Looking for a person to learn QFT from

[Cathul Thuku]

That might be a crazy request, but while OOCly I know enough quantum field theory to just have Cathul read through the Star Wars equivalents of Peskin & Schroeder, Mandl & Shaw and/or Srednicki in a solo thread, but ICly it just doesn't make any sense to her to learn QFT that way. Even less so that you wouldn't expect the average Witch (or, for that matter, Jedi/Sith) to know about QFT in the first place.

Long story short, Cathul suspects QFT to be of use for weaving spells.

Spoiler

She will probably realize that changing the mass of objects amounts to changing the vev of the Higgs field inside said object... a locally lower vev would mean that the object is getting lighter and a locally higher vev would mean that the object is heavier as a result

 

[Kytarra Hawk]

I'm sorry but, there is no need to make it this complicated for spells.

And I don't even think there is a force equivalent for changing mass save art of small, but even then that's to hide oneself or change a material like make tears into a healing agent ... It is space magic.

It's just the Force / Spirit Ichor.

 

[Liliane]

[member="Cathul Thuku"]

That's the way Chaos works.

We don't make things difficult if they can work in a more simple way.

 

[Kami Meran]

Lyth should know this from the science angle.

 

[Ugohr Poof]

The way my alt sees it, is that many of the more exotic uses of space magic rely on the caster's knowledge of chemistry or physics... QFT opens a range of powers, ranging from the ability to change objects' masses, the ability to enhance turbolasers' firepower or firing rate (or both), the ability to project radiation onto a target (the latter two are items pertaining to cross-section) and so much more.

The average Witch with the above abilities wouldn't suspect at all that the witch is actually affecting QFT processes with the Force. My alt is the one who placed that request, she might be a space witch, but she has a radical approach to spellweaving. That approach gave her the Force-alcohol spell and a Mass change spell that she doesn't master but still try to teach anyway.

I know, the approach is highly complex but novel Force-powers can be drawn from it.

 

[Velok the Younger]

Your character is an apprentice.

 

[Ugohr Poof]

[member="Velok the Younger"] Cathul's master doesn't know anything about QFT ICly, hence this request.

 

[Velok the Younger]

[member="Ugohr Poof"] My point is that you're talking about an apprentice or new knight being able to alter the mass of objects, and learning to create radiation and stuff. That's a bit much.

 

[Liliane]

[member="Ugohr Poof"]

I believe it is very unlikely to find a PC who has such knowledge or even such way of thinking about the Force (because it is, by its very nature, not science, but space magic), so I would suggest that you use an NPC or so, doing a series of threads.

I won't say people will share your ideology about the magic, but if you want to go about it this way, you can do this, nobody's stopping you. Just be vary, not all people will like a padawan running around, manipulating the very realm of existence with quantum physic magic. Because that is not how the Force works. But if you want your character to just have theories about how it works, feel free to do that. Nobody knows for sure what the Force really is, so...

 

[Isis Varida]

Well the jedi did have science divisions that studied everything. It wasn't just space magic but even then that takes years of learning in its own right and practicing it would take even longer. Certain force powers are noted to being less stressful if you have an understanding of how they work but they are still going to be a beast to use and maintain. [member="Velok the Younger"]'s writer is maybe one of the better sources for the board on abilities and use of the force. Being a witch also really makes it strange to go this route as witches would and should be more in line with preferring the idea of space magic then anyone... save maybe the shapers. If you want to learn it in an rp sense and try to make it explain how the force works go for it but spirit ichor does the same explanation and it can reanimate corpses.

 

[Ugohr Poof]

At that point it might be best to let my other alt Jessica teach Cathul about QFT. There is no other character I'm playing that would have an IC reason to know about QFT. Ugohr is a Jedi Brute and is not the kind of Jedi to favor using the Force in such exotic ways, Charzon is not involved with the design of the inner workings of starship components, Dunames doesn't even know that much about starship components, Klesta is a Jawa senator that used to operate spaceports... however Jessica is that one PC I have that worked on the inner workings of starship components (but she was a NPC at the time).

For now, how I planned Cathul to use these newfound powers emanating from her use of QFT for spellweaving:

• Change the mass of objects by a maximum of 35% or 35 kg, whichever is smaller (already used once)
• Radiation at the dosage and energy level of an X-ray scan (dental at first, and later at the full-body scan level) and at most at the level of a radiation therapy (at a later point)

To be fair, enhancing turbolasers or blasters with the Force may cause more serious balance issues. That, even though she isn't one to fleet or to fight in space, or even to use ranged personal weapons. How overpowered is the above level?

The only reason why I even made Cathul a witch in the first place was because of therapeutical considerations: FU patients tended to be picky about the Force-alignment of their therapists.

 

[Cathul Thuku]

If I instead wanted a thread where a discussion of theories of the Force would take place, who could possibly want to take part in such a discussion?

 

[Valik]

If quantum mechanics is truly the direction you wish to take your character I'd recommend her stopping her career as a psychologist and as a Dathomiri Witch and re-enrolling back into school in a university that specializes in physics and getting a physics degree. With most of your non-essential pre-requisites taken care of and you possibly having enough math in psychology to start of Calculus you might be able to get a physics degree in three years rather than four, and you'd begin studying the very beginnings of quantum physics the early semesters of your senior year. While you're undergoing your senior season you'll also want to apply for graduate programs, and then when you get into a master's program you'll start really learning about quantum physics and all of the possibilities it entails. Rather than a wikipedia master your character will know what you're talking about, and then it simply becomes a matter of manipulating the Force in order to reach a desired outcome.

