1: Lasers,
My recollections regarding lasers was somewhat incorrect. For an x-ray laser
with a 2mm beam, the dot at 500 meters would be 3mm diameter, which will lead
to roughly half the effect per area, if one ignores all atmospheric effects.
For UV, visible light, and IR, the dot will become progressively larger, and
the laser will this become less effective at long ranges.
X-ray lasers thus seems to be the best choise.
However, the probability of spontaneous (premature) emmission from the atom
in the lasing material rises with the cube of the frequency, and this means that
an X-ray laser is some orders of magnitude harder to get to work than a visible
light laser.(?)
2: Mesonguns,
There is an example of mesonguns mounted completely inside large structures:
The Imperial Palace on Core has several internal meson guns according to a
cutaway drawing in an old Digest.
- -bertil-
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