What would a gluon computer be like?

[Maximum7]

So I was always wondering what a gluon computer (a computer using gluons instead of electrons or photons for the computing medium) would be like. There is absolutely NO literature anywhere online for it and the only mention is a brief card (with no description) in a sci-fi board game.

People on Discord told me that because of how limited in the range the strong nuclear force is; gluon computers would be very inefficient. Yet I asked ChatGPT and it seems to think they would be quite amazing. I don’t really trust ChatGPT as it constantly generates erroneous answers but I was wondering if there would be any reason humans might one day create a computer that computes with gluons.

 

[jedishrfu]

Speculatively: gluon technology might be used in environments where electronics may fail, such as strong magnetic or electric fields.

However, it most likely would be used in a quantum computer setup as a qubit.

 

[Vanadium 50]

There is absolutely NO literature anywhere online for it and the only mention is a brief card (with no description) in a sci-fi board game.

That's because it's not even science fiction. It's physics Mad-Libs. It's sticking scientific sounding words together for board game.

I asked ChatGPT

Which just arranges words together with no attempt of understanding. That's why it is not a valid source for PF. Kind of like Mad-libs instead.

gluon technology might be used in environments where electronics may fail, such as strong magnetic or electric fields

Given that their range is less than a millionth of the radius of an atom, kind of hard to see how this would work.

This isn't science.
This isn't science fiction.
This isn't even fiction.
It's just a random set of words in search of meaning.

 

[Maximum7]

You can use elementary particles for computing like photons and electrons. Why not gluons?

 

[Rive]

So I was always wondering what a gluon computer ... would be like.

Gluons belongs to the atomic nuclei. To have them stay free in an environment, so they could be sent right and left to do some math you need some really special circumstances.

Something like a neutron star might 'work', I guess.
Or a core of a star, maybe.

A bit dense and busy for any calculations, but anything for free scifi ... erm... imagination... no, just: technobabble!

 

[Drakkith]

You can use elementary particles for computing like photons and electrons. Why not gluons?

Electrons can be used because solid state electronics, such as diodes and transistors, are literally designed to use the properties of electrons. They can easily move around a bulk material under the application of a voltage and this combined with the unique properties of doped semiconductors leads to the ability to form simple electrical devices like switches and amplifiers. This in turn allows us to easily represent binary logic and math using these devices, forming the foundation of modern computing.

Gluons on the other hand are massless particles (like photons) that have a 'charge' (like electrons). This charge is not an electric charge, but something called color charge. The fact that they are charged causes them to interact VERY strongly with the strong force, of which they are the force mediator particles of (or force carriers).

This combination of being both massless and charged (especially color charged) causes them to behave very different from both electrons and photons. For starters, gluons cannot help form stable matter in the same way that electrons can. That is, you can't shove them into a material and move them around like you can electrons. We can't easily manipulate color charges like we can electric charges, as the strong force has such an extremely short range that it precludes distances larger than the diameter of an atomic nucleus. Contrast this with electric charges, which can be manipulated from great distances through fields and EM radiation or even through conductors.

The ludicrous strength of the strong force also doesn't help. Nuclei transitioning from a higher energy state to a lower energy state emit, at minimum, thousands of electron-volts worth of energy, if not millions. For comparison, light emitted from an electron falling to a lower energy state maxes out around 10 eV. This means that gluons and the other particles they interact with via the strong force require MUCH more energy concentrated into a MUCH smaller area than electrons do.

And let's not forget that gluons might not even 'survive' long enough to actually do anything. If they are like photons, which are often absorbed upon interaction with something, then they would have an incredibly short lifetime before being absorbed by some other color charged particle.

 

[DrJohn]

I think the correct term for what you read elsewhere is technobabble. ;)

In some Star Trek scripts they wrote "A dinnae ken, cap'n, but if we tried {ten seconds of technobabble} that might work."

Translated that reads "I don't know captain, if we tried {some clever sounding random scientific words} that might work."

And a team then made up the required seconds of "scientific" text, with emphasis on the engine or warp drive or photon torpedoes or whatever.
Your source that suggested a guon computer is doing the same thing.

Can't remember who asked and who answered the following question to the producers, but
Q. So how does warp drive actually work?
A. Very well.

 

[Vanadium 50]

To be fair, Treknobabble can be better than when the writers try and make sense. "Get this cheese to sickbay!"