Minovsky Physics

Minovsky Physics
The Minovsky Physics Society was formed in UC 0045 at the space colony Side 3. Their research was devoted to the development of a nuclear fusion reactor. By the year UC 0047, development of the Minovsky-Ionesco reactor began.

Named after its inventor, Dr. Y.T. Minovsky, this reactor was "radical" due to the fact that it was the first "clean" fusion reactor, emitting zero neutron radiation. The nuclear equation was:


 * $${}^3_2\mathrm{He} + {}^2_1\mathrm H \to {}^4_2\mathrm{He} + \mathrm p$$ (energy released: 18.35 MeV)

The reactant used a rare isotope of helium known as helium-3 (Ie- 2 protons and 1 neutron in the nucleus). Helium-3 is used to fuse with a deuterium atom (heavy hydrogen) to form the stable Helium-4 and a single proton. Since the proton is positively charged, it can easily be trapped within a magnetic field. The main practical problem with this reaction is that Helium-3 is extremely rare; there are little deposits on Earth, which were mainly found in Uranium mines, which are mostly depleted. The Gundam world's fusion reactors rely on a constant supply of helium imported from the outer solar system planet Jupiter, thus marking the beginning of the Jupiter Energy Fleet. The JEF would travel from Earth to Jupiter, which has a high level of helium-3, and then come back to Earth with the gas. It should be noted that in real physics, helium-3-deuterium fusion produces neutrons due to inevitable deuterium-deuterium reactions. Also, significant quantities of helium-3 were recently discovered on the moon, although there is certainly much more on Jupiter.

The Minovsky Particle
In UC 0065 the Minovsky Physics Society, while working on the reactor, encounter a strange electromagnetic wave effect within the Minovsky-Ionesco reactor that could not be explained by conventional physics. Within the next few years, they identify the cause: a new elementary particle generated by the helium-3 reaction on the inner wall of the reactor, which was named the Minovsky particle or "M" particle. The Minovsky particle has near-zero rest mass - though, like any particle, its mass increases to reflect its potential or kinetic energy - and can carry either a positive or negative electrical charge. When scattered in open space or in the air, the repulsive forces between charged Minovsky particles cause them to spontaneously align into a regular cubic lattice structure called an I-field. An I-Field lattice will slowly expand and scatter into space, however, this will take approximately 29 days before the region can retain normal electromagnetic communication again.

However, the main use of the "M" particle came into combat and communication. When the Minovsky particle is spread in large amount in the open air or in open space, the particle disrupt low-frequency electromagnetic radiation, such as microwaves and radio waves. The "M" particle also interferes with the operations of electronic circuitry and destroys unprotected ones due to their high electrical charge which act like a continuous electromagnetic pulse on metal objects. Because of the way Minovsky particles react with those particle types of radiations, radar systems and long-range wireless communication systems became useless, infra-red signals are defracted and decreases accuracy and visible light is fogged. This became known as the "Minovsky Effect".

The disruption of electromagnetic radiation is due to the small lattice of the I-Field creates fringes that long wave length waves cannot penetrate, and diffracts wave lengths that have similar distance with the fringes. This diffraction and polarization process disrupts the electromagnetic waves. Notice in real life there is a similar experimental particle that could do the same thing in few thousandth of a second, which is still not practical but proves the theory to be correct. A second utility of the I-field (and Minovsky particles in general) is the repulsion of charged plasma and chargeless Mega particles from an I-field surface, which was of use both in power generation and armament technology. If controlled, the particles can form fringes of different widths and further interfere with electromagnetic waves of shorter wave lengths, this provide the basics of the minimizing of fusion reactors installed in Mobile Suits since a controlled I-Field can block the infra-red waves from the high temperature from the thermonuclear reaction and reduces the need of coolant and such for the fusion reactors.

The only counter measure of the "M" particle was to install bulky and expensive shielding on all electronic equipment, but only to counteract the effect it had on electronic circuitry. While this could be done for space ships and naval ships, this ruled out the use of precision guided weapons, such as guided missiles. Due to this, the military use of Minovsky particles ushers in a new era of close-range combat. This is the primary reason for the birth of the Zeon close-combat weapon: the mobile suit.

