Changes: Phase variance

Revision as of 14:59, 30 November 2014

AT: "xx" A phase variance is a term applicable to phenomena or technologies that show wave-like properties.

In 2268, a Kalandan molecular transporter reassembled the USS Enterprise out of phase by 0.0009. (TOS: "That Which Survives")

In 2368, on Devidia II, crew of the USS Enterprise-D devised a method of moving into the time continuum of the Devidians by phase-shifting to the positive phase variance of 0.004 percent. Data was enveloped in a contained subspace force field created by a subspace generator. By adjusting the synchronic distortion of the field with the phase discriminator in his positronic brain he phase-shifted himself. The procedure was repeated for other members of the crew using a tricorder modified to interface with the subspace generator, containing a custom built phase discrimination. It was theorized in both instances that the phase displacement was not precise enough to synchronize the Enterprise crew to the Devidians perceptual range, even though the Enterprise personnel could see them when phased. (TNG: "Time's Arrow")

When attempting to transport Telek R'Mor through a micro-wormhole in 2371, the USS Voyager crew were hindered by a strange phase variance in the radiation stream, caused by the fact that the two ends of the wormhole were in separate time periods. (VOY: "Eye of the Needle")

Also in 2371, B'Elanna Torres reported a phase variance in plasma conduit 3 that she wanted to check out before engaging thrusters, in an attempt by Torres, Seska and Carey to cover an illicit attempt to remain in the planets orbit to use a spatial trajector to shortcut 40,000 light years closer to the Alpha Quadrant. (VOY: "Prime Factors")

The interphase used by the Voth produce a localized spatial fluctuation with modulating phase variance. This allowed the Voyager crew to detect Forra Gegen and Tova Veer aboard their ship in 2373. (VOY: "Distant Origin")

In 2374, B'Elanna Torres determined that adjusting the sensors to a phase variance of 0.15 would allow them to detect the phased Srivani that had infiltrated Voyager. The Doctor later adjusted Seven of Nine's sensory nodes to do the same. (VOY: "Scientific Method")

Later that year, Torres speculated that a phase variance in the transporter was responsible for igniting a sample of protomatter that Neelix had attempted to collect from a class 1 nebula. (VOY: "Mortal Coil")

When Voyager constructed an experimental quantum slipstream drive in 2375, a 0.42 phase variance in the slipstream threshold emerged during testing, enough to overload the quantum matrix and force the starship out of slipstream with catastrophic results. After much discussion, Harry Kim proposed having the Delta Flyer stay ahead of Voyager, mapping the slipstream threshold as it forms and relaying phase corrections to dampen the variance.

During the initial flight, the phase variance emerged as in the tests. However, the phase corrections were unable to compensate for the rising phase variance, causing the failure of Voyager's helm controls and leaving the slipstream on the verge of collapse. Seven of Nine received a new set of phase corrections through her cranial implants that deactivated the drive. Along with the corrections was a message from a future Harry Kim in an alternate timeline.

In the older Kim's timeline, the phase variance caused the slipstream to collapse, throwing Voyager into normal space to crash on a Class L planet in the Takara sector, with the loss of all aboard. He had initially attempted, without success, to correct the phase variance so that Voyager could remain in the slipstream and return to the Alpha Quadrant, as he and Chakotay had in the Flyer - but when this failed, the Doctor, reactivated from Voyager's wreckage to assist in the attempt, convinced Kim to abandon this impossibility and "settle" for safely ending the ill-advised flight. (VOY: "Timeless")

