Exotic

Exotic matter is the term for strange, electomagnetically interacting matter. Theory consists of three orders of them.

First Order

First-order exotics are either quantum dots or stabilized atoms. This was pioneered in the 20th and 21st century, though did not see much practical use until the 22nd century.

Quantum dots are magnetically controlled matter to suit various ends, that consist of no nuclei, just the electron shell. Since they are essentially atoms without protons, there are no limits on their size, and they do not exhibit lanthanide contraction. So, pseudo-gold is not yellow, pseudo-mercury is a solid, and so on. Elements created in this fashion are usually referred to with the 'pseudo' prefix. Their primary use is in creating a perfect, monomolecular edge, and for defensive nets - usually referred to as screens.

Stabilized atoms are atoms that, while normally radioactive, are inhibited from decaying through stimulation and monitoring, or sometimes other methods. This is usually done to help facilitate better experimental situations, though it does see direct usage where it is feasible to have a larger apparatus maintain a small portion of a critical element on an atomic level. It is also used to assist in the production of more stable isotopes of heavier elements.

The principles of first order exotics can be carried into the second order, at least for quantum dots. This is used almost entirely for experimental purposes, however, since exotic electrons are far too valuable to be used otherwise.

Second Order

Second-order exotics make use of replacement protons, neutrons, and electrons. They are typically referred to as exoparticles - that is, exrotons, exeutrons, and exolectrons - or hypoparticles - hrotons, heutrons, and hectrons. Like all matter, they possess their own antiparticles. They are referred to as exomatter and hypomatter, respectively.

Despite having electric charge, exoparticles, hypoparticles, and standard atomic particles do not like to mingle with particles not of their specific order - there is an additional, repulsive force between them. This is compounded, slightly, with self-attractive forces that draws particles of the same order and type together, though this is negligible in comparison, and almost nonexistent in normal matter. The end result of this is that different types of such matter are nearly frictionless with respect to one another, limiting their use to independent systems.

All forms of second-order exotic matter have stable isotopes. Even still, with only twenty-nine elements combined between the two forms, the amount of useful chemistry they can perform is extremely limited. What little chemistry is available has proven itself to be highly useful, however.

Exomatter

Individually, exoparticles have a slightly lower mass than their standard counterparts, and six times the electric charge. Despite their lower mass, they tend to be denser - especially at higher numbers - primarily due to the additional contraction effects a greater charge creates.

Exomatter was exceedingly rare in the Galaxy until Albred Mynoth discovered the Mynoth process. Attempts to keep it secret from the Three Empires only accelerated the coming of the Purge, and they eventually learned the process through the Holocene and supplicants anyway.

Because the energy of activation is so high, exomatter and compounds of it tend to be transparent, white, or extremely reflective. When heated to extreme temperatures (about 3,000K), they start to glow 'purple hot', as emitting as a blackbody requires the electrons first accumulate enough energy to emit it in the first place, which begins in the X-Ray spectrum. As temperature increases, higher energy levels are reached more easily, and the full spectrum is eventually covered and they glow 'white hot'. While this presents a mild hazard to things susceptible to gamma and ultraviolet radiation in everyday use, the sheer utility of these materials is considered to outweigh the risk.

Only twenty-three exoelements are possible:

• exohydrogen has a melting point of over 500 Kelvin and a boiling point of a bit under 700 in vacuum. Alone, it makes an excellent superconductor, capable of performing as such up until it melts. Of course, it is also useful in a wide variety of compounds.
• exohelium
• exolithium
• exoberyllium
• exoboron
• exocarbon
• exonitrogen
• exooxygen
• exofluorine
• exoneon
• exosodium
• exomagnesium
• exoaluminum
• exosilicon
• exophosphorus
• exosulfur
• exochlorine
• exoargon
• exopotassium
• exocalcium
• exoscandium
• exotitanium
• exovanadium

Hypomatter

Hypoparticles are not so well formed. They are over seven hundred thousand times the mass of their standard counterparts, and possess twenty-three times the electric charge. This makes them highly volatile when exposed to extreme temperatures, but this requires experiment, weaponry, or dropping them into a true star. Only six hypoelements are possible.

All hypomatter is extremely reflective, even to enhanced human vision, and seemingly frictionless. Outside of hypohelium, telling the difference between two of these requires mass analysis.

• hypohydrogen, like exohydrogen, is a superconducting solid, remaining so up to temperatures in the millions of degrees Kelvin.
• hypohelium is the densest liquid known, weighing approximately eight hundred kilograms per cubic centimeter.
• hypolithium
• hypoberyllium is notable for the fact that a single-atom layer of this substance is impervious to neutrons.
• hypoboron
• hypocarbon is the densest substance known, weighing over two and a half metric tonnes per cubic centimeter. Its tensile strength is not quite that of the atomic nucleus (merely being in the near-zettapascal range), though its raw mass limits its usefulness even beyond its difficulty to produce.

No simple process currently exists for the creation of hypomatter. Currently, it exists in gram quantities, most of which has gone to the creation of klein taps.