No experimental evidence for the existence of such particles has been found.
Next we turn to:
Poul Anderson, "The Pirate" IN Anderson, The Complete Psychotechnic League, Volume 3 (Riverdale, NY, 2018), pp. 137-165 -
- where Trevelyan Micah and Smokesmith in the Coordination Service speedster, Genji, track the cruiser Campesino. When the latter has "...gone over to the tachyon mode...," (p. 143) she can be tracked only by "...a weak emission of superlight particles..." (ibid.)
This newly introduced terminology of "tachyon mode" applies to the "...hyperdrive..." (p. 142) which is an already established feature of Poul Anderson's Psychotechnic History.
Although "The Pirate" (1968) first appeared over a decade after the second last Psychotechnic History installment to be published, "Virgin Planet" (1957), it, "The Pirate," is set earlier than The Peregrine (1956). See Psychotechnic History Publication Dates. "The Pirate" and The Peregrine describe two incidents in the career of Trevelyan Micah. Thus, "The Pirate" cannot be allowed to contradict the level of technology as shown in The Peregrine. Otherwise, the tachyon mode might have been a new means of propulsion, superseding the hyperdrive. Instead, we have to assume that the hyperdrive has involved tachyons all along even though they were not mentioned before.
Future history series are uneven. A later written story will show signs of being written later even when it is set earlier.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
I recall reading somewhere, perhaps in an essay or introduction, of Anderson writing that if you plied a physicist with a few drinks, he (the physicist) would start to incautiously speculate that tachyons might somehow be able to get around the Einsteinian light speed limit! Frankly, I hope we can get a real hyperdrive soon!
Ad astra! Sean
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