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+{{at|xx}}
-Basic warp propulsion systems have been in use with the major alpha quadrant powers now for over three centuries. Warp technology has been tremendously successful, and there remains much potential for development in warp drive systems. Nevertheless, as early as 2275 scientists working at the Daystrom Institute proposed that standard warp physics was in fact only a small part of a much larger puzzle. This technology, dubbed "transwarp", quickly attracted the attention of Starfleet. A huge engineering project was begun with the aim of developing a starship capable of transwarp speeds. This new 'Excelsior' class was also to incorporate the very latest computers, sensors, and weapons systems - it would, quite simply, be by far the most sophisticated vessel in known space.
+A '''phase variance''' is a term applicable to phenomena or [[technology|technologies]] that show wave-like properties.
+In [[2268]], a [[Kalandan]] [[molecular transporter]] reassembled the {{USS|Enterprise|NCC-1701}} out of [[phase]] by 0.0009. ({{TOS|That Which Survives}})
-Unfortunately, while the Excelsior's non propulsion systems where a success, the transwarp project itself proved to be over-ambitious. Launched in 2285, it was only a deliberate act of sabotage by the Chief Engineer which prevented a catastrophic nacelle implosion on the first flight. Despite years of further work on the engines, the Excelsior was branded a failure - never made a successful test flight, and never having broke the transwarp barrier. Starfleet abandoned the Excelsior transwarp project altogether in 2287 and refitted the ship with a standard warp drive.
+In [[2368]], on [[Devidia II]], crew of the {{USS|Enterprise|NCC-1701-D|-D}} devised a method of moving into the [[time continuum]] of the [[Devidian]]s by phase-shifting to the positive phase variance of 0.004 percent. [[Data]] was enveloped in a contained [[subspace force field]] created by a subspace generator. By adjusting the [[synchronic distortion]] of the field with the [[phase discriminator]] in his [[positronic brain]] he phase-shifted himself. The procedure was repeated for other members of the crew using a [[tricorder]] modified to interface with the subspace generator, containing a custom built phase discrimination. It was theorized in both instances that the phase displacement was not precise enough to synchronize the ''Enterprise'' crew to the Devidians perceptual range, even though the ''Enterprise'' personnel could see them when phased. ({{TNG|Time's Arrow}})
-This was not the end for Federation transwarp technology, however. In 2372 the crew of the USS Voyager succeeded in conducting two brief shuttlecraft flights at warp 10 - actually straddling the warp barrier itself, and achieving infinite speed! However, several significant problems remain with this approach; Voyager crew members who conducted the flight experienced severe health problems, including genetic abnormalities. Voyager relayed some details of this flight back to Starfleet in 2373 via an alien subspace communications array; experts analysing the technology have indicated that the difficulties experienced by Voyager are in fact only the tip of the iceberg. As well as the guaranteed genetic damage, the subspace fields associated with this form of transwarp drive results in an 85% chance of fatality per flight. Significant problems also remain with navigating a vessel using this form of drive system, and as a result even unmanned probes have proved to be unusable.
+When attempting to [[transporter|transport]] [[Telek R'Mor]] through a [[micro-wormhole]] in [[2371]], the {{USS|Voyager}} crew were hindered by a strange phase variance in the [[radiation]] stream, caused by the fact that the two ends of the [[wormhole]] were in separate [[time]] periods. ({{VOY|Eye of the Needle}})
+Also in 2371, [[B'Elanna Torres]] reported a phase variance in [[plasma conduit|plasma conduit 3]]  that she wanted to check out before engaging  [[thruster]]s, in an attempt by Torres, [[Seska]] and [[Joseph Carey|Carey]] to cover an illicit attempt to remain in the planets orbit to use a [[spatial trajector]] to shortcut 40,000 [[light year]]s closer to the [[Alpha Quadrant]]. ({{VOY|Prime Factors}})
+The [[interphase]] used by the [[Voth]] produce a localized spatial fluctuation with modulating phase variance. This allowed the ''Voyager'' crew to detect [[Forra Gegen]] and [[Tova Veer]] aboard their ship in [[2373]]. ({{VOY|Distant Origin}})
-Although many regarded transwarp drive as an impossibility, recent experience has shown that transwarp is indeed possible. In 2364 the USS Enterprise made several short transwarp flights with the assistance of an alien being known as "The Traveller". In 2369 the Borg invaded Federation space for the third time, under the command of the android Lore. This time the Borg used a transwarp vessel capable of generating conduits within which an object could travel at incredible speeds - the USS Enterprise accessed one of these conduits and made a short trip at an average of some 236,000,000 times light speed. This vessel, which is thought to have been an advanced prototype, was later destroyed by the Enterprise.
+In [[2374]], B'Elanna Torres determined that adjusting the [[sensor]]s to a phase variance of 0.15 would allow them to detect the phased [[Srivani]] that had infiltrated ''Voyager''. [[The Doctor]] later adjusted [[Seven of Nine]]'s [[sensory node]]s to do the same. ({{VOY|Scientific Method}})