Minovsky Ultracompact Fusion Reactor
In UC 0071, Zeon researchers created the Minovsky ultracompact fusion reactor. Instead of the conventional magnetic field, this improved version of the Minovsky-Ionesco reactor used an I-field to confine and compress the reactor fuel, triggering a fusion reaction. The Minovsky particles produced as a byproduct of the helium-3 fusion reaction are thus recycled to keep that reaction going. The Minovsky particles that form the I-field lattice also help catalyze the fusion reaction, in a process similar to the muon-catalyzed fusion investigated by real-world scientists during the 1950s. This super-efficient design is only a fifth as large as an equivalently powerful Minovsky-Ionesco reactor, for this reason it was adopted for use on mobile suits as the standard power plant.

The Mega Particle
Due to the repulsive forces between positive and negative Minovsky particles, large amounts of energy are required to compress an I-field lattice. If enough energy is applied, and the I-field is sufficiently compressed, the Minovsky particles ultimately fuse into massive electrically-neutral mega particles. The energy used to create the mega particles is expressed as both mass and velocity. No longer subject to the electrical forces that maintain the I-field lattice, the particles burst out of the electro-magnetic field used to compress them. The weapon will have a second I-field forming a barrel shape to prevent the mega particle from destroying the weapon that fires it. This stream of heavy fast-moving particles, unlike a conventional charged-particle beam, cannot be deflected with magnetic fields. In UC 0070, Zeon researchers exploit this phenomenon to create the fearsome mega particle cannon.

The new weapons derived from Minovsky physics are referred to by the generic term "beam weapons." There are two distinct varieties of beam weapon - one that uses regular Minovsky particles, and another that employs the Mega particles formed by fusing positive and negative Minovsky particles.

Mega Particle Cannon
The ubiquitous mega particle cannon - variously referred to as the beam cannon, mega beam gun, or mega beam cannon - is the standard armament of the Gundam world's warships and mobile armours. This weapon fires a focused beam of massive, high-velocity mega particles, which cannot be deflected by magnetic fields and tears through any conventional armor material.

To create the mega particles, a cannon-toting vehicle must first gather Minovsky particles from the vehicle's fusion reactor. The Minovsky particles are collected in a device called an energy condenser, where they are compressed in a high-density I-field until they fuse into mega particles. The performance of the mega particle cannon is thus limited by the reactor's ability to produce Minovsky particles.

Though it quickly became the standard armament of space warships, the mega particle cannon's high energy requirements and the sheer bulk of the energy condenser at first precluded its use in mobile suits. Consequently, the Principality of Zeon's MS-05 Zaku I and MS-06 Zaku II were armed with conventional projectile and missile weapons, rather than beam weapons. As a reference, a Musai-Class light cruiser's on-board generator requires 15 minutes to compress each shot of mega particle cannon. This was not practical for the mobile suits' smaller reactors to compress mega particles by themselves in combat, since it will take unreasonable amount of time to do so.

M-Warhead
Due to the effect of the Minovsky particles of interferring with low frequency electro-magnetic waves, it is used in combat as a form of warhead on rocket propelled missiles. The M-Warhead spread Minovsky particles in the battle field and prevent all known wireless communication and enemy detection methods except visible light. The M-Warhead technology was used extensively in the One Year War but after the war, treaties where signed to stop the massive disperse of the Minovsky particle because the dense Minovsky particle areas became a major disaster for civilians and to the economy. The M-Warhead became like the Nuclear warhead and was banned from the battle field. However, most warships were still equipped with M-Warheads and the captains can use the warheads whenever they get the permission from higher ranked superiors and Minovsky particle scattering Mobile Suits were still widely used.

Minovsky Craft System
Since it is made up of charged particles, the I-field is unable to permeate through metal, water, the Earth's surface, or other electrically conductive materials and can be shaped simply by trapping it in an electromagnetic field. Thus, at low altitudes it is possible to generate an I-field cushion between the underside of a vessel and the ground, yielding a gravity-countering buoyancy. This principle is used in the creation of the Minovsky Craft System, which allowed a spaceship or heavy ground vehicle to "fly" on Earth. The Principality of Zeon was slow to make use of this principle and the only units equipped with Minovsky Craft systems were the MAX-03 Adzam and the three prototype MAs Apsaras through out the One Year War; however, the Earth Federation was quick to adopt the system on its Pegasus-Class Assault Carriers. This allowed the Pegasus-Class to enter and exit earth's atmosphere and to fly while on the earth.

