Kearny-Fuchida and Heim-Feynman Theories¶
Between the Inner Sphere and Local Space, two on the surface different scientific theories provide both faster-than-light travel and an understanding of higher dimensional spaces.
On one side there are the Kearny-Fuchida (KF) equations that allowed the construction of KF Jump Cores that opened the stars to Terra in the Inner Sphere.
The other side if the Heim-Feynman (HF) theory, which in turn allowed terragen people of Earth to reach out and meet other humans amongst the stars.
However, when looked at in combination, it becomes apparent that KF theory is a subset of HF theory, dependent on it to allow full understanding of the physics involved with the fifth dimensional hyperspace. HF theory itself deals with eight physical dimensions and the Everchanging Black.
The Lack of knowledge about the other theory¶
Now the question is why KF and HF theories were not known to the other before Local Space ended up in the Inner Sphere.
There are two reasons that can be devised that lead to the difference. The space programs of the 1980s on Terra and Earth, and how they developed fusion reactors.
The Theories, Richard Feynman and the Space Program¶
Earth¶
On Earth, the 1980s NASA was an agency wedded to the legacy of the Apollo program and in a race to Mars with the Soviet Union.
As this race heated up, Richard Feynman, suffering from liposarcoma, a rare form of cancer and in 1986, he was diagnosed with Waldenström macroglobulinemia and entered hospital for an operation in March of the same year. During his convalescence, he stumbled over an obscure set of papers by a German physicist named Burkhard Heim and was intrigued. He worked out more of Heim's theories and wrote his last three scientific papers on the matter of Heim's theories and expanding on them, leading to the Heim-Feynman theories of eight dimensional space. Feynman even went as far as speculating that it would be possible to transition and traverse this space with relatively simple means.
Feynman died on Earth from complications of a ruptured appendix in March 1991.
Terra¶
On Terra, the 1980s NASA was an agency heavily involved with the Space Shuttle Program, a partially reusable, some would say refurbishable, space plane. It had been seen as a way to quickly get people into space, with a launch cadence of one launch every month and increasing.
Which lead to problems, and in 1986, the space shuttle Challenger exploded with a crew of seven during launch.
One of the people involved with the investigation was Feynman, who worked hard to help, and in the end found the reason for the accident in a faulty O-ring in one of the booster rockets used by the Space Shuttle. It is assumed that this investigation lead to worsening of his situation and to his hospitalisation for removing a much larger macroglobulinemia in October 1986 and a necessary second operation a year later.
Feynman died on Terra from the complications of a burst kidney ulcer in February 1988.
The Theories and Fusion Reactors, and again Feynman¶
Terra¶
On Terra, the main thrust into the development of practical fusion energy was based on Tokamak and Spheromak type reactors. They were relatively simple to build and the lack of highly individualised compute power made research into other reactor types, such as the Stellerator unfeasible.
Instead, research money from the Western Alliance was pumped into the Tokamak research, leading to the work of the California Research/Design Team at Stanford University to build the first functional fusion reactor and crossed the break even point in 2018, producing energy first the first time.
During the tests, Takayoshi Fuchida and Thomas Kearny noticed differences between the expected energy output and the actual output. While they were mistaken in their conclusions of 'Einstein breaking' and the presence of faster than light particles, they still managed to build a functional theory that could be used to achieve faster than light travel and communication.
Due to their intense criticism of Realtivity, they were treated as problematic and their previously strong reputations never recovered. This lead to a lack of funding they would have needed to continue their work on the problem and it is believed that eventually, they might have worked out the problems inherent in KF theory in the form of 'Magic Constants' and reached a form of HF theory.
As it stands, the specific magnetic field composition of Tokamak and Spheromak designs create an effect not unlike that of an Heim-Feynman Event Generator, but on a lower level due to the static nature of the Tokamaks magnetic fields interacting with the rotating and fluctuating magnetic field of the fusion plasma. This in turn 'weakens' space time, allowing some energy from hyperspace to seep into the fusion plasma, heating it further and increasing the field strength, as such acting as a relatively simple form of 'hyperspace energy tap'.
Earth¶
On Earth, during the early days, fusion research mirrored that of Terra, but the availability of cheap and reasonably high personal compute power in the form of personal computers, allowed individual researchers to put more work into Stellerator designs, in additional to Tokamak and Spheromak designs.
In the mid to late 1990s, the discovery of several Quetzal shuttles on Earth, in various stages of decay, lead to a switch in development, as the reactors used in these shuttles were compact Stellerator type designs. As a result, many Tokamak and Spheromak projects were wound down and funding was put into the Stellerator designs.
With more funding and some pointers from the Quetzal reactors, the Wendelstein 7-X experimental fusion reactor was able to pass break even in fusion in March 2018, with the reaction stable for twenty minutes, before it was shut down, as the cooling systems were unable to cope with longer operation and there were no energy harvesting build into the reactor.
In opposition to the Tokamak designs, there is no interaction between the reactors magnetic fields and hyperspace, due to the unique, twisting design of the magnetic fields.
Feynman¶
However, there is the slight possibility that Earth could have had something akin to KF theory in the 1980s, based on the work done by Feynman, who, in his last year, had worked on some results of Tokamak research ad CalTech, mostly to pass the time and keep his mind sharp.
However, his work, outside of a set of equations called the 'Feynman Equations', this last work was destroyed in a water pipe break in the bathroom above his study, turning the paper into pulp. The equations survived on a white board.
As no one knew what Feynman had worked on, now how he had worked on it, the equations were all but useless.
During Project Starscape on Earth, it was discovered that the HF equations neatly slot into KF equations instead of the 'Magic Constants. Simplification of the resulting equation complex naively lead to the Feynman Equations.