-The crew of the USS Voyager, who had tested their own transwarp drive in 2372, encountered a transwarp-capable species known as the Voth while journeying in the Delta Quadrant. A typical Voth ship was capable of some 200,000 times light speed using their transwarp drives. Voyager has subsequently encountered the Borg, and has confirmed that standard Borg cubes are capable of using a form of the transwarp conduit used by the experimental vessel under Lore's control. This drive is apparently much slower than Lore's vessel, a technology which the Borg seem to have abandoned after the loss of the prototype.
+Later that year, Torres speculated that a phase variance in the [[transporter]] was responsible for igniting a sample of [[protomatter]] that [[Neelix]] had attempted to collect from a [[class 1 nebula]]. ({{VOY|Mortal Coil}})
+When ''Voyager'' constructed an experimental [[quantum slipstream drive]] in [[2375]], a 0.42 phase variance in the slipstream threshold emerged during testing, enough to overload the quantum matrix and force the [[starship]] out of slipstream with catastrophic results. After much discussion, [[Harry Kim]] proposed having the ''[[Delta Flyer]]'' stay ahead of ''Voyager'', mapping the slipstream threshold as it forms and relaying phase corrections to dampen the variance.
+During the initial flight, the phase variance emerged as in the tests. However, the phase corrections were unable to compensate for the rising phase variance, causing the failure of ''Voyager''{{'}}s helm controls and leaving the slipstream on the verge of collapse. Seven of Nine received a new set of phase corrections through her [[cranial implant]]s that deactivated the drive. Along with the corrections was a message from a future Harry Kim in an [[alternate timeline]].
-When Professor Terrance and Doctor Neltorr proposed their "TNG scale", they had shown that a graph of the power required to propel any object at warp speeds would show certain minima which matched integer warp factors. On the TNG scale the velocity of an object - under ideal conditions - would be given by raising the warp factor it was travelling at to the power of 10/3, up to warp factor nine. Beyond warp nine the exponent increased gradually, then sharply as warp 10 was neared. At warp 10 itself the exponent became infinite - an object reaching warp 10 would thus achieve infinite speed, passing through every point in the universe simultaneously. Standard warp drives required infinite power to achieve warp 10 - naturally this seemed an impossible task. Scientists of the day where quite confident in proclaiming Warp 10 as the ultimate impassable barrier.
+''In the older Kim's timeline, the phase variance caused the slipstream to collapse, throwing ''Voyager'' into normal space to crash on a [[Class L]] [[Unnamed_Alpha_and_Beta_Quadrant_planets#Takara_sector_planet|planet]] in the [[Takara sector]], with the loss of all aboard. He had initially attempted, without success, to correct the phase variance so that ''Voyager'' could remain in the slipstream and return to the Alpha Quadrant, as he and [[Chakotay]] had in the'' Flyer'' - but when this failed, the Doctor, reactivated from ''Voyager''{{'}}s wreckage to assist in the attempt, convinced Kim to abandon this impossibility and "settle" for safely ending the ill-advised flight.'' ({{VOY|Timeless}})
-In 2269, scientists working for the Daystrom Institute took the theoretical models of subspace created by Terrance and Neltorr one step further. It was realized that the mathematics allowed for a second subspace region stretching from the warp 10 barrier up to another, similar barrier at warp 20 - a region which a public relations officer in the Daystrom Institute press office dubbed the "transwarp domain", a name which has stuck despite its inaccuracy.
+[[Category:Physics]]
-In 2270 it was realized that even this theoretical transwarp domain was only part of the whole structure. The theory allowed for an infinite number of such domains, each separated by a warp barrier. Throughout the early 2270's there was a huge effort to discover whether these transwarp domains where just theoretical constructs, or where actually real. In 2273 the Starfleet science vessel USS Wanderer conducted a subspace particle dissipation experiment which proved conclusively that not only did transwarp domains actually exist, but that under certain circumstances it was possible for matter to circumvent the warp barrier and pass into the transwarp domain.
-Theoretical and practical studies quickly established that at a point infinitesimally past Warp 10, the warp factor exponent fell from infinity to zero and then began to gradually rise again. By Warp 11 the exponent reached 13/3, after which it mirrors the behaviour of the normal warp curve. A Warp 19 the exponent begins to climb, again reaching infinity at warp 20 to form the next warp barrier. The whole process is repeated again in the second transwarp domain, and again in the third, and so on. In each domain the 'steady' central value of the exponent increases linearly - from 10/3 in the warp domain to 13/3 in the first transwarp domain, 16/3 in the second, then 19/3, 22/3, and so on.
-The speeds of warp factors within the warp domain and the first two transwarp domains can be seen on following chart.