


Mark L. Fergerson