Five IC years down the road you will one powerful motherkarker and prove that Sir Isaac Newton is the deadliest son a schutta in space.

 

[Azula Tindara]

Who says QFT turns out to be valid or a current discipline in the star wars universe?

 

[Funky Balor]

Who says QFT turns out to be valid or a current discipline in the star wars universe?

The larger trick is arguing that physics in general still works the same way. Most sci-fi universes don't really get along with Einsteinian physics or atomic theory. Hell, I'm not even certain the second law of thermodynamics operates properly in Star Wars.

 

[Cathul Thuku]

[member="Valik"] Each race, and sometimes different planets controlled by the same race, has its own set of educational practices. Some species will operate in a more-or-less "liberal-arts" fashion while others will get you in the thick of your chosen specialization from day 1 as an undergraduate.

You're first assuming that undergrad in Chaos is the same as that real-world "liberal-arts" vision rife with distribution requirements across disciplines for most races, or is otherwise the most common. While without a doubt a few existing institutions, some of which are located in Mando space, would fit that description, others would be more rigid. Gungans seemed to think that knowledge of physiology and what underlies it, in terms of chemistry and physics, is essential to understandng psychology, so, as you said, she wouldn't be starting from scratch. She did her undergrad among the Gungans on Dagobah; with the Gungans, the length of undergrad was highly variable across disciplines, depending on how many side-contributions (that is, contributions from disciplines other than your major) were required: the more side-contributions required, the longer it took to graduate.

Second, you seem to think that there isn't some (classical!) spell she could use, not so much to get her to drain that knowledge from someone else but to self-learn at paces akin to hyperspace velocities, assuming her normal self would be learning at some sublight speed, maybe even (ultra-)relativistic, if there was that someone to give her a proper reading list beforehand.

Or you may alternatively choose to think that she became crazy herself after years of listening to crazy patients (although most of her patients are mando'ade with PTSD who know no more about QM/QFT than she does). Perhaps that whole quest for QM/QFT may well be the result of her going crazy ICly. (On a sidenote, therapists can and do become crazy sometimes, FU or NFU)

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[member="Thrukk Gulpdar"] QFT is used in SW for materials science, as well as lasers. Even though plasma is the order of the day for SW weapons, what SW calls (turbo-)laser weapons may simply be called as such because part of the mechanism includes a laser to create the plasma in the first place. QFT is even part of what makes quantum-crystalline armor, well, quantum-crystalline armor.

I understand that we touched on a sensitive topic but what I think works best is just ask for someone to discuss Force-theories at some point, probably a patient.

 

[Ellie Mors]

[member="Cathul Thuku"]
Are you referring to this?

Because I'm actually aware of just how many people make use of this style of the force, and it's numbered less than the fingers on one of my hands.

 

[Azula Tindara]

[member="Cathul Thuku"]

Link to your reference that Quantum Field Theory is extant in the Star Wars Universe?

I mean, if you want to throw some "Quantum" into your posts go for it. Just don't expect to find anyone doing the same

 

[Ellie Mors]

[member="Cathul Thuku"]
What exactly are you trying to accomplish by marrying quantum physics with the force?

 

[Cathul Thuku]

[member="Thrukk Gulpdar"] Wook says that the only explicit reference to QFT in canon is in Alien Anthology; given the description Alien Anthology gave about QFT, I would assume that QFT as of 0 ABY is more or less where it is today in the real world, perhaps a little more advanced in SW. I know enough about condensed matter OOCly to say that one just couldn't design quantum-crystalline armor the way it is depicted in canon without at least some knowledge of QFT as applied to condensed matter.

[member="Cathul Thuku"]
Are you referring to this?

Because I'm actually aware of just how many people make use of this style of the force, and it's numbered less than the fingers on one of my hands.

No. Alter Environment is part of the possibilities afforded by what I call quantum magic, but it's too much for Cathul to handle in her current condition ICly.

[member="Cathul Thuku"]
What exactly are you trying to accomplish by marrying quantum physics with the force?

Part of it is being able to use some existing Force-powers without having to rely on a particular side of the Force (e.g. Force-lightning, which, with proper knowledge of QED, would be accessible from the light side of the Force as well) and part of it is about using new Force-powers, like Force-radiation (which she could use to cure cancers or to irradiate food for long-term preservation, by using the Force to induce either Auger radiation or bremsstrahlung), or the ability to use the Force to phase through walls (by using the Force to invoke quantum tunneling through said walls)

How Cathul ICly sees Force-cloak is that power changes the target's refraction index to -1; yet changing a material's refraction index (in a particular band of the spectrum) is a quantum operation. But because she would be changing a target's refraction index, she could also render an item transparent (by setting the imaginary part of the target's refraction index to 0, much like transparisteel and glasteel have real-valued refraction indices in visible light) and to her it would be Force refraction.

You see, ICly, and OOCly as well, quantum mechanics is like magic to a lot of people. Jessica is my alt who ICly knows the most about QM/QFT at present, but I could just have Jessica give Cathul (as well as to a band of Jawa paparazzi and my apprentice) a reading list at some point in a thread with my current apprentice.