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.

Hadronium is powerful and strong, but ridiculously dense, to the point where its usefulness becomes questionable at even moderate strengths. Electronium, while light and extremely flexible in terms of capabilities, cannot exist outside of an artificially generated field. Exomatter is the term for compounding these two exotic forms of matter. Combining the strength of the former with the malleability of the latter, it functions as an 'acceptable' middle ground.

By mass, exomatter is largely hadronium, while by volume it is largely electronium. As the definition is extremely broad, it covers an immensely vast array of materials and uses. For the most part, however, it cannot be forged en mass - it needs to be meticulously designed and carefully constructed.

Hypomatter

Hypoparticles is notably lighter than their normal counterparts, and possess twenty-three times the electric charge. 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 some form of complex analysis.

• hypohydrogen, like exohydrogen, is a superconducting solid up to its melting point - about a hundred thousand Kelvin. Some ships use it for heat spreading.
• hypohelium remains a liquid up to around a thousand Kelvin, retaining superfluid properties throughout. It replaces exohelium for critical uses when enough is available.
• hypolithium does not see frequent use.
• hypoberyllium is notable for the fact that a single-atom layer of this substance is impervious to neutrons.
• hypoboron does not see frequent use.
• hypocarbon is the smallest of all atoms known, to the point where it is also the densest substance known despite its light atomic weight. Hypocarbon fiber has a tensile strength nearing two exapascals. While its use as an armor is suspect, a thin layer often covers flagships, in order to provide a barrier that can protect against chemical weapons, gamma-pulse lasers, and high-temperature attacks.

No simple process currently exists for the creation of hypomatter. Its value is often rivals that of patterns, and is often treated accordingly by those terran organizations that seek complete control over such things. This also makes many among the Three Empires suspicious of the technology, as anything humans would so openly embrace must be suspect.

Third Order

Third-order exotics involves the restructuring of spacetime itself. Humans have possessed a rudimentary grasp of such technology for some time - the simplest version is best known as a black hole, and screens and many other first-order applications make use of rudimentary mockeries of the concept. Only recently have self-sustaining structures been created to rival anything like what the First have demonstrated, however.

Unlike second and first order exotics, the properties of the third order are not so easily defined - they are a warping of the fabric of space itself. While this can be considered to hold to be true for all matter, third-order exotics actually can do things like creating true, stable line or plane sources of electric charge, without the need for the fancy generators behind first-order technology.