Neutron beams are often produced by bombarding a target with a particle beam. Pick the materials, particles, and energies right and you get a reasonably directed spray of neutrons that you can turn on and off. Not particularly weaponizable, though.Widde84 wrote:Neutral particles are impossible to affect, since they ARE neutral. Also why it took so long to find the neutron. To accelerate them you need like gunpowder or something :) . Very difficult to make a beam out of it at all. Or you can do what they do today in labs or other places where they need neutrons and other neutral charges (nuclear reactors, creation of deuterium and tritium, etc.). They use a radioactive material that emmits neutron during decay. Not much speed to get from that.
Neutral particle beams don't have to be neutrons though...you just neutralize the particles after accelerating them. Two accelerators, one for electrons and one for nuclei, and some work to make most of them recombine before hitting the enemy screens. And of course, the problem with accelerating neutral particles only exists in the first place if you're using electromagnetic acceleration...even the humans in Outsider have gravity manipulation.
Random link...Widde84 wrote:But if we ignore that part.. :) Pros and cons of charged vs. neutral: Charged particles are easy (and cheap) to accelerate (ah, yes the ol' CRT... :mrgreen: )
http://www.sparkbangbuzz.com/crt/crt6.htm
Not that fast...about 15 minutes on average. With particle velocities a high fraction of c and ranges maxing out at a light second or so...Widde84 wrote:Neutrons are generally unstable when alone and decay quite fast to a proton and an electron (beta decay).