Engineering Antimatter Engines and Electrical Engineering?

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SUMMARY

Electrical engineers (EEs) currently face significant challenges in engaging with antimatter engine research due to the complexities of antimatter production and containment. The consensus is that advancements in these areas must precede any practical design of antimatter engines. While EEs can contribute to specific components, such as driver circuitry for ion rockets, the foundational physics and plasma control aspects are better suited for physicists. Thus, the field remains largely theoretical and distant from practical application.

PREREQUISITES
  • Understanding of antimatter production techniques
  • Knowledge of magnetic containment principles
  • Familiarity with ion propulsion systems
  • Basic principles of plasma physics
NEXT STEPS
  • Research current methods for antimatter production and their limitations
  • Explore magnetic containment technologies applicable to antimatter
  • Study ion propulsion systems and their engineering challenges
  • Investigate plasma physics and its relevance to electrical engineering
USEFUL FOR

This discussion is beneficial for electrical engineers, physicists, and researchers interested in the theoretical and practical aspects of antimatter technology and propulsion systems.

Ryuk1990
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Are there opportunities for EEs to be involved in research on antimatter engines? Considering antimatter engines are heavily based on magnetic principles, is it feasible to assume that antimatter engine design will be a subfield of EE? The gap between EE and theoretical physics is getting smaller.
 
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Ryuk1990 said:
Are there opportunities for EEs to be involved in research on antimatter engines?

No. You are about one century too early.
 
First you have to figure out how to produce antimatter in volume. Next you should consider how one might contain it. Finally, when those two problems are solved we can discuss what kind of engine it might be.

Perhaps you should first figure out how to stay alive and healthy for two centuries and THEN consider whether electrical engineering curricula are appropriate for designing anti-matter engines. :-)
 
If I wanted someone to design an Ion Rocket (presumably what you mean when you write a plasma engine), I would still turn to a physicist first. There are aspects of controlling an ionized plasma that are not really well known among electrical engineers.

But an electrical engineer could design the driver circuitry...
 
Topics in this forum should be confined to Career Guidance, not a discussion on the physics or validity of a physical concept.

Please note that our Global rules still apply in this forum.

Zz.
 
For some background, I'm currently a 3rd year physics major with an astro specialization studying in Canada, and as undergraduates are want to do I'm regularly evaluating my career prospects down the road. I also plan on pursuing grad school when I've completed my degree. It might just be my anxiety acting up a little, but with a lot of the government funding drying up for public science research broadly in the US, the 'industry' everyone keeps talking about when questions like this are...

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