This system could not be miniaturized to fit on a Mobile suit until UC 0100. The first MS equiping such a device is RX-104FF Penelope from Hathaway's Flash, RX-105 Ξ Gundam which appeared in the same series also equipped the device.

After the period, most high end models such as F-91, V Gundam, V2 Gundam, etc. have installed the device.

Beam Rifle
In order to work around the mega particle cannon's energy demands, the Earth Federal Forces (with the help of Dr. Minovsky, who had left Zeon and joined the Federation) developed the E-cap (a contraction of "energy capacitor"). This device stores Minovsky particles in a high-energy compressed state, so that only a small amount of additional energy is required to trigger their fusion into mega particles. The E-cap is charged by energy condensers at the mobile suit's home base or carrier ship, and then functions like a battery until its supply of particles is exhausted, at which point the weapon becomes useless. During the One Year War the Federal Forces perfected the E-cap and used it to create a miniaturized mega particle cannon called a beam rifle, with which their first prototype mobile suits are equipped.

The limited capacity of the E-cap proved to be a significant shortcoming. The RX-78-2 Gundam, for example, could only fire 16 shots from its beam rifle before exhausting the E-cap's supply. Shortly after the end of the war, the beam rifle was further refined to use a removable E-cap module called an E-pack. A mobile suit equipped with spare E-packs could then swap them during a battle to replenish its beam rifle's particle supply.

Zeon's One Year War beam weapon research was greatly delayed after Dr. Minovsky's defection, and was limited to use by large mobile armour to carry the mega particle cannon. Though the MSM-03, MSM-04, MSM-07 and MSM-10 had mega particle cannons installed, it was not until the development of the MS-14 Gelgoog could the E-cap technology be installed on any mobile suit of Zeon.

Beam Spray Gun
Since the beam rifle was a relatively expensive weapon due to the long converging I-Field directing the mega particles towards the target, a shorter range version called the Beam spray gun was created. The spray gun's shorter barrel caused the mega particles to diverge faster after leaving the barrel (hence the name 'Spray gun'). Although the effective range of this beam weapon is less than the beam rifle, it is still capable of penetrating the armor of the MS-09/MS-09R, which is said to be the most heavily armored unit throughout the One Year War.

Beam Saber
The name "beam saber" is somewhat of a misnomer; unlike other beam weapons, the beam saber doesn't use mega particles. Instead, it emits high-energy Minovsky particles to form a blade-shaped I-field (via manipulation of electromagnetic fields), and then fills this I-field shell with superheated Minovsky particle plasma to produce a lethally effective cutting blade. The Minovsky particles are stored by E-cap in the beam saber's hilt, which is recharged by the mobile suit's reactor when the saber is returned to its socket. Thus, once activated, beam sabers don't rely on the mobile suit's reactor and can be thrown or discarded as decoys (as demonstrated in Gundam 0083). The termination of the I-field along a solid contact surface (such as the skin of a mobile suit) allows the plasma to eat away at the offending material until the I-field reestablishes itself, allowing the weapon to "cut" through almost any target. Likewise, as the beam saber's I-field enclosure repels plasma, it not only keeps the blade's contents in but also keeps other blades' contents out, allowing one beam saber to block another. Since the containing fields can be formed into a variety of simple shapes, it is trivial to create exotic variants like the beam tomahawk, naginata, axe, mace, etc. The power output of the beam sabers used in the One Year War (rated at 380 kW) has been called into question due to certain events during the One Year War. When Amuro Ray, pilot of the RX-78 Gundam was fighting one of Zeon's aces, Ramba Ral, he used his beam saber to cut into Ral's suit and expose the pilot. By all accounts, Ral should have been immolated by the sheer heat emitted by the weapon (particularly since his cockpit armor was still malleable immediately thereafter), yet he survived unscathed. Either his normal suit had higher heat resistance and air conditioning than the mobile suit, or the beam saber's I-Field prevented the plasma from touching the human.